The purpose of the present study was to prepare a Stress Management Program for the mothers of children with autism and to evaluate the effects of the program on depression, anxiety, and suicidal probability. It was hypothesized that the mothers of children with autism who attended the Stress Management Program would have lower depression, anxiety and suicidal probability whereas there would be no change in the depression, anxiety, and suicidal probability of mothers of children withautism who did not get any treatment. The participants of the study were 44 mothers of children with autism from Uyum Special Education Center and Ilgi Special Education Center. The data were gathered by administering four instruments / Beck Depression Inventory, Back Anxiety Inventory, Suicidal Probability Scale, and Demographic Information Form. Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance Technique was used to analyze the data. The findings of the study indicated that there was a significant decrease in depression levels of mothers of children with autism after the Stress Management Program whereas anxiety and suicidal probability did not change significantly as a function of the Stress Management Program. For the mothers of children with autism who did not get any treatment, it was indicated that there were no difference in depression, anxiety and suicidal probability. The results were discussed within the context of the relevant literature.

Research suggests that physical activity may play a role in preserving cognitive function in older adulthood. However, the exact nature, direction, and magnitude of observed associations remain unclear. The current study utilized a microlongitudinal design to repeatedly assess cognitive function and physical activity across five days. Two studies examined relationships between physical activity, physical fitness, and cognitive function among community-dwelling older adults. The first study examined associations between baseline performance in a measure of everyday cognition and multiple measures of physical activity and physical fitness. Bivariate analyses revealed that objectively measured physical activity of moderate-to-vigorous intensity, repeated chair stand time and 6-minute walk distance were significantly associated with everyday cognition. After adjusting for covariates in a multiple regression model, physical activity was not significantly associated with everyday cognition. However, a composite physical fitness score created from 6-minute walk distance and repeated chair stand time was significantly associated with DECA, and the full model accounted for 38% of the variance in baseline DECA performance. The second study investigated within- and between-person relationships between daily physical activity and cognitive function. Study participants wore an activity monitor and completed a battery of cognitive assessments for five days. Multilevel modeling analyses indicated that same-day total number of steps was significantly associated with better visual speed of processing but not everyday cognition, or inductive reasoning.. Time spent in moderate-to-vigorous activity was not significantly associated with same-day cognitive performance in any domain. However, previous-day moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was significantly associated with better inductive reasoning and speed of processing the following day, after controlling for age, gender and physical fitness. Time spent in moderate-to-vigorous activity explained 16% of the within-person variability in speed of processing. Physical fitness and age did not explain significant variability in between-person cognitive function. Results obtained in the present study varied according to how physical activity and cognition were operationalized and measured. Associations between physical activity and cognition were more evident with moderate-to-vigorous activity, as opposed to total activity, and an acute temporal relationship was suggested, with better cognitive performance following engagement in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Results also indicated that within-person fluctuations in domains of cognitive performance were positively associated with physical activity, and were more pronounced with cognitively complex tasks that were timed.

This dissertation examines the use of the quotidien (the everyday) in contemporary French film and literature to understand its relationship with notions of place and space. Defined as the paradoxical process of how one repeatedly constructs each day "anew" on a routine basis, the quotidien in the texts of my analysis is not static, but rather a means for articulating changes in French communities and ways of life, while further reflecting ongoing changes to attitudes, politics, and identity. I advance current readings of the quotidien by viewing it as both descriptive, a recurring manifestation of change, as well as transformative, able to effect change. I argue that, in these depictions, the quotidien effectively erodes traditional spatial categories to create and reveal new and less stable versions. Specifically, places lose their real and symbolic sway to indeterminate spaces in which meaning is uncertain, in flux, or non-existent. My dissertation is novel for its interest in tracing the quotidien across spatial categories, so that its chapters move from the more "stable" categories of the rural and the urban to those in more obvious flux, edges and interstices. Chapter 1 studies the depicted quotidiens of rural France in Agnès Varda's film, Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (2000), and Raymond Depardon and Claudine Nougare's film series, Profils paysans (2000-2008). Chapter 2 investigates the quotidiens of urban centers in Cédric Klapisch's film, Chacun cherche son chat (1996), Patrick Modiano's novel, Dora Bruder (1997), and Laurent Cantet's film, Entre les murs (2008). Chapter 3 examines everyday France at the periphery of Paris in Gérard Gavarry's novel, Hop là! Un deux trois (2001). The Conclusion addresses the emergence of a new space, the interstitial, in which its dwellers float, move, or exist between places on a daily basis, such as a commute to work. I analyze Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas's short film, Loin du 16ème (2006), Abdellatif Kechiche's film, La Graine et le mulet (2007), and Alain-Paul Mallard's film, L'Origine de la tendresse (1999). These mini-ethnographies of French society reveal a France grappling with issues related to globalization, shifting populations, the relative newness of the European Union, and consequently, identity. Who is French, and where does "authentic France" lie? / text

Energy use is a part of everyday life and the use of energy is a part of the global climate change. Policy makers urge individuals to change their daily behaviour in order to mitigate climate change and care for our common environment. The dissertation regards daily behaviour as activities performed by individuals. The theoretical base is the time-geographic approach wherein everyday life is regarded as a sequence of interlinked activities performed by indivisible individuals. The dissertation investigates individuals’ energy use as an outcome of the activities they perform in everyday life. The empirical base of the dissertation is time-diaries from the Swedish time use survey 2010/2011. The diary data is explored as sequences of daily activities by using sequence analysis and clustering. The results show that individuals’ energy use is closely interweaved with how they live their everyday lives in terms of activity sequences. The results imply that changing an activity affects both the intricate web of interaction in the household and the interdependence of activities in everyday life. Change does not only affect the singular activity that was the object for the change, but rather major parts of the sequence of activities. In order to address energy conservation in information campaigns considerations ought to be taken on how everyday life is shaped and formed by the individual, by negotiations between the individuals in households, and societal structures. Information can be targeted to groups of individuals  with similar activity sequences as they are revealed by cluster analysis. / Energianvändningen är en del av vardagen likaväl som användningen av energi är en del av den globala klimatförändringen. För att mildra effekterna på vår gemensamma miljö uppmanas människor av politiker och andra beslutsfattare att förändra sitt vardagsbeteende. I avhandlingen betraktas vardagsbeteendet som människors dagliga aktiviteter. Avhandlingens teoretiska grund är den tidsgeografiska ansatsen, där människors vardag betraktas som en sekvens av de aktiviteter som utförs av odelbara individer. Människors dagliga sekvens av aktiviteter undersöks för att ta reda på vilken energianvändning som genomförandet av aktiviteterna ger upphov till. Den empiriska grunden för avhandlingen är tidsdagboksdata från den svenska tidsanvändningsstudien från 2010/2011 och avhandlingen utforskar tidsdagböckerna som sekvenser av aktiviteter med hjälp av sekvens- och klusteranalys. Resultaten visar att individers energianvändning är nära sammanvävd med de aktivitetssekvenser som visar hur vardagslivet levs. Resultaten pekar vidare på att förändringar av enskilda aktiviteter också påverkar andra aktiviteter i det dagliga livet. Förändringar av en aktivitet påverkar således hela den dagliga sekvensen av aktiviteter. I utformningen av information som syftar till att minska hushållens energianvändning bör hänsyn tas till hur vardagslivets aktivitetssekvens formas av den enskilde i samspelet både med andra individer i hushållet och med samhällsstrukturerna. Målgruppsinriktad information kan utformas med utgångspunkt from människors likartade aktivitetsmönster så som de framgår genom klusteranalys.

The subject of this study was Swedish women's experiences of their everyday lives as lived between the demands of work and family. Twenty female civil servants were interviewed six times each over a three and a half year period when their work places underwent organizational changes. One purpose of the study was to investigate how women while managing everyday demands reproduce or transform the meanings of gender in their own lives. A second purpose was to discuss the impact of these processes on women's self-understandings and ways of relating to power and issues of gender equality, as well as the meanings of "femininity" in their lives. The repeated semi-structured interviews were analysed using two qualitative approaches: the first focused on the ways individual women understood and negotiated their everyday lives. It yielded four main areas of negotiation: the personal biography as a dynamic context in which a woman understands her experiences; the balancing between work and family generally managed by women; women's often somewhat ambiguous personal fit at work; and the striving for subject positions at work. In the second approach discourse analysis was used to study how gender is locally reproduced or transformed from personal experiences set in specific discursive contexts. Modes of understanding were in focus; i.e. the different ways women may integrate experiences as parts of their sense of self, depending mainly on social positionings. Important discursive themes were the women's self-presentations, their experiences of gender equality and power differentials, and their ways of relating to femininity. The dissertation also discusses the types of psychological theory best suited to the historically changeable contents of "femininity", in contrast to its more stable relational qualitites of subordination vs. superordination, and argues for theory situated in a feminist social constructionist framework. / digitalisering@umu

Le roman La ballade de Gilbert raconte l’histoire d’un homme dont la tranquille normalité du quotidien est perturbée lorsqu’il découvre qu’un de ses collègues de longue date fréquente des prostituées. Afin de retrouver son confort, il incite clandestinement ce collègue à se chercher une conjointe, mais cette quête devient peu à peu une profonde obsession qui bouleverse encore plus l’équilibre de sa vie routinière. À travers ce récit s’articule une réflexion sur le quotidien, sur les limites entre l’ordinaire et l’extraordinaire, le familier et l’étrange. L’essai Le quotidien dans Molloy de Samuel Beckett reprend le thème du quotidien afin d’analyser le dialogue entre le familier et l’étrangeté dans ce roman. Molloy présente de nombreux scénarios communs (Eco), qui correspondent très sensiblement d’un point de vue cognitif aux habitudes qui façonnent le quotidien d’un individu. Cet essai explique comment Beckett subvertit ces scénarios pour laisser place à une étrangeté derrière laquelle le familier demeure reconnaissable. / The novel La ballade de Gilbert tells the story of a man whose quiet and ordinary life is troubled when he realises that one of his long time colleagues is seeing prostitutes. To re-establish his comfort, he secretly tries to encourage this colleague to find a mate, but this quest becomes a relentless obsession that overturns even more the order of his life. A reflection about everyday life and the limits between the ordinary and the extraordinary, the familiar and the uncanny, is proposed through this narrative. The essay Le quotidien dans Molloy de Samuel Beckett also touches everyday life by the analysis of the dialogue between familiarity and strangeness. Molloy shows numerous examples of common scenarios (Eco), which correspond very closely, from the cognitive point of view, to the habits that shape an individual’s everyday life. This essay explains how Beckett subverts these scenarios to show a strangeness behind which familiarity remains visible.

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In early criticism of Western Canadian literature, prairie spaces were constructed as predominantly rural in order to set the region and prairie writing apart from the rest of Canada and other Canadian literature. In time, prairie criticism’s focus on rural realist texts led to the marginalization of urban prairie writing and the construction of urban spaces as corrupt and artificial in comparison to the natural and virtuous rural environment. I work to remedy the absence of urban texts in the criticism of prairie literature, and I argue that prairie cities are dynamic and mobile worlds where prairie inhabitants exercise their agency through everyday practices. Utilizing the work of Raymond Williams, I show how urban and rural spaces are constructed in the canonical prairie texts of Grove, Ostenso, and Stead to serve various capitalist interests and colonial ideologies. I explore the depiction of Winnipeg in Durkin’s The Magpie as a dynamic, complex, and politically engaged space. Moreover, I use Michel de Certeau’s work to assert that the underprivileged and colonized individuals in the city subvert and utilize the systems and organizations of those in power. They develop an increased deviousness and take advantage of incidental and multifarious opportunities that come their way as they work, dwell, and move about in everyday life. Subsequently, I look at urban writing by women, Eastern-European immigrants, and Aboriginal writers and show that they use urban spaces, everyday practices, and writing to exercise their agency. To destabilize unitary forces in language, to depict their own experiences, and to convey their own meanings of home, labour, and community, marginalized writers employ wordplay, humour, historical and cultural references, and intertextuality. I also use Jane M. Jacobs’ work on postcolonial cities and Tim Cresswell’s theories of mobility. I read prairie cities as places of competing mobilities and networks of dominances and resistances, where colonized individuals negotiate complex, hybrid, and authentic identities. The urban prairie texts I explore demonstrate the possibility of political, social, and economic changes, and a beneficial relationship with the prairie environment.

Både internationellt och nationellt sett har elevers kunskaper i naturvetenskap försämrats enligt PISA-undersökningarna. Vi har även ute i verksamheten uppmärksammat en brist på kemiundervisning i de lägre åldrarna. Syftet med studien är att bidra med kunskap om ett vardagsnära och experimentellt arbetssätt och synlig- göra det naturvetenskapliga språkets betydelse för yngre elevers kunskapsutveckling i kemi. Studien utfördes som en aktionsforskning vilket innebär att en kunskapsbas skapas om sin egen praktik för att sedan genomföra en forskning som leder till en förändring. Aktionerna vi utförde bestod av två experiment med tillhörande för- och efterarbete. Aktionerna utfördes i en årskur ett och en årskurs två. Sammanlagt av 49 elever deltog 40 elever i studien. Dokumentationen bestod av elevernas stenciler från aktionerna, test, post-it lappar samt video- dokumentation från aktionerna och ljudupptagningar från fokusgruppssamtal. Studiens resulat visar att elevers förståelse för kemi kommer till uttryck genom ett experimentellt arbetssätt på flera olika sätt. Elever uttrycker sin förståelse då de kommunicera kring hypoteser, använder och förklarar begrepp, ger exempel på blandningar och lösningar, hittar kopplingar samt förklarar experimenten och dess resultat. Studiens övergripande slutsats är att ett experimentellt arbetssätt skapar möjligheter för eleverna att känna en glädje för kemin och en tilltro till sin egen förmåga. På vilket sätt lärare och elever använder språket i kemiundervisningen har stor betydelse för elevernas möjligheter att tillägna sig kunskaper i kemi. De didaktiska implikationer vi ser med studien är att det är fördelaktigt att arbeta med experiment i de yngre åldrarna. / Students´ knowledge of science have deteriorated both internationally and nationally PISA studies. We have also experienced a lack of chemistry teaching in the lower ages. The purpose of the study is to contribute with knowledge of an everyday related and an experimental approach and make visible the importance of the scientific language for younger pupils' knowledge in chemistry. The study was conducted as an action research which involves forming a knowledge based on their own practice and then conducts a research that leads to a change. The actions we performed consisted of two experiments with the associated pre- and after work. The study was conducted in year one and two with 40 of 49 students. The documentation consisted of students’ stencils, tests, post-it notes and videodocumentation. The study shows that the students' understanding of chemistry through an experimental approach is expressed in several different ways. Students express their understanding when they communicate about hypotheses, uses and explain concepts, giving examples of mixtures and solutions, find connections, and explain the experiments and their results. The study's overall conclusion is that an experimental approach creates opportunities for students to feel the joy of chemistry and a belief in their own ability. The way in which teachers and students use the language of chemistry teaching is of great importance for the students´ opportunities to acquire knowledge in chemistry. The didactic implications we see with the study is that it is beneficial to work with experiments in the younger ages.

Autismspektrumtillstånd (AST) är en neuropsykiatrisk funktionsnedsättning som kan påverka individens vardagsliv. Livsområden som kan vara problematiska är bland annat arbetsliv, familjeliv, relationer och områden som kräver social interaktion. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka vardaglig kommunikation hos vuxna med AST samt att genom deltagarnas personliga berättelser undersöka hur AST kan påverka en individs liv. Denna typ av studie är viktig för att generera en bättre förståelse för behoven hos vuxna med AST och därmed ge indikationer för vilka typer av anpassningar som kan behövas i samhället. Föreliggande studie baserades på en videoinspelad fokusgruppsdiskussion med fyra deltagare som i vuxen ålder har diagnostiserats med AST. Två olika analysmetoder användes för att studera materialet, nämligen samtalsanalys och innehållsanalys. Resultaten visade att deltagarna har kompetens för social interaktion och empatisk förmåga. Ett par av deltagarna uppfattades ha annorlunda blickanvändning, och oväntade ämnesbyten och avbrottsförsök observeras under diskussionen. Flertalet av deltagarna uppgav att de har haft psykiska svårigheter under sina liv och de ser diagnostiseringen som viktig för deras livskvalitet då den möjliggör kontaktskapande med likasinnade. Detta förefaller vara betydelsefullt för dem då de har svårt att bygga relationer. Resultaten i föreliggande studie kan bidra till en ökad förståelse för hur en neuropsykiatrisk diagnos kan påverka en individs liv. / Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is a neuropsychiatric impairment that may affect an individual's everyday life. Life areas that may be problematic include work, family, relationships and areas that require social interaction. The aim of the present study was to investigate communication in everyday life amongst adults with ASD as well as, by listening to the participants' personal narratives, explore how AST can affect an individual's life. The study was based on a video recorded focus group discussion with four participants who in adulthood have been diagnosed with ASD. Conversation Analysis and Content analysis were used for analysis of the material. The results showed that the participants have skills for social interaction and empathy. Some of the participants were perceived as using their gaze in a deviant way, and unexpected changes in topics and attempted interruptions were observed during the discussion. The majority of the participants described periods of psychiatric problems during their lives, and that the diagnosis has been important for their quality of life as it enables them to create relationships with people with similar difficulties. This appears to be important to them since they have difficulties building relationships. The results contribute to a better understanding of how a neuropsychiatric diagnosis can affect an individual's life.