This dissertation analyzes narratives (written and mediated) about widows’ post-loss experiences—specifically the ways in which these women embody and adjust/adhere to their post-loss widow identities—and whether or not the canonical/formula stories about widows reflect current experiences of widowhood. I look at older widowed women—both those in well-read widow memoirs and also in media portrayals of widows on film. The canonical view of widows as not attractive, not useful, and not interesting needs to be reexamined in light of changing ideas about gender roles and increased longevity. Surely older women have experiences, desires, and goals that encompass more than being socially invisible and caring for grandchildren. Given that 80% of women outlive their husbands (Mastekaasa, 1994; Peters & Liefbroer, 1997) and are an understudied and often overlooked population (Lopata, 1996), this heartfelt research is important.

Although research has described mentoring programs to have positive effects with youth, there are few studies that describe how mentors build relationships with homeless youth. In this study, I sought to explore how mentors of a community-based organization, Starting Right Now, built relationships with homeless youth. Starting Right Now is a multi-faceted, community-based intervention developed in 2009 in Tampa, FL. They provide services to homeless adolescents who are no longer living in the custody of a parent or guardian. The program provides residential, educational, recreational, and professional development services, as well as mental and physical health care. Additionally each youth in the program receives a trained mentor. A qualitative approach allowed mentors to share what strategies they used to connect with their mentee and overcome challenges within the relationship. Five female adults were recruited from Starting Right Now to participate in individual semi-structured interviews. Results showed that for some mentor-mentee pairs, the relationship developed easily if they found similar commonalities (e.g. outgoing personalities). Further, mentors discussed the strategies and activities that created a closer relationship and how they overcame challenges with the relationship. Finally mentors discussed the advice they would give to someone else looking to mentor a homeless youth. Overall mentors in this study reported that commitment and patience are major components to being a successful mentor to a homeless youth.

At the moment, the largest amount of tissue paper products are consumed in East Asia (which includes China and Japan), Europe and North America, and between 2010 and 2023, consumption of tissue paper products is expected to grow by 3% with the largest growth rate in China. Meanwhile, toilet paper, kitchen towels and facial tissues, combined make up 85.2% of all tissue paper products consumed in 2018. While different factors can be named as responsible for this growth in consumption, it is quite difficult to isolate the product-related factors that contribute to the growth of consumption of tissue paper in different countries due to the fact that tissue products have limited uniform specifications between different suppliers. This means, tissue suppliers and tissue machine manufacturers, like Valmet, are left with the challenge of understanding customers’ motivations behind demand of different tissue paper products. This is the motivation behind this study, which is to investigate what qualities of toilet paper, facial tissues and kitchen towels, are customers in the US, China and Japan satisfied or dissatisfied with. This is compared with measurements of the qualities of these products, like softness, strength, thickness, to determine the ranges of values of the products’ qualities that customers are satisfied with. Online reviews of 34 different brands of tissue paper products are collected ethically from online retailer websites (Amazon US, Amazon Japan, Walmart, JD.com), and analysed using the thematic analysis methodology to identify the list of qualities of tissue products that customers are satisfied or dissatisfied with. Then, the Pareto rule was used to identify the top 20% most important qualities to customers. These 34 brands were also purchased from these online retailers and their different qualities were measured. The results and conclusion from the study revealed different insights, among which is that softness is a must-be quality for toilet papers in all countries studied, while water absorption is a must-be quality for kitchen towels. The study also revealed ranges of the numerical values of these qualities that are acceptable to end consumers. Valmet intends to use the conclusions from the study in engagements with tissue paper suppliers in the three countries regarding product strategies and choice of technology.

In 2018 the app TikTok was bought by the Chinese technology company ByteDance. Two years later the app had over 800 million users across the world, with over 100 million of them living in America. In 2020 a conflict emerged between America and China when the U.S. government started accusing the app of collecting American user data and sharing it with the Chinese Communist Party. The purpose of our study is to examine how the U.S. and China are framed in articles about TikTok in the American newspaper The New York Times and the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. In our study we examine a total of 20 articles between the 1 August 2020 and the 1 October 2020. We chose 10 news- or debate articles from each newspaper to analyse.    Our study is implemented through a qualitative case study and a thematic analysis. The case in our study is the debate around TikTok, which is a small part of the larger conflict that has been going on between the U.S. and China for several years. Our study is based on two theories. The first theory we used in our study is the framing theory and the second theory is the othering theory which is derived from the post colonial theory.  Through examining the articles in our study we draw the conclusion that the U.S. is described as the “Self” whilst China is often described as the “Other”. This is framed by showing how the U.S. and its userdata needed to be protected from China and the Chinese government. Throughout our analysis of the newspapers, China is framed as an enemy and a threat to the U.S. national security. In turn the U.S. is framed by being on top of the hierarchy between the countries and as though against China.

En la actualidad, el país atraviesa por un boom gastronómico que ha fomentado que existan numerosas opciones de restaurantes para el consumidor. Por este motivo, los negocios buscan diferenciarse cada vez más de la competencia y así, crean distintas estrategias para captar nuevos usuarios. Este es el caso de los restaurantes temáticos, que intentan crear experiencias que cautiven al consumidor y perduren en el tiempo. El objetivo de la presente investigación es analizar las estrategias de marketing experiencial y su relación con la satisfacción del cliente en restaurantes temáticos. De esta manera, se optó por escoger dos restaurantes que utilicen una temática similar, y así se eligieron Pizza Rock y Arnold’s Burgers, ambos enfocados en recrear épocas del pasado para acudir a los recuerdos del consumidor. En adición, se expondrán distintos conceptos que permitan al lector entender la esencia de la investigación. Además, se utilizará una metodología de investigación mixta basada en análisis cualitativos y cuantitativos. / At present, the country is going through a gastronomic boom that has encouraged the consumer to have numerous restaurant options to choose from. For this reason, businesses seek to differentiate themselves more and more from the competition and for this, they are obliged to create strategies to attract new users. This is the case of the thematic restaurants that try to create experiences that delight the consumer and last over time. The objective of the present investigation is to analyze the experiential marketing strategies in relation to consumer satisfaction in thematic restaurants. In this way, it was decided to choose two restaurants that use a similar theme. This are Pizza Rock and Arnold's Burgers, both focused on recreating past times to get closer to the consumer memories. In addition, different concepts that allow the reader to understand the essence of the research will be presented. And so, mixed research methodology based on interviews, focus groups and surveys will be used with real clients of both brands and experts in different subjects, in order to find information to improve research. / Trabajo de investigación

Bakgrund: Långvarig muskuloskeletal smärta är ett stort folkhälsoproblem. Förutom att smärtan ofta leder till en funktionsnedsättning kan den även ha en negativ inverkan på en persons liv på flera olika sätt. Frågan om hur kvinnor med långvarig muskeloskeletal smärta upplever att den påverkar deras identitet, är i fokus i denna undersökning. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur kvinnor med långvarig muskuloskeletal smärta upplever att den påverkar deras identitet. Metod: Detta är en intervjustudie med kvalitativ induktiv ansats. Tio kvinnliga deltagare intervjuades med en semistrukturell intervjuguide. En tematisk semantisk analys gjordes för att komma fram till resultaten. Resultat: Analysen resulterade i två huvudteman och 11 subteman: Huvudtema 1 "Hämmad från att vara den person man vill vara", och huvudtema 2 "Hanteringsstrategier för att bibehålla sin identitet och leva med sin smärta". Slutsats: Resultatet visade att kvinnorna i denna studie upplevde att smärtan hade en negativ inverkan på deras identitet, genom att hämma dem från att vara den person de ville vara. Det visade sig att kvinnornas identitet verkade vara starkt kopplad till deras fysiska funktion och möjlighet att delta i meningsfulla aktiviteter. / Background: Long-term musculoskeletal pain is a big public health issue. Aside from that pain often leads to a disability, it can also affect a person's life in different ways. In this study the focus was to investigate women's experience of how the pain might have affected their identity. Aim: To investigate how women with long-term musculoskeletal pain experince it affecting their identity. Method: This is a qualitative study where ten female participants were interviewed using a semi-structural interview guide. A thematic semantic analysis were used to extract the results. Results: The analysis resulted in two main themes including 11 subthemes: Main theme 1 "Inhibited from being the person one would like to be", and main theme 2 "Coping strategies for keeping their identity and live their life despite the pain". Conclusion: The results showed that the women in this study experienced that the pain had a negative impact on their identity, by limiting them from being the kind of person they wanted to be. It turned out that the women's identity seemed to be strongly linked to their physical function and the possibility to participate in meaningful activities.

This study was conducted to explore the design of an application in the collaborative consumption area. To explore this, different factors that motivate users to participate in collaborative consumption were investigated. From these factors, User Experience (UX)-attributes were generated as a starting point for the researcher to create concepts and design a digital prototype. The usability of the prototype and whether the UX-attributes had been achieved were later evaluated. On the basis of the usability and interview results, the intent to use the application was explored. Five participants took part in the usability test. This test included measuring task success, user expectation measure and a SUS-questionnaire, after which an interview was conducted to explore the achievement of these attributes. The interviews were analyzed using the thematic analysis method, and the results showed that the UX-attributes that were chosen were sufficient in generating a concept for collaborative  consumption that could communicate these important factors. The results from the usability tests show that the design has well above acceptable usability, and although the interview results show that the UX-attributes were fulfilled in varying degrees, they were all fulfilled. Furthermore, by examining the usability and interview results an intent to use the application was discovered.

Object representations of sexually abused girls were compared to those of a clinical control group with no history of maltreatment. In addition, girls subjected to sexual abuse by itself were compared with girls who were sexually abused in conjunction with physical abuse and/or neglect (i.e., multiply abused). TAT stories were analyzed using the Object Relations and Social Cognition Scale which assesses four dimensions of object relations. It was hypothesized that sexually abused children would manifest more general and highly pathognomic impairment than controls along four dimensions of object relations. It was also hypothesized that multiple abuse would be associated with more general and highly pathognomic impairment in object relations than sexual abuse by itself.

Using the Defense Mechanism Manual (Cramer, 1991), Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) stories of 29 sexually abused female subjects and 28 non-abused female clinical control subjects were rated for the frequency of use of denial, projection, and identification.

In recent years, much has been written about leadership development as a tool to ensure organisations an adequate supply of leaders. It is generally accepted that said leadership is a set of skills which can be developed by means of a sequence of planned interventions. To date, however, leadership development theory has failed to recognise the possibility of the differential experiences of individuals from diverse backgrounds. This study examines the possibility of differential experiences in a Retail Group‟s leadership development programme by examining the perceptions of four race and gender groups who participated in the same development programme. Data was collected means of series of sequential intersectional focus groups. Responses were gathered with a semi-structured discussion guide, which were recorded by using digital voice recorder and written notes. All recordings and notes were transcribed and imported into Atlas.ti for analysis. Thematic coding was used to identify themes within group responses, as well as across the different groups. The results indicate support for existing literature. In particular, that of black females possibly being at a “double disadvantage” when included in leadership development programmes, that gender and race shapes how experiences are perceived, and that intersectionality is an appropriate approach when investigating possible differential experiences across groups within a development programme. Group differences, however, were not of such a significant degree that it explained large group differences in success rates on the programme. Nor do the findings justify single identity development programmes. The research did, however, lay the foundation for further inquiry. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted