From my own experience as a school counselor I have learned that the decision making processes in terms of supporting and helping the students is extremely hard and very individual. In different situations, a different approach between individuals is present. I thought about which factors effects the school counselor’s way of handling problematic situations. I soon realized that the individual has a great effect on the work itself. This brought my attention and I found it necessary to research the area more.This thesis is about the counselors in school and their assessments. The main focus is on differences in the decision making processes, if differences appear and why.By using theories that focus on interpretation of actions this thesis presents an insight in the school counselors work and provide the readers an explanation model to why differences appear. The theories used in this thesis are symbolic interactionism, phenomenology and social construction. These three theories are closely connected to one another and the selected keyword of each theory works as the foundation of the analysis. The main result of the study showed that interpretation of the situation and what references the interpreter has is critical to the result of actions. Many different factors however effects the interpretations based on the individual, such as emotional intelligence and the complexity of a professional relationship.

The study aims to describe and analyse the relationship between norm and practice regarding social services casework on honour-related problems. The relationship between norm and practice involves the difference between the way it is intended that social workers shall operate in these cases and how they perceive that this works in practice. We interviewed two focus groups of eight Swedish social workers, four in each group. We also held an individual interview with a social services business developer. Focus group interviews were based on two vignettes; one depicting an honour-related case and the second an "ordinary" case. The purpose of the vignettes was to investigate whether there is a difference in the assessment and handling of ordinary versus honour-related cases. The results of the interviews were analysed using Hasenfeld's theory on Human service organizations. We also used Lipsky's theory on street-level bureaucracy. We displayed similarities to previous research showing that social workers are unsure of how to assess and act on honour-related cases. It was evident that the social workers we interviewed were confident working "ordinary" cases involving child abuse, but felt uncertain dealing with honour-related cases. Because they are less frequent they have developed neither routines nor guidelines for them. The study showed that social workers’ lack of knowledge of honour-related problems and differences in culture limits their effectiveness in these cases. The results suggest that the social workers we interviewed rely on outside expertise when they are insecure, and consequently feel that they have no need for action plans or guidelines in honour-related cases. Lack of guidance and inadequate knowledge presents difficulties for social workers to meet the girls’ needs for help and support.

The study aims to describe and analyse how case managers reflect and act in the regards to self-determination when caring for residents with dementia diagnosis. Our main questions dealt with how the case managers handle the right to self-determination in relation to the residents’ relatives’ opinions when a person has dementia. To find answers to our questions, we interviewed seven care takers within elderly care in four different municipalitys in the Southern Sweden. We used qualitative interviews based on a semi-structured interview guide and two vignettes. The vignettes were based on two fictive narratives which both included persons with dementia but with different relatives and opinions. The purpose of the vignettes were to investigate whether there was different perceptions among the case managers in terms of consideration the residents’ self-determination in relation to their relatives. The results of the study were analyzed using Hasenfeld’s theory on Human service organizations, Lipsky’s street-level bureaucracy and Strauss’ negotiation-perspective. We displayed similarities to previous research showing that the case managers work with the residents’ best interest in mind even though relatives can be very obstinate. Our main conclusions are that the interpretation of self-determination is fluidity according to the case managers is fluidity and the case managers at some occasions try to persuade the person with dementia to apply for care and welfare. Furthermore can the relatives of the person with dementia be both beneficial and disadvantageous depending of the relation between them.