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- Besic, Nejra, 1980-
(författare)
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At first blush : the impact of shyness on early adolescents' social worlds
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Shyness as a behavioral characteristic has been in focus of research in psychology for a number of decades. Adolescent shyness has, however, been relatively overlooked compared with studies conducted on children and adults. This dissertation concentrated on adolescent shyness, aiming to attain a better comprehension about how shyness during this developmental phase might affect, and be affected by social relationships. The first aim of this dissertation was to study in which way shyness influences and is influenced by significant people in adolescents’ lives: peers, friends, and parents. Study III showed that shy youths socialized each other over time into becoming even more shy. Study VI demonstrated that youths’ shyness affected parenting behaviors, more so than parent’s behaviors affected youth shyness. The second aim of this dissertation was to investigate what shyness means for adolescents’ choices of relationships with friends, whereas the third aim focused on whether adolescents’ ways of dealing with peers would have consequences for their internal and external adjustment. As Study I showed, youths might take on off-putting, startling appearances in order to cope with their shyness. This strategy seemed, nonetheless, not particularly successful for the shy youths in terms of emotional adjustment. Study III showed that adolescents who were shy tended to choose others similar to themselves in shyness as friends. Study II showed that shyness might indeed have some positive implications for adolescent development, as it was found to serve a protective role in the link between advanced maturity and various types of problem behaviors. Overall, the findings point to some gender differences regarding all of the abovementioned processes. In sum then, the studies in this dissertation show that even though youths’ shy, socially fearful characteristics affect their emotional adjustment and those around them, shy youths are part of a larger social arena where they are active agents in shaping their own development. Although adolescent shyness might be linked with several negative outcomes, however, it might be other people’s reactions to socially fearful behaviors that help create and/or maintain these outcomes over time.
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| 2. |
- Carlsson, Per-Inge, 1959-
(författare)
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Hearing impairment and deafness : genetic and environmental factors - interactions - consequences : a clinical audiological approach
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- OBJECTIVES - Hearing impairment (HI) can be due to genetic or environmental factors, e.g. noise. More than 50% of HI cases are thougt to be hereditary. HI can affect social participation in different ways. How serious these problems becomes depends on several factors, for example, the type of social environment the person lives in. The objective of the present study was to point out the importance of studying HI and deafness in a broad perspective, from the molecular - biological level to the psychological - social level and to evaluate how interactions of factors at several levels form the consequences, in a long-term perspective, to witch HI and deafness can lead. MATERIAL AND METHODS - Three different study populations have been used to study the four levels in this study: Papers I - III; 1200 noise-exposed workers (molecular and biological levels), Paper IV; 50 persons with HI since early childhood, with or without a family history of HI (FHHI)(biological, psychological and social level), and in Paper V; 600 persons with early onset of deafness in two counties with differently strong Deaf communities (psychological and social level). RESULTS - The molecular genetic studies (Papers I – III) showed that the combination of smoking and having a mutation in the protective antioxidant system revealed an additional risk for noise induced hearing loss. In Paper IV, only small differences was found between subjects with and without a FHHI. The results in Paper V indicated that differences in the social environment, in terms of the strength of the Deaf community, influence family factors such as marriages, divorces and the number of children born. CONCLUSIONS - Analysing complex issues such as HI and deafness from a medical audiological perspective requires a multi- level approach at several levels. The results indicate that interactions of factors at all four levels form the consequences, in a long-term perspective, to wich HI and deafness can lead. Furthermore, this multi-level approach - here called a clinical audiological approach - is essential when using the ICF framework in audiological rehabilitation/habilitation.
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| 3. |
- Lennqvist-Lindén, Ann-Sofie
(författare)
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Att lägga politiken tillrätta : kommunala chefers professionalisering
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The desire for many people today is to be professional, and many occupations seek professional status. The idea of a profession has a higher status than a mere occupation; professionals have lot of knowledge and power to decide about their own work and they can also voice opinions about others. Occupations are driven towards attaining professional status. This process is not driven by single individuals aiming to exercise power in relation to other individuals. It is a collective, national process by an occupation. The overall aim of this dissertation is to examine, describe and analyze the process of professionalization of local public managers. There are four researchtopics: a) What are the characteristics of a professional group, and do these apply to local public managers? b) How is municipal organization portrayed with regard to the roles of politicians and administrators? c) How do politicians,managers, and public servants view themselves and each other in a normative and descriptive way? d) In what ways are managers trying to increase their influence to reach a position from which it is possible to choose to follow, or notfollow, a political decision? The methods used in this research are several; a deep case study in which surveys, observations, document studies and interviews are conducted. As theoretical framework theories of power, professionalization and discourse are used to analyze the empirical material from the case study.The results show top managers’ ongoing quest for professional status. They exclude other groups in order to handle their work without interference from others – discretion, the driving force behind professionalization. Usurpation is a strategy to get into the area of the politicians. Politicians are talked of as children in need for raise and a municipality is perceived as a private business enterprise. In this discourse values such as effectiveness, customer satisfaction, competition and value-for-money are important. The municipality is heavily inspired by thei deas of New Public Management. This development is quite problematic withregard to democracy. The democratic values such as public ethics, political democracyand the rule of law – the public ethos - are not spoken of. My hope is that this dissertation can prompt managers to reflect, since I have tried to see their work from a different perspective than what they most probably use.
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| 4. |
- Lillvist, Anne, 1978-
(författare)
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The applicability of a functional approach to social competence in preschool children in need of special support
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of the thesis, with four empirical studies, was to test the applicability of a functional approach in investigating social competence of children in need of special support within the preschool context. The main theoretical framework was systems theory. Study I and II investigated preschool teachers’ definitions of children in need of special support and social competence respectively. Study III was a prevalence study investigating the number of children in need of special support based on traditional disability categories and functional difficulties. In study IV the social competence of children perceived to be in need of special support based on traditional categories and functional difficulties was compared using an observational method. The results in study I showed that teachers adopt either a child perspective or an organizational perspective in defining children in need of special support. The child perspective was related to a greater number of children in need of special support in the preschools, indicating that in preschools with several children in need of special support, teachers are more prone on seeing the needs of individual children, as opposed to the needs of the organisation. Study II found that teachers define social competence in young children in terms of intrapersonal skills, or as interpersonal relations. Study III found that the majority of children in need of special support are undiagnosed children with functional difficulties related to speech- and language and peer interaction. Study IV found similar profiles of social competence between diagnosed children and undiagnosed children perceived to be in need of special support. Overall, the results yielded support for adopting a functional approach in studying the social competence of children in need of special support.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Morawski, Jan
(författare)
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Mellan frihet och kontroll : om läroplanskonstruktioner i svensk skola
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to explore how different competing discourses inthe historical context of the Swedish education development have qualifiedand disqualified different constructions of national curriculum. How andafter what kind of principles is the curriculum constructed? What qualifywho are going to be recognized as the author and addressee of the curriculum?These key questions of the study are discussed in the first part of thethesis. My point of departure is that the curriculum can be understood as arelation between freedom and control. In an educational system this relationshipreflects the problematic tension between the external demandsfrom an authoritative center and the local need to independently reflectover educational issues. How these concepts are defined by the prevailingsocial discourses affect specific relations and constructions of curricula as asteering tool and a producer of specific teacher identities. In this sense, Iclaim that curriculum is constructed in different ways depending on whichof the didactic questions are emphasized and answered and who is judgedas the legitimate author. Based on this, three models of curriculum constructionare formulated; the content based, the result based and the processbased. These models are subsequently used as an analytical tool to examinethe historical development of Swedish national curricula.The second part of the thesis investigates the Swedish education systemand the production of the national curriculum as a product of rival discourses.The historical investigation begins 1842 when the first state curriculumwas issued and the inquiry concludes in 2008. The findings indicatethat no one single construction has been totally dominant and thatthere has been an on-going discursive struggle between different alternativeand opinions about what teachers must do and be.
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| 7. |
- Möller, Kerstin, 1950-
(författare)
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Impact on participation and service for persons with deafblindness
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Persons with deafblindness experience difficulties in daily life and they experience service to sometimes barrier. The overall aim of this thesis is therefore to discover, evaluate and explain: 1. mechanisms that might have impact on participation restrictions for people who have visual and hearing impairment i.e. deafblindness and 2. mechanisms that might barrier service to these people. Service is used as an umbrella term for health care, education and certain service for persons with disabilities. Materials from multiple sources have been used: literature (Study I No 96 papers). Interviews (Study I and V) with 32 and 3 adults with deafblindness respectively. Questionnaires (Study II and III): answered by 33 and 34 adults and youth with deafblindness. Patient records (Study IV and V): records from 9 and 3 adult females with USH I respectively. Materials mostly retrospectively cover the period from 2005 and about 40–50 years. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) were consequently used as a framework to describe as well as a tool to analyze mechanisms. Further, the Ecological approach, Disability as a laminated system and Life course approach were used in order to evaluate and explain mechanisms. The conclusions that can be drawn from an ecological, laminated and life course approach are: Participation restrictions for people with deafblindness are far-reaching and are embedded in a complex process of interaction between the person with deafblindness and the environment. Services entail systematical barriers. In order to improve service it is extremely important to understand the role of participation restrictions in deafblindness. Primary activity limitation is to not see and hear enough for comprehension. Hence, not taking part in the visible and audible world is primary participation restriction. Performing activities without basic information includes risk. One important aspect of deafblindness is exposure. Persons with deafblindness require rehabilitation in a life perspective. In order to increase people’s participation and protection requirement of individually adapted support and assistive devices is necessary. ICF and the UN convention support service alterations.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Rebenius, Inga, 1948-
(författare)
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Talet om learner autonomy : språkinlärning, autonomi och ett demokratiskt medborgarskap - ett gränsland till moralfilosofi
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this thesis is to clarify a number of meanings embedded in the discourse that frames the concept of learner autonomy and then place special emphasis on the concepts of autonomy and citizenship. In addition the thesis has three subgoals: to revitalize an early political dimension that aims at democratic citizenship, to investigate how the discourse of learner autonomy is expressed in national curricula and in syllabuses in English and French/German/Spanish for the Swedish upper secondary school and to clarify and discuss a number of possible didactic consequences of a revitalized concept of learner autonomy. One specific question asked is if such a revitalization can make the autonomous student visible as a rebellious autonomous student via a narrative. A red thread in the thesis is the pedagogical paradox: How can a goal such as autonomy be promoted when it is the institution that imposes autonomy on the students. The thesis is comprised of a textual analysis and a case study in the form of a narrative analysis. Both are placed within a critical-pragmatic approach. This approach is linked to a curriculum theory tradition that focuses on the selection of content as it is expressed in the Swedish official governing documents for education. The analysis can be described as a historical, language didactic, political – moral - philosophical and curricular contextualisation. Five meanings of the discourse of learner autonomy are constructed: Autonomy – a democratic citizenship, Autonomy – efficiency in language learning, The well-adjusted autonomous student, Autonomy, a social context and communication and Autonomy as critical awareness. ‘Autonomy – effi ciency in language learning’ and ‘The well-adjusted autonomous student’ are designated imposed autonomy based on Immanuel Kant. ‘Autonomy – a democratic citizenship’, ‘Autonomy, a social context and communication’ and ‘Autonomy as critical awareness’ are designated experienced autonomy-authenticity based on Charles Taylor. The five meanings are used as points of references in the analysis of the national curricula and syllabuses. The autonomous student is made visible as a rebellious autonomous student with the help of certain aspects of the concept of freedom, the meaning ‘Autonomy as critical awareness’ and my interpretation of Taylor’s ideas on freedom, autonomy and identity. The discourse that frames the concept of learner autonomy has had an impact on the syllabuses. It is primarily imposed autonomy that is expressed there, reaching a peak in 1989 in French/Spanish/German. The analysis of the curricula shows that there are parallels to the discourse of learner autonomy. In the overall goals both imposed autonomy and experienced autonomy-authenticity are expressed. Didactic consequences are discussed under six headings: the pedagogical paradox; the subject-object problematic; the learner as an individual, as a communicator, as a change agent and as a person; imposed autonomy – experienced autonomy-authenticity and the individual versus the collective.
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| 10. |
- Svensson, Louise
(författare)
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Mobbning i arbete : arbetsorganiseringens inverkan på handlingsutrymmet och mobbningprocessen
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation is to identify and analyze organizational characteristics and interactional forces within the workplace organization that may affect the mobbing process. The empirical basis comprises 20 semistructured interviews with victims, observers, and bullies. Organizational theory and workplace studies are theoretical influences, as are the concepts of negotiations and outsiders. A central concept is employee discretion: formal, informal, and real discretion. Different parties in the mobbing process are identified and analyzed. It is confirmed that bullies create a negative perception of their victim and try to cause others to share this perception. Collaborators are those whom bullies potentially can recruit, and may include anyone who does not show open support for the victim. People who give open support to the victim are more likely to be bullied themselves, unless they have a strong position in the group. The mobbing process can begin for a large number of reasons. In this study, three main reasons are identified and discussed. First, mobbing can begin because the victim is seen as an outsider. Second, the mobbing process can begin with a change of position. The third main reason for a mobbing process to begin is a confrontation. Mobbing occurs only in contexts where people meet regularly and often and hence can only leave at high cost. Regular interaction and proximity to the same people are the only conditions necessary for mobbing to occur in a context. There are, however, a number of aggravating and mitigating latent characteristics or qualities that have been raised in this dissertation that may affect the mobbing process. These are cooperation and coexistence, existence of a place of retreat, distribution of bureaucratic authority and employer participation, the double belongings within the organization (formal and informal), reorganization and changing workload, and the organization’s relations to stakeholders. The same quality may be an obstacle to mobbing in one situation and facilitate it in another.
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