Contextualizing entrepreneurial intentions : a multiple case study on entrepreneurial cognition and perception

Avhandlingen behandlar entreprenöriella intentioner och individens uppfattningar om entreprenörskap. Om vi vill främja entreprenörskap så räcker det inte att vi förstår vilken nytta samhället kan ha av entreprenörer (arbetsplatser, mera skatteinkomster osv.). Vi måste förstå varför entreprenörskap är intressant och attraktiv ur individens synvinkel. Just den frågan har varit central inom kognitiv entreprenörskapsforskning de senaste 10 åren har vår förståelse för entreprenörer ökat betydligt tack vare den forskningen. Problemet med existerande forskning är att uppfattad genomförbarhet och uppfattad attraktivitet, dvs. de attityder som sägs leda till entreprenöriella intentioner, beskriver enbart vilken attityd individen generellt har till entreprenörskap. Enligt tidigare forskningsresultat så är det skillnad på generella attityder till en handling och attityder till att genomföra just den handlingen. Vill vi veta om individen kan tänka sig starta och driva ett företag så måste vi alltså studera individens attityd till att utföra just den specifika handlingen. Enligt avhandlingens forskningsresultat så kan vi lära oss mera om attityder till entreprenörskap genom att studera också motivation och mål. På så sätt kan vi förstå varför en del väljer att bli entreprenörer medan andra väljer att låta bli, även om de utåt sett har samma möjligheter att bli entreprenörer.

Social Cognition and Behavior in Relationship Context

Social information processing (SIP; Crick & Dodge, 1994) and social-cognitive learning theories have been often used to understand children’s problem behaviors, such as aggression. According to these theories, children’s thinking guides their subsequent behaviors. Although most of us agree that social behavior and underlying thought processes are context-dependent, personality and social development researchers have usually engaged in searching for stable patterns of dispositions and behaviors, ignoring (or treating as error) the variance across different situations and relationship types. This, however, can result in erroneous conclusions and question the interpretation of previous findings. Four studies were conducted to explore the influence of relationship context on children’s social-cognitive evaluations and behavior. Samples were fourth to sixth graders from Estonia and Finland. Social cognitions were assessed by presenting children with hypothetical vignettes where the previously identified relationship partner’s behavior had a negative consequence for the child (Studies I, II, and IV), followed by questions measuring different social-cognitive processes (e.g., hostile attributions, behavioral strategies, outcome expectations and self-efficacy beliefs for aggression). In addition, in Studies II and IV, children provided information about their behavior within a specific relationship context. In Study III, an affective priming paradigm was employed where participants were presented with a short display of photographs of children’s liked and disliked classmates, and unknown peers. The results of this thesis suggest that children’s thinking and behavior are largely influenced by the affective valence of the relationship. Moreover, cognitions guide behavior within the relationship. The current findings offer a fruitful avenue for studying the heterogeneity of peer interactions.

How to increase brand quality perception with audiovisual content? : Exploring the role of emotions in B2C and B2B contexts

This study discusses how audiovisual content can influence brand quality perceptions. The purpose of this study is to explore how audiovisual content creation can increase brand quality perceptions. This research problem is addressed with three sub questions, which aim at clarifying the role of emotions between content marketing and brand quality perception, explaining how different functions of audiovisual content can increase brand quality perception, and by identifying and comparing the key differences in content creation in business-to-consumer and business-to-businesscontexts. The theoretical background of the study is in brand personality, consumer emotions, consumerbrand relationships, content marketing and B2B branding literature. The empirical research part includes a single-case study. The case company was a Swiss startup that wished to build a highquality brand for both B2C and B2B segments. The empirical data was collected in September 2014. Eight interviews were conducted; seven with target segment representatives and one with an existing customer of the case company. The empirical findings were analyzed with thematic analysis and finally a 5-stage framework was created based on the findings of the research, offering a guideline for high-quality content creation. This study finds that emotions play an important role in brand quality perceptions. Psychological processes, emotion, cognition and conation, influence the engagement process of the target segment which ultimately can lead to activation and electronic word-of-mouth. Brand quality perception is the result of the overall emotion of the brand. The overall emotion derives from brand personality, brand concept, product attributes and utilitarian benefits of the brand. The entertaining and educational functions of the audiovisual content can target and evoke these emotional processes, and result in increased quality perceptions. In the B2B context, emotions are found to play a relatively smaller role in the quality perception processes. However, the significance of emotions cannot be ignored, since they can emphasize the value for the buying organization, and build on the trust and loyalty among the potential customers. The final framework presents five stages of content creation that ultimately improve brand quality perceptions. These stages help marketers to design and implement their content and evoke positive emotions in their target segment as part of a quality-based marketing strategy. Further research is warranted to quantitatively test the generalizability of the framework. Further research is also suggested to make the framework adaptable to different stages of the brand life cycle.

The Nature of Object of Perception and Its Role in the Knowledge Concerning the External World

Questions concerning perception are as old as the field of philosophy itself. Using the first-person perspective as a starting point and philosophical documents, the study examines the relationship between knowledge and perception. The problem is that of how one knows what one immediately perceives. The everyday belief that an object of perception is known to be a material object on grounds of perception is demonstrated as unreliable. It is possible that directly perceived sensible particulars are mind-internal images, shapes, sounds, touches, tastes and smells. According to the appearance/reality distinction, the world of perception is the apparent realm, not the real external world. However, the distinction does not necessarily refute the existence of the external world. We have a causal connection with the external world via mind-internal particulars, and therefore we have indirect knowledge about the external world through perceptual experience. The research especially concerns the reasons for George Berkeley’s claim that material things are mind-dependent ideas that really are perceived. The necessity of a perceiver’s own qualities for perceptual experience, such as mind, consciousness, and the brain, supports the causal theory of perception. Finally, it is asked why mind-internal entities are present when perceiving an object. Perception would not directly discern material objects without the presupposition of extra entities located between a perceiver and the external world. Nevertheless, the results show that perception is not sufficient to know what a perceptual object is, and that the existence of appearances is necessary to know that the external world is being perceived. However, the impossibility of matter does not follow from Berkeley’s theory. The main result of the research is that singular knowledge claims about the external world never refer directly and immediately to the objects of the external world. A perceiver’s own qualities affect how perceptual objects appear in a perceptual situation.

Intercultural bridges in teenagers' theatrical events : performing self and constructing cultural identity through a creative drama process

The overriding aim of this drama educational case study is to deepen the understanding of meaning making in a creative intercultural youth theatre process and to examine it in the context of the 10th European Children's TheatreEncounter. The research task is to give a theoretical description of some key features of a creative drama process as the basis for theory about meaning makingin physical theatre. The first task is to illuminate the culture-historical connections of the multilayered practice of the EDERED-association. The second taskis to analyse and interpret theatrical meaning making. The ethnographical research site is regarded as a theatrical event. The analysis of the theatrical eventis divided into four segments: cultural contexts, contextual theatricality, theatrical playing and playing culture. These segments are connected with four research questions: What are the cultural contexts of a creative drama process? How can the organisation of the Encounter, genres, aesthetic codes and perception ofcodes be seen to influence the lived experiences of the participants? What are some of the key phases and characteristics in a creative practice? What kind of cultural learning can be interpreted from the performance texts? The interpretative question concerns identity and community (re)construction. How are the categories, `community´ and `child´ constructed in the Encounter culture? In this drama educational case study the research material (transcribed interviews, coded questionnaire answers, participant drawings, videotaped process text and performance texts) are examined in a multi-method analysis in the meta-theoretical framework of Dewey's naturalistic pragmatism. A three-dimensional research interest through a combination of lived experiences, social contexts and cultural-aesthetical practices compared with drama-educational practices required the methodological project of cultural studies. Furthermore, the critical interpretation of cultural texts is divided into three levels of analyses which are called description, structural analysis and theoretical interpretation. Dialogic validity (truthfulness, self-reflexivity and polyvocality) is combined with contextual validity (sensitivity to social context and awareness of historicity) and with deconstructive validity (awareness of the social discourses). My research suggests that itis possible, by means of physical theatre, to construct symbolic worlds where questions about intercultural identity and multilingual community are examined and where provisional answers are constructed in social interaction.

Dialogue in the crisis of representation : realism and antirealism in the context of the conversation between theologians and quantum physicists in Göttingen 1949-1961

The aim of this study is to analyse the content of the interdisciplinary conversations in Göttingen between 1949 and 1961. The task is to compare models for describing reality presented by quantum physicists and theologians. Descriptions of reality indifferent disciplines are conditioned by the development of the concept of reality in philosophy, physics and theology. Our basic problem is stated in the question: How is it possible for the intramental image to match the external object?Cartesian knowledge presupposes clear and distinct ideas in the mind prior to observation resulting in a true correspondence between the observed object and the cogitative observing subject. The Kantian synthesis between rationalism and empiricism emphasises an extended character of representation. The human mind is not a passive receiver of external information, but is actively construing intramental representations of external reality in the epistemological process. Heidegger's aim was to reach a more primordial mode of understanding reality than what is possible in the Cartesian Subject-Object distinction. In Heidegger's philosophy, ontology as being-in-the-world is prior to knowledge concerning being. Ontology can be grasped only in the totality of being (Dasein), not only as an object of reflection and perception. According to Bohr, quantum mechanics introduces an irreducible loss in representation, which classically understood is a deficiency in knowledge. The conflicting aspects (particle and wave pictures) in our comprehension of physical reality, cannot be completely accommodated into an entire and coherent model of reality. What Bohr rejects is not realism, but the classical Einsteinian version of it. By the use of complementary descriptions, Bohr tries to save a fundamentally realistic position. The fundamental question in Barthian theology is the problem of God as an object of theological discourse. Dialectics is Barth¿s way to express knowledge of God avoiding a speculative theology and a human-centred religious self-consciousness. In Barthian theology, the human capacity for knowledge, independently of revelation, is insufficient to comprehend the being of God. Our knowledge of God is real knowledge in revelation and our words are made to correspond with the divine reality in an analogy of faith. The point of the Bultmannian demythologising programme was to claim the real existence of God beyond our faculties. We cannot simply define God as a human ideal of existence or a focus of values. The theological programme of Bultmann emphasised the notion that we can talk meaningfully of God only insofar as we have existential experience of his intervention. Common to all these twentieth century philosophical, physical and theological positions, is a form of anti-Cartesianism. Consequently, in regard to their epistemology, they can be labelled antirealist. This common insight also made it possible to find a common meeting point between the different disciplines. In this study, the different standpoints from all three areas and the conversations in Göttingen are analysed in the frameworkof realism/antirealism. One of the first tasks in the Göttingen conversations was to analyse the nature of the likeness between the complementary structures inquantum physics introduced by Niels Bohr and the dialectical forms in the Barthian doctrine of God. The reaction against epistemological Cartesianism, metaphysics of substance and deterministic description of reality was the common point of departure for theologians and physicists in the Göttingen discussions. In his complementarity, Bohr anticipated the crossing of traditional epistemic boundaries and the generalisation of epistemological strategies by introducing interpretative procedures across various disciplines.

Towards an Integrative Information Society: Studies on Individuality in Speech and Sign

The flow of information within modern information society has increased rapidly over the last decade. The major part of this information flow relies on the individual’s abilities to handle text or speech input. For the majority of us it presents no problems, but there are some individuals who would benefit from other means of conveying information, e.g. signed information flow. During the last decades the new results from various disciplines have all suggested towards the common background and processing for sign and speech and this was one of the key issues that I wanted to investigate further in this thesis. The basis of this thesis is firmly within speech research and that is why I wanted to design analogous test batteries for widely used speech perception tests for signers – to find out whether the results for signers would be the same as in speakers’ perception tests. One of the key findings within biology – and more precisely its effects on speech and communication research – is the mirror neuron system. That finding has enabled us to form new theories about evolution of communication, and it all seems to converge on the hypothesis that all communication has a common core within humans. In this thesis speech and sign are discussed as equal and analogical counterparts of communication and all research methods used in speech are modified for sign. Both speech and sign are thus investigated using similar test batteries. Furthermore, both production and perception of speech and sign are studied separately. An additional framework for studying production is given by gesture research using cry sounds. Results of cry sound research are then compared to results from children acquiring sign language. These results show that individuality manifests itself from very early on in human development. Articulation in adults, both in speech and sign, is studied from two perspectives: normal production and re-learning production when the apparatus has been changed. Normal production is studied both in speech and sign and the effects of changed articulation are studied with regards to speech. Both these studies are done by using carrier sentences. Furthermore, sign production is studied giving the informants possibility for spontaneous speech. The production data from the signing informants is also used as the basis for input in the sign synthesis stimuli used in sign perception test battery. Speech and sign perception were studied using the informants’ answers to questions using forced choice in identification and discrimination tasks. These answers were then compared across language modalities. Three different informant groups participated in the sign perception tests: native signers, sign language interpreters and Finnish adults with no knowledge of any signed language. This gave a chance to investigate which of the characteristics found in the results were due to the language per se and which were due to the changes in modality itself. As the analogous test batteries yielded similar results over different informant groups, some common threads of results could be observed. Starting from very early on in acquiring speech and sign the results were highly individual. However, the results were the same within one individual when the same test was repeated. This individuality of results represented along same patterns across different language modalities and - in some occasions - across language groups. As both modalities yield similar answers to analogous study questions, this has lead us to providing methods for basic input for sign language applications, i.e. signing avatars. This has also given us answers to questions on precision of the animation and intelligibility for the users – what are the parameters that govern intelligibility of synthesised speech or sign and how precise must the animation or synthetic speech be in order for it to be intelligible. The results also give additional support to the well-known fact that intelligibility in fact is not the same as naturalness. In some cases, as shown within the sign perception test battery design, naturalness decreases intelligibility. This also has to be taken into consideration when designing applications. All in all, results from each of the test batteries, be they for signers or speakers, yield strikingly similar patterns, which would indicate yet further support for the common core for all human communication. Thus, we can modify and deepen the phonetic framework models for human communication based on the knowledge obtained from the results of the test batteries within this thesis.

Towards conceptually comprehensive and integrated theory of entrepreneurial opportunity

Insufficient understanding of entrepreneurial opportunities characterizes entrepreneurship research (Companys & McMullen 2006, 302). Subsequently, the purpose of this study was to analyze the concept of entrepreneurial opportunity and to explore and synthetize the integrated theory of entrepreneurial opportunity. A theoretical and concept analytical approach was adapted. Findings of this study was that entrepreneurial opportunity concept was used for variety of different phenomena. No commonly accepted definition existed. Altogether 24 attributes that described the concept were found. The most frequently attached attributes were agent and action, new goods and services, market, value, new means ends or both, and future. Further, the results implied that opportunity could be best understood as a part of a process. Opportunity emerges out of intervened factors. Changes in the environment together with factors related to knowledge, cognition and social ties are the most important drivers of opportunity. Preventing factors that impeded the emergence of opportunity were typically related to cognitive and organizational factors. This study found a tendency towards more integrated theory of entrepreneurial opportunity. The integrated theory acknowledged the usefulness of both discovery and creation theories of opportunity in explaining opportunity. Yet three argument types of integrating two different opportunity theories were identified. These were process category, contextual category and complementing category. Opportunity is at the same time cognitive, social and linguistic construct, although it is shaped by the objective environment. Opportunity requires linguistic endeavors to become explicit. Materialization of opportunity occurs in a social context. Moreover, it is always characterized by some extent of subjectivity, as opportunities cannot appear without the agent and their action. Due to these the concept remains always to some extent ambiguous. Tolerating and harnessing change and investing in human and social capital create the preeminent environment for the entrepreneurial opportunity to be identified.

Psykologia

Psykologian pääkokoelma sijaitsee pääkirjastossa (Linnassa), jossa painettu yleis- ja käsikirjastokokoelma koostuu noin 7200 nimekkeestä monografioita (painettujen monografiasarjojen osat mukaan lukien). Psykologia-kokoelmasta noin 2/3 käsitteli psykologian erikoisaloja ja 1/3 yleistä psykologiaa. Molemmista ryhmistä kartoitettiin kaksi osa-aluetta. Kehitys- ja lapsipsykologiaa käsitteli noin 1/5 kirjoista (1445 nimekettä), joten se oli selvin painopisteala. Kognitiivista & oppimisen psykologiaa käsitteli 14,6 % kirjoista (1050 nimekettä). Persoonallisuuden psykologian (9,5 % / 683 nimekettä) sekä tunteiden & emootioiden (5,6 % / 400 nimekettä) osuudet kirjakokoelmasta olivat pienehköjä. Käsikirjaston karsitussa noin 100 nimekkeen kokoelmassa on hakuteoksia, sanastoja, bibliografioita jne. Painettuja lehtiä oli 11 nimekettä (Behavior Analyst, Cognition and Emotion, Mielenterveys, Perceptual and Motor Skills, Perheterapia, Psychological Reports, Psychotherapy Research, Psykologi, Psykologia, Ryhmätyö ja Voltti). Sähkökirjoja kokoelmassa oli 22 nimekettä NetLibrary-tietokannassa, noin 487 nimekettä Ebrary-tietokannassa sekä 3 nimekettä sähköisinä hakuteoksina (Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences ja A Dictionary of Psychology). Verkkolehtiä kokoelmassa oli noin 450 nimekettä. Tietokantoja oli 4 kokotekstitietokantaa (PsycArticles, EbscoHost Academic Search Premier, Elsevier ScienceDirect ja Annual Reviews: Social Sciences) sekä 3 viitetietokantaa (PsycINFO, PsiTri ja Social Sciences Citation Index).

Mielikuvat kielen takana

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

Lärande som text : en dramapedagogiskt förankrad läsning av det kroppsliga, rumsliga och retoriska i kunskapsbildande processer

My presupposition, that learning at some level deals with life praxis, is expressed in four metaphors: space, time, fable and figure. Relations between learning,knowledge building and meaning making are linked to the concept of personal knowledge. I present a two part study of learning as text in a drama pedagogical rooted reading where learning is framed as the ongoing event, and knowledge, as the product of previous processes, is framed as culturally formed utterances. A frame analysis model is constructed as a topological guide for relations between the two concepts learning and knowledge. It visualises an aesthetic understanding, rooted in drama pedagogical comprehension. Insight and perception are linked in an inner relationship that is neither external nor identical. This understanding expresses the movement "in between" connecting asymmetrical and nonlinear features of human endeavour and societal issues. The performability of bodily and oral participation in the learning event in a socio-cultural setting is analysed as a dialogised text. In an ethnographical case study I have gathered material with an interest for the particular. The empirical material is based on three problem based learning situations in a Polytechnic setting. The act of transformation in the polyphony of the event is considered as a turning point in the narrative employment. Negotiation and figuration in the situation form patterns of the space for improvisation (flow) and tensions at the boundaries (thresholds) which imply the logical structure of transformation. Learning as a dialogised text of "yes" and "no", of structure and play for the improvised, interrelate in that movement. It is related to both the syntagmic and the paradigmatic forms of thinking. In the philosophical study, forms of understanding are linked to the logical structure of transformation as a cultural issue. The classical rhetorical concepts of Logos, Pathos, Ethos and Mythos are connected to the multidimensional rationality of the human being. In the Aristotelian form of knowledge, phronesis,a logic structure of inquiry is recognised. The shifting of perspectives between approaches, the construction of knowledge as context and the human project of meaning making as a subtext, illuminates multiple layers of the learning text. In an argumentation that post-modern apprehension of knowledge, emphasising contextual and situational values, has an empowering impact on learning, I find pedagogical benefits. The dialogical perspective has opened lenses that manage to hold in aesthetic doubling the individual action of inquiry and the stage with its cultural tools in a three dimensional reading.

Pursuit of change versus organizational inertia: a study on strategic renewal in the Finnish broadcasting company

This doctoral dissertation explores the intra-organizational dynamics of a strategic renewal process. The main research question is how the pursuit of change and organizational inertia co-exist, intertwine, and collide in organizational cognition and capabilities during the strategic renewal. It is a comprehensive study on how organizational capabilities, organizational cognition, and structure enhance and inhibit change. Theoretically, the study is positioned in the modern tradition of strategy research, using the dynamic capability view and the organizational and managerial cognition research tradition as the main theoretical frames. Empirically, the study is a longitudinal case study of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle), following the organizational changes during the years of 2011-1014. The analysis is based on both quantitative and qualitative data, which was collected during the research process using surveys, interviews, and archives. The main theoretical contribution is the application of the two theoretical approaches in one study. Empirically, the study contributes to operationalization of the concepts related to the dynamic capability view and organizational cognition, in a media context that is going through drastic changes due to digitalization. Furthermore, the case of a public broadcasting company extends the application of the theoretical concepts to the context of public management. The results suggest that renewal is a complex process, in which an organization’s perceptions intertwine with the strategic actions and decision-making. The change evolves pathdependently: the past experiences, routines, and organizational structures tend to dictate the future visions, desires, and actions. The study also reveals how the public nature of an organization adds to the tensions between change and organizational inertia, and hampers the decision-making. The doctoral dissertation consists of six research papers, each of which explores the phenomenon under study from a different perspective.

Designing new learning experiences? : exploring corporate E-learners’ self-regulated learning

The context of this study is corporate e-learning, with an explicit focus on how digital learning design can facilitate self-regulated learning (SRL). The field of e-learning is growing rapidly. An increasing number of corporations use digital technology and elearning for training their work force and customers. E-learning may offer economic benefits, as well as opportunities for interaction and communication that traditional teaching cannot provide. However, the evolving variety of digital learning contexts makes new demands on learners, requiring them to develop strategies to adapt and cope with novel learning tools. This study derives from the need to learn more about learning experiences in digital contexts in order to be able to design these properly for learning. The research question targets how the design of an e-learning course influences participants’ self-regulated learning actions and intentions. SRL involves learners’ ability to exercise agency in their learning. Micro-level SRL processes were targeted by exploring behaviour, cognition, and affect/motivation in relation to the design of the digital context. Two iterations of an e-learning course were tested on two groups of participants (N=17). However, the exploration of SRL extends beyond the educational design research perspective of comparing the effects of the changes to the course designs. The study was conducted in a laboratory with each participant individually. Multiple types of data were collected. However, the results presented in this thesis are based on screen observations (including eye tracking) and video-stimulated recall interviews. These data were integrated in order to achieve a broad perspective on SRL. The most essential change evident in the second course iteration was the addition of feedback during practice and the final test. Without feedback on actions there was an observable difference between those who were instruction-directed and those who were self-directed in manipulating the context and, thus, persisted whenever faced with problems. In the second course iteration, including the feedback, this kind of difference was not found. Feedback provided the tipping point for participants to regulate their learning by identifying their knowledge gaps and to explore the learning context in a targeted manner. Furthermore, the course content was consistently seen from a pragmatic perspective, which influenced the participants’ choice of actions, showing that real life relevance is an important need of corporate learners. This also relates to assessment and the consideration of its purpose in relation to participants’ work situation. The rigidity of the multiple choice questions, focusing on the memorisation of details, influenced the participants to adapt to an approach for surface learning. It also caused frustration in cases where the participants’ epistemic beliefs were incompatible with this kind of assessment style. Triggers of positive and negative emotions could be categorized into four levels: personal factors, instructional design of content, interface design of context, and technical solution. In summary, the key design choices for creating a positive learning experience involve feedback, flexibility, functionality, fun, and freedom. The design of the context impacts regulation of behaviour, cognition, as well as affect and motivation. The learners’ awareness of these areas of regulation in relation to learning in a specific context is their ability for design-based epistemic metareflection. I describe this metareflection as knowing how to manipulate the context behaviourally for maximum learning, being metacognitively aware of one’s learning process, and being aware of how emotions can be regulated to maintain volitional control of the learning situation. Attention needs to be paid to how the design of a digital learning context supports learners’ metareflective development as digital learners. Every digital context has its own affordances and constraints, which influence the possibilities for micro-level SRL processes. Empowering learners in developing their ability for design-based epistemic metareflection is, therefore, essential for building their digital literacy in relation to these affordances and constraints. It was evident that the implementation of e-learning in the workplace is not unproblematic and needs new ways of thinking about learning and how we create learning spaces. Digital contexts bring a new culture of learning that demands attitude change in how we value knowledge, measure it, define who owns it, and who creates it. Based on the results, I argue that digital solutions for corporate learning ought to be built as an integrated system that facilitates socio-cultural connectivism within the corporation. The focus needs to shift from designing static e-learning material to managing networks of social meaning negotiation as part of a holistic corporate learning ecology.

Synnytyksen ponnistusvaiheen hoidon käytännöt. Yhteys ensisynnyttäjän välilihan kuntoon synnytyksen jälkeen, synnytyskokemukseen, kipuun ja seksuaaliterveyteen

Hyvän syntymän hoidon tavoitteena on turvata synnyttäjän paras mahdollinen terveys, vähentää tarpeetonta puuttumista synnytyksen kulkuun ja mahdollistaa voimaannuttava synnytyskokemus perheelle. Hyvä syntymän hoito ja siihen liittyvä kätilöiden kliinisen hoitotyön osaaminen ei voi kehittyä, ellei hoitotyön käytäntöjä tutkita. Suomalaista hoitotieteellistä syntymän hoitoon liittyvää tutkimusta on vähän. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli kuvata synnytyksen ponnistusvaiheen hoidon käytäntöjä Suomen synnytyssairaaloissa. Lisäksi seurantatutkimuksen avulla selvitettiin, miten ensisynnyttäjät kokivat synnytyksen ponnistusvaiheen, sen aikana saamansa hoidon, ensisynnyttäjien synnytyskokemusta, kivun kokemista, vointia kolmena päivänä synnytyksen jälkeen sekä heidän seksuaaliterveyttään ensimmäisen vuoden aikana synnytyksen jälkeen. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tuottaa tietoa, jonka avulla voidaan kehittää synnytyksen ponnistusvaiheen hoitoa ja lisätä tietoa synnyttäneiden naisten voinnista ja seksuaaliterveydestä. Tutkimuksen ensimmäinen osio toteutettiin poikkileikkaustutkimuksena (2009), johon osallistui Suomen synnytyssairaaloiden synnytysosastoilla työskentelevät kätilöt (N = 662). Tutkimuksen toinen osio toteutettiin seurantatutkimuksena (2009−2011), jossa oli neljä mittausajankohtaa: kolmantena päivänä synnytyksestä sekä kolmen, kuuden ja kahdentoista kuukauden kuluttua synnytyksestä. Tähän osioon osallistui spontaanisti alateitse yhden elävän lapsen (pää tarjoutuvana) synnyttäneet ensisynnyttäjät (N = 453) ja sikiön perätilan vuoksi suunnitellusti keisarileikatut ensisynnyttäjät (N = 84). Aineisto analysoitiin tilastollisin menetelmin. Tutkimustulosten mukaan osa kätilöiden käyttämistä synnytyksen ponnistusvaiheen hoitokäytännöistä ei ole näyttöön perustuvia. Synnytyssairaalan synnytyksen hoidon kulttuuri näyttää siirtyvän mallioppimisen kautta. Ensisynnyttäjät kokivat synnytyksen ponnistusvaiheen hoidon pääsääntöisesti myönteisenä. Alateitse synnyttäneillä ensisynnyttäjillä oli myönteisempi synnytyskokemus ja vähemmän kipua heti synnytyksen jälkeen ja kolmena synnytyksen jälkeisenä päivänä verrattuna keisarileikkauksella synnyttäneisiin ensisynnyttäjiin. Alateitse synnyttäneillä ensisynnyttäjillä kipu ja ompeleet eivät vaikuttaneet haitallisesti vastasyntyneen hoitoon tai imetykseen niin paljon kuin keisarileikkauksella synnyttäneillä ensisynnyttäjillä. Välilihan leikkaus-, repeämä- tai keisarileikkaushaavat olivat täysin parantuneet suurimmalla osalla naisista kolmen kuukauden kuluttua synnytyksestä. Yleisimpiä naisten kokemia oireita ensimmäisen vuoden aikana synnytyksestä olivat emättimen kostumisen vaikeus, yhdyntäkivut, peräpukamat sekä arpikudoksen kipu ja kiristys. Sukupuolinen halukkuus ja tyytyväisyys seksielämään olivat huonompaa ensimmäisen vuoden aikana synnytyksestä verrattuna aikaan ennen raskautta ja synnytystä. Synnytyksen aikaisella hoitotyöllä ja näyttöön perustuvalla synnytyksen ponnistusvaiheen hoidolla on suuri merkitys naisen synnytyskokemukseen, synnytyksen jälkeiseen vointiin ja seksuaaliterveyteen.