Individual Differences in Music Reward Experiences

Music is one of the most pleasant human experiences, even though it has no direct biological advantage. However little is known about individual differences in how people experience reward in music-related activities. The goal of the present study was to describe the main facets of music experience that could explain the variance observed in how people experience reward associated with music. To this end we developed the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (BMRQ), which was administrated to three large samples. Our results showed that the musical reward experience can be decomposed into five reliable factors: Musical Seeking, Emotion Evocation, Mood Regulation, Social Reward, and Sensory-Motor. These factors were correlated with socio-demographic factors and measures of general sensitivity to reward and hedonic experience. We propose that the five-factor structure of musical reward experience might be very relevant in the study of psychological and neural bases of emotion and pleasure associated to music.

Salesperson's customer orientation in the personal selling process and in the use of personal selling techniques in the business-to-business setting

Selling is much maligned, often under-valued subject whose inadequate showing in business schools is in inverse proportion to the many job opportunities it offers and the importance of salespeople bringing incomes to companies. The purpose of this research is to increase the understanding of customer-oriented selling and examine the influence of customer-oriented philosophy on selling process, the applicability of selling techniques to this philosophy and the importance of them to salespeople. The empirical section of the study is two-fold. Firstly, the data of qualitative part was collected by conducting five thematic interviews among sales consultants and case company representatives. The findings of the study indicate that customer-oriented selling requires the activity of salespeople. In the customer-oriented personal selling process, salespeople invest time in the preplanning, the need analysis and the benefit demonstration stages. However, the findings propose that salespeople today must also have the basic capabilities for executing the traditional sales process, and the balance between traditional and consultative selling process will change as the duration of the relationship between the salesperson and customer increases. The study also proposes that selling techniques still belong to the customer-oriented selling process, although their roles might be modest. This thesis mapped 75 selling techniques and the quantitative part of the study explored what selling techniques are considered to be important by salespeople in direct selling industry when they make sales with new and existing customers. Response rate of the survey was 69.5%.

Consumers’ brand experiences of magazine brands

Tässä kvalitatiivisessa pro gradu -työssä tutkittiin kuluttajien brändikokemuksia aikakauslehtien brändeistä. Päätutkimusongelmana oli kuinka kuluttaja kokee aikakauslehden brändin. Alaongelmia olivat seuraavat: mitä ovat brändikokemukset, mitkä ovat brändikokemuksen ulottuvuudet, mitkä konseptit liittyvät brändikokemukseen, kuka on vastuussa brändikokemusten luomisesta ja miten brändikokemuksia luodaan. Tässä tutkimuksessa on analysoitu yhtä avointa kysymystä: kerro meille kokemuksiasi X lehden brändistä. Vastausten perusteella vastaajista muodostettiin kahdeksan ryhmää: Uloskasvaneet, Internet-sivujen käyttäjät, Toistoon kyllästyneet, Vertaistukijat, Nostalgiset, Uskolliset, Tyytyväiset ja Luottavaiset.

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.

Hållpunkter för lärande : småbarns möten

Developed from human activities, mathematical knowledge is bound to the world and cultures that men and women experience. One can say that mathematics is rooted in humans’ everyday life, an environment where people reach agreement regarding certain “laws” and principles in mathematics. Through interaction with worldly phenomena and people, children will always gain experience that they can then in turn use to understand future situations. Consequently, the environment in which a child grows up plays an important role in what that child experiences and what possibilities for learning that child has. Variation theory, a branch of phenomenographical research, defines human learning as changes in understanding and acting towards a specific phenomenon. Variation theory implies a focus on that which it is possible to learn in a specific learning situation, since only a limited number of critical aspects of a phenomenon can be simultaneously discerned and focused on. The aim of this study is to discern how toddlers experience and learn mathematics in a daycare environment. The study focuses on what toddlers experience, how their learning experience is formed, and how toddlers use their understanding to master their environment. Twenty-three children were observed videographically during everyday activities. The videographic methodology aims to describe and interpret human actions in natural settings. The children are aged from 1 year, 1 month to 3 years, 9 months. Descriptions of the toddlers’ actions and communication with other children and adults are analyzed phenomenographically in order to discover how the children come to understand the different aspects of mathematics they encounter. The study’s analysis reveals that toddlers encounter various mathematical concepts, similarities and differences, and the relationship between parts and whole. Children form their understanding of such aspects in interaction with other children and adults in their everyday life. The results also show that for a certain type of learning to occur, some critical conditions must exist. Variation, simultaneity, reasonableness and fixed points are critical conditions of learning that appear to be important for toddlers’ learning. These four critical conditions are integral parts of the learning process. How children understand mathematics influences how they use mathematics as a tool to master their surrounding world. The results of the study’s analysis of how children use their understanding of mathematics shows that children use mathematics to uphold societal rules, to describe their surrounding world, and as a tool for problem solving. Accordingly, mathematics can be considered a very important phenomenon that children should come into contact with in different ways and which needs to be recognized as a necessary part of children’s everyday life. Adults working with young children play an important role in setting perimeters for children’s experiences and possibilities to explore mathematical concepts and phenomena. Therefore, this study is significant as regards understanding how children learn mathematics through everyday activities.

Ammatillisen osaamisen tukeminen muuttuvissa toimintaympäristöissä : tutkimus ikääntyvien työntekijöiden näkökulmasta

The purpose of the study was to describe the experiences of received support of aging employees and their work related self-image in changing working environments. Firstly, theaim was to discover how the support from organisations and leaders was verified. Secondly, the aim was to get answers how employees experienced themselves as workers and as learners in the current work context. Thirdly, the aim was to compare different knowledge information stages and company cultures and how they have influenced the experiences of professional competence development among aging employees. In addition the education- and career backgrounds were investigated to gain more understanding of their role in experiencing support and relation to the occupational self-image. The theoretical frame of reference of this researchis multidisciplinary. The theoretical part focuses on the meaning of work for human being from a sociological, late-modern perspective. On the other hand it examines the ageing process from a physiological and also from a perspective of age discrimination and life control. The occupational selfimage and the strength of motivation has an effect on learning in working life which is crucial and firmpart individual trajectories. According to the theoretical review company culture, leadership and especially the managers' role as a creator of a learning atmosphere are increasingly critical for aging adults' learning when the role of informal work-based learning is increasing. The empirical data was collected with aquestionnaire and interviews, which were carried out in May to October 2001. The data consists of 263 respondents of which further eight persons were interviewed. All respondents were over the age of 45 and represented all levels of their organisations in an IT-technology firm and a chemical industry plant. The central findings in this research show that the aging adults have experienced that theemployers do care about the development of their occupational skills. On the other hand there are fewer concrete activities to reveal this support. There is anobvious disproportion between the expressed aims and the realisation of the activities. Signs of age discrimination are few. The style of management has becomemore supporting for self directed activities which are seen to support adults learning. Higher education and individual activity to seek possibilities to learnwere encouraging the development of occupational skills. Age itself was not a crucial aspect when comparing the experiences among younger (45-54 years) and older (55-64 years) groups. Job satisfaction and professional self esteem seemed tobe considerably strong. The individual characteristics were more important elements in developing occupational skills than the age. The degree of anxiety at work was low. In addition among the older group the strong feeling of coherence and the occupational self image were significant for supporting the professional competence. The motivation to learn was also stable. Among the seniors there was some slight evidence of declining motivation. In the IT-firm the support was experienced stronger for aging employees than in the chemical industry plant. Thosewho had experienced support in the chemical industry plant had higher educational background than the others. In IT-firm they also experienced more support from the manager than in the chemical industry plant. The results show that it is more likely that the differences are caused mostly by the stage of information intensity and the character of company culture which is determined by the activities. IT-business demands constantly accommodation to changes and the chemical industry plant which is representing more traditional business field, where the atmosphere of learning is determined by the traditions of company culture, the changes are carried out slowly.

Att lära för livet hemma och i skolan : elevers uppfattningar av kost och hälsa, konsumtion och privatekonomi samt hushåll och miljö

The home is an important societal arena for upbringing and learning. A child can experience a feeling of participation in the household he or she belongs to very early in life. In this manner, the home environment constitutes an essential foundation for instruction in the subject of Home Economics. At school, Home Economics pupils should fulfill the intentions that school curriculum has for the subject, that is to say develop the knowledge, skills, and values that allow pupils to be able to take responsibility for their health, finances, comfort, and safety in their close environment. The purpose of this study is twofold. Firstly, the study aims to examine what knowledge and attitudes children and teenagers have acquired from their home environment, close environment, as well as school. Secondly, the study aims to evaluate the effects of instruction in Home Economics, at the 7th grade level, as regards diet and health, consumption and private finances, as well as household and the environment. The study’s methodological foundation focuses on pupils’ understanding of the surrounding world. A phenomenographical approach to the research phenomenon basis itself on the supposition that knowledge is fixed in human beings’ consciousness and experiences. Furthermore, the study stresses individual variations in conjunction with the experienced phenomenon. The empirical portion of the study is based on semistructured interviews of 30 pupils divided into two reference groups. The pupils were interviewed before instruction in the subject of Home Economics started and upon completing instruction. The interview data was analyzed and interpreted in accordance with the “multistage model”. The study results show that upbringing in the home environment is determinative as pertains to understanding of the socio-cultural household environment. Mealtime traditions, for example, are deeply ingrained but nonetheless influenced by lifestyle changes. The study shows that a didactic challenge exists to draw attention to the consequences of poor mealtime habits and stress for everyone raising or educating children and teenagers. Despite good knowledge of what a healthy diet is, the majority of pupils choose fast-food and junk-food when they eat out to save time and money. Studies of pupils’ preparedness for consumption show that a purposeful upbringing in the home in combination with relevant instruction in Home Economics, results in knowledgeable consumers. This study also shows that upbringing in the home environment and instruction in Home Economics requires an intense and conscious focus on the consequences of a household not run in accordance with nature, where the household lifestyle is nonsustainable. Pupils’ understanding is often based on the disregarding of the survival perspective for a comfort perspective. Parents and Home Economics teachers should be able to bring up and teach children and teenagers in a manner that allows children and teenagers to take responsibility for their health, private finances, as well as comfort and safety in the close environment. The method is conscious nurturing and instruction.

Beyond the obvious : three acts in educational drama

Researching research is not a common theme in educational drama. Nor is the educational drama process from a participant perspective a typical focus of research, at least not if the participants are disabled. Yet this is the theme of this thesis, a drama in three acts. The aim of this thesis is to describe, analyse, and discuss both the ways in which research within educational drama can be carried out and represented, and the experiences of the participants of the educational drama process. The theoretical framework that steers the research process is built up of two pairs of frames, each of them, like Russian nesting dolls, containing further frames. The first frame, relating to the outcomes of conducting research in educational drama, comprises philosophical, representational, and personal theories. As the second question asks what educational drama is, the subject related frame is built up of pedagogical, drama educational, and aesthetic theories. The study in its entirety follows the structure of the researcher’s hermeneutical learning process and takes the form of a journey starting from what is familiar, stretching towards what is new and different, and finally returning back to the beginning with a new view on what was there at the start. The thesis consists of two separate but related studies. The first, a familiar study conducted earlier, Alpha in Act I, was carried out among upper secondary school pupils. In the second, the new and therefore unfamiliar study, Omega in Act III, the participants are adult individuals who are physically and communicatively disabled. In between these two Acts an element of “Verfremdung” where the Alpha study is systematically scrutinized as the purpose is to teach and to manage the reader to think. Meta-discussions on the philosophical issues of the study are conducted throughout the text, parallel to the empirical parts. The outcomes of the first research question show that philosophical, methodical, and representational consistency is crucial for research. While this may sound like stating the obvious, this has nevertheless not always been considered fact, especially not within qualitative research. The outcomes further stress that representational issues are also to be recognized when presenting non-rational aspects of educational drama. By wording the world, through the use of visualising language, the surplus of meanings of educational drama can be, as they are within this study, made visible, sensible, and almost tangible, not only cognitively understandable. The outcomes of the second question point to the different foci of the studies, with Alpha focusing on the rationally retold experiences and Omega focusing on nonrational experiences. The outcomes expose educational drama as a learning process comprising doing, reflecting, and being. The doing aspect communicates the concrete efforts in creating a piece of theatre, while the being aspect relates experiences of being as situated, embodied and sensuous, reciprocal, empowering, aesthetic and artistic, and existential. Reflection is the twine that runs throughout the process and connects both doing and being. In summary, the outcomes could be formulated as “learning from learning how to make theatre”.

Conditions for EFL learning and professional development : Finland-Swedish learner and teacher perspectives

Engelskans dominerande roll som internationellt språk och andra globaliseringstrender påverkar också Svenskfinland. Dessa trender påverkar i sin tur förutsättningarna för lärande och undervisning i engelska som främmande språk, det vill säga undervisningsmålen, de förväntade elev- och lärarroller, materialens ändamålsenlighet, lärares och elevers initiala erfarenheter av engelska och engelskspråkiga länder. Denna studie undersöker förutsättningarna för lärande och professionell utveckling i det svenskspråkiga nybörjarklassrummet i engelska som främmande språk. Utgångsläget för 351 nybörjare i engelska som främmande språk och 19 av deras lärare beskrivs och analyseras. Resultaten tyder på att engelska håller på att bli ett andraspråk snarare än ett traditionellt främmande språk för många unga elever. Dessa elever har också goda förutsättningar att lära sig engelska utanför skolan. Sådan var dock inte situationen för alla elever, vilket tyder på att det finns en anmärkningsvärd heterogenitet och även regional variation i det finlandssvenska klassrummet i engelska som främmande språk. Lärarresultaten tyder på att vissa lärare har klarat av att på ett konstruktivt sätt att tackla de förutsättningar de möter. Andra lärare uttrycker frustration över sin arbetssituation, läroplanen, undervisningsmaterialen och andra aktörer som kommer är av betydelse för skolmiljön. Studien påvisar att förutsättningarna för lärande och undervisning i engelska som främmande språk varierar i Svenskfinland. För att stöda elevers och lärares utveckling föreslås att dialogen mellan aktörer på olika nivå i samhället bör förbättras och systematiseras.

Musikaliska möten man minns : om musikundervisningen i årskurserna sju till nio som en arena för starka musikpplevelser

Earlier research has shown that strong experiences related to music (SEM) can occur in very different contexts and take on many different forms. Experiences like these seem significant and have among other things reportedly had an affect on the individual's continuing relationship towards music, which makes them interesting from a pedagogical point of view. Formal teaching situations, though, are under-represented in studies where people have been asked to describe strong experiences that they have had in connection with music. The purpose of my thesis is to investigate what SEM may mean to pupils and teachers in lower secondary school (grades 7-9), and to inquire more deeply into the potential "space" for such experiences within school music education. On a comprehensive level my ambition is to deepen the understanding for SEM as a possible element in pedagogical situations. Three empirical perspectives are employed: pupil-, teacher- and curriculum perspectives. The pupil perspective involved an analysis of written accounts of 166 fifteen-year-olds, describing own strong experiences. The teacher perspective involved studying 28 music teachers' conceptions of the purpose of teaching music in school as well as their understanding about strong music experiences in school context. Further, the teachers' descriptions of SEM that they have had themselves were analysed. The curriculum perspective is reflected through a study of how music experience was represented in 24 local and 2 national curriculum texts for music. Grounded in a phenomenological-hermeneutical perspective the material have been analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The result points towards the fact that the music education in school has the potential to become an arena for SEM and that this can happen in relation to a multitude of activities and genres and take on many different expressions. Only one pupil referred to a musical encounter in the classroom environment; all other experiences that occurred inside the frame of school activity had taken place in other arenas (the school hall, public concert halls, and so on). However, more than 98 % of the descriptions concerned musical encounters in leisure time contexts. The significance of SEM is further clarified by narrative constructions. SEM as a conception does not occur on the curriculum level; however the analyze revealed a number of interesting "openings" which are illustrated. Even though all teachers displayed a fundamentally positive attitude towards the idea of regarding SEM as a feature of formal musical learning, it became clear that many teachers never had approached this theme from a pedagogical point of view before. Still, they proved to have an evident "familiarity" towards the phenomenon based on their own experiences of receptive and performative musical encounter. The possible space for strong musical experiences within school music education is specified through a detailed illustration of six specific themes derived from the reasoning of the teachers. Furthermore, this is described through a mapping of the potential experiencing zone, constructed from the teachers descriptions of educational aims.

Vårdande och icke-vårdande tröst

The aim of the thesis is, from a caring science perspective including a caring theology perspective, to illustrate the meaning of the phenomenon consolation and howconsolation relates to suffering and care. Two studies were completed where staff and elderly care receivers were interviewed and a third study focused on an analysis of consolation as it is presented in the Book of Job in the Old Testament. These studies deal with carers' experiences of consolation and consoling, elderly care receivers' experiences of consolation, and Job's experience of consolation. Phenomenology and hermeneutics form the basis for the methodological approach. A phenomenological- hermeneutic method, inspired by Paul Ricoeur, has been used for the text analyses. The thesis also covers significant aspects of poetical and religious texts. The metaphors that occur in the interview studies with the carers and the elderly are analysed in order to take care of the excess of meaning that, according to Ricoeur, can be expressed in metaphors. The result showfive overall meanings: The contradictory consolation, The bonding consolation, The mute and rigid consolation, The uncontrolled consolation and The restful consolation. A caring consolation is contradictory in the sense that it entails that the sufferer on the one hand passes on his or her suffering to someone else and on the other hand that the suffering can be returned to be suffered. Consolation can thus entail suffering. The bonding consolation is present, i.e. is with the sufferer and is based on that person's suffering. This consolation is characterised by a close fellowship, a feeling of being understood at a deeper level. The results also reveal a consolation that is mute and rigid. This consolation does not respond to the sufferer's experience of his or her suffering, is shapeless and therefore unable to follow the suffering. An example of a mute, rigid and non-caring consolation is the consolation of the friends in the Book of Job. This consolation is not capable of consoling because it does not correspond to where Job is, i.e. in his experience of his suffering. A caring consolation is also uncontrolled because it is on the one hand spontaneous and on the other hand helps the sufferer to lose control over the suffering. To lose control entails, amongst other things, the sufferer giving up trying to understand suffering and instead lets that which is incomprehensible be incomprehensible. A consoling and health-bringing rest in or from the struggle with suffering presents itself by giving up what in various ways is tied to the suffering. The result as a whole is interpreted from a caring science perspective with the following important concepts: caring relationship, faith, health and sacrifice. Consolation as health is considered on the basis of a theoretical model inspired by Katie Eriksson's ontological health model. The research is also illustrated from a philosophical-ethical perspective, mainly based on the work of Emmanuel Levinas. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research and also to caring science, society and care.

Kroppen som bärare av hälsa och lidande

The overall aim of this study is to seek new knowledge and deeper understanding of the body as a phenomenon from a caring science point of view. By means of a hermeneutic definition, the body is studied on a contextual as well as an ontological level in order to create a deeper understanding for human beings in relation to health and suffering. The study focuses of the body as a perspective of human beings. It is important for the knowledge growth in caring science to create a deeper understanding for the body, thus making it possible to understand patients in nursing care. The overall methodology is a hermeneutic definition which covers a contextual and an ontological concept definition. In the three empirical studies, Giorgi’s phenomenological method was used. The first empirical study comprises twelve students’ statements about experiences of their body in different situatons in life. The second study is composed of interviews with fifteen patients who had been afflicted by illness and been subjected to surgical treatment. In the third empirical study, ten patients who had been cared for in perioperative nursing care were interviewed. In the data analysis, the essential meaning of the body as a phenomenon is described, along with its variations and nuances. In the ontological determination of the body, an etymologic and semantic analysis is carried out, as well as a qualitative analysis of ideas, where the material is comprised of chosen texts on the body from different perspectives. In the concluding analysis the results were synthesized. The result of the first empirical study shows that a body is expressive and manifests movement in its striving for dignity. The body harbours language and inherent powers to cope with the unexpected, as well as feelings of anxiety, fear and powerlessness. The second study shows that the body is experienced as mysterious when it is afflicted by illness, but it is also found mysterious as an opponent to man and life. A battle is fought between the illness that breaks down the body, and human beings fighting to keep their unity whole. The body appears as a prison and a host for a threatening illness. The body bears a feeling of powerlessness when it is changed by illness and suffering. In a care and treatment context, the body is objectified by the patient and the caregiver. It is the illness that forces the patient to sacrifice parts of the body in order to once again become whole in the unity. The third study shows that the patient in a perioperative nursing context delivers him-/herself over to the hands of the caregiver, who defends and protects body and life. The patient experiences a sense of well-being when the caretaker receives him/her and protects the body from dangers. Suffering is alleviated when the patients are allowed to talk about what has happened in their body. The result of the semantic analysis shows that the body as a concept is described as bending around the human soul and spirit. Linguistically, dimensions like corporeal, shape, totality, unity and mortal clay, are described. Different ideas about the body described it as: a material animate part of man, active and demanding, something that perceives its surrounding world and as a subjective body of senses, thoughts and language. Ideas about the body also describe it as a biological and physiological, living organism, submitted to the laws of nature, a passive apparatus and a socially constructed gender. The results of the different studies were synthesized and reflected against a caring science perspective. The research has created a deeper understanding for the body as a material abode and as an entity of body, soul and spirit.

Experiences of Organising the Master of Science Programme in Packaging Technology

Organising the PT- programme for full-time working adult students is a challenging task as it is an international programme with both domestic and foreign students with different educational background. The purpose of this project work is to provide both student and lecturer feedback for improving Master Of Science Degree Programme in Packaging Technology to meet better the requirements of part-time studying. The objective of this work is in accordance with the Lappeenranta University of Technology’s strategy to improve continuously degree programmes and courses and to use student feedback in this development work of education. Matters, such as lecture schemes, distance material distribution, distance assignment handling, course assessments, and guidance of thesis work will be under scrutiny.