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Aim. The aim of this Thesis was to find out what kind of needs for well-being the working-age Finns have and how they experience work-engagement. The Research problem was that even though the well-being need have been proved to be universal it is motivated to study the connection between well-being and work-engagement out of a subjective perspective on needs. The Classical Well-being model the Subjective Well-being Theory, SWB and Self-Determination Theory, SDT were used as the Theoretical Reference frame of this Thesis. Methods. The study was conducted in a qualitative manner. Eight people took part in this study and were interviewed. The respondents were interviewed and filled in a questionnaire regarding their background information. The interviews were conducted using a half-structured theme interview. The data was coded with the Atlas.ti programme and analyzed with the theory bound content analysis method. Results. The results confirmed that the pursuit of well-being is a value of great meaning to the respondents in this study. The results showed that well-being according to the respondents consists mainly of the satisfaction of basic needs like nurture and rest - but also of satisfying the higher level needs like self-fulfillment. Part of the basic needs were seen even as important as the higher-level needs hence, diet and working out were given a lot of attention. Work engagement was mostly affected by how one sees oneself or how other people see oneself. The results even showed that most of the working-aged people have experienced exhaustion or burnout at some point of their lives.

Previous research has shown that there is deficiency in the quality of early childhood education of children under the age of three. The purpose of this study is to describe with discourse analysis what kind of meanings teachers give to successful pedagogy in their narratives. In addition to discourse analysis, I reason the meanings given to successful pedagogy with National Evaluation Center’s (Karvi) process factors of quality (Vlasov ym., 2018). The main question of this study is how teachers working with children under the age of three speak about successful pedagogy. The material of the study was collected with a questionnaire that was shared in two early childhood education related Facebook groups. The material consisted of 32 narratives where teachers that work with children under the age of three talk about a pedagogically successful day. The material was analyzed with discourse analysis. The analysis and interpretation were strongly based on social constructionism that emphasizes the material as the object of the study. Four larger interpretative repertoires were found from the narratives of the teachers. These repertoires were: Adult meets child, Learning is holistic, Everyone knows what they are doing and The repertoire of insufficiency. These interpretative repertoires represented the most crucial meanings given to successful pedagogy. The repertoires performed in the narratives partly overlapped and parallel. The teachers of early childhood education emphasized sensitive and individualized encounter and interaction that takes a child's interests into account. Learning was seen holistic, and it was typically placed in situations of basic care and small group action. In the aspect of Karvi’s process factors of quality there is still need for improvement in the quality of early childhood education of children under the age of three. The lack of goal-directed pedagogy and support of peer interaction in the narratives arouses a question whether the concept of participation is understood inadequately.

Objectives The aim of this study is to research and analyse preliminary debates by Finnish Parliament about the citizens initiatives called "Tahdon2013" and "Aito Avioliitto". The themes that emerged from the debate are analysed and discussed in the light of literature and previous studies. The themes are quantitatively or qualitatively meaningful topics risen from the debate. Different voices are identified from the debates through the Bakhtin's (1991) polyphony theory and the model of the activity theory of speech by Ritva Engeström (1999). The purpose is to clarify what is being discussed about the renewal of marriage law and Rainbow Families in the Finnish Parliament and to analyse voices behind these opinions. The frame of reference is family research in Home economics science. Methodology Citizens' initiatives Tahdon2013, discussed in spring 2014, and Aito avioliitto, discussed in fall 2016, were used as material in this study. Citizens' initiatives can be found transcribed on the Parliament website. Findings and conclusions The analysis of both citizens' initiatives reveals that there was a clear dichotomy between those who supported and resisted the amendment to marriage legislation. From the literature it can be concluded that meaning of marriage has been changed in the society to the direction where marriage does not necessarily mean having children and people do not get married for safety. Getting married is more about love, not about having children. There has been a clear separation between a family and marriage, parenthood and sexuality. For those who resisted the change of legislation, marriage is still an old institution for starting a family. These arguments were related to Christian and more conservative values. For those who supported the change the main arguments surrounded around human rights and being able to marry the person who you love despite the gender of the other. Differences in opinions were caused from differences in values. Differing values inflicted different voices that members of parliament were using. Only a few personal voices could be found, but it can be concluded that certain rules were followed in conversations, which made it more difficult to find different voices. However, it was possible to adapt the polyphony theory in to this setting as well.

Objectives. The world population aged over 60 years is estimated to increase to 1.4 billion by 2030. This increasing trend evidences the current need for promoting healthy ways of living and aging. Previous research has studied music as a protective factor for several aspects in aging-associated neurological illnesses. This thesis aims at researching if healthy amateur choir singers and controls across age in adulthood differ in self-reported cognitive functions, social support and quality of life. It is hypothesized that amateur choir singers will report higher values of the three aspects mentioned above. Methods. Participants (N=93) were recruited from two general population groups, amateur choir singers (N = 54) and controls (N = 46), from 3 age groups split as follows: young adults: 20–39 years (N=34, mean = 29.79, SD = 5.65); middle-aged adults: 40–59 years (N=32, mean = 50.31, SD = 6.47); and older adults: 60–90 years (N=27, mean = 69.37, SD = 7.62). Outcome measures were questionnaires on quality of life (WHO-QOL-BREF), social support (Social Provisions Scale, SPS), cognitive functioning (Cognitive Failures Questionnaire, CFQ; Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire, PRMQ). Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS. Results and conclusions. The variable “total years of education” was included as a covariate when comparing the age groups, due to significant difference in the demographic pre-analysis. When studying the effects of amateur choir singing (choir vs controls), none of the results were significant. In comparing the three age groups (young, middle-aged, old), significant group differences were found in all the domains of theCFQ (cognitive failures) questionnaire except for Names, with young adults scoring higher (indicating more cognitive failures) than the middle-aged and older adults. A significant singing x age interaction was observed in all CFQ domains (except Names) as well as in the Reliable alliance subdomain of the SPS, with choir singers showing a more positive trend (less cognitive failures, more social support) across the age groups compared to the control group. These findings suggest a possible protective effect of amateur choir singing on subjective cognitive and social functioning in aging, which should be further studied.

Aims. The Behavioural Inhibition/Behavioural Approach System (BIS/BAS) is a neurological approach-avoidance system, where BIS depicts inhibition, anxiety, and fear of failure. The BAS system was in this study divided into BAS Inter (seeking social approval and rewards), BAS Impulse (impulsivity, immediate rewards), and BAS Intra (excitement at novel situations, own successes as a reward). Achievement goal orientations describe motivational tendencies to choose certain types of goals in a learning situation. Of the achievement goal orientations, mastery intrinsic describes the aim to learn with subjective, and mastery extrinsic with absolute criteria of success, performance approach the aim to outperform others and performance avoidance to avoid situations where one can fail. The avoidance orientation describes a disinterest in academic achievements and the goal of exerting as little effort as possible on school. The aim of the study was to examine how dispositional sensitivities affect the motivational aims of students. The research hypothesis is that BIS/BAS sensitivities predict the achievement goal orientations students adopt and exhibit. The research task is to examine how the Motivation and Sensitivity to Reward and Punishment questionnaire (MSRP) not yet used in published research succeeds in defining and measuring aspects of BIS/BAS. Method. The data was collected from five classes of eighth-graders in a school in Helsinki (N=78) in 2008 as a self-response survey, where BIS/BAS was measured using the new MSRP questionnaire, and achievement goal orientations with the achievement goal orientation questionnaire. The effects of BIS/BAS on the achievement goal orientations were examined by means of regression analyses. The MSRP was evaluated by examining the construct validity of the measurement, considering its descriptive capacity in relation to the background theories, and comparing the results with those from research conducted with other instruments. Results. The MSRP functioned relatively well. The mastery orientations were related to a tendency for low impulsivity, mastery intrinsic also to sensitivity to enjoy novel situations and challenges. The performance-approach orientation was predicted by the tendency to seek social approval, and performance-avoidance was connected to the punishment-sensitive inhibitory system. The avoidance orientation was linked with high impulsivity and low levels of excitement in personal successes and novelty in situations. Dispositional tendencies and sensitivities have a predictive effect on motivational achievement goal orientations, and generalised attitudes towards learning at school are to some degree affected by individuals' inherent qualities. These effects should be considered in school practices, to support and meet the needs of students of all dispositions.

The aim of this study was to examine how temperamental sensitivities and self-worth contingency predict achievement goal orientations. In this study, BIS and BAS were used for measuring temperamental sensitivities. BIS/BAS theorization refers to individual's dispositional sensitivity to reward and non-reward and punishment and non-punishment. Contingency of self-worth reflects the domains in which success or failure leads to increases or decreases in self-esteem. In this study, self-worth contingency on academic competence was measured. Achievement goal orientations refers to individuals' generalized tendencies' to aim and favor for certain goals and end results in achievement situation. In this study, the purpose was gain more information about the possible factors that influence individuals' goal choices in achievement situations.In this study, there were 506 participants (434 females and 72 males) and three different scales were used for measuring BIS/BAS, contingency of self-worth and achievement goal orientations. Sensitivity for BAS was divided into three sub-scales: BAS Novelty seeking, BAS Social Reward, and BAS Positive expressiveness. After preliminary analysis, a series of hierarchical analysis were run for examining the effects of BIS/BAS on achievement goal orientations in the first step, and the additional prediction of contingency of self-worth the second step. As expected, BIS/BAS sensitivities were related to achievement goal orientations. Mastery intrinsic orientation was predicted by BAS Novelty seeking, performance-approach orientation was predicted by BIS and avoidance orientation was predicted by BAS Social Reward. Contingency of self-worth was found to significantly increase the explained share of BIS/BAS relations on achievement goal orientations. Contingency of self-worth also had a direct effect on all achievement goal orientations, except for performance-avoidance orientation. Results point out, that dispositional differences are of importance, when considering individual differences in achievement-related motivation. As a practical implication, the results suggest that the learning culture should be failure permissive and encourage learning for learning's sake.

Aim. Earlier studies have shown that textbooks are a crucial tool in teaching. Some theories mean that textbooks create and reproduce a specific outlook on reality. The aim of this study was to review how social studies textbooks in comprehensiveschool in Finland written in Swedish represent different occupations and how workers, employees, employers and entrepreneurs are constructed. The goal was to present who is represented in the textbooks and what kind of a notion could be constructed of workers, employees, employers and entrepreneurs in the textbooks. The study is constructed to make visible underlying discourses in the working life that are presented in social studies textbooks, so that teachers are able to adequately discuss the topic of different roles inworking life. Methods.The study includes six (6) social studies textbooks written in Swedish from Finland. For grades 4 –6 it consisted of two publishers and two publishers for grades 7 –9.In grades 4 –6 there was two textbooks per publisher. The method was a combination of a quantitative survey and a critical discourse analysis.The quantitative survey portrayed which occupations occur in the textbooks.The critical discourse analysis examined how employees, workers, employers and entrepreneurs areconstructed in social studies textbooks. Results. Altogether there are 131 occupations in the data. In the social studies textbooks for grades 4 –6 the prevalent occupations represented there, where occupations students this age could recognize form their everyday lives. In grades 7–9 the occupationswhere much broader, comparing to grades 4 –6, were there was an emphasis on occupations in the judiciary and executive fields. Otherwise,both in grades 4 –6 and 7 –9 the entrepreneur was present in the data. The employer-discourse represented the employer as actor in working life that had to be restrained and had many obligations. The employer was often represented as an impersonal and occasionally also as discriminating. The worker, employee and the employer are very intertwined. The worker-discourse described the workers vast range of action in working life, through instructions and facts for the reader. The worker-discourse was also very prevalent with rights and obligations. The employee-discourse many times portrayed employees only as measurement entity to describe another phenomenon, like businesses. The employees are also described through the working life norms, but also trough rights and obligations. The entrepreneur-discourse described the entrepreneur with many nuances, where positive and negative aspects are shown. A lot of space was given to instructions and facts regarding being an entrepreneur. The conclusion is that the employers are presented as impersonal and in a somewhat negative light, whereworkers and employees are prepared for theworking life trough norms and rights. The entrepreneurs are presented as value-charged and contain vastdescriptions of the life of an entrepreneur.

The purpose of this thesis is to study, how sixth graders in a normal school describe their student teachers. The aim is also to find out if the representations made by the pupils are similar to the representations of teacher's profession and a good teacher that are prevalent in our society. The research approach of this study was qualitative. The qualitative survey data with open questions was collected in the winter 2013 from 6 graders who studied in a normal school. 73 pupils participated in the study. The survey data were analysed applying principles of qualitative content analysis. Five categories emerged from the data describing good student teachers. These categories were: personality, pedagogical relationship, didactical relationship, industrial peace and other qualities. The pupils' representation of the personality of a good student teacher consisted of friendliness, kindness and humorous. A good student teacher had a good style as well as a personal handwriting or a way of speaking. Representation of the pedagogical relationship of a good student teacher included treating the pupils according to their age, treating them equally, respect them and help them when needed. A good student teacher didn't yell or rage and didn't complain unnecessarily. The didactical relationship representation consisted of creating a relaxed and fun atmosphere as well as keeping the classes interesting. During class a good student teacher knew how to take it easy and explained everything clearly. With his/hers own action a good student teacher could make dull topics interesting. He/she used diverse methods like using drama or group assignments. Industrial peace was seen as a quiet class where a little noise was allowed. Keeping the peace in classroom was an important skill to have as a student teacher. It was not done by yelling but having a relaxed and positive way of doing this. The pupils' representation of the other qualities that a good student teacher had were being young, giving candy and not smelling. In regard of the earlier studies there seems to be similarities with the representations of the pupils of a good student teacher and the representations of teacher's profession and a good teacher that are prevalent in our society.

Objectives. The aim of this study was to examine class teachers' opinions and experiences of teaching health education in primary school level. The main purpose was to explore what kind of significant experiences do teachers have of teaching health education, in which kinds of situations do they teach contents of health education, and do they appreciate health education as a school subject in primary school. The health of children and youth has gotten worse during the last decades. It provides food for thought about the importance of coherent health education even for young kids. Methods. The study involved six class teachers, men and women, aged between 26 and 55. They worked as class teachers in the metropolitan area or in the North of Finland. They all had taken university degree of education in a Finnish university. Three of them worked as teachers for second graders, three of them taught pupils at 5th or 6th grade. Research material was collected by interviewing the teachers with structured theme-interview in April-May 2016. After interviews the recordings was transcribed and analyzed using the methods of content analysis. Results and conclusions. The results show that the class teachers give health education mainly without consciously considering that as health education. For the most part, the interviewees didn't consider the contents as a health education except for when they taught contents of puberty and sexuality at grades five and six. Overall, health education as a school subject is experienced challenging because of its common essence. The conclusions are that teachers teach health education according to their own values of health and when the topics come up in the daily life. The teachers aren't conscious enough about the contents of curriculum of health education and aren't that sure about the role of health education as a school subject in primary school level.

Compassion has been a recent interest in research field when trying to solve the challenges Western work culture of efficiency such as burnout. Research shows that compassion in work community increases well-being at work, innovativeness and meaningfulness for work. That’s also why it’s seen to be a great asset in organizations. Working from stagnant to functional, proactive compassion culture may be difficult without the knowledge of the factors that effects compassion at work. Aim of this study is to represent some of those factors from early childhood education and care (ECEC) actors’ point of view. In this study, I examine the different meanings associated with compassion, its enabling and inhibitory factors in work community and self-compassion. This study was conducted by analyzing interviews with selected participants so the sample does not represent the generalized view of ECEC actors on compassion. By ECEC actors I mean ECEC nurses and teachers, heads of ECEC units and regional managers. The data consists of twelve thematical interviews which were analyzed utilizing data and theory based content analysis. The results show that participants saw compassion as an important aspect in their work. Compassion is enabled through structures and leading compassion, compassionate leadership, interaction and encounters, work communality and outlining empathy and compassion. Inhibitory factors were large unit size and individual qualities. Answers to self-compassion had three different aspects which were self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness that were in line with previous research (Neff, 2003a).