Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Family relationships $v Fiction'

Short stories examining interpersonal relationships, familial relationships and legacies, self-examination. These stories were written in an attempt to understand what it is to come of age in a damaged family, to explore the feelings and events associated with finding oneself.

The V Formation is a novelette which explores second-person narration, complex familial relationships, and grief. It questions what standards society sets for families, parents in particular, and what happens when your kin does not conform to these standards. As you grow older, how are you limited or how do you have authority in creating your family?

Set in rural Kansas, this story follows the lives of Jonathan Tate, his sister Lily Anne Tate, and their father, up until his death, Hershall Tate. They are an isolated family, seemingly living outside of time. John opens the novel with a walk into town to set the contrast between him and the rest of the world. Time is the theme and essence, because every scene and the tone of the scenes are weighted by the imminence of Hershall's death. He is dying slowly and so their lives move slowly. Lily can't help but be ornery, while John, assuming all the chores and anxiety of the future without his father, is reserved and reluctant. Hershall is set in his ways and not in a hurry to get the house in order before his death. There is the old-fashioned nature of Hershall, the isolated nature of the whole family, and the rest of the modern world to contend with. These beginning pages are setting up the next stage of the novel where Lily and John begin their journey after their father's death.

The remains of James Oliver Plunkett are dug up one night from their grave at Mount Calvary Cemetery by two college adjunct writing professors, Bob Rusher and Phil Pike. Having chopped through Plunkett's coffin with a pick, Rusher lifts Plunkett's skeleton from the coffin and pronounces his name--and in this moment Plunkett returns to consciousness as a cognitive vapor. The reason that Plunkett has been dug up is hinted at: After writing many unpublished novels and stories during his lifetime, and dying utterly anonymous, Plunkett's fiction has somehow been posthumously published, to great acclaim. Rusher is a huge fan of Plunkett's published work and is digging him up in the belief that one of his unpublished novels--The King of Portland--has been buried with him. When he does not find the novel, Rusher decides to kidnap the remains to force Plunkett's family to reveal the status of The King of Portland. Plunkett drives with Rusher and Pike to a strip club called the Serpentine, located in downtown Portland. They are not aware of Plunkett, but when they enter the club, leaving his bones behind in the car in a brown sack, Plunkett accompanies them. Rusher is courting one of the strippers, Hazel, and has given her one of Plunkett's posthumous novels to read, which she's enjoyed. Hazel's employer and perhaps boyfriend Chuck arrives at Rusher and Pike's table and, with Hazel still present, demonstrates his claim to the stripper by urinating in Rusher's beer. Rusher leaves the club humiliated. After dropping Pike off, he drives to the Hollywood District and brings the sack with Plunkett's remains into his house. His girlfriend Ava Snyder is there, reading the poet Rilke in the bathtub--fully clothed, smoking a cigarette, lying on an air mattress, and drinking an old fashioned. Plunkett is present in consciousness throughout. Rusher does not tell Ava about his grave robbing or the bone-sack he's carrying; but when he leaves Ava in the tub, taking the bones with him, Plunkett remains behind in the bathroom and is startled to find himself privy to Ava's thoughts. After Ava splits from Rusher, Plunkett remains with her, experiencing her life while wondering about the family he might have left behind at his death, nine years earlier. Ava has a scary encounter with her bullying, drug-addled sister Judy, during which she has hints of Plunkett's presence in her mind; but Ava dismisses these hints until after a disappointing visit to her mother, with whom she has long had trouble communicating. At this point Ava hears Plunkett's voice for the first time, and they begin conversing. After transitioning from disbelief to annoyance to the intimate, irresistible pull of their shared consciousness, Ava eventually helps Plunkett to discover the reason for his posthumous, unlikely literary fame and the state of his still-living family: A wife and son who have reaped the profits of his posthumous success, but do not harbor fond memories of their long lives together with him. Plunkett has a vision of his death, in which he apparently committed suicide over his decades-long literary obscurity. Ava seeks out Plunkett's son, Kyle Fleming, an artist who has established his own, prominent comic book company. Kyle is bitter toward his father for neglecting him while growing up, and has taken on his mother's maiden name; but he then reveals that it was his father's fame that propelled him to celebrity as a comic book artist and publisher. Meanwhile, Plunkett's wife Camille is suffering from dementia and lives in a managed care facility. Ava and Plunkett arrive at Camille's room; in the presence of her late husband's consciousness, Camille reveals that it was she who asked Kyle to send out one of his unpublished manuscripts for publication--a romance novel whose enormous, unexpected success led to the publication of several other best-selling works by Plunkett. In spite of this, Camille tells Plunkett that she experienced the happiest years of her life after he died. While Plunkett was never violent and rarely verbally abusive, he was always distant, neglecting his wife and son to write his fiction around a series of demanding day jobs. After this visit, in which she thought she might lose him to Camille, Ava informs Plunkett that she has fallen in love with him. Plunkett reciprocates her feelings. And yet, Plunkett's lack of physical being is causing Ava to consider a romance with Kyle, his son, in order to experience more fully the voice of the dead writer she has come to love. Ava meets Kyle at a bar on Lombard Street; Kyle informs Ava that his mother, Camille, has died. Kyle insists that Ava take him to the managed care home to help make arrangements for his mother's body. During this car ride, with Ava driving, Kyle begins to hear his father's voice and to rail against him. Kyle reveals that his father hasn't committed suicide, but that he shot him for what he considered to be Plunkett's cruelty toward his mother. Ava and Plunkett are stunned. By this time, Ava has Plunkett's remains in the trunk of her car; she insists that Kyle return the bones to their grave as penance for the murder. At the cemetery Kyle runs away; Ava cannot bring herself to let go of Plunkett's remains. Ava's sister, Judy, shows up at the cemetery and in a drug-addled haze shoots Ava, of whom she has long been jealous. Ava dies of her wounds. Plunkett is left behind--but ultimately they are reunited in the dry, dark sea beyond this life.

Thesis advisor: Susan Michalczyk
Isaac Newton's third Law of Motion states that "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." When things collide, there is an immutable effect on both the initiator and the reactor. In the same way, people are in constant motion, "colliding" with one another and irrevocably changing in the process. It was only when I had to live on my own at Boston College that I realized how much the people in my life had such a powerful influence in my life. They are the ones who guided me to evolve into the person I am today. Swayed by my scientific background, I had always believed that I was mostly predestined by my genetic makeup: who I will ultimately become was written in my DNA from conception. However, living in a suite with seven other women and developing close relationships with people who were so unique made me question everything: my beliefs, my approach, my reactions, my opinions. The first chapter is a personal experience I had with my mother in dealing with the cultural and language barriers we had to face. A great deal of our misunderstandings arose because I was the first generation in my family to be born in America and to pursue a higher education at college. Many children come to a point when they rebel against everything their parents tell them to do because they do not understand why their parents do and say the things they do. It is only after the child and the parents can come to a mutual comprehension of each other that steps can be made toward building a stronger relationship, a relationship that goes beyond the simple acts of obedience — or rebellion — and of giving commands. My parents had immigrated to America in their early twenties in pursuit of better opportunities for their future. It was not until I was older and when my relationship with my mother had deepened that I could begin to comprehend her side of the story, her journey, her past which had influenced her decisions that she had made for her children. In order to recount this experience creatively, pieces of conversations that I had with my mother are woven throughout my scenes and my mother's scenes, which, in their stark contrast, causes a palpable tension. Being able to recount the memories in retrospect gives the ability to compare each experience and to reach an understanding. The second chapter is an exploration of the ripple effect amongst strangers and how individuals are all connected in one way or another. Our influences are felt by those around us, even though we may not be directly connected with them. Opening with a dramatic scene, the reader is taken sequentially backwards in time, tracing the steps that the seemingly unconnected characters had taken, ultimately understanding the woman's motivation. Each individual's secrets and conditions all culminate into that moment where one person tries to take her own life. It is rarely one isolated moment that triggers action. Like a snowball that rolls down a hill, increasing its speed and its size over time, various facets of one's life and of other's lives collect together to produce a bigger consequence of which one is aware. The concluding chapter of this series explores the fictional world of a family dealing with the repercussions of their past actions. Each individual's decisions had ramifications for the rest of the family, which they struggle to deal with years later. Characters face guilt, anger, bitterness, and responsibility, as they are constantly reminded of the day when their lives came crashing down. Instead of telling these characters' story by starting from the past and proceeding to the present in chronological order, I decided to include pieces of information and scenes from their memories for the reader to piece together. In the end, the reader is left with having to make a decision: with whom will he or she ultimately sympathize? Will he or she even make that choice? This comprehensive and tedious project provided many obstacles and tensions throughout the year, but it was a journey and a journey worth taking. Before this year, I was never afforded the opportunity to pursue a goal I had set for myself after watching "A Walk to Remember" in high school: to write a novel. It has been rewarding to see the end product of constant revisions, of constant criticisms, and of constant growth
Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2007
Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: English
Discipline: College Honors Program

Family is a work of creative fiction concerning four women and their relationships with each other. It is threaded with scenes from their past lives which hint at their previous connections with each other. These images of the past start to intrude into and affect their present lives. The central character, and storyteller of the present,is Margaret, a married woman who is finding that the 'comfort' of stereotypical behaviour and a prescribed marital relationship is a fiction. For Margaret, the intrusions of these past memories reveal to her traits in her character, aiding an understanding of herself, and eventually gives her freedom from her present situation.
Master of Arts (Hons) (Writing)

Talking Underwater is a collection of short stories that examine the universal yet intimate terrain of human relationships. The characters—lovers, family, and strangers alike— consistently seek connection, inciting nuanced questions about vulnerability, pain, and the need to be seen.

This thesis engages with what has become a ubiquitous term in masculinity studies: “crisis”. I argue that the invocation of “crisis” which implies catastrophe, disaster and trauma, and the favorable reception of this invocation both in academic and popular thinking about men, has resulted in a rush to defend and reauthorize aspects of the masculine ideal. The defense of traditional masculinity risks re-entangling men with masculinity and masculinity with patriarchy. The retying of these categorical knots challenges the deconstruction of gender that feminism and early men’s studies carried out in the second half of the twentieth century in the name of equal rights and in the name of freeing both men and women from having to conform to rigid gender stereotypes – particularly in the home. In recent work by J.M. Coetzee, John Banville and Ian McEwan the male protagonists are fathers who are forced to address a crisis of authority and legitimacy. In the first three chapters I argue that fatherhood in these novels is the site wherein the masculine ideal is least likely to be deconstructed and as such, it is in the context of the relationship between father and daughter that I argue heteromasculinity is most powerfully constructed, maintained and defended. In the fourth chapter I consider Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir Fun Home which provides a queer take on male crisis and father-daughter relationships and which represents female masculinity as a counter to the pressure to reauthorize heteromasculinity for the next historical turn.

The aim of the study was to describe the perception of the family by child clients of counselling psychological clinics and compare the perception of family cohesion with children with internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The research file consisted of 124 children aged 5- 18 (mean 10.4). Children were administered FAST (Family System Test). We assumed that total family cohesion would be lower in the families of children with externalizing symptoms than in the families of children with internalizing symptoms. This assumption was not supported, there were no significant differences in the level of overall family cohesion among children with externalizing and internalizing symptoms, but the two groups differed from the children without symptoms. The results are in accordance with the theoretical assumption of a linear relationship between family cohesiveness and adaptation of family members. We also assumed that dyadic cohesiveness in the father-mother pair would correlate with dyadic cohesiveness in the child-father pair, and gained data provided support for this assumption. The occurrence of inverted hierarchies and intergenerational coalitions in our sample is higher than in the general population. Qualitative analysis of children's verbal commentaries on family representations supported the...

ANOTACE: Rodina je místem, kde dochází k prvním sociálním vztahům a vazbám. Každý jedinec, má potřebu kontaktů s jinými lidmi. Ještě před dovršením tří let věku dítěte roste v každém touha být ve společenství vrstevníků. Tyto první kontakty dítě zažívá v rodině se sourozenci a v mateřské škole. Sourozenecká skupina vymezuje osobnost jedince, má vliv na jeho osobnostní charakteristiky a chování. Vědomí sama sebe se buduje prostřednictvím vztahů k druhému. Jakou roli bude dítě v rodině mít, je spjato s mnoha faktory, kterými jsou: počet sourozenců v rodině, pořadí narození sourozenců, věkový rozdíl a pohlaví. Následně záleží na výchovném přístupu rodičů. Vstup dítěte do mateřské školy je velkou životní změnou pro dítě i pro celou rodinu. Aby vstup proběhl hladce, musí být dítě připraveno odloučit se od rodičů, zvykat si na nové prostředí, na společenství vrstevníků, najít si svou vlastní identitu. Jak proběhne vstup a adaptace do skupiny vrstevníků, záleží na stupni socializace předškolního dítěte. V diplomové práci se zabývám na základě poznatků z rozhovorů, dotazníků a pozorování porovnáním schopností a dovedností sourozeneckých dvojic při nástupu do mateřské školy. Ve výzkumu se soustřeďuji zejména na to, zda ovlivnilo adaptaci mladšího sourozence vědomí, že v mateřské škole má staršího sourozence a jakým...

This diploma thesis deals with significant factors of burnout prevention and burnout causes out of the perspective of a person that is in danger of burnout and out of the perspective of one's surroundings. The aim of this thesis is to describe the influence of family background as a key component of one's social support. The thesis deals specifically with function of original and newly set family in burnout prevention and finds different aspects that can be crucial for prevention of burnout. The core of empirical part of this thesis is research on the influence of a family on burnout syndrome and description of this possible influence. Key words Burnout syndrome, burnout prevention, family, family background, family relationships, family conflicts, social support, values.

The thesis focuses on the period of individual adolescence. It presents definitions of adolescence as well as describes physical, psychical, and social changes relevant to the period. It also includes developmental and psychological theories concerning this period. The case study is focused on a family which experienced the puberty of their children. It examines the period within the context of family relationships. It then asks what puberty symptoms are characteristic and how puberty affected relationships among family members and relationships with the social environment.

My thesis deals with three generations living together in families in the context of past and present, with possible applications into social work. It focuses on an intergenerational solidarity and a mutual help among members of three-generational families which are adequate indicators of mutual relationships. Using ideas of Christian ethics and results of sociological researches it tries to answer the question about the importance of three generations living together within a family and using the theory of social behavior it tries to specify bases of three-generational families living together in cooparation with a social worker.

The aim of this study is to compare views on parenting of partners (from a gender perspective) in families caring for children. Changes in women's position in society, their increasing financial contribution to the family budget and therefore economic background influence the opinions about the overall organization of family life, which is reflected in the actual division of parental roles and associated responsibilities. Although the paper focuses primarily on the opinions and ideas about parenting, I did not fail to devote some space also their subsequent practice. Close interaction of people who share a household and raising children, can result in blindness, which in turn creates the feeling of certain conformity of opinion. Parents can sometimes mistakenly believe that their views on parenthood are shared by their partners. In the research I have included ten couples raising two or more children. For the chosen method of semi-structured interviews, I selected respondents from my circle of acquaintances. The choice was quite deliberate, as with many of them I knew for a long time. Therefore I have had an opportunity to watch some of their educational practices or behaviors, and wondered whether their views correspond to their actions. An important aspect when examining the similarities or...

THESIS TITLE Upbringing in a family of a child with a serious illness: the view of the parent and sibling ABSTRACT The diploma thesis deals with the topic of upbringing in a family of a child who has suffered from cancer as seen by their parents and siblings. The work is both theoretical and empirical. The theoretical part deals with the issue of upbringing in a family of a child with serious disease, sibling relationships and characteristics of cancer, especially leukemia. It also describes the role of family members, coping strategies and stress response. In this part of the thesis we also mention current research, organizations and projects, which focus on helping these families, especially to the siblings in these families. The aim of the empirical part is to find out and describe whether, from the parents' and healthy siblings' point of view, the parents have changed their parenting to children after a serious illness of a child started. The second goal is to find out how cancer affected siblings and their family relationships. The research investigation is of a qualitative nature. The data collection was carried out through semi-structured interviews, which were analyzed using grounded theory procedures. The interviews were conducted with 5 families. In each case we spoke to a parent and a healthy...

(in English) The subject of this thesis is the metamorphosis of intergenerational relationships within the family, which occur in the context of the social process of aging. The contemporary demographic trend has its deeper socio-economic context that currently the social policy of the state does not sufficiently reflect. It is necessary to perceive demographic aging as a metamorphosis of life cycle. The aim of this thesis is to present the proposition that the quality of intergenerational relationships is based on the entire life cycle of an individual, and therefore the reciprocity in the family can be influenced by appropriate measures of social policy. The aim of the thesis is (based on the available theoretical knowledge, using secondary data analysis and comparison of the data) to confirm the broader context of demographic aging and draw attention to the fact that in the preparation of social and political reform measures must deal with all relevant processes and not just the area of pension insurance.

This thesis examines the social context of stillbirth and its impact on women's life and on their relationships with their family members. The study sample includes 8 adult women from Israel. Israel is a country characterized by a high number of children in families and the centrality of religion in society. The methodology used in this study was semi-structured interviews. Our results were similar to those of previous studies in terms of the partner's attitude to the event. On the other hand, the results included novel findings regarding other family members' coping with the stillbirth event. Solidarity and other types of empathy were found to be relevant according to women's stories; whereas some filial norms were met with more ambivalent responses. This thesis demonstrates the importance of intergenerational solidarity, the mass influence of cultural context and ambivalence within everyday situations and the meaning of empathy from close family members. Particular attention needs to be paid to the intergenerational perspective, which focuses on the family (couple, divorced or single units) or the wider society in which they live. Moreover, the experience of particular social groups further exploration; for instance, single mothers and surrogates.

The diploma thesis is focused on the social aspects of women's oral hormonal contraception in the lives of two generations of women - daughters and their mothers. The theoretical part introduces the fundamental concepts of contraception research based on gender perspective. It also highlights the important historical milestones related to so-called birth control pill. Furthermore, the development of the contraceptive behavior of the Czech population since the 50s of the 20th century is analyzed. The empirical part of this thesis includes the description of methodology and the analysis of semi-structured interviews with ten women - mothers who were born in the 1960s and their daughters born around the turn of the 80s and 90s. The aim of the analysis is to discover how a generally accepted theory about contraception as the emancipation mechanism that helps women to control their own body and decide about their own reproduction is expressed in the lives of interviewed women. I ask the reason why, when and under what conditions these women decided to use birth control pills and the role of other circumstances in their decision-making. Moreover, I focus on the way how the birth control pills affect the relationship to own body and self-esteem of my respondents. And also, how birth control pills affect...

Morální principy v současném šíitském islámu , zvl. Íránu a Iráku Moral Princips in contemporey Shi'a islam (esp. in Iran and Iraq) Šárka Popluhárová In my work I dealt with principles of Shiite Muslim fundamentalism and their reasons in the second half of the 20th century. According to my knowledge, the Shiite faith, I came to the view that morality is really dependetnt on religion and politics too. If politics and religion do not work together, discrepancy occurs in society. Even in secular states are people governed with moral values, without demonstranting their faith in God. Then the questin becomes, where the state takes over the observance of certain laws. The answer is that morality comes from God of the people. Thus, there is the claim that morality has no authority. Thus belief in God and his knowledge of laws the 20th century as a reaction positioned itself fundamentalism of Islam. The solution I see the approach of the two cultures, Western and East. Islam their observance of moral principles represent their religious attitudes.

Morální principy v současném šíitském islámu, zvl. Íránu a Iráku Moral Princips In contemporey Shi'a islam (esp. In Iran and Iraq) Šárka Ambrosio In this body of work we look at the moral principles of the Shiite Muslims faith and their reasons for fundamentalism in the second half of the 20th century. The morality of the Shiite faith is a delicate balanced between religion and politics. If the political and the religious institutions do not work in harmony, the typical results are society and economical disruption. Even in a secular state, non-believing citizens who have a basic moral value to live a peaceful co- existences can be disarrayed by conflicts within government and church. What then comes into question is the role the state takes in compliance with certain laws that effect the populous. The answer often defaults to the moral beliefs people have about their understanding of their Creator. There is the claim that morality has no authority. Thus, peoples faith in God and the knowledge of His law ensures a harmony in a social structure. It is no co-incidence that a growing Western pressure in the second half of the 20th century has equated to a growth in Eastern Islam fundamentalist. There is a cause and effect. The solution is not simple but peace can only be founded if the Eastern...

The master's thesis deals with the connections between the experience in the primary family and the differentiation phase of the partnership in the period of young adulthood. In the literature review part, the basic areas of this work are gradually defined - primary family, young adulthood and partnership. When describing the primary family, I focus mainly on the important developmental tasks of the child to successfully manage the transition to adulthood and the formation of a lasting relationship. The chapter about young adulthood describes the characteristics of this phase from different angles. At the end of the theoretical part, I focus on defining the partnership, including the mechanisms of partner selection and description of the phases of the partnership. The empirical part is conceived as a qualitative research, which aims to map the differentiation phase of the partnership of young adults and the activities of the primary family. The main method of collecting data on couples is a semi-structured interview, which is further expanded by questionnaire methods and the technique of mental maps. The information obtained through semi-structured interviews is processed using the method of thematic analysis. The outputs reflect important areas of the primary family and characterize the...

The diploma thesis deals with problems of employment and unemployment policy from the special point of view: the use of equal opportunity of men and women (gender equality) in the Czech Republic, Germany and the European Union. The theoretical part describes employment, unemployment, promotion of women and men at employment market from the gender point of view, and discriminatory differences in the field of financial evaluation of men and women for the same amount and kind of work. The practical part gives the comparison of the employment policy from the gender perspective (rate of employment and unemployment of men and women) on the basis of statistical information of the member states of the European Union {--} the Czech Republic and Germany. The main goal of this work is to show and emphasize the fact, that some aspects of discrimination in the field of gender relationships at work and in private life still exist even in the present modern society. It depends on all of us mainly, in which way and direction these problems of gender equality will develop in the society in future.

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Abstract The intergenerational relationships between senior citizens living in retirement homes and their families and friends in the town of Humpolec Aging and senior citizens are currently topical subjects. The population is aging and society should be prepared for this phenomenon. This shall bring about changes in various spheres and fields, such as health care and social services, and also in the relationships in and functioning of today{\crq}s family. The thesis ``The intergenerational relationships between senior citizens living in retirement homes and their children and friends in the town of Humpolec{\crqq} is devoted to the functioning of intergenerational relationships between senior citizens and their families and friends. The theoretical section deals with, first of all, the definition of the term senior citizens, their standing in society and the increasing number of senior citizens of a greater age. It emphasizes important health and mental changes that accompany old age and also characterizes the importance and types of activities and aging. It presents the results and findings of up to now research dealing with intergenerational relationships. For greater clarity and distinction, it divides these relationships into intergenerational relationships between senior citizens and their children, senior citizens and their grandchildren, senior citizens and their siblings, and senior citizens and their friends. Intergenerational relationships are primarily formed within a family, which is why one chapter is devoted to families, their functioning, and their importance. The next to last chapter in the theoretical section emphasizes the importance of the quality of life, which significantly influences and affects intergenerational relationships. The last chapter is devoted to retirement homes for senior citizens, and also the important changes that were brought about by Act No. 108/2006 Coll., on Social Services. The empirical section is devoted to the carrying out of qualitative research. An in-depth interview was the method that was utilized. Interviews were carried out with ten senior citizens in two retirement homes; in the Blessed Bronislav Retirement Home and the Humpolec Retirement Home on Lužická Street. Interviews with six senior citizens took place in the first named retirement home and the remaining four interviews took place in the latter named retirement home. The findings of the research reveal how intergenerational relationships function, and what affects and forms them. The findings present the relationships between senior citizens and their children, their quality and frequency, their relationships with their grandchildren, and in some cases their great grandchildren, and with their siblings and friends. The findings show the stress of first coming to a retirement home and the importance of a family and/or friends when taking this step in life. The findings of the research emphasize the importance of activities in old age and the important areas of changes in one{\crq}s health and mental state, when changes in one area affect other areas and the quality of life of senior citizens. The quality of life is also assuredly affected by the financial situation of senior citizens, which this thesis also deals with. Another factor is the surroundings in which senior citizens living in retirements homes live in. This thesis also deals with this issue.

THE ABSTRACT The thesis deals with sibling relationships of twins and triplets when one or more siblings suffer from some health disability or handicap. It outlines the way of life in sibling constellations of twins and triplets. It deals with the topic of a disabled person who has brothers or sisters. It defines family as a pillar of person's life and it focuses on the sibling relationships. The thesis explains the connection between multiple births and the occurrence of disability, and it considers certain aspects of family life, with the main focus on siblings, when one of the siblings suffers from some health limitation. It also describes twins and triplets and their specific features. For example, it shows the development of the identity of each of the siblings, the role of their birth order, the types of relationships that occur in a family with twins and triplets, and the way the siblings may experience the separation from one another. It draws on publications and other sources that deal with sibling constellations and the resulting relationships among the siblings, on the publications on twins and triplets, on children and adults with disability or handicap. Last not least, it draws on personal experience of the author and on the research interviews. Apart from that, the thesis clarifies how twins...

The work is focused on the issue of relations between people and their dogs in a selected group. Its aim is to present what relationships are created between people and their dogs and if there are such cases when the relationship that has been developed with a dog, replaces, complements or simulates to its owner any of interpersonal relationships. And finally, how such relationships look like and for what reasons can be formed. The work consists of a theoretical part, which includes a chapter summarizing the current state of knowledge of the subject, thus representing the relevant literature and authors who have worked on and written about the same or similar field already. In addition, the chapter briefly describes the history of men and dogs union, moment of their connection and the development of relationships and roles. The work also contains a research part, an empirical survey. The research approach is a qualitative survey, mainly driven by scenarios interviews and observations. Every step taken in research and subsequent analysis are based on the methodological literature. Key words: Dog in society, the family dog, human-animal relationships, pets

The diploma thesis deals with the impact of family conflicts on the child from the viewpoint of social work. The thesis is divided into two parts, i.e. theoretical and practical. The theoretical part consists of three main chapters. The first chapter generally defines the family and its context. The second chapter is a fundamental one dealing with conflict in general, family conflict as such, the consequences of unresolved family conflicts, as well as methods and approaches to family conflict resolution, including family counselling and family therapy. The chapter also includes an approach of a social worker to a family where a conflict occurs or where a child is being neglected. The third chapter complements the two previous ones, briefly discusses the family in divorce, especially the role of a social worker in divorce proceedings. Furthermore, the development of the divorce rate in the Czech Republic and its family policy. The practical part deals with research focusing on experiences and views of social workers in the area of the social and legal protection of children. The research is directly related to the theoretical part of the thesis as the topic is the impact of family conflicts on the child. A quantitative method was used to carry out the research where the data collection technique was...

The Lambl's family was a part of the famous intellectual family in Bohemia in the second half of the 19th century. The Lambl's brothers were respected experts in their profession. František Sudimír became a highly educated economic officer, Karel Milan was a highly educated economic pedagogue, Vilém Dušan was a very famous doctor and Jan Baptista was a highly educated agricultural expert and at the same time he worked as a organizer of the economic school systém. Eight of the brothers and sisters lived to an adult age, four sisters (Marie, Barbora, Eliška, Anna) and four brothers. All the brothers got married and set up their own families, only one of the sisters - the youngest Ann, got married. The brothers and sisters took a part in the Bohemia patriotic life (for example Vilém Dušan was politically active in 1848, he was in correspondence, apart from others, with Karel Havlíček). The sisters then were involved in the women's society mainly. All brothers and sister made up a compact group for the duration of seventy years. They kept the warmly family relationships and supported each other. The brothers and sisters have not lost contact during their adult age. The sisters helped their unmarried or widowed brothers and helped them with a household, and looked after them in places of their...