| Popis: |
This bachelor's thesis is concerned with the notion of self-advocacy. Its objective is to clarify the function of a select self-advocacy group in the Czech Republic, and establish its consequences on the life of the self-advocate. The thesis consists of two sections - one theoretical, and the other empirical. The first chapter in the theoretical section is devoted to intellectual disability. It defines basic terminology, and describes psychological differences in people with intellectual disability. Chapter two contains basic terms and findings from the area of self-advocacy. The third and last chapter is devoted to social interaction from a psychology standpoint. The empirical section describes the central goal of this thesis, establishes specific research questions, as well as the methods intended to answer these. In order to collect data, the following approaches were uses - analysis of key documents, observation, and semi-constructed interviews. Results are presented in the individual subchapters. The first presents the basic characteristics of a select self-advocacy group constructed based on the analysis of documents. The second subchapter describes a meeting of the select self-advocacy group, which is based on the results of observation. The third subchapter contains an analysis of conducted interviews. The final subchapter summarizes and critically discusses all relevant findings. The research conducted here suggests that all interviewees are satisfied with their involvement in the self-advocacy group. All of the subjects reported a self-improvement in social interaction. Furthermore, they mentioned an increased informedness, improved decision making capabilities, and an overall positive impact on their life. The overwhelming conclusion is that an active involvement in a self-advocacy group has beneficial consequences on the life of interviewed self-advocates. |
