- Title
- Homeless men in East London : an exploration of significant life experiences to self-concepts
- Creator
- Lobi, Thembelihle
- Subject
- Homeless persons Homelessness Homeless men
- Date
- 2017
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- Counselling Psychology
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/16069
- Identifier
- vital:40661
- Description
- This dissertation investigated the life experiences of homeless persons and how they come to view their self-concepts as homeless men. The theoretical framework that underpinned this study was the self-concept theory and social identity theory. In this contextual descriptive study, four homeless men between ages of 28-50 participated in the study. Data was collected by means of disposable cameras and recorded interviews. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse data. The study found that when the participants first became homeless, they encountered stigmatisation and were not ready to accept the homeless identity as it conflicted with their past identity. However, with prolonged homelessness, they took on the new identity and the roles that come with it. The study found that homeless men view themselves as worthless due to their experiences on the street which include living under inhumane conditions, victimisation, and stigma associated with being homeless. The participants have internalised the negative utterances from housed people, which has negatively affected their self-image to a point where they view themselves as worthless,useless and forgetable. The study also found that homeless men use various methods to survive on the streets, which were both self-enhancing such as participating in the informal economy such as car guarding, car washing and collecting tins in exchange for money; and self-destructive such as using substances, risky sexual behaviour. The participants were found to have low self-concepts because of the tough experiences they encounter on the street.
- Format
- 121 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Social Science and Humanities
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | thembelihle thesis 2017.pdf | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |