Absent parent/s: Psychological implications on children
- Authors: Magqamfana, Simnikiwe Happy
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Single parent families -- South Africa , Father and child -- Psychological aspects -- South Africa , Father figures -- Psychological aspects , -- Children, Black -- South Africa -- Psychology , College students, Black -- South Africa -- Psychology , Child development -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96886 , vital:31343
- Description: The present study intends to explore the psychological implications on the university students who grew up in households where their biological fathers are absent. Most studies associate the absence of the biological fathers with psychological challenges which, among others, include negative emotions such as anger, challenges with maintaining romantic relationships and tend to perform poorly at school. Such research on absence of fathers tends to privilege the biological father discourse in its analysis and often mentions in passing the role played by ‘other’ family members as ‘fathers’. Since during data collection participants kept on referring to the role of other family members or father figures, the study then expanded its scope of inquiry to include this phenomenon. Semi-structured face to face interviews were used to collect data from five university students and thematic analysis was used for data analysis. Psychoanalytic theory was used to specifically to understand or conceptualize the psychological implications on participants caused by the absence of the biological father. Black Social organization theory and Structural Functionalism theory were used to conceptualize the role of other family members/families or father figures in participants’ experiences and the influence of the society they grew up in. This study found that the participants accepted the role of the biological father as central in their lives and its absence resulted in psychological and economical difficulties. To cope with such difficulties, the support from other family members or other father figures was found to be significant in participants lives. Also, this study found that father absence motivates the participants to succeed to better their lives and majority of the participants regarded their grandmothers as father figures.
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- Date Issued: 2019
Positioning 'the self': comparative case studies of first generation students' academic identities when home meets campus in a rapidly transforming higher education context
- Authors: Alcock, Andrea
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: First-generation college students -- South Africa , First-generation college students -- South Africa -- Case studies , Social perception -- South Africa , Educational equalization -- South Africa , College students -- South Africa -- Attitudes , College students, Black -- South Africa -- Attitudes , College students, Black -- South Africa -- Psychology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/6897 , vital:21198
- Description: This research offers an in-depth view of the self-positioning of a sample of seven first generation students in an extended curriculum programme for Arts and Design at the Durban University of Technology. This comparative case study aims to examine how these participants took up, held or resisted positions, during the transitional process of entering a university. The students' responses were elicited in order to explore the development of student academic identity in this stage of late adolescence. Using positioning theory as an analytical framework, a visual methodology was employed to generate data during photo-elicitation interviews. For these, participants were invited to take metaphorical and non-mimetic photographs, in response to the prompt "Take photographs that show you as a student at home and on campus". Themes that surfaced were examined using positioning theory where the storylines, speech acts and rights and duties form the apex points of the positioning triangle that acts as a framework to analyse the participants' narratives. The study revealed the ways in which participants positioned their home communities and thereby developed their own agency. The majority of the participants used their self-positioning in relation to these home communities to build their academic identities. It was evident in the data that certain role models and peers played a significant part in such self-positioning. The rural to urban migration described by some of the participants indicated that the transition students navigated as they developed their academic identities was profound. The university was often perceived in this process as a powerful structure which offered opportunities but could simultaneously be experienced as alienating. Financial challenges added to the complexity of this experience. The development of student academic identity was evident in positioning statements of the participants and, in some cases, a professional identity was revealed. The analysis indicated that the participants were able to use their self-positioning to overcome many of their challenges through the creation of agential power and resilience. Furthermore the emergence of academic identity seemed to give rise to a positive view of 'the self' in relation to the period of transition to university.
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- Date Issued: 2017
An existential-phenomenological explication of being-a-black student at a predominantly white university, with special reference to Rhodes University
- Authors: Harilall, Rehena Ranir
- Date: 1989
- Subjects: Racism , South Africa , Black university students , College , Racism -- South Africa -- Psychological aspects , College students, Black , College students, Black -- South Africa -- Psychology
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2903 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002067
- Description: This study attempts to explore, theoretically and empirically, the experience of being black in a predominantly white university. It is more specifically concerned with perceived interaction between members of different cultural and ethnic groups, namely, between black and white. Using the existential-phenomenological method the experience of seven subjects, both male and female, were explicated. This explication revealed that black students become aware of their "difference" during interaction with members of the dominant white group. The black students perceive the behaviour of the white-dominant group to be racist and this creates a great deal of latent hostility, anger, and resentment. It is suggested that a programme be developed to diffuse the conflict situation during intergroup interaction at university.
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- Date Issued: 1989