Browsing by Author "Long, Wahbie"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    A Social Psychological Exploration of Tenure Reform in a Cape Town Housing Project
    (2021) Brusser, Paul; Long, Wahbie
    Research into tenure reform in South Africa, in the form of allocating private property rights in the form of title deeds, has yielded unclear results in terms of economic upliftment of communities. There is a lack of qualitative information about how communities engage with land titling projects, with existing research being largely survey based. This research involved semi-structured interviews with a sample of twelve participants from a land titling project in Vukuzenzele, Cape Town, with the aim of understanding their decision-making process around whether to get their title deeds. Interviews were subjected to a thematic analysis, out of which nine themes emerged: Trust, Security of Ownership, Tyranny and Authority, Money and Cost, Community Mentality and Support, Capacity for Agency, Forms and Norms, Struggle, and Self-Ownership. While land titling has been justified in neoliberal economic terms, this research showed that capital gains were not the primary motivation of participants. The material and psychosocial possibility of security of ownership emerged as a primary motivation. In order to attain that security, the community had to navigate new areas of knowledge and norms, renegotiating social representations of trust and authority. This research could assist stakeholders in understanding how to approach communities and by what metrics the outcome of titling projects could be assessed.
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    An Exploration of How Working-Class Substance Users in the Western Cape Understand Their Addiction
    (2023) Kara, Tashmira; Long, Wahbie
    The study aims to explore how substance users from poor and working-class backgrounds in the Western Cape, South Africa, understand the development of their patterns of substance use. Using a mono-method qualitative research design under an intersectional theoretical framework, 11 face-to-face interviews were conducted. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Six themes were identified: addiction and agency; substance use as a coping mechanism; unmet attachment needs; societal factors influencing substance use; the psychology of active addiction; and recovery. The results of this study correspond to existing literature on substance abuse; however, this study is unique in that it relates problematic substance use to violence and poverty, through the mechanism of shame, in a South African context. Future research should aim to conduct interviews in participants' home languages to aid in capturing more nuanced narratives. Moreover, a more gender-balanced sample should be interviewed which would allow the female voice to come through more consistently.
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    Black ex-model-C school learners’ experiences of racial microaggressions
    (2019) Canham, Toni Misty Kyla; Long, Wahbie
    In post-Apartheid South Africa, the ongoing salience of race has proved problematic, with many of these racial disputes being circulated widely on social media platforms. Much focus, energy, and emotional investment in these instances of overt racism, against which South Africa still struggles, exemplify the racialized society we live in today. While these instances of explicit racism are heavily focused on, more subtle forms of racism seem to go unnoticed in our day-to-day lives. These subtle forms of racism are called racial microaggressions. Operating within a social constructionist framework, this qualitative study utilized purposive sampling to investigate racial microaggressions experienced by Black1 participants from previously Model-C schools. The focus groups conducted were analysed by means of a thematic analysis, which yielded eight main themes, namely, the second-class citizen; patronizing ascriptions of intelligence; #HandsOffMyCrown; the invisibilization of race andprivilege; morphing bigotry or innocent preference?; under-representations of Black staff and learners; cultural assimilation; and knowledge in the blood. While some of these findings coincide with themes from American and European research (for example, patronizing ascriptions of intelligence, the invisibilization of race and privilege, and the second-class citizen), certain themes appear to be unique to the South African setting. Studies should ideally be carried out across historically white high schools around South Africa to obtain a more representative sample from which to collect data.
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    Exploring Constructions of Self and Identity amongst South Africa s Homeless Population
    (2024) Francis, Aim e-Kariba; Long, Wahbie
    Homelessness in South Africa has rapidly increased in recent years, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the majority of research into homelessness has focused on its causation and alleviation through macro-levelled interventions concerning housing, poverty and unemployment, not enough research has been dedicated to understanding homelessness from the perspective of those experiencing it. The following cross-sectional, qualitative study sought to investigate homelessness by exploring constructions of identity and self amongst a sample of 15 self-identified homeless individuals in Johannesburg, South Africa. Guided by the social constructionist principle that “language produces and constructs” one's experience of oneself as well as that of the other, the study focused on participants' use of language as a representation of their reality, experiences and consequently their identities (Burr, 1995, p. 44). Following the transcription of semi-structured interviews conducted with participants, the study utilised a Foucauldian Discourse Analysis to determine the various identity discourses unsheltered individuals drew on as well as the subject positions they occupied and lastly to discern the agentic possibilities available to participants within these positions. Of the seven discourses identified, the two most prominent related to absence and the homeless identity itself. While subject positions were polarised between “good” and “bad” homelessness responses, they revealed sites of power and resistance along with mediated expressions of agency. Although these findings did not produce tangible intervention or policy outcomes, they illuminated the complexity not only of homelessness but the construction of identity and self within marginalised sectors of society. As a final contribution, the study presents a discursive base to consider the interpellated implications of discourse, power, and resistance within a subset of South Africa's homeless population. Keywords: Homelessness; Identity; Social Constructionism; Discourse Analysis; South Africa; Absence
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    A history of 'relevance' : South African psychology in focus
    (2013) Long, Wahbie; Foster, Don
    This thesis investigates the historical and discursive contours of the "relevance" debate in South African psychology. It begins by contextualizing the debate, detailing how appeals for "relevance" in the broader discipline proliferated during the sixties and seventies in American, European and "Third World" psychology. The thesis observes further how widespread conditions of social turmoil precipitated the development of this crisis over "relevance", which was encouraged also by traits peculiar to psychology. These include the discipline's indecisiveness regarding its cognitive interest, its reliance on a basic but rarefied science for its scientific eminence, and its longstanding difficulty accommodating sociality. Proponents of "relevance", that is, insist that psychology attend to "real world" concerns. However, since the thesis advances the position that materiality can only be accessed via language, it is asserted that the credentialing of "relevance" occurs rhetorically.
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    Occupational stress and adaptive coping among clinical and counselling psychologists in private practice in the Western Cape (South Africa)
    (2025) Suiza, Chanan; Long, Wahbie
    This qualitative study explored occupational stress among Clinical and Counselling Psychologists (CCPs) in South Africa, highlighting its critical impact on practitioners' well- being and service quality. Despite the profession's rewards, detrimental stress levels are a major concern. Existing research lacks an experiential exploration of CCPs' stress and coping mechanisms in the South African context. The study aimed to answer two questions: What factors do CCPs perceive as underlying their occupational stress, and what strategies do they use to manage it? Using the Cognitive Theory of Stress and Coping, the study investigated subjective factors influencing stress and coping methods. Twelve CCPs in private practice in the Western Cape province were recruited through purposive sampling. Data collection involved in-person or online interviews, and qualitative content analysis following Elo and Kyngas (2007) was used to categorise the data. Findings revealed challenges such as the emotional and cognitive toll of providing therapy, occupational isolation, and institutional frustrations. ‘Super-Helper Syndrome' emerged as a significant factor, leading to increased exhaustion and depersonalisation. Participants employed coping strategies like compartmentalisation, workload curation, personal investment, and self-care, stressing the importance of work-life balance. Social support, especially from professional supervisors, was crucial in stress management. The study's theoretical framework combined the Cognitive Theory of Stress and Coping with meaning-focused coping, offering insights into the stress- coping process among CCPs. The findings have implications for improving practitioners' well-being and enhancing stress management strategies within healthcare professions.