Exploring the identity and belonging experiences of black men who have undertaken training in professional psychology programmes at a South African university
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Date
2024
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Publisher
University of the Western Cape
Abstract
The study explores the identity and belonging experiences of Black men who have undertaken training in professional psychology master’s programmes at a South African university. Contemporary perspectives reveal that in the field of psychology, there appears to be an underrepresentation of Black male and/or men psychologists, and that their experiences are largely absent from the research. The study adopts a qualitative approach with an exploratory design. Purposive sampling and snowballing sampling methods were utilised for participant recruitment. Following the pilot interview, for quality checking and credibility purposes, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants who identified as Black men who had received professional masters-level training in either clinical, counselling, or research psychology. Participants were required to reflect on their experiences of psychology training and professional practice. Approval for the study was received from the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee at the University of the Western Cape. Ethical principles were upheld in data collection through participants’ informed consent, voluntary participation, confidentiality, privacy, and safe storage of personal information and data. Interview data were analysed thematically, and both social identity theory and professional identity theory were employed as a lens through which to understand identity and belonging experiences.
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Keywords
Identity, Belonging, Experiences, Masculinities, Thematic analysis