Masters Degrees (Psychology)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Psychology) by Author "Adamson, Anjela"

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    Divergent masculinity discourses among Stellenbosch student males: traditional masculinity and the progressive male/new man discourse
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Adamson, Anjela; Painter, Desmond; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Psychology.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: The aim of this study is to explore the tensions and contradictions in the dialogue of male Students attending Stellenbosch University. Particular attention was given to the discourses of traditional masculinity and the new man masculinity, due to the fundamental divergence between these discourses. The premise of this study is that these two discourses are accepted in society and men assimilate these discourses to varying degrees, this causes men to vacillate between discourses due contextual prompts. Owing to the dialectical divergence in the masculinity discourses, contradictions and tensions can arise in the conversational context. There is an existent dearth on masculinity research in a University environment. This study further aims to contribute to the filling of that knowledge gap, specifically addressing hegemony and resistant to hegemony discourses in the male students dialogue. The ontological approach of the study was social constructionism. Therefore there was a concentration on the way participants use language by means of discourse to build ways of being in which they base the performance of masculinity. Focus groups that centered on open-ended masculinity discussion topics were used to facilitate a relaxed environment were masculinity discourses could emerge from the dialogue of the participants in a close to natural and sporadic manner. There were sixteen participants divided in four focus groups two of which were male only and an additional two, which were mixed sex. This division was to examine if there is an effect, due a female presence, on the male participants discourse and dialogue. The data from the focus groups was analyzed by means of Discursive Psychology. The main tool of analysis used was ideological dilemmas, which focuses on the contradictions in ideological themes or discourse, which thusly provided a useful analytic tool in the examination of the contradiction and dialectical tension between traditional masculinity and the new man masculinity. The findings indicated that there were contradictions and tensions between the discourses of traditional masculinity and the new man. The contradictions were reflected particularly in the equality and dominance components of the discourses. An unexpected finding was the Stellenbosch relationship with the new man and hegemony. The new man discourse is associated with the component of equality; however, the findings in this study reflected that there is a component of dominance in the new man, rather than only in the traditional masculinity discourse. The findings further indicated a transition from traditional masculinity to the new man. This has important implications in the gender equality properties and the reformation masculinity component that the new man is associated with. Masculinity is transitioning into a masculinity that has elements of hegemony, but it is performed differently to the hegemony in traditional masculinity, this holds considerable consequences for the gender equality principles in gender studies.