The aim of this study was to examine the structure of the experience of gaining insight into oneself through perceiving another person. Such a one-to-one situation was selected in order to ensure a minimal level of complexity. The researcher conducted a pilot study in order to check whether people could relate such an experience in response to a long and difficult interview question. One female first year student responded from among a group of thirty to whom the question was posed. She was then interviewed. The data appeared acceptable. This was confirmed after the data analysis using the phenomenological-psychological method of textual analysis. The analysis showed that the subject, while comparing herself with the person whom she was with, discovered that she structured her life too rigidly in her attempt to meet the expectations of others. This discovery gave her the opportunity to restructure her approach to her world and to the others whom she had seen in only a narrow and abstracted way. Lengthier interviews were then conducted with a further six potential subjects. These were then transcribed. Two of those subjects, though, were found to have experienced insight through perceiving more than one other person. The data from the four remaining subjects were then analysed using the phenomenological psychological method. The researcher discovered that insight involves a clarity of perception which is achieved when the person becomes aware of clearly differentiated possibilities; these are revealed to him through his intensely reflecting on where he stands in relation to the other person whom he perceives, or in relation to alternatives revealed to him by the other. The polarities that are revealed allow the person to take up a new approach to his world, since the person discovers that his experience has revealed that he has been inauthentic in his muddled concern about others, and this gives the person a perception of truth that he was previously unaware of. These findings were dialogued with the writing of psychologists and philosophers who have written on the subject of becoming aware of oneself in relation to others.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:rhodes/vital:3113 |
| Date | January 1988 |
| Creators | Hoek, Trevor Martin |
| Publisher | Rhodes University, Faculty of Humanities, Psychology |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MSocSc |
| Format | 242 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Hoek, Trevor Martin |
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