Field notes were obtained from 145 unsheltered homeless men regarding what they had learned from an experience of homelessness. Responses represented an aspect of each person's internal frame of reference. Statements about trust in self and an efficacy to survive were common themes. Findings were placed in a humanistic-existential model useful for counseling.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BurtM. R.CohenB. E. (1989) Differences among homeless single women, women with children, and single men. Social Problems, 36, 508–524.
2.
CombsA. W.SnyggD. (1959) Individual behavior: a perceptual approach to behavior. New York: Harper & Row.
3.
FitzpatrickK. M.La GoryM. E.RitcheyF. J. (1993) Criminal victimization among the homeless, Justice Quarterly, 10, 353–368.
4.
FranklV. E. (1969) The will to meaning: foundations and applications of logotherapy. New York: New American Library.
5.
FranklV. E. (1984) Man's search for meaning. (Rev. ed.) New York: Washington Square Press.
6.
GuarnacciaV.HendersonJ. (1993) Self-efficacy, interpersonal competence, and social desirability in homeless people. Journal of Community Psychology, 21, 335–338.
7.
HannappelM.CalsynR. J.MorseG. (1989) Mental illness in homeless men: a comparison of shelter and street samples. Journal of Community Psychology, 17, 304–310.
8.
JohnsonD. (1993) Toward a synthesis of theory: adopting a new perspective to advance the field of mental health counseling. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 15, 236–239.
9.
JourardS. (1971) The transparent self. (Rev. ed.) New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
10.
KellyG. A. (1963) A theory of personality: the psychology of personal constructs. New York: Norton.
11.
La GoryM.RitcheyF.FitzpatrickK. (1991) Homelessness and affiliation. The Sociological Quarterly, 32, 201–218.
12.
LinkB. G.SusserE.StueveA.PhelanJ.MooreR. E.StrueningE. (1994) Lifetime and five-year prevalence of homelessness in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 84, 1907–1912.
13.
MaslowA. H. (1954) Motivation and personality. New York: Harper & Row.
14.
MaslowA. H. (1970) Motivation and personality. (2nd ed.) New York: Harper & Row.
15.
MayR. (1953) Man's search for himself. New York: Dell.
16.
MorseG. A.CalsynR. J.BurgerG. K. (1992) Development and cross-validation of a system for classifying homeless persons, Journal of Community Psychology, 20, 228–242.
17.
NorthC. S.SmithE. M. (1993) A comparison of homeless men and women: different populations, different needs. Community Mental Health Journal, 29, 423–431.
18.
NorthC. S.SmithE. M.SpitznagelE. L. (1994) Violence and the homeless: an epidemiological study of victimization and aggression. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 7, 95–110.
19.
PrivetteG. (1983) Peak experience, peak performance, and flow: a comparative analysis of positive human experiences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 1361–1368.
20.
PrivetteG. (1985) Experience as a component of personality. Psychological Reports, 56, 263–266.
21.
PrivetteG.BundrickC. M. (1991) Peak experience, peak performance, and flow: correspondence of personal descriptions and theoretical constructs. In JonesA.CrandallR. (Eds.), Handbook of self-actualization. [Special Issue] Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 6, 169–188.
22.
PrivetteG.LandsmanT. (1983) Factor analysis of peak performance: the full use of potential. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 195–200.
23.
RobbinsL. N.HelzerJ. E.CroughanJ.RatcliffK. (1981) National Institute of Mental Health Diagnostic Interview Schedule. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 942–948
24.
RogersC. R. (1959) A theory of therapy, personality, and interpersonal relationships, as developed in the client-centered framework. In KochS. (Ed.), Psychology: a study of a science. Vol. 3. Formulations of the person and social context. New York: McGraw-Hill. Pp. 185–256.
25.
SmithE. M.NorthC. S.SpitznagelE. L. (1992) A systematic study of mental illness, substance abuse, and treatment of 600 homeless men. Annals of Clinical Psychiatry, 4, 111–120.
26.
SnowD. A.AndersonL. (1987) Identity work among the homeless: the verbal construction and avowal of personal identities. American Journal of Sociology, 92, 1336–1371.
27.
SnowD. A.AndersonL. (1993) Down on their luck: a study of homeless street people. Berkeley, CA: Univer. of California Press.
28.
SolarzA.BogatG. A. (1990) When social support fails: the homeless. Journal of Community Psychology, 18, 79–96.
29.
SullivanH. S. (1953) The interpersonal theory of psychiatry. New York: Norton.
30.
SumerlinJ. R. (1996) Discriminant analyses of willingness to talk with a counselor and most difficult issues in the experience of unsheltered homeless men: self-actualization, loneliness, and depression. Psychological Reports, 78, 659–672.
31.
SumerlinJ. R.NormanR. L.Jr. (1992) Self-actualization and homeless men: a known-groups examination of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 7, 469–481.
SusserE.ConoverS.StrueningE. L. (1990) Mental illness in the homeless: problems of epidemiologic method in surveys of the 1980'sCommunity Mental Health Journal, 26, 391–414.
34.
WeinsteinS. (1995) Family beyond family: the surrogate parent in schools and other community agencies. New York: Haworth.
35.
YalomI. D. (1980) Existential psychotherapy. New York: Basic Books.