The Pros And Cons Of Homeless People

According to Walter, Jetten, Parsell, & Dingle, 2015, the longer a person has been homeless; the more likely it becomes thought of as a “way of life”. This is a psychological response to a challenging emotionally charged situation, and it helps the homeless person to come to terms with the predicament of being homeless. In an essence, they adapt to it as an identity of sorts. Transitionally while it may help them to cope and assign self-worth; it can also undermine efforts to assist them in exiting homelessness. The term “homeless careers” was associated with this phenomenon in Australian social science literature, and has also been used to describe phases of acculturation that have led individuals to develop an identity as a chronically homeless person (Walter, et al, 2015).

Conducting research is a particularly sensitive matter when the subjects are homeless and mentally ill. One must be mindful to adhere to the proper informed consents, and understand the pros and cons of incentives. Davidson, & Page, 2013 state that eliciting participation by paying participants to be in our studies has its advantages, and there is substantial literature on ethical issues as they relate to paying populations such as mental ill homeless individuals. Traditional research ethics may not prove to be sufficient for community-based participatory research with disadvantaged populations like the mentally ill homeless. Consequently, a researcher may need to modify traditional approaches in an effort to accommodate the needs and ethical goals of the research methods used to meet the needs of researching this population (Silva, et al,