Abstract
Developmentally the young adult is between the age of 18 and 21 years. In this phase of life, the young adult needs to make choices and decisions that have lifelong consequences. The societal expectation is that the young adult should know him or herself well enough to make choices at this age, yet very little is done intentionally to develop knowledge of self from an intuitional stance and from the young adults’ perspective. In general, the education system focuses on academics, sport and cultural activities and it is thus hoped that through these activities, the child and adolescent will reach young adulthood knowing who he or she is. With this knowledge of the self it is then expected that the young adult will make career and relationship choices. Very little is done to facilitate and reflect on these leanings, and even less to promote and facilitate self-awareness intentionally. It is for this reason that the researcher in this study asked the questions: How do young adults experience self-awareness? and, what can be done to facilitate young adults to develop self-awareness as an integral part of mental health? A theory generative, qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design was used to guide the study. The four steps of a model development method were followed. In step one concept analysis was done in two phases. In phase one, the central concepts were identified and in phase two the central concepts were defined and classified. In step two the concepts were placed into relationships and in step three the model was described. Lastly in step four guidelines to implement the model were described. The results were as follow. In Step One, Phase One fieldwork was conducted using phenomenological interviews with young adults. The findings were analysed and categorised, and then contextualised when a literature control was done. In this way, the findings were validated...
D.Phil. (Education)