Abstract
Poverty is addressed as oppression practice, developing depreciative identitary constitutions of the individual. This article examines the social roles of stigmatized social identity of poor. The research was performed with 4 people in street situation linked to Provisional Shelter of the Municipal Prefecture of Fortaleza. The used instruments were participant observation and narrative interview, having thematic analysis as procedure. It was identified the social roles of conformed, of believer in God as responsible for everything, of martyr, of cause of social malaise and of guilty for their situation. It is conceived that these social roles permeate social relations and identity, weakening and depreciating the potentialities of the poor individual. It is important for practitioners of Psychology to the understanding of these roles to draw up possible interventions focused on confronting of this situation of poverty.
identity; psychology; poverty; street situation