The experience of becoming an ex is common to most people in modern society. Unlike individuals in earlier cultures who usually spent their entire lives in one marriage, one career, one religion, one geographic locality, people living in today’s world tend to move in and out of many roles in the course of a lifetime. During the past decade there has been persistent interest in these "passages" or "turning points," but very little research has dealt with what it means to leave behind a major role or incorporate it into a new identity. Helen Rose Fuchs Ebaugh’s pathbreaking inquiry into the phenomenon of becoming an ex reveals the profundity of this basic aspect of establishing an identity in contemporary life.
Ebaugh is herself an ex, having left the life of a Catholic nun to become a wife, mother, and professor of sociology. Drawing on interviews with 185 people, Ebaugh explores a wide range of role changes, including ex-convicts, ex-alcoholics, divorced people, mothers without custody of their children, ex-doctors, ex-cops, retirees, ex-nuns, and—perhaps most dramatically—transsexuals. As this diverse sample reveals, Ebaugh focuses on voluntary exits from significant roles. What emerges are common stages of the role exit process—from disillusionment with a particular identity, to searching for alternative roles, to turning points that trigger a final decision to exit, and finally to the creation of an identify as an ex.
Becoming an Ex is a challenging and influential study that will be of great interest to sociologists, mental health counselors, members of self-help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Parents Without Partners, those in corporate settings where turnover has widespread implications for the organization, and for anyone struggling through a role exit who is trying to establish a new sense of self.
This diagram reflects what people go through when considering changing their role in a variety of situations, whether this is a job, a relationship, or their gender.
Initial doubts are often ignited from organisational changes, personal burnout, a change in relationships, or the effect of some event. These doubts are then reflected to peers or friends as cuing behaviour. Indicating their doubts in the current role. These cues, being recognised by others, are then reinforced or quelled prompting a re-evaluation of the situation and a halt in the doubting process.
Once the individual has reassurance that their is strong basis in their doubts, they will expand the areas that come under scrutiny. Subsequent events will now be considered negatively as a way of reinforcing their point of view.
This will kick start the Second Stage of Role Exit (See Below) - the search for viable alternatives.
First Stage of Role Exit. Helen Rose Fuchs Ebaugh
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journal article
Reviewed Work: Becoming an Ex: The Process of Role Exit by Helen Rose Fuchs Ebaugh
Review by: Loïc J. D. Wacquant
Acta Sociologica
Vol. 33, No. 4, Eastern European Social Changes (1990)
, pp. 397-404 (8 pages)
Published By: Sage Publications, Ltd.
//www.jstor.org/stable/4200820
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Acta Sociologica publishes papers on high-quality innovative sociology, carried out from different theoretical and methodological starting points, in the form of full-length original articles and review essays, as well as book reviews and commentaries. Articles that present Nordic sociology or help mediate between Nordic and international scholarly discussions are encouraged.
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Acta Sociologica © 1990 Sage Publications, Ltd.
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