Essay On Status Passage

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Throughout one’s life an individual moves through various phases and within these phases are status passages which are all important in their own right. Status passages can include graduations, weddings, child births as well as other important life events that mark a transition from one particular social status to another. A significant status passage, which is often overlooked, occurs in the latter part of life. This is the act of moving into a nursing home because of physical or mental infirmity, a major status passage in its own right. Notwithstanding that this status passage takes place in late adulthood it is still a very important, influential and, for many, a highly disturbing identity shift. In this essay I will explore the concept of status passages in the context of a social interactionest framework, followed by an examination of the transition into nursing homes as a status passage that is separated into three main phases: separation; transition and reincorporation.

Status Passage

A noted French ethnographer and folklorist, Charles Arnold Van Gennep, recognized that life consists of social status transitions, which are often marked by rites of passage that separate individuals from their past identity. Gennep , in his most famous work “The Rites of Passage” (1909), suggests that a mans life can be seen as a succession of stages and that with each stage comes a ceremony whose purpose is the enabling of the individual to pass from one stage to another (Gennep, 1950, p. 3). Gennep subdivides the classification of the rites of passage into three separate categories, these being; the rite of separation, transition rites and rites of incorporation. These subcategories are also known as preliminary rites, liminal rites a...

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...es and relationships that can have a deleterious affect on one’s self image and self esteem. The second stage is the transition rites category. In this stage individuals are feeling left in limbo, having have moved on from their previous role but have not yet been incorporated into their new one. Individuals in this state often experience anger, depression and denial. Individuals who are unable to accept their new status can languish in a period of liminality. The final subcategory of status passage is the rite of incorporation. At this stage the individual has accepted the new status and is reasonably comfortable with the new lifestyle. This final subcategory can be hard to reach for some, but essential for all to reach in order to achieve acceptance of their inevitable situation, and to obtain a degree of personal comfort in their new role.

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