This study examines how identity processes affect role exit. I test a model of role exit that situates the identity processes of cognitive processes (reflected appraisals and social comparisons), rewards and costs related to the role, commitment to the role, and identity centrality as mediating factors between role-set and social characteristic background factors, and role exit. Using a sample of 940 current and former soccer referees in Virginia and the District of Columbia, the results show that several role-set background factors and social characteristics affect role exit. However, identity processes explain some of the effect that the background factors have on role exit. The results have implications for identity theory and role exit theory and for helping referee organizations understand why referees quit. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study is to understand and analyze why individuals develop and manage to leave drug abuse. The material consists of interviews with eight individuals who have gone through a life of addiction and managed to change their lifestyle. We contacted the participants through the organization called KRIS (Criminals Redress with Society). The results indicate that the participants have had a troublesome upbringing and been labeled by society as outsiders which have led them into addiction. The results also show that they have all gone through a social conversion from the life as an addict to become sober. The results of our study are analyzed with Jonsson and Bergström’s theory on social in heritage and Becker and Andersson’s view of outsiders and qualifications for drug abuse. The results are also analyzed with Ebaughs theory on role-exit. What we would like to contribute is an understanding of how an individual enters addiction and how they manage to leave drug abuse.

Title: The process of leaving a social role Author: Christine Johnsson     This paper aims to describe the process of role exit for individuals within dysfunctional families. The study begins with describing the upbringing of the individual within these families. The process of codependency inspired the approach for the study; a process that individuals go through when they leave their dysfunctional families. The theoretical approach is from Helen Rose Fuchs Ebaughs study about the process of exit a role; Becoming an ex- The process of Role exit (1988). This process that Ebaugh (1988) describes is divided into four stages. The individuals’ first step in the process is to define a doubt to the current role, the second one explains how the individual have to weigh new alternatives compared to the present situation. The third stage is about leaving the role and the fourth stage explains that the individual have to come up with an approach to the ex- role. Since this paper is about individual opinions the method that has been used is qualitative. Ten interviews has been made with individuals that grew up in dysfunctional families. The interviews were analyzed from a phenomenological approach. That means trying to understand social phenomena from the individuals’ perspective. The results presented that the informants had made a role change, they had left the dysfunctional settings and entered a new social role. Which can be compared to Ebaughs study (1988) about the process in role exiting.

When an individual decides to end a criminal lifestyle, it becomes crucial to understand how both society and the surrounding view the individual. The labeling that previously existed can still be used against the defector and reduce the opportunities in society that can be offered. This also becomes an obstacle for the individual to make a role exit and delays the change process. However, the surroundings and new interests become a motivation for not making a relapse.The purpose of the research is to study the process of change that young adult men make when they leave the criminality and the adversities they encounter during their lifetime. A qualitative method was applied to study the topic where seven participants were interviewed and shared their life stories. With a phenomenological starting point, the social reality that defectors make when they leave organized crime is accounted for. Furthermore, the research is based on eleven previous researches that have been done in Sweden, South Africa and the USA, which describe important aspects. The theoretical framework consists of Ebaughs role exit theory and Goldberg's labeling theory. The previous research shows a connection and understanding that exists among the responses of defectors, and the theories reinforce what is emphasized in the analysis. There is a central reason why the defectors chose to break off the relationship with the gang, which is described as maturity, among other things. Even prosocial relationships become the reason for the decision of defectors to leave criminality. This will also be crucial for the participants' life chances to be able to reintegrate into society.

Title: ”… Then came the realization that I was just like them. That I have a gambling addiction…” This is a qualitative study of four former gamblers and their experience of getting out of the gambling addiction. The study is about how individuals have overcome a gambling addiction. The purpose of this study is to examine the social processes and factors that are of importance when overcoming a gambling addiction. In addition, the study focuses on how individuals experience the change from gambling addiction to a life free of that addiction. In this thesis, I conducted a qualitative study in the form of semi-structured interviews with four former gamblers. The theoretical approach concentrated on Ebaugh’s (1988) role exit theory and Giddens’ (2005) identity formation theory has been used to illustrate the interviewees' experiences of gambling addiction and their identity as addiction free. The study shows that the gambling addiction has brought economic, social and health-related impacts and some of these aspects still exist today. The exit out of a gambling addiction has been a process with different phases and events where the process for some has been incrementally with relapses during the journey. Based on my results, the changing process appears to consist of parallel turning points where different and more significant events give rise to role exit. The study shows the need of continuous social support in combination with gambling association support efforts and the gamblers’ own insight, motivation and freedom of action. It appears that the interviewed have accepted their role that they had left behind and they take careful consideration to the past and the future and try to make more conscious choices and build their new identity. This is done by actions and re- evaluations of themselves and their world. It is based on their lives, by their own choices. However, these choices seem to be limited by conditions that occur in the interaction with the environment, social norms and social situations.

The New Zealand education system has undergone some two decades of substantial reform. There can be little doubt that this has brought significant change to the nature of what is expected of people occupying positions of leadership in schools and educational institutions (Ball, 2007; Bottery, 2004; Codd, 2005). Against this contextual backdrop, and in the researcher’s experience as a teacher and former holder of a position of leadership, there is an observable phenomenon of educational leaders stepping aside from position and yet continuing to work as teachers within the same workplace. Despite claims of a leadership ‘crisis’, and international acknowledgement of concern over the retention of educational leaders (Brooking, 2007; Brundrett & Rhodes, 2006; Fullan, 2005), the human experience of this phenomenon appears unrepresented in current research literature. The present study has sought to capture this experience through addressing the central research question “What is the lived experience of the voluntary relinquishing of the position of leader, yet choosing to remain within the same educational workplace?” In order to gather rich qualitative data, a descriptive multiple case study design was employed. In-depth unstructured interviews were carried out with eight educational leaders who had relinquished position within the contexts of New Zealand State Secondary Schools and Private Training Establishments, and chosen to continue working in these same contexts. The subsequent analysis drew on the tradition of hermeneutic interpretation (van Manen, 1990) to arrive at interpretations of the uniqueness of individual experiences, and offer understandings of the shared meanings of the experience in the form of essential themes. The key findings which emerged in this study were those of a sense of the ‘a-lone-ness’ of leadership, the ‘ready-suddenness’ of the decision to step aside, a seeking of ‘balance’ in the relinquishing of position, a powerful sense of ‘re-turning’ to the call of teaching, and varying degrees of ‘ease’ and ‘dis-ease’ in the experience of ‘letting go and holding on’ following positional relinquishment. These findings serve to extend aspects of those of earlier leadership and role exit studies, and offer previously undocumented understandings. Thus, a major contribution of this study is in the bringing-to-voice of the stories of those who step aside from leadership position yet remain in the workplace, and in the opening of avenues for further research.

<p>This study used a qualitative interview design to explore the experiences of seven Swedish female elite athletes and their career retirement. The athletes were engaged in three different sports; track and field (athletics), handball and golf and five of them are former professional or semi-professional athletes. The process of their athletic role exit was based on the theoretical findings of Ebaugh (1988) and her four phases: First Doubts, Seeking Alternatives, The Turning Point and Creating the Ex-Role. The findings reveal that for these female former elite athletes Seeking Alternatives already starts before the First Doubts and that possibly the athletes at an early stage have insights of the discontinuity of their athletic career. The importance of transferring their role residual to future paths in life was stressed among the female athletes in order to be able to have a smooth transition process. Furthermore, gender issues were discussed indicating the emergence of family life and lesser financial support than male athletes to be factors of importance for positive adaptation to the role exit as well as the awareness of Seeking Alternatives. In general, the results suggests that the athletes did not experience as severe difficulties in the role exit process as much earlier research indicates.  </p>

Vad motiverar en kriminellt belastad person att bryta sin brottsliga bana och söka psykoterapi som en del av den processen? Syftet med föreliggande uppsats är att öka förståelsen för psykoterapins plats i en identitetsförändringsprocess. Frågeställningarna som studien vill undersöka är: tidigare kriminellas motiv till att söka psykoterapi, deras förväntningar på vad psykoterapin ska hjälpa dem med, samt skäl för att ta avstånd ifrån eller återgå till ett kriminellt liv. Studien är en kvalitativ, explorativ undersökning som utgår ifrån intervjuer med fyra personer som själva har sökt psykoterapi efter avtjänade fängelsestraff. Resultatet visar att motiven för att lämna kriminaliteten var primärt de anhöriga, en vilja att inte förlora mer relationer, tid, arbete och boende, en rädsla för att dö samt en ökad personlig mognad. De har valt att gå i psykoterapi för att få hjälp att stoppa sitt kriminella beteende genom kontroll och prevention. Vidare att få bearbeta sina tidigare upplevelser och känslor samt få hjälp med återanpassningen till samhället; bli rehabiliterade. Psykoterapin påverkade och stärkte identitetsförändringsprocessen. Motiven för att tidigare välja kriminalitet var ett behov av att slippa ångest, maktlöshet, frustration, utsatthet och stämpling. Ytterligare skäl var få känna kicken, välbehaget och gemenskapen. Slutsatserna är att för att en förändring ska vara möjlig behöver den kriminella identiteten vara uppluckrad varför behandling under anstaltstiden sällan blir verksam. Det kriminella, mot förändringen konkurrerande, normsystemet behöver vara tillräckligt försvagat. Psykoterapin och psykoterapeutens plats i en identitetsförändringsprocess blir att vara ett stöd i den mest sköra fasen, i det vakum som uppstår när sociala band i övrigt är svaga och den nya identiteten ännu inte är tillräckligt stadigt förankrad. Den känslomässiga kopplingen till de behov och känslor som kämpar emot varandra i förändringsprocessen behöver benämnas och bearbetas.

This study used a qualitative interview design to explore the experiences of seven Swedish female elite athletes and their career retirement. The athletes were engaged in three different sports; track and field (athletics), handball and golf and five of them are former professional or semi-professional athletes. The process of their athletic role exit was based on the theoretical findings of Ebaugh (1988) and her four phases: First Doubts, Seeking Alternatives, The Turning Point and Creating the Ex-Role. The findings reveal that for these female former elite athletes Seeking Alternatives already starts before the First Doubts and that possibly the athletes at an early stage have insights of the discontinuity of their athletic career. The importance of transferring their role residual to future paths in life was stressed among the female athletes in order to be able to have a smooth transition process. Furthermore, gender issues were discussed indicating the emergence of family life and lesser financial support than male athletes to be factors of importance for positive adaptation to the role exit as well as the awareness of Seeking Alternatives. In general, the results suggests that the athletes did not experience as severe difficulties in the role exit process as much earlier research indicates.

The New Zealand education system has undergone some two decades of substantial reform. There can be little doubt that this has brought significant change to the nature of what is expected of people occupying positions of leadership in schools and educational institutions (Ball, 2007; Bottery, 2004; Codd, 2005). Against this contextual backdrop, and in the researcher’s experience as a teacher and former holder of a position of leadership, there is an observable phenomenon of educational leaders stepping aside from position and yet continuing to work as teachers within the same workplace. Despite claims of a leadership ‘crisis’, and international acknowledgement of concern over the retention of educational leaders (Brooking, 2007; Brundrett & Rhodes, 2006; Fullan, 2005), the human experience of this phenomenon appears unrepresented in current research literature. The present study has sought to capture this experience through addressing the central research question “What is the lived experience of the voluntary relinquishing of the position of leader, yet choosing to remain within the same educational workplace?” In order to gather rich qualitative data, a descriptive multiple case study design was employed. In-depth unstructured interviews were carried out with eight educational leaders who had relinquished position within the contexts of New Zealand State Secondary Schools and Private Training Establishments, and chosen to continue working in these same contexts. The subsequent analysis drew on the tradition of hermeneutic interpretation (van Manen, 1990) to arrive at interpretations of the uniqueness of individual experiences, and offer understandings of the shared meanings of the experience in the form of essential themes. The key findings which emerged in this study were those of a sense of the ‘a-lone-ness’ of leadership, the ‘ready-suddenness’ of the decision to step aside, a seeking of ‘balance’ in the relinquishing of position, a powerful sense of ‘re-turning’ to the call of teaching, and varying degrees of ‘ease’ and ‘dis-ease’ in the experience of ‘letting go and holding on’ following positional relinquishment. These findings serve to extend aspects of those of earlier leadership and role exit studies, and offer previously undocumented understandings. Thus, a major contribution of this study is in the bringing-to-voice of the stories of those who step aside from leadership position yet remain in the workplace, and in the opening of avenues for further research.