Role Shock: A Tool for Conceptualizing Stresses Accompanying Disruptive Role Transitions

This paper attempts to develop the concept of role shock by describing its theoreticalproperties and exploring its relationship to relevant existing concepts in the social sciences. Role shock is defined as the stresses accompanying either major discrepancies between anticipated and encountered roles or the sudden and significant departure from familiar roles which are "'played differently" in the new setting or replaced altogether by new and unfamiliar roles. Its sources and manifest forms are described, with particular attention paid to the distinctions between role shock and the related concepts of culture shock, identity crisis, and such sociological constructs as role loss and role discontinuity. The usefulness of this concept is discussed in terms of its value in clarifying, and thus helping us deal more effectively with, a particularform of maladaptive role-related stress. Role shock thus is seen to underscore the value of such ameliorative modes as the "mutual help groups" of recent origin, which help cushion individuals against the stresses accompanying critical role transitions.