Role Acquisition as a Social Process

A model of the role acquisition process is proposed based on data from 310 first‐person written narratives of a single role entrance. Content analysis of data set II ( N = 110) of narratives, which included forty‐seven different roles, provides support for the model. The model conceptualizes role acquisition as involving a sequence of four stages, characterized as (1) ambivalence, (2) absorption, (3) commitment, and (4) confidence, in which each stage involves a qualitatively different interaction between the person and the role: a different affective orientation on the part of the person toward the role, and a qualitatively different relationship between the person and role partners. Common features and heterogeneous effects of role type, social context, cognitive processes, and other factors at each stage are discussed.