Friday, October 29, 2010

Schlossberg's Theory of Transition Written by Bobbi Davis

Explaining theory in my own words:
Dr. Nancy Schlossberg’s Theory of Transition is a psychosocial model of development that examines life events which affect various aspects of an individual’s life and their societal roles.  The person’s perception of the transition is as important to understanding how a person is affected by his/her changing life events as much as the type, context and impact of the transition itself.  Types of transitions include anticipated, unanticipated, event, non-event and chronic or “hassles”.  Anticipated transitions are those that are seen as occurring predictably in one’s lifetime, whereas unanticipated are just the opposite where the individual did not expect them to occur.  Those transitions that a person counted on to happen and did occur are called events.  A non-event is defined as a transition a person counted on to occur, but did not happen as hoped.  Chronic transitions are changes in one’s roles and routines that occur due to an anticipated, unanticipated, event or non-event transition.  Context of transition refers to the relationship the person has with the transition (i.e., personal, interpersonal, or community) and the setting where the transition occurs.  Impact would be assessed by understanding how much a person’s daily life has be altered.  Schlossberg outlined the transition process with the terms of “moving in”, “moving through” and “moving out”.  Methods for coping with transition, whether positive or negative, come from assessing a person’s assets and liabilities in the four areas which Schlossberg termed as the 4 S’s – situation, self, support and strategies. 
Example of how used in higher education:
The main use of Schlossberg’s transition theory is with adult learners and their return to higher education.  Compared to traditional students, non-tradition students are generally at many different points in their life due to the various types of transitions they have undergone.  Programming developed on the 4 S’s can help adult learners to recognize and draw upon their assets in coping with the perception of moving into the challenge of returning to school instead of only seeing what their limitation might be.  However, the entire transition process of moving in, moving through and moving on can be used as a guide in student affairs to facilitate all stages of college student development, not just adult learners, in how they interpret their college experiences and use that knowledge to further develop.
A.B.:
Rayle, A. (2007). Revisiting first-year college students’ mattering: Social support, academic stress, and the mattering experience. Journal of College Student Retention, 9(1), 21-37.
Using Schlossberg’s transition theory as a framework, Rayle investigated if any relationships existed between mattering to family and college friends and the degree to which students felt they mattered to the college community and level of academic stress for first-year college students.  Rayle administered three assessment measurements to 533 students enrolled in freshman level courses in the College of Education.  The researcher found that across the sample, social support from family and college friends significantly impacted mattering to the college community, as well as strongly predicated the level of academic stress students’ experienced.
References
Evans, N. J., Forney, D. S., Guido, F., Patton, L.D., & Renn, K.A. (2010). Student development in college: Theory, research, and practice. 2nd Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Schlossberg, N.K. (1984). Counseling adults in transition: Linking Practice with Theory.  New York, New York: Springer Publishing Company, Inc.
Schlossberg, N.K. (1989). Overwhelmed: Coping with life’s ups and downs. Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington Books.

12 comments:

  1. I enjoyed studying Schlossberg's Theory of Transition. The idea that a person's PERCEPTION of an event stood out to me. I think as this is an important distinction we need to recognize in a student. A student can receive an F on an assigment and to that student, it is the end of the world and his dreams are shattered. (i.e. now I won't get into medical school). As student affairs professionals WE know that it is not the end of the road for this student, but what matters is that the student might PERCEIVE the F as the end of all dreams with no other options available. When counseling these students, we need to be aware of how they perceive the situation so that we can help the student more effectively.

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  2. I think another important thing to note really is the idea that often these events are either unexpected for a student or expected and then not realized. These occurrences of the unexpected are often what propel student growth or send it backwards. It is important that we work with them to understand that sometimes the unexpected is an opportunity for them even if it may not feel that way at the time.

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  3. I understand that Schlossberg's Theory of Transition is a lot about perceptions. I wonder what happens to a student's transition when other people's perceptions becomes overpowering, what does this transition look like? I wonder if culture can be a factor in the transition process. In some strict Asian cultures, the student's opinions over their parents might not even matter. I can see it as an added pressure for a student and it will take a long time until they get to the "moving on" process.

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  4. How do we help students to have healhty perceptions about things? If students come to us with negative perception about something, we need to reframe and provide new perspective but again we have to make sure the student is practicing self-authorship.

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  5. In regards to the comment about other people's perceptions overpowering an individuals perception of a transition, I have an example. When I studied abroad in Italy, I lived with 9 other girls (and we thought this class had little diversity!), and they were pretty much all friends before coming there, and I decided to go alone. At first, we all got along, but shortly, I felt left out of their circle, and I started to feel shy and unaccepted, which is not how I usually view myself. So not only was I in a strange country with a language I didn't really know, but I also didn't feel like myself. I feel that largely because of the way I thought that they perceived me. I never really moved past the transition phase, except for when I came back home. I just was moving through it, but never really past it to feel comfortable there.

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  6. "If everyone wrote down a difficult situation and placed it in the middle of the room, each of us would be able to pick up a situation and think of steps to solve it."- A similar comment was made in class which really made me think of an organization I'm involved with that gives out a scholarship for students that have faced/overcome adversity. If a student's "adversity" were ever brought up, it would sometimes seem like an unfathomable obstacle to overcome and I know that myself and others would think "I don't know what I would have done in that situation" without taking into account all that each of us had overcome. Context and perception as it relates to transition theory are so very important for the individual, as students may even surprise themselves with what they are able to move through and out of without immediately acknowledging the gravity of what they've accomplished.

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  7. Helping students to self-author as they move through challenges is a delicate balancing act. As helpers, we need to first listen and empathize. I also agree that helping students acknowledge what they have accomplished when going through something difficult can facilitate the process.

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  8. Going along with Tom's comment and responding to Carol's comment, I believe wholeheartedly that we will run into students with both positive and negative perceptions. Now, how do we deal with the ones who come in with negative perceptions, well, as student affairs practitioners, we must first listen to what the student is saying then based on that, we can share insights from our own experiences or from the student development theories. I think for me personally it is important that the student even has the idea and chance to share and speak up. This is power for the student and then we can help facilitate what ever their perceptions are and help them recognized the developmental process they've gone through.

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  9. This theory hit very close to home for me. Going through a very large transition recently I saw myself all over the place within this. And thinking about the first year students that I work with, or even the first year RAs on my staff for that matter, it can often be difficult for them to come to terms with what transitioning requires. I think that it would be a great benefit to talk through Schlossberg's theory with students who are really struggling with transition. With this being said I think that it would be a great means to enable that student to see themselves within their transition and to help them to realize ways to work through them. It wasn't until someone reminded me that I was transitioning and to cut myself some slack before I woke up and realized that things might not be as easy as they would be otherwise... it was the same when we were all freshmen.

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  10. What I find most interesting about this theory is it's reliance on self-reflection and acknowledgment. The theory mentions that the transition (whether unanticipated, anticipated, etc) only exists if the individual acknowledges its existence - if it alters their day to day routine. It definitely cause me some self-reflection on significant "transitions" in my life and how many times - I hadn't recognize them as key transitions until I had "moved out" of them. At the same time - I look forward and anticipate transitions such as graduating with my MPA and seeking different employment. I don't know how these transitions will particularly "play out" but I do know they are transitions and while going through it - I will know that's what they are. However, I don't believe I'll recognize the full extent or effect of these transitions until I've "moved out" of them.

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  11. A population that I believe would be great to understand and conduct more research on would be veterans attending higher education. Think about it - studying the transitions between return from active duty, to civilian life and the transitions and experiences in higher education. There are some many directions that a research could look at to understand veterans in higher ed such as which 4's work the best to help veterans adjust; how demanding are the Chronic transitions; how do we encourage a sense of belonging and matter to the campus.

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  12. I actually read a study that applied Schlossberg to veterans in higher education. It was called "From combat to campus: Voices of student-veterans", if anyone is interested. This study explained the themes of transition for student-veterans as moving in, in relation to deciding to join, moving through service, moving out by returning home, and moving in again as they transition to college. I was able to identify some issues or needed services, which student affairs practitioners need to be aware of. During this moving in process veterans will be working to connect with peers, blend in, and work with faculty. In addition, they will be needing to utilize the campus veteran’s office, finances, students with disabilities, and metal health or PTSD programs on campus.

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