The Pioneer Developmentalists

Abstract

The first person to lay a foundation for the field of adult development was not a psychiatrist or psychoanalyst but an anthropologist. In 1908, Arnold Van Gennep originally published his monograph The Rites of Passage (Van Gennep, I960), one of the first works to describe the importance and meaning of life events and rituals throughout the life span, making for his time a unique contribution to the social sciences. Examining the activities associated with such ceremonies in terms of their order and content, Van Gennep distinguished three major phases constituting the scheme of all rites of passage: separation from the group or society; transition, an intermediate learning stage; and incorporation, merger or return to the group in a new status or role. He commented upon the disturbances that changes in adult status produce in individuals, and saw rites of passage as social devices facilitating the reintegration of the individual with the group. Rites of passage help individuals with the critical tasks of becoming sexual beings, with changes in family or work relations, and with aging and death. With each life crisis these unique social rituals help an individual achieve his or her maximum potential and obtain group support in the adjustment.