This chapter focuses on photonic analog of the spin-orbit coupling of electrons occurring inside a graded index medium. Section 9.1 describes two physical mechanisms that can produce changes in the state of polarization of an optical beam. The vectorial form of the wave equation is solved in Section 9.2 to introduce a path-dependent geometrical phase. The photonic analog of the spin-orbit coupling and its implications are also discussed in this section. Section 9.3 considers how the scalar LPlm modes change when the coupling term is taken into account. We treat this term first as a perturbation and then obtain the exact vector modes of a GRIN medium. A quantum approach is used in Section 9.4 to discuss various polarization-dependent effects.