Social statuses and roles are important elements of the personality structure. The concepts of "social status" and "social role" have steadily entered the vocabulary of terms in the social and human sciences. In scientific circulation in the 1930s. they were introduced by the American social anthropologist and sociologist Ralph Linton (1893-1953).
Social status. The word "status" is borrowed by sociology (social sciences) from the language of Roman jurisprudence. In ancient Rome status meant the legal status of a person. Thus, social status is understood as the position (position) of an individual in a society or a group, associated with his rights and obligations. Highlighting a status position allows:
- a) see a placethat a person occupies in society, a group, including through the prism of generally recognized indicators social achievement chances of success;
- b) show the surrounding social status environment;
- c) understand volume of social benefits (resources) and rights and obligationsthat he possesses.
It is customary to distinguish social statuses in a certain way.
Socio-demographic statuses (also called sociobiological or natural) may be related:
- 1) with the age of a person ( age statuses) - a child, teenager, youth, person of mature, old age;
- 2) kinship (related family statuses) - father, mother, son, daughter, etc .;
- 3) human sex ( sexual statuses) - man Woman;
- 4) race ( racial status). This social category arose in the 19th century, when biologists and anthropologists tried to classify the diversity of physical types of a person into three groups - Caucasians, Negroids, Mongoloids;
- 5) health ( health status) - for example, a disabled person, a person with disabilities.
Social statuses proper- their formation and existence is possible only in society; they are the product of a system of social ties that have developed in society. These include statuses:
- ? economic (owner, tenant, rentier, landowner, employee, etc.);
- ?political (reflect this or that attitude of people's social positions to power);
- ? legal (belonging to the status is often associated with the corresponding legal scope of the rights and obligations of persons);
- ?professional (these include all professions and specialties within them);
- ? sociocultural (consist of four basic areas: science, education, art, religion);
- ?territorial (for example, a city dweller, a peasant; a Siberian, a resident of the Far East, etc.).
Social statuses are also subdivided into formal and informal.
Formal status -
it is a social position, which is fixed and spelled out in one or another official document. For example, the general director of a joint-stock company, the tone manager of a trading company, the rector of a higher educational institution, the director of the lyceum.
Informal (informal) statusis not reflected in official documents. Usually, informal status positions are formed in the process of interpersonal relations in small groups, between friends, acquaintances, colleagues, relatives. For example, we say about a person that he is "responsible" or "irresponsible", "hardworking" or "slacker", "upstart" or "deservedly occupies a high management position", "soul of the company" or "on his own mind", etc. etc.
Allocate prescribed (ascriptive), achievableand mixed social statuses.
> Prescribed call the statuses that the individual received and possesses them without making any efforts to acquire them. For example, the status of social origin, inherited aristocratic titles, socio-demographic statuses.
> Achievable are called status positions that an individual acquired through my own efforts.Thus, educational and professional-job status are examples of achieved status positions. Modern open societies are focused on ensuring that the achieved statuses ( self-made-man - a man who made himself), and not prescribed, as in traditional and closed societies.
> Mixed call the statuses that at the same time have signs of prescribed and attainable status. For example, children decided to follow in the footsteps of the older generation and chose the same profession as their parents, under the influence of their example, overt or tacit influence, explicit or implicit consent, assistance. This is not uncommon in the families of lawyers, doctors, actors, musicians, financiers, and successful businessmen. Positions desired by a person, but received by him through patronage, thanks to various social ties, can also be classified as mixed status.
In the aggregate of statuses, it is customary to distinguish the main status, i.e. the status most characteristic of a given individual; that social position by which others distinguish him and he first of all identifies himself. In modern society, the main status often coincides with the professional and official status of a person (financial analyst, chief researcher, lawyer, unemployed, housewife).
Distinguish private and social statuses.
Social statusis the position (position) of a person in society, largely due to the fact that the representative of which social group he is.
Personal statusis the position (position) of a person in the primary group, depending on how he (his quality) is evaluated by other members of the group.
Social status is predominant in the system of impersonal formal relations, in large organizations, among strangers. Personal status prevails among people familiar to a person. Personal statuses are informal; their influence and effectiveness are determined by the fact that it is important for most people to maintain and increase their personal status in the group. People are highly sensitive to the expectations and demands of those they know and respect personally, and sometimes risk the outrage of officials to maintain their trust.
The distinction between personal and social status is consistent with the distinction that the Chinese make between the two ways to save face. Social status refers to the position of a person in society: the respect he enjoys is based on which social category he belongs to and how this category is assessed in the system of social assessment and prestige. A person retains his social status if he lives in accordance with the norms of this social category. When the Chinese talk about conservation “ mian ", they mean the preservation of the reputation that has been entrenched for a person due to his position in society. Thus, a successful businessman is expected to provide his daughter with an excellent dowry, even if for this he has to go into debt.
The Chinese also talk about preserving "l yang ". A person cannot live without "Lian", it depends on how he will be evaluated as a human being, the loss of "Lian" will lead to the fact that he will be isolated. A person is unlikely to be forgiven if he is convicted of dishonesty, meanness, betrayal, if he reveals an unforgivable paucity of mind, inability to keep his word. The preservation of "lian" is not associated with social status, its approval depends personally on the person himself.
In the middle of the 20th century, Robert Merton introduced the term into scientific vocabulary "Status dialing" (the term is used as a synonym for this concept "Status portrait"person). Under status dialingthe set of all statuses belonging to one individual is understood.
For example, lord N is a middle-aged man, teacher, doctor of sciences, scientific secretary of the dissertation council, head of a department, a member of a trade union, a member of one of the parties, a Christian, a voter, husband, father, uncle, etc. This is the status set, or portrait, of a person N.
From point of view rank value highlight social statuses high, middle, low rank. The rank value, for example, distinguishes the status positions of a top manager, middle or lower level manager.
When analyzing social statuses, one must remember about status incompatibility. There are two forms of status incompatibility:
- 1) when a person takes a high position in one group and a low one in another;
- 2) when the rights and obligations of one status contradict, exclude or interfere with the implementation of the rights and obligations of another status.
An example of the first form of status incompatibility is the situation when the CEO of a large company in his family is not the head of the family, this role is performed by his spouse. Examples of the second form of status incompatibility include the fact that an official has no right to engage in commercial activities, a police officer cannot be a member of a mafia group. Criminals who are servants of the law are considered "werewolves in uniform."
Status incompatibility
is called a position in which the same person in different group hierarchies occupies different ranks - high, medium, low.
In contrast to this status compatibilityis called a position in which one and the same person in different group hierarchies occupies approximately the same ranks - all high, all medium or all low.
Social role. If the key to understanding social status is the word "position", then when we talk about a social role, then the initial word is "behavior". Social statuses describe position, position of people in the social world, and social roles reveal behavior of people in the world of social statuses. we occupy status but play (play) the role, so the role is dynamic aspect social status.
A social role is a kind of model, template, format of behavior of an individual holding a particular status. By its origin, the word "role" is associated with the Latin word persona (person, person), which in ancient times meant actor's mask, depicting the character of the character (or role): villain, jester, hero, titan, etc. In a sense, a role is a mask that a person puts on when entering people, society.
American Sociologist II. Berger writes: "... a person plays dramatic roles in a grandiose play of society, and, speaking in sociological terms, he is the masks that he must wear in performing his roles."
A role is the expected behavior of an individual holding a certain status (R. Linton). All aspects of determining the social role are interconnected. So, the role is the behavior of the individual, but not all, but expected, i.e. such behavior, which corresponds to the ideas prevailing in groups and society regarding the normality, adequacy, correctness, and dignity of a person's actions in connection with his status position. In this way, role-playing is human behavior, considered in the coordinate system of expectations and status positions. In other words, only the behavior that meets the expectations of those who are functionally associated with a given status is called a role; other behavior is not a role.
Talcott Parsons noted that each role can be described using five main characteristics - in terms of: 1) its emotionality; 2) the method of obtaining; 3) scale; 4) formalization; 5) motivation.
Taking these characteristics into account, let us compare two roles: the role of the policeman and the role of the mother.
- 1. The role of the police officer is much less emotional than that of the mother. In general, emotional restraint is expected from a police officer, while the role of a mother can be associated with a very vivid expression of feelings.
- 2. According to the method of obtaining, the role of the police officer is related to the achieved status. The role of the mother includes the prescribed (since women are mothers) and achievable (not all women become mothers) aspects.
- 3. The role of the police officer is formal; he can only do what is prescribed by law, instructions, determined by orders. The role of the mother is largely informal, although, of course, it is formal in terms of the provisions enshrined in regulatory legal acts and documents.
- 4. The role of the mother is larger than the role of the policeman, since the role of the policeman is limited only by the sphere of performance of his professional and official duties, while a much wider range of relations is formed between the mother and the child.
- 5. In terms of motivation, the role of the police officer is primarily focused on the implementation of public interests in legality and safety. But this role also includes personal motivation. It is associated with public recognition of the police service, worthy reward for the work of police officers, and their career interests. However, the determining factor in the role of a policeman is service to the legitimate interests of citizens, the law, i.e. in the first place, the role of the police officer is socially motivated. The role of the mother includes motivation for personal and public interests. The primary here is the personal motivation of a woman to have children, which may coincide with the interest of society in reproducing the population.
In addition to the concept of "status set", Robert Merton introduced the term "Role-playing set". Under role-playing seta set of roles (role complex) associated with one status is understood. Typically, each status includes several roles. For example, the status of a university professor is associated with the roles of a teacher, researcher, head of graduate students, mentor of youth, scientific consultant, expert, author of scientific papers, etc. Thus, together with the concept of "status recruitment" the concept of "role recruitment" is used, which describes all the diversity behavior patterns - roles assigned to one status (Fig. 10.1).
Is the role a part of a person's “I”, of his personality structure, or is it just a shell, a mask, a label external to the inner “I”? To what extent "I" identifies(identifies) himself with the role?
The role can be both a part of "I", and only an external mask. If one of the parents plays the role of Santa Claus on a Christmas tree in kindergarten, then this role is nothing more than a mask that may not be at all connected with the “I” of this person. For a professional actor, playing the role of Santa Claus is something else. For him this
Figure: 10.1.
the role, of course, is a mask, but a mask associated with his profession; here the performance of the role is already to a certain extent included in the “I” of a person.
An even greater identification of a person's inner “I” with a role is possible. The actor plays different roles: today the role of Prince Hamlet, tomorrow King Lear, then the inhabitant of the social bottom of Satin. But in reality the actor is neither Hamlet, nor Lear, nor Satin, none of these and other dramatic characters. But for a doctor, lawyer, musician, their professional activity is not a theatrical performance; what they serve are the roles of their entire life. So, a doctor calls himself, considers and identifies himself with a doctor, and not with a masquerade role-playing character in a white coat. At the doctor doctor's roledeeply rooted in his "I".
Roles can unexpectedly have a second bottom, when they seem to begin to live their own separate life from people. There are two main dangers here. The first is that you cannot live in society and avoid playing roles. Roles are, among other things, a form of social selection, the establishment of social filters, and control. If a person is unwilling or unable to master role behavior, then he is in danger of non-recognition, rejection, social isolation. Second danger: people tend to think that the roles they play are under their complete control; they believe that they can always enter or leave any role they want at will. However, one can play too much and one day discover that roles command people, not people command roles; that the roles put people under control and reduced their inner selves to ashes.
- See: T. Shibutani Social psychology. Rostov n / D, 1998, p. 351-356.
- See: Belsky V. Yu., Kravchenko A. I., Kurganov S. I. Sociology for lawyers. M., 2009.S. 154.
- Berger P. L. Invitation to sociology: a humanistic perspective. S. 99-100.
Thanks to socialization, the individual joins social life, receives and changes his social status and social role. Social status -it is the position of an individual in a society with certain rights and responsibilities. The status of a person can be: profession, position, gender, age, marital status, nationality, religiosity, financial situation, political influence, etc. R. Merton called the totality of all social statuses of a person a “status set”.The status that has a dominant influence on the lifestyle of the individual, his social identity, is called the main status. In small, primary social groups, personal status of a person, formed under the influence of his individual qualities (Appendix, diagram 6).
Social statuses are also subdivided into prescribed (ascriptive), i.e. obtained independently of the subject, most often from birth (race, gender, nationality, social origin) and achieved, i.e. acquired by the individual's own efforts.
There is a certain a hierarchy of statuses, a place in which is called a status rank. High, medium and low status ranks are distinguished. Mismatch of statuses, those. contradictions in the intergroup and intragroup hierarchy arise under two circumstances:
§ when an individual occupies a high status rank in one group and a low one in another;
§ when the rights and obligations of one status conflict or interfere with the implementation of the rights and obligations of another.
The concept of "social status" is closely related to the concept of "social role", which is its function, the dynamic side. A social role is the expected behavior of an individual who has a certain status in a given society. According to R. Merton's definition, the set of roles corresponding to a given status is called a role-playing system ("role-playing set"). The social role is divided into role expectations - what, according to the rules of the game, is expected from a particular role, and role behavior - what a person performs within the framework of his role.
Any social role, according to T. Parsons, can be described using five main characteristics:
§ the level of emotionality - some roles are emotionally restrained, others are relaxed;
§ method of obtaining - prescribed or achieved;
§ the scale of manifestation - strictly limited or blurred;
§ the degree of formalization - strictly established or arbitrary;
Motivation - for general profit or for personal benefit.
Since each person has a wide range of statuses, it means that he also has a lot of roles corresponding to this or that status. Therefore, in real life, there are often role conflicts. In its most general form, two types of such conflicts can be distinguished: between roles or within one role, when it includes incompatible, conflicting responsibilities of the individual. Social experience shows that only a few roles are free from internal tensions and conflicts, which can lead to refusal to fulfill role obligations, to psychological stress. There are several types of defense mechanisms by which role tension can be reduced. These include:
§ "rationalization of roles", when a person unconsciously seeks the negative aspects of the desired, but unattainable role with the aim of his own reassurance;
§ "separation of roles" - implies a temporary withdrawal from life, exclusion of unwanted roles from the individual's consciousness;
Regulation of Roles ”- is a conscious, deliberate release from responsibility for the performance of a particular role.
Thus, in modern society, each individual uses the mechanisms of unconscious protection and conscious involvement of social structures in order to avoid the negative consequences of role conflicts.
Social status
A person somehow behaves (performs an action), being in social connectioninteracting with different social groups: family, street, educational, labor, army, etc. To characterize the degree of inclusion of an individual in various social ties and groups, as well as the position he occupies in them, his functional responsibilities in these groups are used the concept of social status.
Social status - these are the duties and rights of a person in the system of social ties, groups, systems. It includes duties (roles-functions) that a person must perform in a given social community (study group), communication (educational process), system (university). Rights are those duties that other people, social connection, social system must fulfill in relation to a person. For example, the rights of a student in a university (and at the same time the obligations of the university administration towards him) are: the presence of highly qualified teachers, educational literature, warm and bright classrooms, etc. attend classes, study educational literature, take exams, etc.
In different groups, one and the same individual has a different social status. For example, a talented chess player in a chess club has a high status, while in the army he may have a low status. This is a potential cause of frustration and interpersonal conflict. The characteristics of social status are prestige and authority, representing the recognition of the individual's merits by others.
Prescribed (natural) are the statuses and roles imposed by society on the individual, regardless of his efforts and merit. Such statuses are determined by the ethnic, family, territorial, etc. origin of the individual: gender, nationality, age, place of residence, etc. Prescribed statuses have a tremendous impact on the social status and lifestyle of people.
Acquired (achieved) are the status and role achieved by the efforts of the person himself. These are the statuses of a professor, writer, cosmonaut, etc. Among the acquired statuses, one can distinguish the professional-official, which fixes the professional, economic, cultural, etc. position of the individual. Most often, one leading social status determines the position of a person in society, this status is called integral. Quite often, it is due to the position, wealth, education, sports success, etc.
A person is characterized by a set of statuses and roles. For example: man, married, professor, etc. statuses form status dial of a given individual. Such a set depends both on natural statuses and roles, and on acquired ones. Among the many statuses of a person at every stage of his life, the main one can be distinguished: for example, the status of a schoolchild, student, officer, husband, etc. In an adult, status is usually associated with a profession.
In a class society, the set of status is of a class nature, depending on the social class of a given person. Compare, for example, the status set of "new" Russian bourgeois and workers. These statuses (and roles) for representatives of each social class form a hierarchy according to the degree of value. There is an interstate and inter-role distance between statuses and roles. It is also characteristic of statuses and roles in terms of their social significance.
In the process of life, there is a change in the status set and the roles of a person. It occurs as a result of both the development of the needs and interests of the individual, and the challenges of the social environment. In the first case, the person is active, and in the second, he is reactive, showing a reflex reaction to the influence of the environment. For example, a young man chooses which university to enroll in, and once he is in the army, he is forced to adapt to it, counting the days until demobilization. The ability to increase and complicate the status and role set is inherent in man.
Some philosophers see the meaning of individual life in the self-realization of their abilities and needs, raising the status and role set. (This is the basis, in particular, of the above Maslow system of needs.) What is the reason for this phenomenon? It is due to the fact that, on the one hand, self-realization is laid in the “foundation” of a person - in his freedom, ambitions, and competitiveness. On the other hand, external circumstances often raise or lower people in a status set. As a result, people who are able to mobilize their abilities and will progress through life from one status level to another, crossing from one social stratum to another, higher one. For example, a schoolboy - student - young specialist - businessman - company president - retired. The last stage of the status recruitment associated with old age usually puts an end to the process. preservation of the status set.
Human adaptation to his age and changing social status is an important and complex issue. Our society is characterized by weak socialization towards old age (and retirement). Many find themselves unprepared for old age, defeat in the fight against age and disease. As a result, retirement, leaving the labor collective for a family that was considered a secondary social group, was usually accompanied by severe stress, role conflicts, illness and premature death.
Social role
The social behavior of an individual, community, institution, organization depends not only on their social status (rights and obligations), but also on the surrounding social environment, consisting of the same social subjects. They expect certain social behavior in accordance with their needs and "orientations towards others." In this case, social behavior takes on the character of a social role.
A social role is behavior that (1) arises from a person's social status and (2) is expected by others. As expected behavior, the social role includes the totality social normsthat determine the expected sequence of actions of the subject, adequate to his social status. For example, a talented chess player is expected to play a professional game, the president is expected to be able to formulate the country's interests and realize them, etc. Therefore, a social role can be defined as behavior that corresponds to social norms adopted in a given society.
How does the subject's social environment force him to follow certain norms leading to the behavior expected by this environment? First of all, socialization, the upbringing of such norms is of great importance. Further, society has a mechanism sanctions - punishments for non-fulfillment of the role and rewards for its fulfillment, that is, for compliance with social norms. This mechanism operates throughout a person's life.
Social status and role are closely interrelated, it is no coincidence that they are often not differentiated in European sociology. "Status" in this sense of the word is equivalent to role, although it is the latter term that has a wider circulation, ”write the English sociologists. The behavioral side of social status, expressed in the role, allows us to distinguish between them: social status can include several roles. For example, the status of a mother includes the roles of a wet nurse, doctor, caregiver, etc. The concept of role also allows us to highlight the mechanism for coordinating the behavior of different subjects in social communities, institutions, organizations.
Strict execution of social roles makes people's behavior predictable, orders social life, and limits its chaos. Role learning - socialization - begins in early childhood with the influence of parents and loved ones. At first, it is unconscious for the child. He is shown what and how to do, and encouraged for the correct performance of the role. For example, little girls play with dolls, help mothers with housework; boys, on the other hand, play cars, help their fathers with repairs, etc. The education of girls and boys forms their different interests, abilities, roles.
The expected behavior is ideal because it comes from a theoretical situation. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish from the social role real role behavior, t. s. playing a role in specific conditions. For example, a talented chess player can play badly for certain reasons, that is, not cope with his role. Role behavior as a rule differs from the social role (expected behavior) in many ways: abilities, understanding, conditions for the implementation of the role, etc.
Role-playing is determined primarily role requirementsthat are embodied in social normsgrouped around a given social status, as well as sanctions for performing the role. The situation in which he finds himself has a significant influence on the role of a person - first of all, other people. The subject models role expectations - orientation, primarily in relation to other people with whom he is associated in a situation. These people act as an additional member of mutual role orientations. In these role expectations, a person can be guided by himself (his worldview, character, abilities, etc.). Parsons calls this expectation-orientation attributive (ascriptive). But role expectations-orientations can refer to the performance of the other. This role-playing expectation Parsons calls achievable. Attribute-achievement orientation is an important aspect of status-role behavior.
In the process of socialization, a person learns to perform different roles: a child, student, student, comrade, parent, engineer, soldier, pensioner, etc. Role-based learning includes: 1) knowledge of their duties and rights in this area of \u200b\u200bsocial activity; 2) the acquisition of psychological qualities (character, mentality, beliefs) corresponding to the given role; 3) the practical implementation of role-playing actions. Learning the most important roles begins in childhood with the formation of attitudes (good or bad), focusing on a certain sequence of actions and operations. Children play different roles, imitate everyday behavior of others. They are aware of their rights and obligations: children and parents, comrades and enemies, etc. Gradually comes the consciousness of the reasons and results of their actions.
Living in a society, one cannot be free from it. Throughout life, a person comes into contact with a large number of other individuals and groups to which they belong. Moreover, in each of them, he occupies his own definite place. To analyze the position of a person in each group and society as a whole, they use such concepts as social status and Let us consider in more detail what it is.
The meaning of the term and general characteristics
The word "status" itself dates back to ancient Rome. Then it bore more of a legal connotation, rather than sociological, and denoted the legal status of any organization.
Now social status is the position of a person in a particular group and society as a whole, giving him certain rights, privileges, and responsibilities in relation to other members.
It helps people to interact better with each other. If a person of a certain social status does not fulfill his duties, then he will be responsible for this. So, an entrepreneur who sews clothes to order, if the deadline is missed, will pay a penalty. In addition, his reputation will be damaged.
Examples of the social status of one person are schoolchildren, son, grandson, brother, sports club member, citizen, and so on.
This is a kind of his professional qualities, material and age, education and other criteria.
A person can simultaneously enter several groups at once and, accordingly, play not one, but many different roles. Therefore, they talk about status sets. Each person has it unique and individual.
Types of social statuses, examples
Their range is wide enough. There are statuses obtained at birth, and there are statuses acquired during life. Those that society attributes to a person, or those that he achieves through his own efforts.
Allocate the main and passing social status of a person. Examples: the main and universal, in fact, the person himself, then comes the second - this is the citizen. The list of main statuses also includes consanguineous, economic, political, and religious. The list goes on.
Episodic ones are a passer-by, a patient, a participant in a strike, a buyer, a visitor to an exhibition. That is, such statuses for the same person can change quickly enough and repeat periodically.
Prescribed social status: examples
This is what a person receives from birth, biologically and geographically given characteristics. Until recently, it was impossible to influence them and change the situation. Examples of social status: gender, nationality, race. These preset parameters remain with a person for life. Although in our progressive society they have already swung themselves at changing sex. So one of the listed statuses, to some extent, ceases to be prescribed.
Much of what is related to kinship will also be considered as prescribed father, mother, sister, brother. And husband and wife are already acquired statuses.
Achieved status
This is what a person achieves for himself. Making efforts, making choices, working, learning, each individual eventually comes to certain results. His successes or failures are reflected in the awarding of his well-deserved status by society. Doctor, filmmaker, company president, professor, thief, homeless person, vagabond.
Almost every achievable has its own insignia. Examples:
- the military, security officials, employees of the internal troops - uniform and shoulder straps;
- doctors have white coats;
- people who broke the law have tattoos on their bodies.
Roles in society
The social status of a person will help to understand how this or that object will behave. We constantly find examples and confirmation of this. Expectations in the behavior and appearance of an individual, depending on his belonging to a particular class, are called a social role.
So, the status of a parent obliges you to be strict, but fair to your child, to be responsible for him, to teach, give advice, prompt, help in difficult situations. The status of a son or daughter is, on the contrary, a certain subordination to parents, legal and material dependence on them.
But, despite some patterns of behavior, each person has a choice of how to act. Examples of social status and its use by a person do not fit one hundred percent into the proposed framework. There is only a scheme, a certain template, which each individual implements according to his abilities and ideas.
It often happens that it is difficult for one person to combine several social roles. For example, the first role of a woman is mom, wife, and her second role is a successful business woman. Both roles involve an investment of effort, time, full dedication. A conflict arises.
Analysis of the social status of a person, an example of his actions in life allow us to conclude that it reflects not only the internal position of a person, but also affects the appearance, the manner of dressing, speaking.
Consider examples of social status and standards attached to it in appearance. Thus, the director of a bank or the founder of a reputable company cannot appear at the workplace in sports trousers or rubber boots. And the priest - come to church in jeans.
The status that a person has achieved makes him pay attention not only to appearance and behavior, but also to choose a circle of friends, place of residence, study.
Prestige
Not the least role in the destinies of people is played by such a concept as prestige (and a positive, from the point of view of the majority, social status). We can easily find examples in the questionnaire that all students write before entering higher educational institutions. Often they make their choice based on the prestige of a particular profession. Nowadays, few boys dream of becoming an astronaut or pilot. And once it was a very popular profession. They choose between lawyers and financiers. So the time dictates.
Conclusion: a person develops as a person in the process of mastering different social statuses and roles. The brighter the dynamics, the more adapted to life the individual will become.
Role (French role) - an image embodied by an actor
Role is the expected behavior due to a person's status (Linton, cited from: Merton, 1957).
A social role is an expectation (anticipation) presented by society to a person holding a particular status. It does not depend on the personality itself, its desires and exists, as it were, apart from and up to the personality itself.
In other words: a social role is an expected model of behavior that corresponds to a certain social status and does not depend on the individual.
For each social role, the behavioral characteristics are different. The limits are limited, but the very performance of the role of any status is a creative process. The status of children is usually subordinate to adults, who expect children to play the role of subordinates. Soldier status is different from civilian status; the role of soldiers is associated with risk taking and taking oaths, which is not the case for other populations.
Each social status usually includes a number of social roles. The set of roles corresponding to a given status is called a role-playing set (R. Merton, 1957). So the teacher has one status, and the roles in relation to the head of the department, the student are different, that is, with one status, you can have many roles. Talcot Parsons introduced the concept of role pluralism. It is a collection of important long-term roles and temporary, situational roles.
Role learning is an equally important issue. The mastering of roles occurs in the process of socialization, and their number is constantly increasing.
Socialization is a fairly broad process that includes both the mastery of skills, abilities, knowledge and the formation of values, ideals, norms and principles of social behavior.
In early childhood, a person fulfills one role - a child who is taught certain rules of the game. Then the role of a kindergarten pupil and a member of the primary social group for joint play, pastime, rest, etc. is added to it. In the future, the child plays the role of a student, a member of a youth group, a participant in social activities, a member of various interest groups.
Returning to the fact that each individual can have a large number of statuses, and those around him have the right to expect him to perform roles in accordance with these statuses. In this sense, status and role are two sides of the same phenomenon: if status is a set of rights, privileges and obligations, then a role is an action within this set of rights and obligations.
The social role consists of:
Role waiting and
Role-playing (games).
Note that there is no complete overlap between role-playing and role-playing. The quality of the performance of the role depends on many conditions, among which the compliance of the role with the needs, interests and individual qualities of the individual is of decisive importance.
Role expectations are formal and informal. The most striking example of formal role expectations is laws. For example, the law on criminal liability for actions causing harm to other people. Other less formal expectations - such as table behavior, dress code, and courtesy - are informal, but they also place a lot of emphasis on our behavior.
Our roles are determined by what others expect of us. In our society (and most others), it is expected that parents should take care of their children, that the worker should do the work assigned to him, that close friends are not indifferent to our problems. If the role is not fulfilled according to our expectations, a role conflict arises. The discrepancy between role expectations and role performance, the contradiction of role expectations of several roles (at least two) causes the emergence of a role conflict. For example, parents and peers expect different behavior from a teenager, but he, fulfilling the roles of a son and a friend, cannot simultaneously meet their expectations. Even more often, this conflict - the mismatch of roles - accompanies the life of an adult.
When a person's actions correspond to role expectations, he receives social rewards (money, respect), inconsistency with role expectations entails punishment (deprivation of material wealth, freedom, public attention, etc.). Taken together, rewards and punishments are called sanctions. When applied by one or more interacting individuals or by someone else, sanctions reinforce rules governing what behavior is appropriate in a given situation (Goode 1960).
Social roles can be institutionalized and conventional. Institutionalized: institution of marriage, family (social roles of mother, daughter, wife)
Conventional: accepted by agreement (a person may refuse to accept them).
Cultural norms are learned mainly through role learning. For example, a person who masters the role of a military man becomes familiar with the customs, moral norms and laws characteristic of the status of this role. Only a few norms are accepted by all members of society, the adoption of most norms depends on the status of a particular person.
What is acceptable for one status turns out to be unacceptable for another. Thus, socialization as a process of teaching the generally accepted ways and methods of action and interaction is the most important process of teaching role behavior, as a result of which the individual really becomes a part of society.
The types of social roles are determined by the variety of social groups, activities and relationships in which the person is included. Depending on social relations, social and interpersonal social roles are distinguished.
Social roles are related to social status, profession or type of activity (teacher, student, student, salesperson). These are standardized impersonal roles based on rights and responsibilities, regardless of who plays those roles. Socio-demographic roles are distinguished: husband, wife, daughter, son, grandson ... Man and woman are also social roles, biologically predetermined and presupposing specific modes of behavior enshrined in social norms and customs.
Interpersonal roles are associated with interpersonal relationships that are regulated on an emotional level (leader, offended, neglected, family idol, loved one, etc.).
In life, in interpersonal relationships, each person acts in some kind of dominant social role, a kind of social role as the most typical individual image familiar to others. It is extremely difficult to change the familiar image both for the person himself and for the perception of the people around him. The longer a group exists, the more familiar the dominant social roles of each member of the group become for those around it, and the more difficult it is to change the stereotype of behavior habitual for others.
Role characteristics
An attempt to systematize social roles was made by Talcott Parsons and his colleagues (1951). They believed that any role can be described using five main characteristics:
1. Emotionality.
2. Method of obtaining.
3. Scale.
4. Formalization.
5. Motivation
1. Emotionality. Some roles (for example, nurse, doctor, or funeral home owner) require emotional restraint in situations that are usually accompanied by violent manifestations of feelings (such as illness, suffering, death). Family members and friends are expected to express their feelings less discreetly.
2. Method of obtaining. Some roles are conditioned by prescribed statuses - for example, child, youth, or adult citizen; they are determined by the age of the person playing the role. Other roles are being won; when we talk about a doctor of medicine, we mean a role that is not achieved automatically, but as a result of the efforts of the individual.
3. Scale. Some roles are limited to strictly defined aspects of human interaction. For example, the roles of the doctor and patient are limited to issues that are directly related to the patient's health. A broader relationship is established between the young child and his mother or father; each parent is concerned about many aspects of the baby's life.
4. Formalization. Some roles involve interacting with people according to established rules. For example, a librarian is obliged to lend books for a certain period and demand a fine for every day that is overdue from those who delay the books. In the performance of other roles, special treatment is allowed by those with whom you have developed personal relationships. For example, we do not expect a brother or sister to pay us for a service rendered to us, although we might take a payment from a stranger.
5. Motivation. Different roles have different motives. It is expected, say, that an enterprising person is absorbed in his own interests - his actions are determined by the desire to get maximum profit. But it is assumed that a social worker like the Bureau of Unemployment Insurance works primarily for the public good, not personal gain.
According to Parsons, any role includes some combination of these characteristics. For example, the role of a prostitute. Usually these ladies show no feelings towards their clients. This role is achieved rather than prescribed, since it is acquired on the basis of certain activities. It is strictly limited by the sex offered for money. Usually prostitutes serve their clients in accordance with the accepted rules - for a certain type of service a set fee. Prostitutes work for their own benefit - sexual services for personal gain.
Fulfilling roles, a person, as a rule, experiences emotional and moral experiences, can enter into conflict with other people, experience a moral crisis, duality. This gives rise to discomfort, insecurity, psychological distress, which are signs of role tension.
The main causes of role tensions are primarily role conflicts.
As the forms, causes, situations that generate role tensions are diverse, so are the ways to overcome them. We are not talking about overcoming the primary principles, the root causes of psychological stress in the course of role behavior - we are talking only about ways to overcome stress, possible depression.
One such path is the method of rationalizing role expectations, which creates illusory but seemingly rational excuses for failure.
Rationalization of role expectations can reduce claims, transfer claims from one prestigious status to another, but in a different area, sphere (for example, from production to family, and vice versa).
The essence of the principle of separation of roles, as a way to overcome role tensions, is the deliberate differentiation of rules, techniques, norms inherent in the performance of one role from the norms, patterns of behavior inherent in another role.
The principle of role hierarchization can also play a huge role in overcoming the serious psychological experiences generated by the clash of role predictions. "What is more important to me - children, family, or science?" Faced with such a dilemma, a person finds himself in a dead end, the way out of which is the choice of the person himself of one of these roles as a priority. And in conflict situations, one should follow the pre-indication of the preferred role.
Regulation of roles is a conscious, purposeful action of society, nation, collective, family, the purpose of which is to overcome the psychological stress of the individual caused by role conflict.
One of the forms of role regulation, associated with the approval (propaganda) by the authorities, the media of new standards of role behavior (could play a significant role in establishing in our society the model of an entrepreneur, farmer, etc., increasing their prestige).
A person, being a social being, interacts with various social groups, participates in various joint actions, is a member of simultaneously different social groups. In each of these groups, the individual occupies a different position, performs different functions. The concept of personality is inextricably linked such concepts as "social role" and "social status".
Social status - This is the position of a person in the structure of a group or society, associated with certain rights and responsibilities.
Social role - it is a system of expected behavior, which is determined by normative duties and the corresponding rights.
An individual performs simultaneously not one, but several social roles, sometimes even many: in a family he is a son, a brother, a husband, a grandson, and a father, in other social groups he is a boss for subordinates and a subordinate for his boss, etc. ...
The position of a person performing only one role is always pathological and assumes that he lives in conditions of complete isolation from society (he is a patient of a psychiatric clinic or a prisoner in prison).
If status is a set of rights, privileges and obligations, then a social role is actions within this set of rights and obligations.
As well as the roles of social statuses, a person can have many. In general, any social status implies a corresponding role and vice versa.
Classification of social statuses.
Allocate: prescribed and acquired (achievable)
Prescribed status is a status received by an individual from birth or due to factors independent of its carrier (age, gender, race, socio-economic status of parents).
Achievablestatus is a status acquired in society through the efforts and merit of an individual. The level of education, professional achievements, career, socially successful marriage - all this affects a person's status in society.
In primitive societies, statuses are more often prescribed, acquired ones appear only in developed societies.
The status can also be group and personal.
Personal status determined by the personal qualities and character traits of the individual, manifested at the level of a small group, in which the individual functions directly - family, work collective, circle of close friends.
Group status characterizes an individual as a member of a large social group - as a representative of a class, nation, profession, a carrier of gender and age characteristics.
The social role should be considered in terms of role performance and role expectation. Our roles are determined primarily by what others expect of us (for example, a mother should take care of children, children should respect their parents, etc.) role-playing is how an individual actually behaves in a given role.
The concept of "role tension" is associated with the same concepts.
Role tension - Difficulties in fulfilling role obligations and the discrepancy between the internal attitudes of the personality and the requirements of the role.
Role tension may increase due to inadequate role training or role conflict.
Inadequate role training: teaching social roles in the process of socialization must be continuous and consistent: the experience of each stage of life serves as a preparation for the next. Currently, teaching social roles is based on discontinuity, so often a student is not ready for work, an elderly worker for retirement, a young mother for raising a child, etc.
Role-based learning has at least two aspects:
It is necessary to learn how to perform duties and exercise rights in accordance with the role played
It is equally essential to acquire attitudes, feelings and expectations that correspond to the given role.
Role conflicts can be:
Between roles (mother's role and leader's role)
Within one role (a person publicly proclaims one point of view, and in a narrow circle - the completely opposite)
There are several ways to reduce role tension:
The rationalization of roles is one of the ways to defend against the painful perception of a situation by a person with the help of concepts that are socially and personally desirable for her (for example, the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" for the Catholics of the Middle Ages was only true for people of the true faith, while infidels could not considered human and could be killed)
Separation of roles - the temporary removal from life of one of the roles and its exclusion from the consciousness of the individual, but with the preservation of a response to the system of role requirements inherent in this role (for example, a doctor at work, a father and husband at home, a military man at work, a brother and a son at home, and etc.)
Role regulation is a formal procedure by which an individual is released from personal responsibility for the consequences of the role he performs (for example, a husband makes excuses to his wife for a long absence, saying that this was required by his job).
