Unit I (c) STATUS AND ROLE

Most people associate status with the prestige of a person’s lifestyle, education or vocation.
According to sociologists, status describes the position a person occupies in particular settings.
Status is simply a position in society or in a group.

Status
A status is a socially defined position in a group or social system, such as student, teacher,
child, mother, father etc. A status is a place a person holds within a social structure, this
determines your place in group or society. Here social structure is a social relationship network
created among people when they interact with each other based on statuses in agreement with
the patterns of society. Social structure gives order and predictability to social life. It helps us
see how we fit in a group.

➢ According to Kingsley Davis (1949), status is a position in the general institutional

system, recognized and supported by the entire society.

➢ For Horton and Hunt (1964) status is the rank or position of an individual in a group.

➢ According to Ralph Linton (1936), status and role have become the key concepts of
sociology. By status, Linton meant a position in a social system involving designated
rights and obligation or in other word status is a collection of rights and duties. Linton
went on to state the long recognized and basic fact that each person in society inevitably
occupies multiple statuses and each of these statuses has an associated role.

Nature of Status
• Every status has its own rights, duties, and obligations
• Social statuses are governed by norms
• One individual may have several statuses
• Social status has a hierarchical distribution

Sociologist, Max Weber defined status as positive or negative social estimation of honour
(Gerth and Mills 1946) and related it to style of life. Lifestyles are symbolized by housing,
clothing, language spoken, manners of speech and occupation to name a few. Therefore, in
everyday life having a luxury car or living in an affluent neighbourhood is seen as a symbol of
a person’s status. While status normally seems to be determined by a person’s income or
wealth, unlike Marx, Weber, argued that class and status may not always overlap. Status can
be an independent basis of social stratification. Thus, both the propertied and propertyless can
belong to the same status group. Just as status is hierarchically arranged, positively or
negatively valued, each status has dis/privileges attached to it.

Statuses are divided into two basic types that is ascribed or achieved.

Ascribed statuses are those which are fixed for an individual at birth. Ascribed statuses that
exist in all societies. The rigidity of ascribed statuses varies from one society to another. Those
societies in which many statuses are rigidly prescribed and relatively unchangeable are called
caste societies, or at least, caste like. Among major nations, India is a caste society. In addition
to the ascribed statuses already discussed, occupation and the choice of marriage partners in
traditional India are strongly circumscribed by accident of birth. Such ascribed statuses stand

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in contrast to achieved statuses.

Achieved statuses are those which the individual acquires during his or her lifetime as a result
of the exercise of knowledge, ability, skill and/or perseverance. Occupation provides an
example of status that may be either ascribed or achieved, and which serves to differentiate
caste-like societies from modern ones. Societies vary in both the number of statuses that are
ascribed and achieved and in the rigidity with which such definitions are held. Both ascribed
and achieved statuses exist in all societies. However, an understanding of a specific society
requires that the interplay among these be fully understood. For Max Weber, class is a creation
of the market situation. Class operates in society independently of any valuations. As Weber
did not believe in the economic phenomena determining human ideals, he distinguishes status
situation from class situation.

Ascribed
A position in a social structure that is neither
earned nor chosen but assigned
Ascribed statuses are basically determined
the basis of;
a) Sex-dichotomy (male-female)
b) Kinship (son, brother, sister etc.)
c) Other social factors like race, ethnicity
etc.
An ascribed status does not have the same
social meaning in every society. For
instance, the ‘old man’ is viewed as more of
an insult in some societies, while respect for
the elderly is an important cultural norm in
India and other Asian countries
In traditional societies most statuses are
ascribed, with one’s occupation and general
social standing determined at birth
Achieved
A position in social structure that is earned
or chosen
Any social position held by an individual
because of his or her personal
accomplishments in open formal or market
competition
Achieved status requires the individual to
make choices, not only of occupation but
may also be friends, marital, partners, place
of residence, organization etc.
It is a social position which a person attains
through his own efforts, individual choice
and competition

The ascribed status seemingly to be more important in a simple and traditional society while in
a modern industrial society, greater emphasis is placed on achievement and particularly of
occupational positions. Weber also argues that ascribed status has rapidly declined as a means
of access to economic and political power in modern societies.

Gerhard E. Lenski studied the disjunction between the status and class positions of
individuals and group called ‘STATUS CRYSTALLISATION,’ in his book ‘Status
Crystallisation: A Non-Vertical Dimension of Status’ (1954) in which reward in one do not
correspond to reward in other. He argues that inconsistencies in status attributes lead to status
ambiguity, which in turn creates social tension.

Status Crystallization is a core principle of people in the society having certain expectations
about how various kinds (or dimensions) of social status should correlate with one another.
Crystallized statuses are those which have all the various kinds of status at approximately the
same levels. The educational attainment of a person is consistent with the occupation helps and
the monetary compensation received. When the various measured dimensions of status are so
correlated then the status of that individual is said to be crystallized or consistent. People with

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doctoral degrees who work as professor, school teacher or entrepreneur are among those with
uncrystallized or inconsistent positions on their various status dimensions.

STATUS CONFLICT: If an actor has more than one status, the attitudes of any two statuses
may be either compatible or incompatible with their demands on the person.

STATUS SET: An array of social positions, forming a composite or a set. Robert K. Merton
coined the term in 1957. A status set is a collection of social statuses that an individual hold. A
perfect epitome would be a daughter, student, wife, mother, lawyer and a citizen.

According to Merton, when there is a set of statuses systematically ordered to prepare for a
bigger status, it is called STATUS SET SEQUENCE. For example, a science stream student
become a medical student then becomes a medical intern, followed by junior/senior resident
doctor, specialist doctor and finally a super specialist doctor, these different statuses constitute
a status set sequence.

ROLE
Kingsley Davis defined “role is the manner in which a person actually carries out the
requirements of his position.”

Interrelationship Between Roles and Statuses

(a) Role and status are interrelated – A status is simply a position in society or in a group.
It refers to what a person is whereas a role is the behavioural aspect of status. Statuses
are occupied and roles are played.
(b) Role and status in a way point out the divergent interest of the two sciences that is social
psychology and sociology.
➢ Status is a sociological concept and a sociological phenomenon
➢ Role is a concept and a phenomenon of social psychology.
Example, A President of India has played different roles in that status.
Newcomb distinguished between expected behaviour and actual behaviour of individuals. The
expected behaviour is one which an individual is expected to perform as per the status and role
assigned to him or her. The actual behaviour of the person may be different from the expected
behaviour. Banton (1965) further refined this distinction and added that actual behaviour can
be related to
1) Role cognitions: individual’s own ideas of what is appropriate or
2) Expectations: to other people’s ideas about what he will do or
3) Norms: to other people’s ideas about what he should do.

It is important to know that certain roles are played without occupying a status. For example,
a mother plays the role of nurse when a member of her family is not well. Nurse is a status in
hospital but at home it may be a role.

Sutherland gave the ROLE CONFLICT concept. It refers to the conflict experience by the
individual at the time of role-playing. When a person s/he is playing two or more roles at a time
that make incompatible demand. Example; role of a lawyer and a father in the family. It is
possible in culturally homogeneous situation. But in a complex and heterogeneous social
system that is a dynamic society, the role conflicts have increased. A conflict situation arose
when;
➢ When the functions are below the individual’s status
➢ Difference in the perception of the one’s duties and responsibilities

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 ➢ When an individual has to play many roles through different roles in different groups.

ROLE DISTANCE is a term coined by Erving Goffman that refers to the detachment of the
performer from the role he or she is performing. This makes an important distinction between
the existing of expectations concerning performance of a role and individual commitment in
role.

ROLE STRAIN is experienced when different responsibilities associated within a single status
are incompatible. For instance, a student having an exam on the following day, and s/he have
to also participate an important debate competition which is coming up on the following day.

It is important to manage the role strain and role conflict when the individual finds it difficult
to handle the task.