Role and Status

Outline
• Status and Role

• Role Set

• Role Conflict

• Role Strain

• Achieved and Ascribed status and role

• Socialization through role and status

 Status
• Ralph Linton (1936) defined status simply as a position in a
social system, such as child or parent.
• Status refers to what a person is, whereas the closely linked
notion of role refers to the behaviour expected of people in
a status.
According to sociologists, status describes the position a
person occupies in a particular setting.
We all occupy several statuses and play the roles that may be
associated with them.
 Role
• A status carries with it a set of culturally defined rights and
duties, which sociologists call a role.
• The rights, obligations, and expected behavior
patterns associated with a particular social status.
• Duties and rights are complementary.
• A role is the set of norms, values, behaviors, and personality
characteristics attached to a status. An individual may
occupy the statuses of student, employee, and club
president and play one or more roles with each one.
 Role Set

• The different roles attached to

a single status.
• Role set is the term used to
describe the variety of roles
and relationships you have as a
result of your status in society.
 Role Conflict
• Occurs between two statuses when trying to fulfill expectations.
• Role conflict can take several different forms.
• Conflict may also occur when people disagree about what the expectations
are for a particular role or when someone simply has difficulty satisfying
expectations because their duties are unclear, too difficult, or disagreeable.
• Example: A working father is expected at work on time but is late because one
of his children is sick. His roles as father and employee are then in conflict. A role
for his father status dictates that he care for his sick child, while a role for his
employee status demands that he arrive at work on time.
 Role Strain
• Occurs when a person has difficulty meeting the
role expectations of a single status.
 Ascribed status and role
• Statuses and roles are of two sorts:
– Those ascribed to us by our society, irrespective of individual qualities or
efforts, and
– Those we achieve through our own efforts.

• Ascribed status -- assigned according to qualities beyond a person’s control.

– Ascription by Sex
– Ascription by Age
• Status of the Aged
 Ascribed status and role

Baby
Aged

Prince

White & Female &

Black Race Male
 Achieved status and role

• Acquired through individuals own

direct efforts.
• A social position which is secured
through individual choice and
competition is known as an achieved
status.
Achieved status and role
 Socialization through role and status
• Each person must learn to fill roles as child, student, probably
husband or wife, parent, employee, organization member or officer,
member of a particular race and social class, citizen, resident of a
community, and many others.
• Role learning involves at least two aspects:
– We must learn to perform the duties and claim the privileges of
the role, and
– We must acquire the attitudes, feelings, and expectations
appropriate to the role.
• Role training for most of the important roles begins early in
childhood as one starts to from attitudes toward those roles and
statuses.
• Most of the training is painless and unconscious...
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