Role Totally Explained

A role (sometimes spelled rôle) or a social role is a set of connected behaviors, rights and obligations as conceptualized by actors in a social situation. It is mostly defined as an expected behavior in a given individual social status and social position.
A set of expectations govern the behavior of persons holding a particular role in society; a set of norms that defines how persons in a particular position should behave. Important social roles have scripts that those who perform those roles are supposed to follow. (Stark 2007)
The term is used in two rather different but related senses. It is vital to both functionalist and interactionist understandings of society, but is of only peripheral relevance to conflict theory. Role confusion is a situation where an individual has trouble determining which role he/she should play. For example, one could be a college student who would attend a convention of a particular recreational interest and find his or her teacher there. Conflict between behaving as a student and as an enthusiast who shares the same interest emerges, leading to confusion. Role strain characterises a situation where fulfilling a certain role has a conflict with fulfilling another role. For example, you found your teacher made a mistake and should you report that? If you did, you might disgrace him and if you didn't, you might not fulfil your role as student. While role conflict takes place across different role sets, role strain happens within the same role set.

How Social Role Is Determined

Achieved role (see Achieved status) is a position that a person assumes voluntarily which reflects personal skills, abilities, and efforts. Roles are not forced upon the individual, a choice is involved. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achieved_status Ex: criminals, professional athletes, teachers, ranks in military, etc. Ascribed role (see Ascribed status) is a position assigned to individuals or groups without regard for merit but because of certain traits beyond their control (Stark 2007). Roles are forced upon the individual. Ex: brother, mom, son, African-American, teenager, etc.

Characteristics that influence a social role

Norms of Behavior

   Individuals are expected to fulfill their role in society. Society regulates the behavior of different roles on a reward or punishment system. Individuals primarily attempt to fulfill their roles for their own succession.
   Rewarded- Individuals are rewarded for living up to their roles (for example students getting an “A” on their exam)
   Punished- Individuals are punished for not completing the duties of their role (for example a salesman is fired for not selling enough product)

Role Set

A role-set is the array of roles one individual’s status takes on. For instance, a high school football player takes on the roles of athlete, student, classmate, etc.
Each social status involves not a single associated role, but an array of roles. This basic feature of social structure can be registered by the distinctive but not formidable term, role-set. To repeat, then, by role-set I mean that complement of role-relationships in which persons are involved by virtue of occupying a particular social status. Thus, in our current studies of medical schools, we've begun with the view that the status of medical student entails not only the role of a student vis-a-vis his teachers, but also an array of other roles relating him diversely to other students, physicians, nurses, social workers, medical technicians, and the like. Again, the status of school teacher in the United States has its distinctive role-set, in which are found pupils, colleagues, the school principal and superintendent, the Board of Education, professional associations, and, on occasion, local patriotic organizations. (Merton 1957)

Role in functionalist and consensus theory

The functionalist approach, which is largely borrowed from anthropology, sees a "role" as the set of expectations that society places on an individual. By unspoken consensus, certain behaviours are deemed "appropriate" and others "inappropriate". For example, it's appropriate for a doctor to dress fairly conservatively, ask a series of personal questions about one's health, touch one in ways that would normally be forbidden, write prescriptions, and show more concern for the personal wellbeing of his clients than is expected of, say, an electrician or a shopkeeper.
"Role" is what the doctor does (or, at least, is expected to do), while status is what the doctor is. In other words, "status" is the position an actor occupies, while "role" is the expected behaviour attached to that position. Roles are not limited to occupational status, of course, nor does the fact that one is cast in the role of "doctor" during working hours prevent one from taking other on other roles at other times: husband, golf club president, father, and so on.
Roles can be semi-permanent ("doctor", "mother", "child"), or they can be transitory. A well-known example is the sick role as formulated by Talcott Parsons in the late 1940s. A person who is judged to be "sick" is exempted from his usual roles; isn't held personally responsible for his incapacity; can only take on the sick role on condition that he wants to eventually get well and return to a "normal" role; and he must co-operate with his officially designated helpers (doctors and others).

Role Conflict

Role conflict is a special form of social conflict that takes place when one is forced to take on two different and incompatible roles at the same time. Consider the example of a doctor who is himself a patient, or who must decide whether he should be present for his daughter's birthday party (in his role as "father") or attend an ailing patient (as "doctor"). (Also compare the psychological concept of cognitive dissonance.)
   Often, two or more roles collide in certain situations. Take for example a father who is the coach of his son’s baseball team. The man takes on both the role of father and coach. If the boy makes a bad play in the game a father would be inclined to support and comfort his son, but a coach would be inclined to show the boy exactly what he did wrong. How does the man decide what to do? This collision represents role conflict where two roles in an individual's role set can't cooperate in a specific social situation.
   In the functionalist conception, role is one of the important ways in which individual activity is socially regulated: roles create regular patterns of behaviour and thus a measure of predictability, which not only allows individuals to function effectively because they know what to expect of others, but also makes it possible for the sociologist to make generalisations about society. Collectively, a group of interlocking roles creates a social institution: the institution of law, for example, can be seen as the combination of many roles, including "police officer", "judge", "criminal", and "victim".
   Roles, in this conception, are created by society as a whole, are relatively inflexible, are more-or-less universally agreed upon, and individuals simply take their designated roles on and attempt to fulfil them as best they can. Although it's recognised that different roles interact ("teacher" and "student"), and that roles are usually defined in relation to other roles ("doctor" and "patient", or "parent" and "child"), the functionalist approach has great difficulty in accounting for variability and flexibility of roles, and finds it difficult to account for the vast differences in the way that individuals conceive different roles. Taken to extremes, the functionalist approach results in "role" becoming a set of static, semi-global expectations laid down by a unified, amorphous society: as simply prescriptions for correct behaviour. The distinction between "role" and norm and culture thus becomes sterile.
   Although the classic functionalist approach to "role" is no longer regarded as an especially useful tool in the modern sociologist's approach to understanding societies, it remains a fundamental concept which is still taught in most introductory courses and is still regarded as important, particularly so when considering relatively homogeneous, united societies like the middle-class post-war USA that gave birth to it.
   More broadly, "role", in the sense created by society, is a concept that has crossed over from academic discourse into popular use. It has become commonplace to speak of particular "roles" as if they were indeed fixed, agreed on by all, and uncontroversial: "the role of the teacher" or "a parent's role", for example. Notice that this everyday usage nearly always employs "role" in a normative way, to imply that "this is the proper behaviour" for a teacher or a parent, or even for an entire institution such as the government.

Stereotypes

A stereotype is "a standardized conception or image of a specific group of people or objects." To be more specific, stereotype can be based on age, gender, race, religion, vocation, nationality, places, and things. This view is rather common by the members of a group, for example: adults saying that teenagers are all rebellous. Stereotyping is, in fact, a "natural human function and is so common that it occasionally functions in a useful way."
   There are four characteristics to stereotypes. They are:
   1. Simple: this being that a person or thing can be summerized in a sentence or two.
   2. Acquired Secondhand: people in a society "absorb" the cultures veiws on others. This shows how that particular society views certain trends and traits.
   3. Erroneous: this means that all stereotypes are false.
   4. Resistant to change: even with racial laws, racial stereotypes still exist in society. They may not be accurate, but are still a part of society.
   An example of stereotyping and racial judgement: in World War II, the native Germans viewed Jews as a threat to society. When the Holocaust took place, Germans were "indifferent" toward the countless slaughtering of the Jews. This stereotyping and utter rejection of the Jews can be seen as far back as 1524 with Martin Luther, who called the Jews "a plague, a pestilence, a sheer misfortune for our country (Germany)."

Gender Roles in Society

Origin of Gender Roles

Gender roles first began in the Mesopotamian region at about the same time as civilization (around 8000 B.C.). Originally, in the Paleolithic Era, men and women were treated equally. These nomadic family groups didn't have any wealth simply because their prey migrated regularly. In fact, women contributed over 70% of daily food. However, in the Neolithic Era, men and women discovered agriculture and could gain wealth over their fellow men.
In these early societies, men took the role as judges, which was a task that was considered "an arena of public concern under male control." Women, however, was in charge of the family and household. To help them, women had their children, servants, and slaves (before the Neolithic Era, slaves didn't exist).

Egyptian Gender Roles

In the Egyptian society, women had a "high degree of freedom and were often able to function on much the same level as men." Egyptian women could own their own property, keep it during their marriage, and dispose of it. Women also was influencial in politics. For example, when a pharaoh died, if his wife (the queen) was well liked among her followers, then she may take over as pharaoh.
Women were also seen in Egyptian religion. Female goddesses were not uncommon. Bastet, Isis, and Nephthys are just a few of these goddesses who had important roles in Egyptian religion and worship.

Greek Gender Roles

For Greek women, her power was on a number of bases. First, she was one of the matrons of the polis. Second, she was part of two separate households: her natal household and her household that she formed with her husband. However, her power in her husband's household depended on her dowry. If she'd an unimpressive dowry, her power in the family was less. A Greek woman could divorce her husband without going into poverty. All she'd to do was return to her natal family so that her father could arrange the next marriage.
In Athens, men were viewed as the "defenders of the city and of their housholds." However, men, as well as women, had little to no choice of whom they'd marry. Athenian women took care of the house and children. If they'd a job, they tended to be vendors, nurses, midwives, bakers, or innkeepers.
In Sparta, women had far greater freedom than their Athenian counterparts. Spartan women were trained to be stronger than most women in other cultures. This is due to the need to keep the helots (Spartan slaves who made up most of the population) in check. In order to keep this mass population of slaves from rebelling, Spartans (men and women together) trained for most of their lives to be stronger than the helots in case of a rebellion.

Roman Gender Roles

In Roman society, the role of the father was truly unique. If he was the oldest male in the household, his title was the paterfamilias, which meant that he'd the "power of life and death over his children." Meaning that in certain circumstances, he could have his own children (young and old alike) executed. The paterfamilias was also the religious head in the household and was the property owner and ruler.
If a woman married under the manus form of matrimony, she was no longer a member of her own natal family. She was now a full member of her husband's family. However, if the woman chose not to perform the manus form of matrimony, she remained a member of her natal family, which also meant that she was still under the power of her paterfamilias.

Early Christian Gender Roles

In the beginning, women played key roles in early Christian communities, however, as time passed, they lost their power in religious affairs. Men took over these tasks, like baptizing, exorcising demons, and preaching.
However, the common view that women are naturally inferior had to be dealt with since the Jewish and Christian beliefs showed that both men and women are equal in the eyes of God. In the Syrian Christian world, "great emphasis was placed on the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus."
In the fifth century, female martyrs were shown as often as male martyrs. Their acts were celebrated in the same manner as the male acts.

Role in interactionist or social action theory

In interactionist social theory, the concept of role is crucial. The interactionist definition of "role" pre-dates the functionalist one (which is a later borrowing from the same source), but is more fluid and subtle, and remains a more fruitful concept. Oddly enough for a concept which has been adopted by two of the three major branches of sociology and is central to a good deal of anthropology as well, the first systematic use of the term "role" was made by a philosopher, George Herbert Mead, in his seminal 1934 work, Mind, self and society.
A role, in this conception, isn't fixed or prescribed but something that's constantly negotiated between individuals in a tentative, creative way. Mead's main interest was the way in which children learn how to become a part of society by imaginative role-taking. Children, wrote Mead, imitate the roles of the people around them and try them on to see how well they fit. This is always done in an interactive way: it's not meaningful to think of a role for one person alone, only for that person as an individual who is both co-operating and competing with others. Adults behave similarly: taking roles from those that they see around them, adapting them in creative ways, and (by the process of social interaction) testing them and either confirming them or modifying them. This can be most easily seen in encounters where there's considerable ambiguity, but is nevertheless something that's part of all social interactions: each individual actively tries to "define the situation" (understand their role within it); choose a role that's advantageous or appealing; play that role; and persuade others to support the role.

Role Theory

Role theory seeks to explain one of the essential features of social life, the characteristic behavior patterns, or roles. It is concerned with the fact that human beings behave in ways that predictable and different depending on their respective social identities and social situations. Role theory explains the concept of roles by assuming that each person is a member of some social position and thus holds expectations for their own behaviors and subsequently the behaviors of other persons. There are five different perspectives of role theory in sociology: functional, symbolic interactionist, structural, organizational, and cognitive role theory.
There is a great deal of confusion within role theory, due to conflicting definitions and concepts. For example, some sociologists define role to refer to characteristic behaviors, while some use it to designate social parts that are played in society, and others focus their definition of role on the scripts for social conduct. Furthermore, there's disagreement in terms of the expectations that precede a role. To some, an expectation is synonymous with norms (or expected behaviors prescribed by society), while others believe that these expectations are beliefs, and finally, others see them as preferences, or attitudes. This difference in terminology subsequently generates differing versions of role theory. Nonetheless, despite these differences, the versions of role theory are similar in their approach to research and course of direction. For example, most versions of role theory agree that expectations are the major cause of roles, these expectations are learned through experience, and people are fully aware of these expectations as they proceed through their performance of society’s roles.

Functional Role Theory

Functional role theory focuses on the characteristic behaviors of those who have social position within a stable social system. “Roles” are the expectations that determine and explain these behaviors. Functional role theorists presume that the actors in the social situation have been taught these norms, will conform to these norms for their own conduct, and influence others to conformity for norms. Thus, the functional role theory not only explains the different parts of stable social systems but why these social systems are stable and how conformity in them is achieved.
Functional role theory has lost its dominance in American sociology. Its main criticism stems from the facts that not all roles are associated with social positions, that roles may or may not be associated with functions, that social systems are not stable, that norms are may or may not be shared within this unstable social system and as a result may or may not lead to conformity, and that roles may not only reflect expectations but cognitive processes as well.

Symbolic Interactionist Role Theory

The symbolic interactionist theory stresses the roles of individual actors, the development and evolution of these roles through social interaction, and various cognitive concepts through which actors comprehend and interpret their own conduct as well as the conduct of others. In symbolic interactionist role theory, norms provide a set of broad essentials within which the various roles can be worked out. Roles, then, reflect norms, attitudes, contextual demands, negotiation, and the continuing evolving of the social situation in which the actors find themselves and strive to understand.
Just like functional role theory, symbolic interactionist theory has also received criticism. Much of the criticism originates with fuzzy definitions and a lack of attention give to empirical research, or research which is observable through the senses. Furthermore, there's little discussion in the works of symbolic interactionist theorists to actors’ expectations and to the structural constraints placed upon expectations and roles. Finally, the emergence of expectations isn't clearly defined in this theory—whether it expectations are assumed to generate, follow from, or to develop with roles.

Structural Role Theory

Structural role theory places an emphasis on “social structures”, defined as stable organizations of sets of persons (called “social positions” or “statuses”) who share the same patterned behaviors (“roles”) which relate to the other actors in the same social structure. Unlike the functionalists, structuralists focus much more on the environment rather than the individual.
Structural role theory has yet to receive a large following within American sociology, largely due to the fact that the work completed in this field of research is generally expressed in mathematical symbols.

Organizational Role Theory

The organizational role theory focuses on social systems which are preplanned, task-oriented, and hierarchal. The roles in these organizations are associated with social positions and are spawned by norms, or expectations. However, these norms may vary with the individual and reflect the official demands of organizations as well as those of informal groups. The abundance of sources for norms produces role conflict. This conflict in turn causes role strain, and the theory examines the variables that affect the actor’s choice of strategies for handling the situation.
Just like the other role theories, organizational role theory is subject to criticism as well. The assumptions of the theory are limiting and exclude the study of evolving roles or roles that are not produced by normative expectations. Furthermore, the perspective of organizational role theory implies that the organizations are stable entities and any conflicts which arise in them are role conflicts and once the role conflict is resolved, the actor will inevitably be happy. Nonetheless, this role theory has produced the most empirical research out of all the other existing role theories.

Cognitive Role Theory

The cognitive role theory focuses on the relationship between behaviors and expectations. Cognitive role theorists have given attention to social conditions that influence the emergence of expectations, techniques for measuring these expectations, and the impact of these expectations on social conduct. Furthermore, they're concerned with how a social actor perceives the expectations of others and how those expectations influence their own behavior.
   There are several subfields of cognitive role theory. The first is role playing, determined by Moreno (1934), which occurred when one social actor tries to imitate the behavior of another. Role playing occurs naturally in children and can be used as an aid in both education and therapy. The latter assertion has lead to substantial research on the effectiveness of therapeutic role playing, many of which confirm the value of this technique. Role playing has also been found to be an effective way to produce changes in expectations.
   The second subsection of cognitive role theory focuses on group norms and the roles of leaders and followers in these respective groups. Research in this area continues to develop.
   The third subfield gives attention to the theories of anticipatory role theories. In this field, expectations are beliefs about likely conduct. Researchers in this field study both the subjects’ beliefs about their own behaviors and the behaviors of others. This sort of research has focused on counseling and the interpretation of mental illness, but in the 1980s the work shifted to extend the understanding of family interaction.
   Finally, the fourth subfield focuses on role taking. This term is assumed to focus on others attribution of sophisticated thought to others. From research, sophistication is said to be more general among people who are older, wiser, and more mature.
   Cognitive role theory has been criticized for its emphasis on modern American culture, its failure to explore the contextual limitations of effects, and it ignores human interaction. Furthermore, it focuses on the individual and thus ignores the role phenomena associated with social position and/or temporal and structural phenomena.

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