Social role and its meaning. Social role and status of the individual

Social role - sample human behavior that society recognizes as appropriate for the holder of this status.

Social role- this is a set of actions that a person occupying this status must perform. A person must fulfill certain material values ​​in social system.

This is a model of human behavior, objectively determined by the social position of the individual in the system of social, public and personal relations. In other words, a social role is “the behavior that is expected of a person occupying a certain status.” Modern society requires an individual to constantly change his behavior pattern to perform specific roles. In this regard, such neo-Marxists and neo-Freudians as T. Adorno, K. Horney and others in their works made a paradoxical conclusion: the “normal” personality of modern society is a neurotic. Moreover, in modern society, role conflicts that arise in situations where an individual is required to simultaneously perform several roles with conflicting requirements are widespread.

Erving Goffman, in his studies of interaction rituals, accepting and developing the basic theatrical metaphor, paid attention not so much to role prescriptions and passive adherence to them, but to the very processes of active construction and maintenance. appearance"in the course of communication, to areas of uncertainty and ambiguity in interaction, errors in the behavior of partners.

The concept " social role“was proposed independently by American sociologists R. Linton and J. Mead in the 1930s, with the first interpreting the concept of “social role” as a unit of social structure, described in the form of a system of norms given to a person, the second - in terms of direct interaction between people , " role playing game", during which, due to the fact that a person imagines himself in the role of another, the assimilation occurs social norms and the social is formed in the individual. Linton's definition social role as a “dynamic aspect of status” was entrenched in structural functionalism and developed by T. Parsons, A. Radcliffe-Brown, R. Merton. Mead's ideas were developed in interactionist sociology and psychology. Despite all the differences, both of these approaches are united by the idea of ​​a social role as a nodal point at which the individual and society meet, individual behavior turns into social behavior, and the individual properties and inclinations of people are compared with the normative attitudes existing in society, depending on which people are selected to certain social roles. Of course, in reality, role expectations are never straightforward. In addition, a person often finds himself in a situation of role conflict, when his different social roles turn out to be poorly compatible.

Types of social roles in society

Types of social roles are determined by diversity social groups, types of activities and relationships in which the individual is involved. Depending on social relations, social and interpersonal social roles are distinguished.

• Social roles associated with social status, profession or type of activity (teacher, student, student, salesperson). These are standardized impersonal roles, built on the basis of rights and responsibilities, regardless of who plays these roles. There are socio-demographic roles: husband, wife, daughter, son, grandson... Man and woman are also social roles, implying specific modes of behavior, fixed social norms, customs.
• Interpersonal roles associated with interpersonal relationships that are regulated at the emotional level (leader, offended, neglected, family idol, loved one, etc.).

In life, in interpersonal relationships, each person acts in some dominant social role, a unique social role as the most typical individual image, familiar to others. Changing a habitual image is extremely difficult 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 group member become to those around them and the more difficult it is to change the behavior pattern habitual to those around them.

Characteristics of social roles

The main characteristics of a social role were highlighted by American sociologist Talcott Parsons. He proposed the following four characteristics of any role:

• By scale. Some roles may be strictly limited, while others may be blurred.
• By method of receipt. Roles are divided into prescribed and conquered (they are also called achieved).
• According to the degree of formalization. Activities can take place either within strictly established limits or arbitrarily.
• By type of motivation. Personal profit may serve as motivation, public good etc.

Scope of the role depends on range interpersonal relationships. The larger the range, the larger the scale. For example, the social roles of spouses have a very large scale, since the widest range of relationships is established between husband and wife. On the one hand, these are interpersonal relationships based on a variety of feelings and emotions; on the other hand, relationships are regulated regulations and in a certain sense are formal. Participants of this social interaction are interested in the most different sides each other's lives, their relationship is practically unlimited. In other cases, when relationships are strictly defined by social roles (for example, the relationship between a seller and a buyer), interaction can only be carried out for a specific reason (in this case, purchases). Here the scope of the role is limited to a narrow range of specific issues and is small.

How to get a role depends on how inevitable the role is for the person. Yes, roles young man, old man, man, woman are automatically determined by the age and gender of the person and do not require special effort to purchase them. There can only be a problem of compliance with one’s role, which already exists as a given. Other roles are achieved or even won during the course of a person's life and as a result of targeted special efforts. For example, the role of a student, researcher, professor, etc. These are almost all roles related to the profession and any achievements of a person.

Formalization as a descriptive characteristic of a social role is determined by the specifics of interpersonal relationships of the bearer of this role. Some roles involve the establishment of only formal relationships between people with strict regulation of rules of behavior; others, on the contrary, are only informal; still others may combine both formal and informal relationships. It is obvious that the relationship between the traffic police representative and the rule violator traffic should be determined by formal rules, and relationships between close people should be determined by feelings. Formal relationships are often accompanied by informal ones, in which emotionality is manifested, because a person, perceiving and evaluating another, shows sympathy or antipathy towards him. This happens when people have been interacting for a while and the relationship has become relatively stable.

It is believed that the concept of social role in sociology was first introduced by R. Linton, although already in F. Nietzsche this word appears in a completely sociological sense: “Concern for maintaining existence imposes on the majority of male Europeans a strictly defined role, as they say, a career.” From a sociological point of view, any organization of society or group presupposes the presence of a set of distinct roles. In particular, P. Berger believes that “society is a network of social roles.”

Social role - it is a system of expected behavior that is determined by normative duties and the rights corresponding to these duties.

For example, an educational institution as a type social organization presupposes the presence of a director, teachers and students. Weight is social roles associated with a specific set of responsibilities and rights. Thus, the teacher is obliged to follow the orders of the director, not be late for his lessons, prepare for them conscientiously, guide students towards socially approved behavior, be sufficiently demanding and fair, he is prohibited from resorting to physical punishment of students, etc. At the same time, he has the right to certain signs of respect associated with his role as a teacher: students must stand up when he appears, call him by name and patronymic, and unquestioningly follow his orders related to educational process, keep quiet in class when he speaks, etc. However, fulfilling a social role allows for some freedom to express individual qualities: a teacher can be harsh and soft, maintain a strict distance in relation to students and behave with them like an older comrade. A student can be diligent or careless, obedient or impudent. All of these are acceptable individual shades of social roles.

Regulatory requirements associated with social role, as a rule, are more or less known to the participants in role interaction, and therefore give rise to certain role expectations: all participants expect from each other behavior that fits into the context of these social roles. Thereby social behavior people becomes largely predictable.

However, role requirements allow for some freedom and the behavior of a group member is not mechanically determined by the role he performs. Thus, from literature and life, there are cases when, at a critical moment, a person takes on the role of leader and saves the situation, from whom, due to his usual role in the group, no one expected this. E. Goffman argues that an individual performing a social role is aware of the existence of a distance between himself and his role. emphasized the variability of normative requirements associated with a social role. R. Merton noted their “dual character.” For example, a research scientist is required to adhere to the principles and methods established by science and at the same time create and substantiate new ideas, sometimes to the detriment of accepted ones; a good surgeon is not only one who performs routine operations well, but also one who can take a risky, unconventional decision, saving the patient’s life. Thus, a certain amount of initiative is an integral part of fulfilling a social role.

An individual always performs not just one social role at the same time, but several, sometimes even many. 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 in a psychiatric clinic or a prisoner in prison). Even in a family, a person plays not one, but several roles - he is a son, a brother, a husband, and a father. In addition, he performs a number of roles in others: he is a boss for his subordinates, a subordinate for his boss, a doctor for his patients, and a teacher for his students. medical institute, and a friend of his friend, and a neighbor of the inhabitants of his house, and a member of some political party, etc.

Role-playing regulatory requirements are an element of the system of social norms adopted by a given society. However, they are specific and valid only in relation to those who occupy a certain social position. Many role requirements are absurd outside of a specific role situation. For example, a woman who comes to see a doctor undresses at his request, fulfilling her role as a patient. But if a passer-by on the street makes a similar demand, she will run or call for help.

The relationship between special role norms and generally valid norms is very complex. Many role prescriptions are not associated with them at all, and some role norms are of an exceptional nature, putting the people who perform them in a special position when general norms do not apply to them. For example, a doctor is obliged to maintain medical confidentiality, and a priest is obliged to maintain the secret of confession, therefore, by law, they are not subject to the obligation to disclose this information when testifying in court. The discrepancy between general and role norms can be so great that the role holder is almost subject to public contempt, although his position is necessary and recognized by society (executioner, secret police agent).

Ideas about social role

It is believed that the concept of “social role” was introduced into sociology in the first half of the 19th century. American scientist R. Linton. For the German philosopher F. Nietzsche, this word appears in a completely sociological sense: “The concern for maintaining existence imposes on the majority of male Europeans a strictly defined role, as they say, a career.”

From a sociological point of view, any organization of society or group presupposes the presence of a set of roles that differ from each other. In particular, the American sociologist P. Berger believes that modern society represents a “network of social roles.”

Social role is a system of expected behavior that is determined by normative responsibilities and the rights corresponding to these responsibilities. For example, an educational institution as a type of social organization presupposes the presence of a director, teachers and students. These social roles carry a specific set of responsibilities and rights. The teacher is obliged to follow the orders of the director, not be late for his lessons, prepare for them conscientiously, guide students towards socially approved behavior, be demanding and fair, he is prohibited from resorting to physical punishment of students, etc. At the same time, he has the right to certain signs of respect associated with his role as a teacher: students must stand up when he appears, call him by name and patronymic, follow his orders related to the educational process, maintain silence in the class when he speaks, etc. .P.

Nevertheless, fulfilling a social role allows some freedom for the manifestation of individual qualities: the teacher can be harsh or soft, keep a distance from the students or behave with them as a senior comrade. A student can be diligent or careless, obedient or impudent. All of these are acceptable individual shades of social roles. Consequently, the behavior of an individual in a group is not determined mechanically by the social role he performs. Thus, from literature and life there are cases when, at critical moments, people took on the role of leader and saved the situation, from whom no one expected this from their usual roles in the group.

The American sociologist R. Merton was the first to draw attention to the fact that everyone has not one social role, but several, and this position became the basis role set theories.

Thus, individuals, as bearers of certain social statuses, when entering into social relations, always simultaneously perform several social roles determined by one or another social status. The position of a person who performs only one role is always pathological and implies that he lives in isolation from society. Usually a person plays several roles in society. For example, a man's social status allows him to have many social roles: in a family he can be a husband and father or a son and brother; at work - a boss or a subordinate, and at the same time a boss for some and a subordinate for others; V professional activity he can be a doctor and at the same time a patient of another doctor; a member of a political party and a neighbor of a member of another political party, etc.

In modern sociology, a set of roles corresponding to a certain social status is called role set. For example, the status of a teacher of a particular educational institution has its own distinctive set of roles that connects it with holders of correlative statuses - other teachers, students, director, laboratory assistants, officials of the Ministry of Education, members of professional associations, i.e. with those who are somehow related to the professional activities of a teacher. In this regard, sociology distinguishes between the concepts of “role set” and “multiplicity of roles.” The latter concept refers to the various social statuses (set of statuses) that an individual possesses. The concept of “role set” denotes only those roles that act as dynamic aspects of only a given social status.

A social role in the most common understanding is the behavior of people occupying a certain position in society. In essence, this is a set of requirements that society places on a person and the actions that he must perform. And even one person can have quite a few social roles.

In addition to this, each person can have a large number of statuses, and the people around them, in turn, have every right to expect others to properly fulfill their social roles. Viewed from this point of view, social role and status are two sides of the same “coin”: while status is a set of special rights, responsibilities and privileges, then role is actions within this set.

Social role includes:

• Role Expectation
• Execution of the role

Social roles can be conventional or institutionalized. Conventional roles are accepted by people by agreement, and they can refuse to accept them. And institutionalized ones involve the adoption of roles determined by social institutions, for example, family, army, university, etc.

Typically, cultural norms are learned by an individual through , and only a few norms are accepted by society as a whole. Acceptance of a role depends on the status that this or that person occupies. What may be quite normal for one status may be completely unacceptable for another. Based on this, socialization can be called one of the fundamental learning processes role behavior, as a result of which a person becomes part of society.

Types of social roles

The difference in social roles is due to the variety of social groups, forms of activity and interactions in which a person is involved, and depending on which social roles can be individual and interpersonal.

Individual social roles are interconnected with the status, profession or activity in which a person is engaged. They are standardized impersonal roles, built on the basis of duties and rights, regardless of the performer himself. Such roles can be the roles of husband, wife, son, daughter, grandson, etc. – these are socio-demographic roles. The roles of men and women are biologically defined roles that imply special behavioral patterns fixed by society and culture.

Interpersonal social roles are interconnected with relationships between people that are regulated at the emotional level. For example, a person can play the role of leader, offended, idol, loved one, condemned, etc.

IN real life, in the process of interpersonal interaction, all people act in some dominant role, typical for them and familiar to others. Changing an established image can be very difficult, both for the person and for those around him. And the longer a specific group of people exists, the more familiar the social roles of each become for its members, and the more difficult it is to change an established behavioral stereotype.

Basic characteristics of social roles

The basic characteristics of social roles were identified in the mid-20th century by American sociologist Talcott Parsons. They were offered four characteristics that are common to all roles:

• Scope of the role
• How to get a role
• Degree of formalization of the role
• Type of role motivation

Let's touch on these characteristics in a little more detail.

Scope of the role

The scope of the role depends on the range of interpersonal interactions. If it is large, then the scale of the role is also large. For example, marital social roles are of enormous scale, because There is a wide range of interaction between spouses. From one point of view, their relationships are interpersonal and based on emotional and sensory diversity, but on the other hand, their relationships are regulated by normative acts, and to some extent they are formalized.

Both parties to such social interaction are interested in all sorts of areas of each other’s lives, and their relationship is practically unlimited. In other situations, where relationships are strictly determined by social roles (client-employee, buyer-seller, etc.), interaction is carried out exclusively for a specific reason, and the scale of the role is reduced to a small range of issues relevant to the situation, which means it is very very limited.

How to get a role

The method of obtaining a role depends on the general degree of inevitability for a person of a particular role. For example, the role of a young man, a man or an old man will be automatically determined by age and gender, and no effort is required to acquire it, although the problem may lie in the person's conformity to his role, which is a given.

And if we talk about other roles, then sometimes they need to be achieved and even conquered in the process of life, making specific, targeted efforts for this. For example, the role of a professor, specialist or even student needs to be achieved. Most of social roles are associated with people's achievements in professional and other areas.

Degree of formalization of the role

Formalization is a descriptive characteristic of a social role and is defined when one person interacts with others. Some roles may involve the establishment of only formal relationships between people, and are distinguished by specific rules of behavior; others may be based on informal relationships; and the third ones will generally be a combination of the features of the first two.

Agree that the interaction between a law enforcement officer and a police officer should be determined by a set of formal rules, and the relationship between lovers, having messed up, should be based on feelings. This is an indicator of the formalization of social roles.

Type of role motivation

What motivates a social role will depend on each individual's motivations and needs. Different roles will always have different motivations. Thus, when parents care about the welfare of their child, they are guided by feelings of care and love; when a seller seeks to sell a product to a client, his actions may be determined by the desire to increase the organization’s profits and earn his percentage; the role of a person who selflessly helps another will be based on the motives of altruism and performing good deeds, etc.

Social roles are not rigid models of behavior

People can perceive and perform their social roles differently. If a person perceives a social role as a rigid mask, the image of which he must conform to always and everywhere, he can completely break his personality and turn his life into suffering. And this should not be done under any circumstances, besides, a person almost always has the opportunity to choose (unless, of course, the role is determined natural causes, such as gender, age, etc., although these “problems” are now being successfully solved by many people).

Any of us can always master new role, which will affect both the person himself and his life. There is even a special technique for this called image therapy. It means a person “trying on” a new image. However, a person must have the desire to enter a new role. But the most interesting thing is that responsibility for behavior lies not with the person, but with the role that sets new behavioral patterns.

Thus, a person who wants to change begins even in the most familiar and ordinary situations, revealing his hidden potential and achieving new results. All this suggests that people are capable of “making” themselves and building their lives the way they want, regardless of social roles.

QUESTION FOR YOU: Can you say that you know and understand your social roles exactly? I would like you to find a way to develop more more benefits and get rid of shortcomings? With a high degree of probability, we can say that many people will give a negative answer to the first question and a positive answer to the second. If you recognize yourself here, then we invite you to engage in maximum self-knowledge - take our specialized course on self-knowledge, which will allow you to get to know yourself as best as possible and, quite possibly, will tell you about yourself something that you had no idea about. You will find the course at.

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Ticket 8. The concept of social status. Social role

Social status of a person- this is the social position that he occupies in the structure of society, the place that the individual occupies among other individuals.

Each person simultaneously has several social statuses in different social groups.

Types of social status:

Natural status. As a rule, the status received at birth is unchanged: gender, race, nationality, class or estate.

Acquired status. A position in society achieved by a person himself. What a person achieves in the course of his life with the help of knowledge, skills and abilities: profession, position, title.

Prescribed status. The status that a person acquires regardless of his desire (age, status in the family), it can change over the course of his life.

The totality of all the statuses a person has in the world this moment, called status set.

Natural status of personality– significant and relatively stable characteristics of a person: man, woman, child, youth, old man, etc.

Professional and official status is a social indicator that records the social, economic and production position of a person in society. (engineer, chief technologist, workshop manager, HR manager, etc.)

Social role- this is a set of actions that must be performed by a person occupying a given status in social system.

Moreover, each status involves performing not one, but several roles. A set of roles, the fulfillment of which is prescribed by one status, is called role-playing set.

The systematization of social roles was first developed by Parsons, who identified five grounds on which a particular role can be classified:

1. Emotionality. Some roles (for example, nurse, doctor or police officer) require emotional restraint in situations that are usually accompanied by violent expression of feelings (we are talking about illness, suffering, death).

2. Method of receipt. How to get a role:

prescribed (roles of man and woman, young man, old man, child, etc.);

achieved (the role of a schoolchild, student, employee, employee, husband or wife, father or mother, etc.).

3. Scale. By the scale of the role (that is, by the range of possible actions):

broad (the roles of husband and wife involve a huge number of actions and varied behavior);

narrow (roles of seller and buyer: gave money, received goods and change, said “thank you”).

4. Formalization. By level of formalization (officiality):

formal (based on legal or administrative norms: police officer, civil servant, official);

informal (that arose spontaneously: the roles of a friend, “the soul of the party,” a merry fellow).

5. Motivation. By motivation (according to the needs and interests of the individual):

economic (the role of the entrepreneur);

political (mayor, minister);

personal (husband, wife, friend);

spiritual (mentor, educator);

religious (preacher);

The normal structure of a social role usually has four elements:

1) description of the type of behavior corresponding to this role;

2) instructions (requirements) associated with this behavior;

3) assessment of the performance of the prescribed role;

4) sanctions - the social consequences of a particular action within the framework of the requirements of the social system. Social sanctions can be moral in nature, implemented directly by a social group through its behavior (contempt), or legal, political, or environmental.

The same person performs many roles, which may be contradictory and inconsistent with each other, which leads to role conflict.

Social role conflict – it is a contradiction either between normative structures of social roles or between structural elements social role.

A social role is the behavior expected of someone who has a certain social status. Social roles are a set of requirements imposed on an individual by society, as well as actions that a person occupying a given status in the social system must perform. A person can have many roles.

Children's status is usually subordinate to adults, and children are expected to be respectful towards the latter. The status of soldiers is different from that of civilians; The role of soldiers is associated with risk and fulfillment of the oath, which cannot be said about other groups of the population. Women have a different status from men and are therefore expected to behave differently than men. Each individual can have big number 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 responsibilities, then a role is an action within the framework of this set of rights and responsibilities. A social role consists of role expectations (expectation) and the performance of this role (game).

Social roles can be institutionalized or conventional.

Institutionalized: institution of marriage, family (social roles of mother, daughter, wife)

Conventional: accepted by agreement (a person can refuse to accept them)

Cultural norms are learned primarily through role learning. For example, a person who masters the role of a military man becomes familiar with the customs moral standards and laws specific to the status of a given role. Only a few norms are accepted by all members of society; the acceptance of most norms depends on the status of a particular individual. What is acceptable for one status is unacceptable for another. Thus, socialization as the process of learning generally accepted ways and methods of actions and interactions is the most important process of learning role behavior, as a result of which the individual truly becomes a part of society.

Types of social roles

The types of social roles are determined by the variety of social groups, types of activities and relationships in which the individual is included. Depending on social relations, social and interpersonal social roles are distinguished.

Social roles are associated with social status, profession or type of activity (teacher, student, student, salesperson). These are standardized impersonal roles, built on the basis of rights and responsibilities, regardless of who plays these roles. There are socio-demographic roles: 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 at the emotional level (leader, offended, neglected, family idol, loved one, etc.).

In life, in interpersonal relationships, each person acts in some dominant social role, a unique social role as the most typical individual image, familiar to others. Changing a habitual image is extremely difficult 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 group member become to those around them and the more difficult it is to change the behavior pattern habitual to those around them.

Main characteristics of a social role

The main characteristics of a social role are highlighted by American sociologist Talcott Parsons. He suggested the following four characteristics of any role.

By scale. Some roles may be strictly limited, while others may be blurred.

By method of receipt. Roles are divided into prescribed and conquered (they are also called achieved).

According to the degree of formalization. Activities can take place either within strictly established limits or arbitrarily.

By types of motivation. The motivation can be personal profit, public good, etc.

The scope of the role depends on the range of interpersonal relationships. The larger the range, the larger the scale. For example, the social roles of spouses have a very large scale, since the widest range of relationships is established between husband and wife. On the one hand, these are interpersonal relationships based on a variety of feelings and emotions; on the other hand, relations are regulated by regulations and, in a certain sense, are formal. The participants in this social interaction are interested in a variety of aspects of each other’s lives, their relationships are practically unlimited. In other cases, when relationships are strictly defined by social roles (for example, the relationship between a seller and a buyer), interaction can only be carried out for a specific reason (in this case, purchases). Here the scope of the role is limited to a narrow range of specific issues and is small.

The way a role is acquired depends on how inevitable the role is for the person. Thus, the roles of a young man, an old man, a man, a woman are automatically determined by the age and gender of a person and do not require special efforts to acquire them. There can only be a problem of compliance with one’s role, which already exists as a given. Other roles are achieved or even won during the course of a person's life and as a result of targeted special efforts. For example, the role of student, researcher, professor, etc. These are almost all roles related to the profession and any achievements of a person.

Formalization as a descriptive characteristic of a social role is determined by the specifics of interpersonal relationships of the bearer of this role. Some roles involve the establishment of only formal relationships between people with strict regulation of rules of behavior; others, on the contrary, are only informal; still others may combine both formal and informal relationships. It is obvious that the relationship between a traffic police representative and a traffic rule violator should be determined by formal rules, and relationships between close people should be determined by feelings. Formal relationships are often accompanied by informal ones, in which emotionality is manifested, because a person, perceiving and evaluating another, shows sympathy or antipathy towards him. This happens when people have been interacting for a while and the relationship has become relatively stable.

Motivation depends on the needs and motives of a person. Different roles are driven by different motives. Parents, caring for the well-being of their child, are guided primarily by a feeling of love and care; the leader works for the sake of the cause, etc.