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8 Status, Roles

The document discusses social structure, emphasizing the interrelation of social institutions such as family, economy, and education in shaping societal organization. It elaborates on the concepts of status, including achieved and ascribed statuses, as well as the role expectations associated with these statuses, highlighting role conflict and role strain. Overall, it illustrates how individuals navigate their various social positions and the complexities of their roles within society.

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62 views16 pages

8 Status, Roles

The document discusses social structure, emphasizing the interrelation of social institutions such as family, economy, and education in shaping societal organization. It elaborates on the concepts of status, including achieved and ascribed statuses, as well as the role expectations associated with these statuses, highlighting role conflict and role strain. Overall, it illustrates how individuals navigate their various social positions and the complexities of their roles within society.

Uploaded by

aqeelshahid73
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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{ Sociology

M. Uzair
DGS, PU
Today’s Agenda

 What is Social structure?


 Status
• (Achieved Status, Ascribed Status, Status Set)
 Roles
• (Role set, Role conflict, Role strain)
Social Structure
Society includes our social institutions, the major social
organizations formed to meet our human needs. The family,
medical system, military, religious system, political
system, economy and educational system are all examples
of social institutions.

Many introductory sociology textbooks have chapters that


discuss these institutions separately, explaining how
sociologists apply their theoretical perspectives and
research skills to each of these aspects of society. All of
these social institutions are interrelated. Together, they
comprise a society’s social structure, the way a society is
organized around the regulated ways people interrelate and
organize social life.
Cont…

What happens in the economy, for example, impacts


all other institutions to some extent. If the economy
takes a downturn, large numbers of people have might
trouble supporting their families and paying for
medical care or college. They might vote a new
political candidate into office. Military recruitment and
retention rates might increase because people are
unable to find civilian-sector jobs. The
interconnections go on and on.
Status
Status is central to social interaction and social
structure. To sociologists, statuses are established social
positions or a social position that a person holds. Unlike
popular usage of the term, having “status” in
sociological terms does not equate to prestige. To
sociologists, everyone has status, although some do
have higher status than others as judged by society.

The different statuses in a medical clinic, for example,


include physician, nurse, lab technicians, janitorial
staff and patient. In this setting, the relationships
between these positions are socially defined, with the
doctor having the greatest power and prestige.
Achieved or Ascribed Status
Statuses are obtained in different ways. They can be
either achieved or ascribed.

 Achieved statuses are those positions acquired through


personal effort. Being a law-school student, architect,
parent, square dance or shoplifter are all achieved
statuses. Individuals had to do something to become
each of these things.

 Ascribed statuses are positions involuntarily acquired


through birth. Being a female, a toddler, a son, a
brother, or a princess are all ascribed statuses.
Achieved or Ascribed Status
Status Set
Collectively, all the statuses a person holds at once comprise
his or her status set. Each of the people in the clinic holds
a number of different statuses at the same time. The
doctor may also be a daughter, wife, mother, member of
the garden club and civic-league president.

This status set changes frequently over a person’s


lifetime. Continuing with the doctor as an example, her
status set changed when she moved from being a medical
student to a doctor. It changed when she married and
would change again if she were to divorce or be
widowed. She could remove or add statuses from her set
by resigning from the civic league or running for political
office.
Status Set

Status Set
Roles
Roles, like statuses, are also central to social interaction
and social structure. The two concepts of status and role
go hand in hand. A role is a behavior expected of someone in
a particular status.

Using the status of the doctor from the examples above, a


number of role expectations can be identified. Doctors
should come to work. They should examine patients
competently and discuss their concerns. They should
prescribe medicine lawfully. All of these examples
illustrate how we expect doctors to act. These roles
together illustrate a role set, all of the roles that go with a
single status.
Role Conflict

Role Conflict: People in modern, high-income


nations juggle many responsibilities demanded by
their various statuses and roles. As most mothers
(and more and more fathers) can testify, the
combination of parenting and working outside the
home is physically and emotionally draining.

Sociologists thus recognize role conflict as conflict


among the roles connected to two or more statuses.
Role Conflict

Role Conflict Role Conflict


Role Strain
Role strain occurs when two or more roles associated with a
single status are in conflict. A college professor may enjoy
being friendly with students. At the same time, however,
the professor must maintain the personal distance needed
to evaluate students fairly. In short, performing the
various roles attached to even one status can be something
of a balancing act.

One strategy for minimizing role conflict is separating


parts of our lives so that we perform roles for one status at
one time and place and carry out roles connected to
another status in a completely different setting. A familiar
example of this idea is deciding to “leave the job at work”
before heading home to the family.
Role Strain

Role Strain

Role Strain
Role Conflict & Role Strain
Thank You

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