The main social roles of a person are examples. Social roles of man in society. Varieties of social statuses

IN scientific literature, and even more so in everyday life, widely use the concepts: “man”, “individual”, “individuality”, “personality”, often making no distinctions, while there is a significant difference between them.

Human- a biosocial being, the highest level of the animal type.

Individual- an individual person.

Individuality- a special combination in a person of the natural and the social, inherent in a specific, single individual, distinguishing him from others. Each person is individual, figuratively speaking, has his own face, which is expressed by the concept of “personality”.

This is a complex concept, the study of which takes place at the intersection of natural and social. Moreover, representatives of different schools and trends view it through the prism of the subject of their science.

Socio-biological school (S. Freud etc.), is associated with the struggle in our minds of unconscious instincts and moral prohibitions dictated by society.
The theory of "mirror self" (C. Cooley, J. Mead), in which “I” is a part of the personality, which consists of self-consciousness and the image of “I”. In accordance with this concept, a personality is formed in the process of its social interaction and reflects a person's ideas about how he is perceived and evaluated by other people. In the course of interpersonal communication, a person creates his mirror self, which consists of three elements:

ideas about how other people perceive it;
ideas about how they evaluate it;
how a person responds to the perceived reaction of other people.

So in theory "mirror self" personality acts as a result of social interaction, during which the individual acquires the ability to evaluate himself from the point of view of other members of this social group.

As you can see, the Meadian concept of personality, in contrast to the theory of Z. Freud, is completely social.

Role theory (J. Moreno, T. Parsons), according to which the personality is a function of the set of social roles that the individual performs in society.
Anthropological School (M. Lundman), which does not separate the concepts of "man" and "personality".
Marxist sociology in the concept of “personality” reflects the social essence of a person as a set of social relations that determine the social, psychological and spiritual qualities of people, socialize their natural and biological properties.
Sociological approach which guides many modern sociologists, is to represent each person as a personality, to the extent of mastering, acquiring social significant features and qualities. These include the level of education and vocational training, a set of knowledge and skills that make it possible to realize various positions and roles in society.

Based on the above theoretical provisions, it is possible to determine personality how individual manifestation of the totality of social relations, the social characteristics of a person.

As an integral social system, a person has its own internal structure, consisting of levels.

biological level includes natural, common in origin personality traits (body structure, age and gender characteristics, temperament, etc.).

Psychological level personality unites its psychological characteristics (feelings, will, memory, thinking). Psychological features are closely related to the heredity of the individual.

Finally, social level of the individual divided into three sublevel:

actually sociological (motives of behavior, interests of the individual, life experience, goals), this sublevel is more closely connected with social consciousness, which is objective in relation to each person, acting as part of social environment as material for individual consciousness;
specific cultural (value and other attitudes, norms of behavior);
moral.

In the study of personality as a subject of social relations, sociologists pay special attention to the internal determinants of its social behavior. These determinants include primarily needs and interests.

Needs- these are those forms of interaction with the world (material and spiritual), the need for which is due to the peculiarities of the reproduction and development of its biological, psychological, social certainty, which are realized, felt by a person in any form.

Interests are the perceived needs of the individual.

The needs and interests of the individual lie at the basis of her value attitude to the world around her, at the basis of her system of values and value orientations.

Some authors in personality structure include and other elements: culture, knowledge, norms, values, activities, beliefs, value orientations and attitudes that make up the core of the individual, act as a regulator of behavior, directing it to the normative framework prescribed by society.

A special place in the structure of personality is occupied by her and the role.

Having matured, a person actively enters, “introduces” himself into social life, trying to take his place in it, to satisfy personal needs and interests. The relationship between the individual and society can be described by the formula: society offers, the individual seeks, chooses his place, trying to realize his interests. At the same time, it shows, proves to society that it is in its place and will perform well a certain role assigned to it.

The social status of the individual

The social functions of the individual and the rights and obligations arising from them in relation to other participants in social interaction determine it. social status, i.e., that set of actions and the corresponding conditions for their execution, which are assigned to a given social status of a person occupying a certain place, position in the social structure. The social status of the individual is a characteristic of social positions, on which it is located in the given social coordinate system.

Society makes sure that the individual regularly performs his roles, social functions. Why endows it with a certain social status. Otherwise, it puts another person in this place, believing that she will better cope with social duties, will bring more benefit to other members of society who play different roles in it.

Social statuses are prescribed(sex, age, nationality) and achieved(student, associate professor, professor).

Achieved statuses are fixed taking into account abilities, achievements, which gives a perspective to everyone. In an ideal society, most statuses are attainable. In reality, it's far from it. Each person has many statuses: father, student, teacher, public figure, etc. Among them, the main one stands out, which is the most important and valuable for society. It matches social prestige this person.

Each status is associated with certain expected behavior in the execution of the corresponding functions. In this case, we are talking about the social role of the individual.

The social role of the individual

social role is a set of features, a more or less well-defined pattern of behavior that is expected of a person, holding a certain status in society. So, a family man plays the role of son, husband, father. At work, he can simultaneously be an engineer, a technologist, a foreman of a production site, a member of a trade union, etc. Of course, not all social roles are equivalent for society and are equivalent for an individual. Family, professional, and socio-political roles should be singled out as the main ones. Thanks to their timely development and successful implementation by members of society, the normal functioning of the social organism is possible.

To each man have to perform and many situational roles. By entering the bus, we become passengers and are obliged to follow the rules of conduct in public transport. Having finished the trip, we turn into pedestrians and follow the rules of the street. In the reading room and in the store, we behave differently, because the role of the buyer and the role of the reader are different. Deviations from the requirements of the role, violations of the rules of behavior are fraught with backfire for a person.

The social role is not a rigid model of behavior. People perceive and perform their roles differently. However, society is interested in people to master, skillfully perform and enrich social roles in accordance with the requirements of life in a timely manner. First of all, this applies to the main roles: worker, family man, citizen, etc. this case the interests of society coincide with the interests of the individual. FROM social roles - forms of manifestation and development of personality and their successful implementation is the key to human happiness. It is easy to see that truly happy people have good family successfully fulfill their professional responsibilities. They take a conscious part in the life of society, in state affairs. As for the company of friends, leisure activities and hobbies, they enrich life, but are not able to compensate for failures in the implementation of basic social roles.

Social conflicts

However, it is not at all easy to achieve harmony of social roles in human life. This requires great efforts, time, abilities, as well as the ability to resolve conflicts that arise in the performance of social roles. These could be intra-role, inter-role And personality-role.

To intra-role conflicts are those in which the requirements of one role contradict, oppose each other. Mothers, for example, are prescribed not only kind, affectionate treatment of their children, but also demanding, strictness towards them. It is not easy to combine these prescriptions when a beloved child has been guilty and deserves punishment.

Interrole conflicts arise when the requirements of one role contradict, oppose the requirements of another role. A striking illustration of this conflict is the dual employment of women. The workload of family women in social production and in everyday life often does not allow them to fully and without harm to health perform their professional duties and housework, be a charming wife and caring mother. There are many ideas about how to resolve this conflict. The most realistic at the present time and in the foreseeable future seem to be a relatively even distribution of household chores among family members and a reduction in the employment of women in social production (part-time work, a week, the introduction of a flexible schedule, the spread of home work, etc.). . P.).

Student life, contrary to popular belief, is also not complete without role conflicts. To master the chosen profession, to receive education, a focus on educational and scientific activities is required. At the same time, a young person needs a variety of communication, free time for other activities and hobbies, without which it is impossible to form a full-fledged personality, create a family. The situation is complicated by the fact that neither education nor diverse socializing can be postponed to a later date without prejudice to personality formation and professional training.

Personal-role conflicts arise in situations where the requirements of a social role contradict the properties and life aspirations of the individual. Thus, a social role requires from a person not only extensive knowledge, but also good willpower, energy, and the ability to communicate with people in various, including critical, situations. If a specialist lacks these qualities, then he cannot cope with his role. The people on this occasion say: "Not for Senka hat."

Each person included in the system of social relations has countless social connections, is endowed with many statuses, performs a whole set of different roles, is the bearer of certain ideas, feelings, character traits, etc. It is almost impossible to take into account the entire variety of properties of each individual, but in this is not necessary. In sociology essential not individual, but social properties and personality traits, i.e. qualities, that many individuals have under similar, objective conditions. Therefore, for the convenience of studying individuals who have a set of recurring essential social qualities, they are typologized, that is, they are attributed to a certain social type.

Social personality type- a generalized reflection, a set of recurring social qualities inherent in many individuals who are part of any social community. For example, European, Asian, Caucasian types; students, workers, veterans, etc.

Typology of personalities can be carried out for various reasons. For example, by profession or type of activity: miner, farmer, economist, lawyer; by territorial affiliation or way of life: city dweller, village dweller, northerner; by gender and age: boys, girls, pensioners; according to the degree of social activity: leader (leader, activist), follower (performer), etc.

In sociology, there are modal,basic and ideal personality types. Modal called the average personality type, which actually prevails in a given society. Under basic is understood as the type of personality that best meets the needs of the development of society. Ideal personality type is not tied to specific conditions and is considered as a model of the personality of the future.

A great contribution was made to the development of the social typology of personality American sociologist and psychologist E. Fromm(1900-1980), who created the concept of social character. By E. Fromm's definition, social character is the core of the character structure, common to most members of a particular culture. E. Fromm saw the importance of the social character in the fact that it allows you to most effectively adapt to the requirements of society and gain a sense of security and security. According to E. Fromm, classical capitalism is characterized by such features of a social character as individualism, aggressiveness, and the desire for accumulation. In modern bourgeois society, a social character is emerging, oriented towards mass consumption and marked by a feeling of satiety, boredom and preoccupation. Accordingly, E. Fromm singled out fourtype of social character:receptive(passive), exploitative, accumulative And market He considered all these types to be unfruitful and opposed them with the social character of a new type, which contributes to the formation of an independent, independent and active personality.

In modern sociology, the allocation of personality types depending on the their value orientations.

Traditionalists are mainly focused on the values of duty, order, discipline, law-abidingness, and such qualities as independence and the desire for self-realization are very weakly expressed in this type of personality.
Idealists, on the contrary, have strong independence, a critical attitude towards traditional norms, attitudes towards self-development, and neglect of authorities.
Realists combine the desire for self-realization with a developed sense of duty and responsibility, healthy skepticism with self-discipline and self-control.

They show that the specificity of relations in various spheres of public life stimulates the manifestation of certain personal qualities and types of behavior. So, market relations contribute to the development of entrepreneurship, pragmatism, cunning, prudence, the ability to present oneself; interactions in the sphere of production form egoism, careerism and forced cooperation, and in the sphere of family and personal life - emotionality, cordiality, affection, the search for harmony.

Relationship, interdependence of the individual and society

Consider the different concepts presented by M. Weber and K. Marx.

M. Weber sees in the role of the subject of public life only certain individuals that act intelligently. And such social totalities as “classes”, “society”, “state”, in his opinion, are entirely abstract and cannot be subjected to social analysis.

Another solution to this problem is the theory K. Marx. In his understanding, the subjects of social development are social formations of several levels: humanity, classes, nations, the state, the family and the individual. The movement of society is carried out as a result of the actions of all these subjects. However, they are by no means equivalent and the strength of their influence varies depending on historical conditions. In different epochs, such a subject is put forward as a decisive one, which is the main driving force of this historical period.

Nevertheless, it must be borne in mind that in Marx's concept, all subjects of social development act in line with the objective laws of the development of society. They can neither change these laws nor repeal them. Their subjective activity either helps these laws to operate freely and thereby accelerates social development, or prevents them from operating and then slows down the historical process.

How is the problem of interest to us represented in this theory: the individual and society. We see that the individual here is recognized as the subject of social development, although it is not brought to the fore and does not fall into the number of driving forces of social progress. According to Marx's concept, personality Not only subject, but also society object. It is not an abstract inherent in the individual. In its reality it is the totality of all social relations. The development of an individual is conditioned by the development of all other individuals with whom he is in direct or indirect communication; it cannot be divorced from the history of previous and contemporary individuals. Thus, the vital activity of the individual in the concept of Marx is comprehensively determined by society in the form of the social conditions of its existence, the legacy of the past, the objective laws of history, etc., although there is still some space for its social action. According to Marx, history is nothing but the activity of a man pursuing his goals.

And now let's get back to reality, the life of modern Russians in the 21st century. The Soviet totalitarian state collapsed. New social conditions and values emerged. And it turned out that many people cannot perceive them, master them, assimilate them, find their own. new way at such a difficult time. Hence the social pathologies that are now the pain of our society - crime, alcoholism, drug addiction, suicide.

Obviously, time will pass and people will learn to live in new social conditions, to seek and find the meaning of life, but this requires the experience of freedom. She gave rise to a vacuum of existence, breaking traditions, estates, and so on, and she will also teach how to fill it. In the West, people are already making some progress in this direction - they have studied longer. Very interesting ideas on this subject are expressed by the Austrian scientist Dr. V. Frankl. He believes that it is natural for a person to strive to ensure that his life is meaningful. If there is no meaning, this is the most difficult state of the individual. There is no common meaning of life for all people, it is unique for everyone. The meaning of life, according to Frankl, cannot be invented, invented; it must be found, it exists objectively outside of man. The tension that arises between a person and an external meaning is a normal, healthy state of the psyche.

Despite the fact that the meaning of each life is unique, there are not so many ways in which a person can make his life meaningful: what we give to life (in the sense of our creative work); what we take from the world (in terms of experiences, values); what position do we take in relation to fate if we cannot change it. In accordance with this, three groups of values can be distinguished: the values of creativity, the values of experiences and the values of relationships. The realization of values (or at least one of them) can help make sense of human life. If a person does something beyond the prescribed duties, brings something of his own to work, then this is already a meaningful life. However, the meaning of life can also be given by an experience, for example, love. Even a single brightest experience will make the past life meaningful. But deeper is the third group of values - the values of attitude. A person is forced to resort to them when he cannot change the circumstances, when he falls into extreme situation(hopelessly ill, deprived of freedom, lost a loved one, etc.). Under any circumstances, a person can take a meaningful position, because a person's life retains its meaning to the end.

The conclusion can be drawn quite optimistic: despite the spiritual crisis in many people modern world, a way out of this state will still be found as people master new free forms of life, opportunities for self-realization of their abilities, achievement of life goals.

Personal self-realization, as a rule, occurs not in one, but in several types of activity. except professional activity, most people strive to create a strong family, have good friends, interesting hobbies, etc. All the various activities and goals together create a kind of long-term orientation system for the individual. Based on this perspective, the individual chooses the appropriate life strategy (the general direction of the life path).

Life strategies can be divided into three main types:

life well-being strategy - the desire to create favorable living conditions, earn another million;
life success strategy - the desire to get the next position, the next title, conquer the next peak, etc .;
strategy of life self-realization - the desire to maximize their abilities in certain activities.

The choice of a particular life strategy depends on three main factors:

objective social conditions that society (the state) can provide to the individual for its self-realization;
belonging of an individual to a particular social community (class, ethnic group, social stratum, etc.);
socio-psychological qualities of the personality itself.

For example, most members of a traditional or crisis society, in which the problem of survival is the main one, are forced to adhere to a strategy of well-being. IN democratic society with developed market relations the most popular is life success strategy. In a social society(state), in which the overwhelming majority of citizens have solved the main social problems, it can be very attractive life self-realization strategy.

A life strategy can be chosen by an individual once and for life, or it can change depending on certain circumstances. So, the individual has fully implemented the strategy of life success and decided to focus on a new strategy, or the individual is forced to abandon the previously chosen strategy (a scientist who has lost his job, a bankrupt businessman, a retired military man, etc.).

Interacting with society, each person performs a large number of social roles.

understanding, acceptance public "rules of the game"- an important way of self-awareness of the individual, the choice of an effective strategy for existence.

But the incompatibility of different role settings can cause conflicts and even tragedy for a person.

How to determine the social age of a person? Learn about it from ours.

Concept in psychology

Human community, society - complex combination of rules and relationships, the established system , traditions and .

In this system, per person, as a participant in the life of a social group, There are certain expectations: how exactly he should behave in one capacity or another in order to correspond to the prevailing ideas of people about the positive, correct, successful.

The primary definition of "social role" almost simultaneously, but independently of each other, was proposed in the first half of the 20th century by American scientists - anthropologist, sociologist Ralph Linton and philosopher-psychologist George Herbert Mead.

Linton presented the social role as a system of norms and rules given to a person by society. mid- as a publicly or tacitly established social game, being included in which, a person learns the laws of society and becomes its "cell".

With all the difference in definitions, they subsequently formed general concept, in which the social role is "splice" of the individual and society, the combination in human behavior of manifestations of a purely individual and formed under the influence of society.

Social role - the expectations of the society that a person, as a carrier of some kind of social, will behave in a certain way.

Classification: list

Since the life and functionality of a person among their own kind are diverse, then the classifications of roles in society lots of.

roles, determining the place of the individual in a complex hierarchy of human contacts:

by gender- women's, men's;
by professional affiliation;
by age child, adult, elderly person.

Relationships between people can also be described as social roles:

husband, wife, mother, father ();
leader, leader, leader;
outcast, outcast, outsider;
everyone's favorite, etc.

A person in a social system is a "performer" of many social roles. They can be distributed officially, consciously, or arise spontaneously, depending on the development of a particular life situation.

For example, regulations adopted in the working organization, will dictate certain rules of the game to its employees.

Each everyday situation makes a person a participant in numerous "human games", already colored by the formed expectations of society.

Species and types

The first systematization of social roles belongs to one of the founders of modern sociology, an American Talcott Parsons.

Any role of an individual in society, the sociologist argued, can be succinctly described by just five main characteristics:

Absolutely any role of a person in society can be described in detail using the listed characteristics.

Real life examples

Societal conformity training norms, stereotypes(game rules) starts with early childhood person:

People, knowing about the status in society of this or that person, present a certain set, expected set of requirements for his behavior.

Society already has long established standards successfully or, on the contrary, poorly executed social model of behavior for a particular case.

Although, of course, a person has freedom in relation to his "social game". As a result, each individual is free to fulfill a social role (or completely reject it) in accordance with his own concepts and ideas about life, individual characteristics.

What are they connected with?

"Standard" set of roles associated with the main areas of human life in society.

In psychology, social and interpersonal types of roles are distinguished.

Social are associated with a certain set of rights and obligations expected from a person, which, in the understanding of society, this status imposes on him:

social status;
professional affiliation, type of activity;
gender, etc.

interpersonal roles are individual and are made up of specific relationships in a couple, group, community of people (for example, a common pet in a family).

Since each individual is a “carrier” of a large number of social roles associated with one status, the concept of a role set (complex) has been singled out in psychology.

Inside the complex is divided typical social roles of the individual and those that arise depending on the situation.

to the typical basic social roles include those that form the backbone of an individual's personality:

Unlike basic (permanent) social roles situational arise spontaneously and end with a change in the "plot".

So, for example, within one day a person manages to be a passenger, driver, buyer, pedestrian.

Theory

George Meade, one of the founders of the role theory, was the first to show in his works the process of self-awareness by an individual, which occurs precisely in interaction with society.

Self-awareness is initially absent from the baby. Communicating within his social group (usually, family), the child tries on the “ready-made” roles of its participants offered to him.

He faces daily ready models and learns how mother and father behave towards each other, how they communicate with friends, neighbors, work colleagues, other family members, with him personally.

This is how he gets the first experience of social contacts. "Trying on" offered to him stereotypes of behavior, the child begins to realize himself as a member of society (social subject).

This is how personality develops playing some roles.

Meade claimed that "role entity"- the main mechanism of personality, the backbone of its structure.

Human actions are associated primarily with the social attitudes he has learned, as well as the expectations of society and the individual himself to obtain a specific result from the performance of a particular role in society.

How to define yours?

It is very easy to define your social roles. It is enough to “fit” yourself into the existing system of your own relationships with society.

The social role of a person exists where he has duties(society's expectations) to behave in a certain way:

Often to perform different roles from a person requires a constant change of behavior patterns.

Expectations that a person will successfully fulfill several social roles, the requirements of which contradict each other, lead to a situation that has received the name in psychology.

For an adult member of society set of dominant social roles(the way he does them) is already formed. Their totality constitutes a kind of public "dossier" of a person, his individual, but for those around him - a typical and familiar (expected, predictable) image.

Social roles of people:

Each person living in a society is included in many different social groups (family, study group, friendly company, etc.). In each of these groups, he occupies a certain position, has a certain status, he is presented with certain requirements. Thus, one and the same person must behave in one situation like a father, in another - like a friend, in a third - like a boss, i.e. act in different roles. Social role - a way of behavior of people in accordance with accepted standards, depending on their status or position in society, in the system interpersonal relationships. The development of social roles is part of the process of socialization of the individual, an indispensable condition for the "growing" of a person into a society of his own kind. Socialization is the process and result of the assimilation and active reproduction of social experience by an individual, carried out in communication and activity. Examples of social roles are also gender roles (male or female behavior), professional roles. Observing social roles, a person learns social standards of behavior, learns to evaluate himself from the outside and exercise self-control. However, since in real life a person is included in many activities and relationships, forced to perform different roles, the requirements for which may be contradictory, there is a need for some mechanism that would allow a person to maintain the integrity of his "I" in the conditions of multiple connections with the world (i.e. remain himself playing different roles). A personality (or rather, a formed substructure of orientation) is just that mechanism, a functional organ that allows you to integrate your "I" and your own life, to carry out a moral assessment of your actions, to find your place not only in a separate social group, but also in life. in general, to work out the meaning of one's existence, to refuse one in favor of the other. Thus, a developed personality can use role-playing behavior as a tool for adapting to certain social situations, while at the same time not merging, not identifying with the role. The main components of the social role constitute a hierarchical system in which three levels can be distinguished. The first is peripheral attributes, i.e. such, the presence or absence of which does not affect either the perception of the role by the environment, or its effectiveness (for example, the civil status of a poet or a doctor). The second level involves those attributes of the role that affect both perception and its effectiveness (for example, long hair in a hippie or poor health in an athlete). At the top of the three-level gradation are the attributes of the role, which are decisive for the formation of a person's identity. The role concept of personality originated in the American social psychology in the 30s of the XX century. (C. Cooley, J. Mead) and became widespread in various sociological currents, primarily in structural-functional analysis. T. Parsons and his followers consider personality as a function of the multitude of social roles that are inherent in any individual in a particular society. Charles Cooley believed that personality is formed on the basis of many interactions of people with the outside world. In the process of these interactions, people create their "mirror self", which consists of three elements: 1. how we think others perceive us ("I'm sure people pay attention to my new hairstyle"); 2. how we think they react to 3. what they see ("I'm sure they like my new hairstyle"); 4. how we respond to the perceived reaction of others ("Apparently, I will always comb my hair like this"). This theory places importance on our interpretation of the thoughts and feelings of others. American psychologist George Herbert Mead went further in his analysis of the process of development of our "I". Like Cooley, he believed that the "I" is a social product, formed on the basis of relationships with other people. In the beginning, as young children, we are unable to explain to ourselves the motives behind the behavior of others. Having learned to comprehend their behavior, children thus take the first step in life. Having learned to think about themselves, they can think about others; the child begins to acquire a sense of his "I". According to Mead, the process of personality formation includes three distinct stages. The first is imitation. At this stage, children copy the behavior of adults without understanding it. Then follows the game stage, when children understand behavior as the performance of certain roles: a doctor, a firefighter, a race car driver, etc.; in the course of the game they reproduce these roles.

The social role is a socially necessary kind social activities and method of personal behavior. The concept of a social role was first proposed by American sociologists Mead and Linton back in the thirties of the last century.

The main types of social roles

The diversity of social groups and relations in their groups, as well as types of activities, became the basis for the classification of social statuses. Currently, there are types of social roles, such as: formal, interpersonal and socio-demographic. Formal social roles are related to the position that a person occupies in society. This refers to his occupation and profession. But interpersonal roles are directly related to different types of relationships. This category usually includes favorites, outcasts, leaders. As for socio-demographic roles, these are husband, son, sister, etc.

Characteristics of social roles

The American sociologist Talcott Parsons identified the main characteristics of social roles. These include: scale, method of obtaining, emotionality, motivation and formalization. As a rule, the scale of the role is determined by the range of interpersonal relationships. There is a directly proportional relationship here. For example, the social roles of husband and wife are very significant because a wide range of relationships are established between them.

If we talk about the method of obtaining a role, it depends on the inevitability of this role for the individual. Thus, the roles of a young man or an old man do not require any effort to acquire them. They are determined by the age of the person. And other social roles can be won during life when certain conditions are met.

Social roles can also differ in terms of emotionality. Each role has its own expression of emotions. Also, some roles involve the establishment of formal relationships between people, others - informal, and still others can combine those and other relationships.

Motivation depends on the needs and motives of a person. Different social roles may be due to certain motives. For example, when parents take care of their child, they are guided by a sense of care and love for him. The leader works for the benefit of some enterprise. It is also known that all social roles can be subject to public evaluation.

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The social role in the most common sense is the behavior of people occupying a certain position in society. In fact, this is a set of requirements that society puts before a person, and the actions that he must perform. And even one person can have quite a lot of social roles.

In addition to this, each person can have and big amount statuses, and the surrounding people, in turn, have every right to expect from others the proper performance of their social roles. Seen from this point of view, social role and status are two sides of the same “coin”: if status is a set of special rights, duties and privileges, then a role is actions within this set.

The social role includes:

Role expectation
Role play

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

As a rule, cultural norms are assimilated by a person through, and only a few norms are accepted by society as a whole. The acceptance of a role depends on the status that this or that person occupies. What may be perfectly normal for one status may be completely unacceptable for another. Based on this, socialization can be called one of the fundamental processes of learning role-playing 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 multitude 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. Such roles can be the roles of husband, wife, son, daughter, grandson, etc. These are socio-demographic roles. The roles of a man and a woman are biologically defined roles that involve specific behavioral patterns fixed by society and culture.

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

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

Basic characteristics of social roles

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

Role scale
How to get a role
The degree of formalization of the role
Type of role motivation

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

Role scale

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

Both sides of such social interaction are interested in every possible sphere of each other's life, and their relationship is practically unlimited. In other situations, where relationships are strictly determined by social roles (client-employee, buyer-seller, etc.), the interaction is carried out exclusively for a specific reason, and the scale of the role is reduced to a small circle of questions relevant to the situation, which means that 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 particular role for a person. 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 conformity of a person 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, a specialist or even a student must be achieved. Most of the social roles are associated with the achievements of people in the professional and other fields.

The degree of formalization of the role

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

Agree that the interaction of a violator of law and order and a policeman 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 the motives of each individual and his needs. Different roles will always be driven by different motives. Thus, when parents look after the welfare of their child, they are guided by feelings of care and love; when a seller seeks to sell a product to a customer, his actions may be determined by the desire to increase the profits of the organization and earn his percentage; the role of a person who selflessly helps another will be based on the motives of altruism and good deeds, etc.

Social roles are not rigid patterns of behavior

People can perceive and perform their social roles differently. If a social role is perceived by a person 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 in no case should this be done, besides, a person almost always has the opportunity to choose (unless, of course, the role is due to natural reasons, such as gender, age, etc., although these “problems” by many people now successfully solved).

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 implies a “trying on” a new image by a person. However, a person must have the desire to enter a new role. But the most interesting thing is that the 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 able to “make” themselves and build their lives the way they want, regardless of social roles.

QUESTION TO YOU: Can you say that you know and understand your social roles exactly? Would you like to find a way to develop even more advantages in yourself and get rid of disadvantages? 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 suggest you do maximum self-knowledge - take our specialized self-knowledge course, which will allow you to know yourself as best as possible and, quite likely, tell you something about yourself that you had no idea about. You can find the course at

We wish you successful self-discovery!