Describe social roles. What is a social role and its significance for a person. Signs of a social role

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Social role- a model of human behavior, objectively set 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 holding a certain status". Modern society requires the individual to constantly change the model of behavior to perform specific roles. In this regard, such neo-Marxists and neo-Freudians as T. Adorno, K. Horney and others made a paradoxical conclusion in their works: 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 widely used.

Irving Hoffman, in his studies of interaction rituals, accepting and developing the basic theatrical metaphor, paid attention not so much to role instructions and passive adherence to them, but to the processes of active construction and maintenance of the “appearance” in the course of communication, to areas of uncertainty and ambiguity in interaction , mistakes in the behavior of partners.

Types of social roles

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

§ Social roles associated with social status, profession or type of activity (teacher, pupil, student, seller). These are standardized impersonal roles based on rights and obligations, regardless of who fills these roles. Allocate socio-demographic roles: husband, wife, daughter, son, grandson ... Man and woman are also social roles, biologically predetermined and involving specific ways of behavior, enshrined in social norms and customs.

§ Interpersonal Roles associated with interpersonal relationships, which are regulated by emotional level(leader, offended, neglected, family idol, loved one, etc.).

In life, in interpersonal relations, each person acts in some kind of dominant social role, a kind of social role as the most typical individual image familiar to others. It is extremely difficult to change the habitual image both for the person himself and for the perception of the people around him. The longer the group exists, the more familiar the dominant social roles of each member of the group become for others and the more difficult it is to change the stereotype of behavior familiar to others.

[edit] Characteristics of the social role

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

§ Scale. Some roles may be strictly limited, while others may be blurred.

§ By way of getting. Roles are divided into prescribed and conquered (they are also called achieved).

§ According to the degree of formalization. Activities can proceed both within strictly established limits, and arbitrarily.

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

Role scale depends on the range interpersonal relationships. The larger the range, the larger the scale. So, for example, the social roles of spouses have a very large scale, since a wide 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 interested in the most different aspects of each other's lives, their relationship is practically unlimited. In other cases, when the relationship is strictly defined by social roles (for example, the relationship of the seller and the buyer), the interaction can be carried out only on a specific occasion (in this case, purchases). Here the scope of the role is reduced to a narrow range of specific issues and is small.

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

Formalization as a descriptive characteristic of a social role is determined by the specifics of interpersonal relations of the bearer of this role. Some roles involve the establishment of only formal relations between people with strict regulation of the rules of conduct; others, on the contrary, are only informal; still others may combine both formal and informal relationships. Obviously, the relationship of a traffic police representative with a violator of traffic rules 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 interact for a while and the relationship becomes relatively stable.

Motivation depends on the needs and motives of the person. Different roles are due to different motives. Parents, caring for the welfare of their child, are guided primarily by a feeling of love and care; the leader works in the name of the cause, etc.

[edit] Role conflicts

Role conflicts arise when the duties of the role are not fulfilled due to subjective reasons (unwillingness, inability).

Motivation is divided into externally organized and internally organized (or, as Western psychologists write, external and internal). The first is connected with the influence on the formation of the motive of the action or act of other people by the subject (with the help of advice, suggestion, etc.). How this intervention will be perceived by the subject depends on the degree of his suggestibility, conformity and negativism.

Suggestibility- this is the tendency of the subject to uncritical (involuntary) compliance with the influences of other people, their advice, instructions, even if they contradict his own beliefs and interests.

This is an unconscious change in one's behavior under the influence of suggestion. Suggestible subjects are easily infected by the moods, attitudes and habits of other people. They are often imitative. Suggestibility depends both on the stable properties of a person - a high level of neuroticism, weakness nervous system(Yu. E. Ryzhkin, 1977), and from his situational states - anxiety, self-doubt, or emotional arousal.

Suggestibility is influenced by such personality traits as low self-esteem and a sense of inferiority, humility and devotion, an undeveloped sense of responsibility, timidity and shyness, gullibility, increased emotionality and impressionability, dreaminess, superstition and faith, a tendency to fantasize, unstable beliefs and uncritical thinking ( N. N. Obozov, 1997, etc.).

Increased suggestibility is typical for children, especially 10 years of age. This is explained by the fact that they still have poorly developed critical thinking, which reduces the degree of suggestibility. True, at the age of 5 and after 10, especially among older students, a decrease in suggestibility is noted (A.I. Zakharov (1998), see Fig. 9.1). By the way, the latter was noted in older adolescents as early as late XIX V. A. Binet (1900) and A. Nechaev (1900).

The degree of suggestibility of women is higher than that of men (V. A. Petrik, 1977; L. Levenfeld, 1977).

Another stable characteristic of personality is conformity, the beginning of the study of which was laid by S. Asch (S. Asch, 1956).

Conformity- this is a person's tendency to voluntarily consciously (arbitrarily) change their expected reactions in order to get closer to the reaction of others due to the recognition of their greater rightness. At the same time, if the intention or social attitudes that a person had coincide with those of those around him, then there is no question of conformity.

The concept of "conformity" in Western psychological literature has many meanings. For example, R. Crutchfield (R. Crutchfield, 1967) speaks of "internal conformity", which is close to suggestibility by description.

Conformity is also called intragroup suggestion or suggestibility (note that some authors, for example, A. E. Lichko et al. (1970) do not equate suggestibility and conformity, noting the lack of dependence between them and the difference in the mechanisms of their manifestation). Other researchers distinguish two types of conformity: "acceptance", when the individual's views, attitudes, and corresponding behavior change, and "consent", when a person follows the group without sharing its opinion (in domestic science this is called conformity). If a person is inclined to constantly agree with the opinion of the group, he is a conformist; if he tends to disagree with the opinion imposed on him, then - to non-conformists (according to the data of foreign psychologists, about a third of people belong to the latter).

Distinguish between external and internal conformity. In the first case, a person returns to his former opinion as soon as the group pressure on him disappears. With internal conformity, he retains the accepted group opinion even after the pressure from outside has ceased.

The degree of subordination of a person to a group depends on many external (situational) and internal (personal) factors, which (mostly external) were systematized by A.P. Sopikov (1969). These include:

Age and sex differences: there are more conformists among children and young men than among adults (the maximum of conformity is noted at 12 years old, its noticeable decrease after 1-6 years of age); women are more susceptible to group pressure than men;

The difficulty of the problem being solved: the more difficult it is, the more the person submits to the group; the more complex the task and the more ambiguous the decisions made, the higher the conformity;

The status of a person in a group: the higher it is, the less this person shows conformity;

The nature of the group affiliation: the subject entered the group of his own free will or under duress; in the latter case, his psychological submission is often only superficial;

The attractiveness of the group for the individual: the subject lends itself more easily to the reference group;

Goals facing a person: if his group competes with another group, the conformity of the subject increases; if members of the group compete with each other, it decreases (the same is observed when defending a group or personal opinion);

The presence and effectiveness of a connection confirming the correctness or infidelity of a person's conforming actions: when an action is wrong, a person can return to his point of view.

With pronounced conformism, a person’s decisiveness increases when making a decision and forming intentions, but at the same time, the feeling of his individual responsibility for an act committed together with others weakens. This is especially noticeable in groups that are socially not mature enough.

Although the influence of situational factors often prevails over the role individual differences, yet there are people who are easily persuaded in any situation (S. Hovland, I. Janis, 1959; I. Janis, P. Field, 1956).

Such people have certain personality traits. It has been revealed, for example, that the most conforming children suffer from an "inferiority complex" and lack "ego strength" (Hartup, 1970). They tend to be more dependent and anxious than their peers and are sensitive to the opinions and hints of others. Children with such personality traits tend to constantly control their behavior and speech, that is, they have high level self-control. They care about how they look in the eyes of others, they often compare themselves with their peers.

According to F. Zimbardo (P. Zimbardo, 1977), shy people who have low self-esteem are easily persuaded. It is no coincidence, therefore, that a connection has been found between a person's low self-esteem and his easy susceptibility to persuasion from the outside (W. McGuiere, 1985). This happens due to the fact that they have little respect for their opinions and attitudes, therefore, they have a weakened motivation to defend their beliefs. They presume they are wrong.

R. Nurmi (R. Nurmi, 1970) cites data according to which rigidity and a weak nervous system are inherent in the conformal.

True, it should be borne in mind in what situation conformity manifests itself - in a normative or informational one. This may also affect her connections with other personality traits. In the information situation, there is a noticeable tendency to link conformity with extraversion (N. N. Obozov, 1997).

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

Human- biosocial being the highest level 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 socially 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 his 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:

proper 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 the 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 underlie its value attitude to the surrounding world, at the heart of the system of its 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 an individual 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. In this case, the interests of society coincide with the interests of the individual. WITH 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 a good family, successfully cope with their professional duties. 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 favorite child guilty and deserves to be punished.

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 present and in the foreseeable future are the relatively even distribution of household chores among family members and the reduction of women's employment 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, it is necessary to focus on the educational and scientific activity. 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 ties, is endowed with many statuses, performs a whole range of different roles, is the bearer of certain ideas, feelings, character traits, etc. It is almost impossible to take into account all the diversity of the 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 professional affiliation 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.

In the development of a social typology of personality huge contribution introduced by 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, in of this type personalities are very weakly expressed.
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 specifics of relations in various fields 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 selfishness, careerism and forced cooperation, and in the sphere of family and personal life- emotionality, cordiality, affection, 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, subjects community development are social education several levels: humanity, classes, nations, state, family and 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 impact 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 new way in such 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. Realization of values (or at least one of them) can help to comprehend 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 meaningful past life. But deeper is the third group of values - the values of attitude. A person is forced to resort to them when he cannot change circumstances, when he finds himself in an extreme situation (hopelessly ill, deprived of liberty, 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, another 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 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.).

Social role functions

In sociology, functions indicate what consequences (for society, its individual members) have actions committed by one or another person.

Personal behavior, priorities and attitudes, choices and emotions are determined by a number of factors:

position in society;
environmental conditions;
the type of activity carried out;
internal qualities of the personality, the spiritual world.

Due to the fact that people need each other to satisfy their individual needs, certain relationships and interactions are established between them. At the same time, each person fulfills his social role.

During life, the individual masters many social roles, which are often forced to play simultaneously. This allows coexistence different people in one society as comfortable and possible as possible.

The social role performs a number of important functions:

Sets certain rules of the game: duties and norms, rights, plots of interaction between roles (boss-subordinate, boss-client, boss-tax inspector, etc.). Social adaptation implies the development and study of the rules of the game - the laws of a given society.
Allows you to realize different sides of your personality. Different roles (friend, parent, boss, public figure etc.) enable a person to show various qualities. The more roles an individual masters, the more multifaceted and rich his personality will become, the better he will understand others.
It makes it possible to manifest and develop the qualities potentially inherent in a person: softness, rigidity, mercy, etc. Only in the process of fulfilling a social role can a person discover his capabilities.
Allows you to explore the resources of the personal capabilities of each person. Teaches to use the best combination of qualities for adequate behavior in a given situation.

Relationship between social role and social status

Social status has an impact on the behavior of the individual. Knowing the social status of a person, one can predict what qualities are characteristic of him, what actions can be expected from him. The expected behavior of an individual associated with his status is called a social role.

Definition 2

A social role is a pattern of behavior that is recognized as the most appropriate for an individual of a given status in society. The role indicates exactly how to act in a given situation.

Any individual is a reflection of the totality of social relations of his historical period.

The social role and social status in communication perform the following functions:

regulatory function - helps to quickly select the necessary interaction scenario without spending large resources;
adaptive function - allows you to quickly find a suitable behavior model when changing social status;
cognitive function - the ability to know your personal potential, to carry out the processes of self-knowledge;
the function of self-realization is the manifestation of the best qualities of a person, the achievement of desired goals.

The process of learning social roles allows you to learn the norms of culture. Each status of this role is characterized by its own norms and laws, customs. Acceptance of most of the norms depends on the status of the individual. Some norms are accepted by all members of society. Those norms and rules that are acceptable for one status may be unacceptable for another. Socialization teaches role behavior, allows the individual to become part of society.

Remark 1

From the many social roles and statuses offered to an individual by society, he can choose those that will most fully help him to apply his abilities and realize his plans. The adoption of a certain social role is greatly influenced by biological and personal characteristics, social conditions. Any social role only outlines the scheme of human behavior, the choice of ways to fulfill the role of the individual chooses himself.

A social role is a certain set of actions or a model of a person's behavior in a social environment, which is determined by his status or position. Depending on the change in the environment (family, work, friends), the social role also changes.

Characteristic

The social role, like any concept in psychology, has its own classification. The American sociologist Talcott Parsons identified several characteristics that could be used in describing the social role of an individual:

Stages of formation

A social role is not created in a minute or overnight. The socialization of the individual must go through several stages, without which normal adaptation in society is simply not possible.

First of all, a person must learn certain basic skills. These include practical skills that we learn from childhood, as well as thinking skills that improve along with getting life experience. The main stages of learning begin and take place in the family.

The next step is education. This is a long process and we can say that it does not end throughout life. Are engaged in education educational establishments, parents, funds mass media and much more. A huge number of factors are involved in this process.

Also, the socialization of the individual is not possible without education. In this process, the main thing is the person himself. It is the individual who consciously chooses the knowledge and skills that he wants to possess.

The following important stages of socialization: protection and adaptation. Protection is a set of processes that are primarily aimed at reducing the significance for the subject of any traumatic factors. A person intuitively tries to protect himself from moral discomfort by resorting to various mechanisms of social protection (denial, aggression, repression, and others). Adaptation is a kind of mimicry process, thanks to which the individual adapts to communicate with other people and maintain normal contacts.

Kinds

Personal socialization is Long procces, during which a person acquires not only his personal experience but also observes the behavior and reactions of the people around him. Naturally, the process of socialization takes place more actively in childhood and youth, when the psyche is most susceptible to influences environment when a person is actively looking for his place in life and himself. However, this does not mean that changes do not occur at an older age. New social roles appear, the environment changes.

Distinguish between primary and secondary socialization. The process of forming the personality itself and its qualities is called primary, and the secondary already refers to professional activity.

Socialization agents are groups of people, individuals who have a direct impact on the search and formation of social roles. They are also called institutions of socialization.

Accordingly, the agents of socialization are primary and secondary. The first group includes family members, friends, team ( kindergarten and schools), as well as many other people who influence the formation of personality throughout their conscious life. They play the most important role in the life of every person. This can be explained not only by the informative and intellectual influence, but also by the emotional underpinnings of such close relationships. It is during this period that those qualities are laid that in the future will influence the conscious choice of secondary socialization.

Parents are considered to be one of the most important agents of socialization. The child, even at an unconscious age, begins to copy the behavior and habits of his parents, becoming like him. Then dad and mom become not only an example, but they themselves actively influence the formation of personality.

Secondary agents of socialization are members of society who participate in the growth and development of a person as a professional. These include employees, managers, customers, and people who are related to the individual in his line of duty.

Processes

Personal socialization is a rather complex process. It is customary for sociologists to separate two phases, which are equally important for the search and formation of each of the social roles.

Social adaptation is a period during which a person gets acquainted with the rules of behavior in society. A person adapts, learns to live according to new laws for him;
The phase of internalization is no less important, since this time is necessary for the full acceptance of new conditions and their inclusion in the value system of each individual. It must be remembered that in this phase there is a denial or leveling of certain old rules and foundations. This inevitable process, since often some norms and roles contradict existing ones.

If at any of the phases there was a “failure”, then role conflicts may appear in the future. This is due to the inability or unwillingness of the individual to fulfill his chosen role.

Some people confuse this concept with status. But these terms mean completely different manifestations. The concept of role was introduced by psychologist T. Parsons. K. Horney and I. Hoffman used it in their works. They revealed the characteristics of the concept in more detail and conducted interesting research.

Social role - what is it?

According to the definition, a social role is a behavior that society has found acceptable for people in a particular status. The social roles of a person change, depending on who he is in this moment. Society prescribes a son or daughter to behave in one way than, say, a worker, mother or woman.

What is meant by social role?

Behavioral reactions of a person, his speech, actions, deeds.
The appearance of the individual. He, too, must comply with the norms of society. A man dressed in a dress or a skirt in a number of countries will be perceived negatively, evenly, just like the head of the office, who comes to work in a dirty robe.
Individual motivation. The environment approves and reacts negatively not only to a person's behavior, but also to his inner aspirations. Motives are evaluated based on the expectations of other people, which are built on a generally accepted understanding. A bride who marries because of material gains will be perceived negatively in certain societies, they expect love and sincere feelings from her, and not commercialism.

The value of the social role in human life

Changing behavioral responses can be costly for an individual. Our social roles are determined by the expectations of other people, not justifying them, we risk remaining outcasts. A person who decides to break these peculiar rules is unlikely to build relationships with the rest of society. They will condemn him, try to change him. In some cases, such an individual is perceived as mentally abnormal, although the doctor did not make such a diagnosis.

Signs of a social role

This concept is also associated with the profession and type of human activity. This also affects how the social role is manifested. We expect different appearance, speech and actions from a university student and from a schoolchild. A woman, in our understanding, should not do what is included in the concept of normal behavior of a man. And a doctor has no right to act in a working environment in the same way as a salesman or engineer would act. The social role in the profession is manifested in appearance, the use of terms. Violating these rules can be considered a bad specialist.

How are social status and social role related?

These terms mean completely different things. But at the same time, social statuses and roles are closely related. The first gives a person rights and obligations, the second explains what kind of behavior society expects from him. A man who has become a father must support his child, and it is expected that he will devote time to communicating with his offspring. Expectations of the environment in this case can be very precise or fuzzy. It depends on the culture of the country where the person lives and is brought up.

Types of social roles

Psychologists divide the concept into 2 main categories - interpersonal and status-related. The former are associated with emotional relationships - the leader, the favorite in the team, the soul of the company. The social roles of the individual, dependent on the official position, are more determined by the profession, type of activity and family - husband, child, seller. This category is impersonal, behavioral reactions in them are defined more clearly than in the first group.

Each social role is different:

According to the degree of its formalization and scale. There are those where the behavior is written very clearly and those where the expected actions and reactions of the environment are described vaguely.
According to the method of receipt. Accomplishments are often associated with the profession, assigned with marital status, physiological characteristics. An example of the first subgroup is a lawyer, a leader, and the second is a woman, daughter, mother.

Individual Role

Each person has several functions at the same time. Performing each of them, he is forced to behave in a certain way. The individual social role of a person is associated with the interests and motives of a person. Each of us perceives ourselves somewhat differently from how other people see us, so our own assessment of behavior and other people's perception of it can differ greatly. For example, a teenager may consider himself quite mature, having the right to make a number of decisions, but for his parents he will still be a child.

Interpersonal roles of a person

This category is related to the emotional sphere. Such a social role of a person is often assigned to him by a certain group of people. An individual can be considered a merry fellow, a favorite, a leader, a loser. Based on the perception of the personality by the group, the environment expects a certain standard response from the person. If it is assumed that a teenager is not only a son and a student, but also a joker and a bully, his actions will be evaluated through the prism of these unofficial statuses.

Social roles in the family are also interpersonal. It is not uncommon for one of the children to have the status of a pet. In this case, conflicts between children and parents become pronounced and occur more often. Psychologists advise avoiding the assignment of interpersonal statuses within the family, because in this situation, its members are forced to restructure behavioral reactions, which leads to a change in personality, and not always for the better.

New social roles of youth

They appeared in connection with a change in social structure. The development of Internet communication has led to the fact that the social roles of young people have changed, become more variable. Development also contributed to this. Modern teenagers more and more they are guided not by official statuses, but by those that are accepted in their society - punk, vaper. The appropriation of such perception can be group and individual.

Modern psychologists argue that the behavior that is considered normal for the environment is inherent not in a healthy person, but in a neurotic. With this fact, they associate an ever-increasing number of people who are not forced to turn to specialists for help.