The social role manifests itself in two forms. Types of social roles in society

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 you to make the coexistence of different people in one society as comfortable and possible as possible.

The social role performs a number of important functions:

1. 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.
2. Allows you to realize different sides of your personality. Different roles (friend, parent, boss, public figure, etc.) enable a person to show different qualities. The more roles an individual masters, the more multifaceted and rich his personality will become, the better he will understand others.
3. 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.
4. 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.

The topic of personal growth is very popular right now. A lot of different trainings and methods of personality development have been created. It is expensive, and the efficiency is catastrophically low, it is difficult to find a qualified specialist.

Let's break down the concepts to avoid wandering around in search of the most effective way to become more successful. The process of personal development includes the development of social roles and communication skills(creation, maintenance and development of quality relationships).

It is through various social roles that personality manifests itself and develops. Learning a new role can change your life dramatically. The successful implementation of the main social roles for a person creates a feeling of happiness and well-being. The more social roles a person is able to play, the better he is adapted to life, the more successful he is. After all, happy people have a good family, successfully cope with their professional duties. Take an active and conscious part in the life of society. Friendly companies, hobbies and hobbies greatly enrich a person's life, but cannot compensate for failures in the implementation of significant social roles for him.

The lack of implementation of significant social roles, misunderstanding or their inadequate interpretation creates a feeling of guilt in a person’s life, low self-esteem, a feeling of loss, self-doubt, meaninglessness of life.
Observing and mastering social roles, a person learns the standards of behavior, learns to evaluate himself from the outside, to exercise self-control.

social role

is a model of human behavior, objectively given by the position of the individual in the system of social and personal relations.

Let's just say that society has a certain faceless pattern of expected behavior, within which something is considered acceptable, and something that goes beyond the norm. Thanks to this standard, quite predictable behavior is expected from the performer of a social role, which others can be guided by.

This predictability allows you to maintain and develop interaction. A person's consistent fulfillment of his social roles creates orderliness in everyday life.
The family man plays the roles of son, husband, father, brother. At work, he can simultaneously be an engineer, a foreman of a production site, a trade union member, a boss and a subordinate. In social life: as a passenger, driver of a personal car, pedestrian, customer, client, patient, neighbor, citizen, philanthropist, friend, hunter, traveler, etc.

Of course, not all social roles are equivalent for society and equal for the individual. Family, professional and socio-political roles should be singled out as significant.

What social roles are important to you?

In the family: husband / wife; father mother; son daughter?

In profession and career: a conscientious employee, an expert and a specialist in his field, a manager or an entrepreneur, a boss or a business owner?

In the socio-political sphere: member of a political party/charitable foundation/church, non-partisan atheist?

What social role would your life be incomplete without?

Wife, mother, business woman?

Every social role has meaning and significance.

In order for a society to function and develop normally, it is important that all its members master and fulfill social roles. Since patterns of behavior are laid down and passed down from generation to generation in the family, let's look at family roles.

According to the study, the bulk of men marry in order to have a permanent partner for sex and entertainment. In addition, a wife for a man is an attribute of success that maintains his status. Consequently, the meaning of the social role of the wife in sharing the hobbies and interests of her husband, in order to look worthy at any age and in any period of life. If a man does not receive sexual satisfaction in marriage, he will have to look for a different meaning of marital relations.

The social role of the mother provides for the care of the child: health, nutrition, clothing, home comfort and education of a full-fledged member of society. Often women in marriage substitute the role of a wife for the role of a mother, and then wonder why the relationship is destroyed.

The social role of the father is to ensure the protection and safety of their children, to be the highest authority in children's assessment of their actions, in the skills of maintaining a hierarchy.

The task of parents, both father and mother- during the time of growing up, to help the child form a personality capable of living and creating results in his life on his own. To instill moral and spiritual norms, the foundations of self-development and stress resistance, to lay healthy models of relationships in the family and society.

Sociological research claims that the majority of women marry in order to have the status of a married woman, a reliable rear for raising children in a full-fledged family. She expects from her husband admiration and openness in relationships. Consequently, husband's social role in having a legal marriage with a woman, taking care of a wife, participating in the upbringing of children throughout the period of their growing up.

Social roles of adult daughters or sons imply independent (financially independent) life from parents. In our society, it is believed that children should take care of their parents at a time when they become helpless.

The social role is not a rigid model of behavior.

People perceive and perform their roles differently. If a person perceives a social role as a rigid mask, the stereotypes of behavior of which he is forced to obey, he literally breaks his personality and life turns into hell for him. Therefore, as in the theater, there is only one role, and each performer gives it its own original features. For example, a research scientist is required to adhere to the provisions and methods established by science and at the same time create and justify new ideas; A good surgeon is not only the one who performs conventional operations well, but also the one who can go for an unconventional solution, saving the patient's life. Thus, the initiative and the author's style is an integral part of the fulfillment of a social role.

Every social role has a prescribed set of rights and responsibilities.

Duty is what a person does based on the norms of a social role, regardless of whether he likes it or not. Since duties are always accompanied by rights, fulfilling their duties in accordance with their social role, a person has the right to present his requirements to the interaction partner. If there are no obligations in a relationship, then there are no rights. Rights and obligations are like two sides of the same coin - one is impossible without the other. The harmony of rights and obligations presupposes the optimal fulfillment of a social role. Any imbalance in this ratio indicates a poor-quality assimilation of the social role. For example, often in cohabitation (the so-called civil marriage), a conflict arises at the moment when the requirements of the social role of the spouse are presented to the partner.

Conflicts in the performance of social roles and, consequently, psychological problems.

1. Each person has an author's performance of generally accepted social roles. It is not possible to achieve complete agreement between a given standard and personal interpretation. Proper fulfillment of the requirements associated with a social role is ensured by a system of social sanctions. Often fear of not meeting expectations leads to self-condemnation: “I am a bad mother, a worthless wife, a disgusting daughter” ...
2. Personal-role conflict arises if the requirements of a social role contradict the life aspirations of the individual. For example, the role of a boss requires strong-willed qualities, energy, and the ability to communicate with people in different, including critical, situations from a person. If a specialist lacks these qualities, he cannot cope with his role. The people on this occasion say: "Not for Senka hat."
3. When a person has several social roles with mutually exclusive requirements or he does not have the opportunity to fulfill his roles in full, there is role conflict. At the heart of this conflict lies the illusion that "the impossible is possible." For example, a woman wants to be an ideal housewife and mother, while successfully managing a large corporation.
4. If different requirements are imposed on the performance of one role by different representatives of a social group, there is intra-role conflict. For example, a husband believes that his wife should work, and his mother believes that his wife should stay at home, raise children, and do housework. At the same time, the woman herself thinks that it is important for her wife to develop creatively and spiritually. Staying inside the role conflict leads to the destruction of the personality.
5. Having matured, a person actively enters into the life of society, striving 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, she shows, proves to society that she is in her place and will perform her assigned role well. The inability to choose a suitable social role for oneself leads to a refusal to perform any social functions - to self-elimination .
   • For men, such a psychological trauma is fraught with a reluctance to have a wife and children, a refusal to protect their interests; self-affirmation due to the humiliation of the defenseless, a tendency to a passive lifestyle, narcissism and irresponsibility.
   • For women, the unfulfillment of certain social roles leads to uncontrolled aggression not only towards others, but also towards themselves and their children, up to the rejection of motherhood.

What to do to avoid problems?

1. Determine for yourself the SIGNIFICANT social roles and how to update them.
2. Describe the model of behavior in this social role, based on the meaning and significance of this role.
3. State your system of ideas about how to behave in a given social role.
4. Describe the perception of people significant to you about this social role.
5. Assess the actual behavior, find the discrepancy.
6. Adjust your behavior so that your boundaries are not violated and your needs are met.

behavior expected from someone who has a certain social status. It is limited by the totality of rights and obligations corresponding to this status.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

ROLE SOCIAL

a set of requirements imposed by the society on persons occupying certain social. positions. These requirements (prescriptions, wishes and expectations of appropriate behavior) are embodied in specific social. norms. The system of social sanctions of a positive and negative nature is aimed at ensuring the proper execution of requirements related to R.s. Arising in connection with a specific social. position given in society. structure, R.s. at the same time - a specific (normatively approved) way of behavior, obligatory for individuals performing the corresponding R.s. R.s performed by an individual become a decisive characteristic of his personality, without losing, however, their social-derived and, in this sense, objectively inevitable character. In the aggregate, R.s performed by people personify the dominant societies. relations. Social in their genesis, the requirements of the role become a structural element of the human personality in the course of the socialization of individuals and as a result of the internalization (deep internal assimilation) of the norms that characterize R.s. To internalize a role means to give it its own, individual (personal) definition, to evaluate and develop a certain attitude towards the social. position that forms the corresponding R.s. In the course of the internalization of the role, socially developed norms are evaluated through the prism of attitudes, beliefs, and principles shared by the individual. Society imposes R.s on an individual, but its acceptance, rejection, or performance always leaves an imprint on a person's real behavior. Depending on the nature of the requirements contained in the normative structure of R.s, the latter are divided into at least three categories: norms of proper (obligatory), desirable and possible behavior. Compliance with the mandatory regulatory requirements of R.s is ensured by the most serious negative sanctions, most often embodied in laws or other legal regulations. character. The norms of roles, embodying the desired (from the point of view of about-va) behavior, are most often provided with negative sanctions of an extra-legal nature (non-compliance with the charter of a public organization entails exclusion from it, etc.). In contrast, role norms, which formulate possible behavior, are provided primarily with positive sanctions (voluntary fulfillment of the duties of those who need help entails an increase in prestige, approval, etc.). In the normative structure of the role, four constructive elements can be distinguished - description (of the type of behavior that is required from a person in this role); prescription (requirement in connection with such behavior); assessment (cases of fulfillment or non-fulfillment of the requirements of the role); sanction (favorable or unfavorable social consequences of actions within the framework of the requirements of R.c). See also: Role theory of personality, Theory of roles. Lit.: Yakovlev A.M. Sociology of economic crime. M., 1988; Solovyov E.Yu. Personality and law//The past interprets us. Essays on the history of philosophy and culture. M, 1991. S, 403-431; Smelzer N. Sociology M., 1994. A.M. Yakovlev.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

The social role is interpreted as an expectation, activity, representation, stereotype, social function, set of norms, etc.

In addition, there are two main role characteristics(aspect):

1) role expectation- what is expected of me

2) role performance- what I will actually perform.

A certain consistency of role expectation with role performance serves as a guarantee of optimal social interaction.

Types of social roles determined by the variability of social groups, types of activities and relationships in which the individual is included.

Classification of social roles according to Gerhard:

1. Status - changeable with the greatest difficulty, prescribed to us from birth.

Man Woman

age roles

The role of a citizen of one's country

2. Positional - are determined by the professional and qualification division of labor in society. (Physicists, chemists, journalists; senior and junior researchers; professors, categories of actors). More defined than status. Status, in turn, are superimposed on positional.

3. Situational - performed in a given situation. Pedestrian, shopper, etc. More degrees of freedom. The difference in their number can lead to conflict.

Classification of positional roles at work according to Brown:

1. Landmark.

2. Approver, emotional leader.

3. Unique roles due to the characteristics of the person. For example, a scapegoat.

T. Parsons. Approach to the problem of social roles. Characteristics of social role analysis:

1. Emotionality (the doctor and the cemetery attendant must be restrained).

2. Method of obtaining (methods are achieved (student) and prescribed).

3. Scale (optician, salesperson or friend, parent).

4. Formalization. Formalized roles contain a specific structure of actions. Librarian and friend - behavior regarding a borrowed book.

5. Motivation. The motive is always there, but we are not always aware of it.

T. Shibutani. Classification of social roles:

1. Conventional. People agree on the rules for their implementation (teacher and student).

2. Interpersonal. Informal, personalized. How to behave with this or that person.

Depending on social relations, there are social and interpersonal social roles.

Social roles are connected with social status, profession or type of activity (teacher, pupil, student, seller). In interactionist concepts, such roles are called conventional(convention - agreement). 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... A man and a woman are also social roles (gender roles), biologically predetermined and involving specific ways of behavior.

Interpersonal roles are connected with interpersonal relationships that are regulated on an emotional level (leader, offended, neglected, family idol, loved one, etc.).

In life, in interpersonal relations, each person acts in some 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.

According to the degree of manifestation, they are distinguished active and latent roles.

Active roles are conditioned a specific social situation and are performed at a given time (teacher in the lesson).

Latent rollers manifest themselves in the actual situation, although the subject is potentially the bearer of this role (teacher at home).

Each of us is the carrier of a large number of latent social roles.

According to the way of assimilation, the roles are divided into:

prescribed(Determined by age, gender, nationality).

Acquired(which the subject learns in the process of socialization).

Highlighted the main characteristics of the social role American sociologist T. Parsons. These include:

- scale;

- method of obtaining;

- emotionality;

- formalization;

- motivation.

Scale roles depends on the range of interpersonal relationships. The larger the range, the larger the scale (for example, the social roles of the spouses are very large scale, the seller - the buyer: the interaction is carried out on a specific occasion - purchases - the scale is small).

How to get a role depends on how inevitable the given role is for the person.

The roles of a young man, an old man, a man, a woman are determined and do not require much effort to acquire them. Other roles are achieved in the process of a person's life and as a result of purposeful efforts: student, academician, writer, etc.

Emotion level: each role carries certain possibilities for the emotional manifestation of its subject.

There are roles that prescribe emotional restraint and control: investigator, surgeon, and so on. Conversely, actors are required to be more emotional.

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; others may combine both.

(traffic inspector to the violator only formal).

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 for the cause, and so on.

There is no doubt that the influence of the social role on the development of the individual is quite large. The development of personality is facilitated by its interaction with persons playing a number of roles, as well as its participation in the largest possible role repertoire. The more social roles an individual is able to play, the more adapted to life he is. Thus, the process of personality development often acts as the dynamics of mastering social roles.

(additional information, off the record)

Learning a new role can go a long way in changing a person. In psychotherapy, there is even an appropriate method of behavior correction - imagotherapy (imago - image). The patient is offered to enter into a new image, to play a role as in a performance. At the same time, the function of responsibility is not borne by the person himself, but by his role, which sets new pattern behaviors. A person is forced to act differently, based on a new role. At the origins of imagotherapy is the method of psychodrama D. Moreno. He treated people for neurosis, giving them the opportunity to play those roles that they would like to, but could not play in life.

12. Social expectations of personality

EXPECTATIONS - a social psychology term used to denote the expectation of something in interpersonal relationships, for example, the assessment of an individual's actions by other people

Expectations are essentially determined by the individual characteristics of the individual, the objective activity and organizational structure of the group, group norms, standards of the totality of socio-psychological expectations, being internally accepted by the individual, form part of its value orientations.

Interpersonal communication gives psychological meaning to expectation - expectation acts as a motive for human behavior

Expectations play a regulatory role in the student group: on the one hand, they provide adaptation, adaptation of the student to his fellow students, and on the other hand, public opinion, the standards of behavior accepted in the student environment, through expectation, they appropriately project the consciousness and actions of each member of the student group, contribute to adaptation groups to individuals.

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, certain requirements are imposed on him. 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. A social role is a way of people's behavior corresponding to accepted norms, depending on their status or position in society, in the system of interpersonal relations. 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 involved in many activities and relationships, is 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. e. to be yourself, playing various 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 role attributes that affect both perception and effectiveness (for example, long hair for a hippie or poor health for 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 emerged in American social psychology in the 1930s. (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.