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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, role conflicts that arise in situations where an individual is required to simultaneously perform several roles with conflicting requirements have become widespread in modern society.
Irwin 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
The types of social roles are determined by the variety of social groups, activities and relationships in which the individual 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, fixed by social norms and customs.
§ Interpersonal roles associated with interpersonal relationships that are regulated at an 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 of 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, relations are regulated by normative acts and in a certain sense are formal. The participants in this social interaction are interested in the most diverse aspects of each other's lives, their relationships are 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. So, the roles of a young man, an old man, a man, a woman are automatically determined by the age and sex 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 of the nervous system (Yu. E. Ryzhkin, 1977), and on 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, daydreaming, 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 at the end of the 19th century. 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 intra-group 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 between 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 Russian science this is called conformism). 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 of individual differences, there are still 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 a high level of 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).
Behavior is a form of interaction of an organism with the environment, the source of which is needs. Human behavior differs from the behavior of animals in its social conditioning, awareness, activity, creativity and is goal-setting, arbitrary.
Structure of social behavior:
1) behavioral act - a single manifestation of activity, its element;
2) social actions - actions performed by individuals or social groups that are of public importance and involve socially determined motivation, intentions, attitudes;
3) an act is a conscious action of a person who understands its social significance and is performed in accordance with the accepted intention;
4) act - a set of actions of a person for which he is responsible.
Types of social behavior of the individual:
1) according to the system of public relations:
a) production behavior (labor, professional);
b) economic behavior (consumer behavior, distributive behavior, behavior in the sphere of exchange, entrepreneurial, investment, etc.);
c) socio-political behavior (political activity, behavior towards authorities, bureaucratic behavior, electoral behavior, etc.);
d) legal behavior (law-abiding, illegal, deviant, deviant, criminal);
e) moral behavior (ethical, moral, immoral, immoral behavior, etc.);
f) religious behavior;
2) by the time of implementation:
› impulsive;
› variable;
› long-term implementation.
The subjects of the regulation of the social behavior of the individual are society, small groups and the individual himself.
social status
The social status (from Latin status - position, state) of a person is the position of a person in society, which he occupies in accordance with his age, gender, origin, profession, marital status.
Social status is a certain position in the social structure of a group or society, associated with other positions through a system of rights and obligations.
Sociologists distinguish several varieties of social statuses.:
1) Statuses determined by the position of the individual in the group - personal and social.
Personal status is the position of a person that he occupies in the so-called small, or primary, group, depending on how his individual qualities are evaluated in it.
On the other hand, in the process of interaction with other individuals, each person performs certain social functions that determine his social status.
2) Statuses determined by the time frame, the impact on the life of the individual as a whole - the main and non-main (episodic).
The main status determines the main thing in a person's life (most often it is the status associated with the main place of work and family, for example, a good family man and an irreplaceable worker).
Episodic (non-basic) social statuses affect the details of a person's behavior (for example, a pedestrian, a passenger, a passer-by, a patient, a participant in a demonstration or strike, a reader, a listener, a TV viewer, etc.).
3) Statuses acquired or not acquired as a result of free choice.
Prescribed (assigned) status - a social position that is pre-assigned to an individual by society, regardless of the merits of the individual (for example, nationality, place of birth, social origin, etc.).
Mixed status has the features of a prescribed and achieved status (a person who has become disabled, the title of an academician, an Olympic champion, etc.).
Achieved (acquired) is acquired as a result of free choice, personal efforts and is under the control of a person (education, profession, material wealth, business connections, etc.).
In any society, there is a certain hierarchy of statuses, which is the basis of its stratification. Certain statuses are prestigious, others are vice versa. This hierarchy formed under the influence of two factors:
a) the real usefulness of those social functions that a person performs;
b) the system of values characteristic of a given society.
If the prestige of any statuses is unreasonably high or, on the contrary, underestimated, it is usually said that there is a loss of status balance. A society in which there is a similar tendency to lose this balance is unable to ensure its normal functioning.
Prestige is an assessment by society of the social significance of a particular status, enshrined in culture and public opinion.
Each individual can have a large number of statuses. The social status of the individual primarily affects its behavior. Knowing the social status of a person, one can easily determine most of the qualities that he possesses, as well as predict the actions that he will carry out. Such expected behavior of a person, associated with the status that he has, is commonly called a social role.
social role It is a status oriented behavior pattern.
A social role is a pattern of behavior recognized as appropriate for people of a given status in a given society.
Roles are determined by people's expectations (for example, the notion that parents should take care of their children, that an employee should conscientiously carry out the work entrusted to him, has taken root in the public mind). But each person, depending on specific circumstances, accumulated life experience and other factors, fulfills a social role in his own way.
Applying for this status, a person must fulfill all the role requirements assigned to this social position. Each person has not one, but a whole set of social roles that he plays in society. The totality of all human roles in society is called a role system or role set.
Role set (role system)
Role set - a set of roles (role complex) associated with one status.
Each role in the role set requires a specific manner of behavior and communication with people and is thus a collection of relationships unlike any other. In the role set, one can single out the main (typical) and situational social roles.
Examples of basic social roles:
1) a worker;
2) owner;
3) consumer;
4) a citizen;
5) family member (husband, wife, son, daughter).
Social roles can be institutionalized and conventional.
Institutionalized roles: the institution of marriage, family (social roles of mother, daughter, wife).
Conventional roles are accepted by agreement (a person may refuse to accept them).
Social roles are associated with social status, profession or type of activity (teacher, pupil, student, seller).
A man and a woman are also social roles, biologically predetermined and involving specific ways of behavior, fixed by social norms or customs.
Interpersonal roles are associated with interpersonal relationships that are regulated on an emotional level (leader, offended, family idol, loved one, etc.).
Role behavior
From a social role as a model of behavior, one should distinguish real role behavior, which means not socially expected, but the actual behavior of the performer of a particular role. And here much depends on the personal qualities of the individual, on the degree of assimilation of social norms by him, on his beliefs, attitudes, and value orientations.
Factors that determine the process of implementing social roles:
1) the biopsychological capabilities of a person that may contribute to or hinder the performance of a particular social role;
2) the nature of the role adopted in the group and the features of social control, designed to monitor the implementation of role behavior;
3) a personal pattern that determines the set of behavioral characteristics necessary for the successful fulfillment of the role;
4) the structure of the group, its cohesion and the degree of identification of the individual with the group.
In the process of implementing social roles, certain difficulties may arise associated with the need for a person to perform many roles in various situations → in some cases, a mismatch of social roles, the emergence of contradictions and conflict relations between them.
Any social role, according to T. Parsons, can be described using five main characteristics:
level of emotionality - some roles are emotionally restrained, others are relaxed;
method of obtaining - prescribed or achieved;
the scale of manifestation - strictly limited or blurry;
the degree of formalization - strictly established or arbitrary;
motivation - for the general profit or for personal benefit.
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 (mandatory), 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 that embody 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 standards, which formulate possible behavior, are provided primarily with positive sanctions (voluntary performance 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 ↓
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 at the 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. Achieved 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 are more and more guided not by official statuses, but by those 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.
In sociology, the concept of a social role has appeared since the end of the 19th century, although officially this term appeared only at the end of the 20th century in the framework of R. Linton's theory.
This science considers a society or other organized group as a collection of individuals with a certain status and behavior model. What is meant by the concepts of social statuses and roles, as well as what significance they have for a person, we will describe further and give examples.
Definition
For sociology, the term "social role" means a model of behavior expected from a person that would correspond to the rights and normative duties established by society. That is, this concept considers the relationship between the function of the individual and its position in society or interpersonal relationships.
It can also be said that a social role is a certain algorithm of actions prescribed to a person by society, which he must follow in order to carry out useful activities in society. At the same time, a person tries on a model of behavior or a prescribed algorithm of actions either voluntarily or forcibly.
Usually this concept is considered as one of the dynamic aspects of the status of an individual. Acting as a member of a society or group and taking responsibility for the performance of certain functions, a person must follow the rules established by this very group. This is expected of him by the rest of the community.
If we consider the concept of a social role on the example of an organization, then we can understand that the manager of an enterprise, training personnel, and persons receiving knowledge are an active organized community, in which the rules and regulations are prescribed for each participant. In an educational institution, the director gives orders to which teachers must obey.
For each participant in role relations, the prescribed normative requirements and individual shades of the status received by him are known. Therefore, the model of human behavior in a particular social circle is expected for the rest of the members of this group. This means that other members of the community can largely predict the nature of the actions of each of its members.
Classification and varieties
Within the framework of its scientific direction, this concept has its own classification. So, social roles are divided into types:
In turn, this type is divided into the main socio-demographic models of behavior, where there are such social roles in the family as husband and wife, daughter, son, granddaughter, grandson, etc. If we take the biological component as a basis, then we can also distinguish such social roles of the individual as a woman / man.
2. Interpersonal - roles determined by the relationship of people in limited conditions and the individual characteristics of each of them. These include any relationship between people, including conflict, arising on the basis of emotional manifestations. In this case, the gradation may look like this: idol, leader, ignored, privileged, offended, etc.
These types of social roles exist in every organized community, and there is a clear relationship between the duration of the group's existence and the likelihood of its typical manifestations in the behavior of the participants. It is worth noting that it is extremely difficult to get rid of a stereotype that has developed over the years, familiar to a person and society, over time.
Considering this topic, one cannot ignore the classification according to the characteristics of each specific role. They were able to highlight the well-known sociologist from America T. Parsons in order to get the most complete idea of the term "social role of the individual." For each model, he proposed four distinctive properties at once.
1. Scale. This characteristic depends on the breadth of interpersonal relationships observed between members of a particular group. The closer the communication between people, the greater the significance in such relationships. Here is a good example of the relationship between husband and wife.
Gender representations of a person regarding his role are fixed by the school. The biological characteristics of the individual and the gender stereotypes that have developed in society predetermine further formation under the influence of the environment.
It would be appropriate to note that at present the model of behavior is not so tied to the characteristic manifestations of a particular sex than before. Thus, the social role of a woman now includes not only the duties of a mother and a housewife, but also extends to other areas.
These are models prescribed by society for each person who will not have to make an effort to receive justification from the environment. As achieved roles, one can consider the results of an individual's activity, indicating his social status (for example, career growth).
3. The degree of formalization, on which the formation of the personality and its functions depend. Regarding this criterion, the social status of a person can be formed under the influence of regulatory requirements, or it can develop arbitrarily. For example, the relationship between people in the military unit is regulated by the charter, while friends are guided by personal feelings and emotions.
4. Type of motivation. Each person, when choosing a model of behavior, is guided by a personal motive. It can be financial gain, career advancement, the desire to be loved, etc. In psychology, there are two types of motivation - external, which arises under the influence of the environment, and internal, which the subject determines for himself.
The process of choosing and becoming a role
The role of a person in the social environment does not arise spontaneously. The process of its formation goes through several stages, culminating in the individual in society.
At the next stage of development, the social personality is expected to be educated. Throughout almost the entire life, an individual receives new skills and knowledge from educators, teachers, educators and, of course, parents. As the individual grows older, the individual will receive new information from his environment, from the media and other sources.
An equally important component of the socialization of the individual is education. Here the main character is the person himself, choosing the most typical skills for himself and the direction for further development.
The next stage of socialization is protection. It implies a set of processes aimed at reducing the significance of factors that could injure a person in the process of its formation. Using certain social methods of protection, the subject will protect himself from the environment and conditions in which he will be morally uncomfortable.
The processes by which an individual's social role and social status are determined are very complex. But without them, a person cannot become a full-fledged personality, which is why they are so significant in everyone's life. Sociologists argue that there are two phases that contribute to the adaptation of the individual to his social role:
- Adaptation. In this period, a person learns the rules and norms of behavior established by society. Mastering new laws, a person begins to behave accordingly.
- Interiorization. It provides for the adoption of new conditions and rules while abandoning the old foundations.
But "failures" in the process of socialization of the individual are also possible. Often they occur against the background of the unwillingness or inability of the subject to fulfill the conditions and requirements that the social role of a person in society provides.
The definition of conflict in this case is tantamount to a complex of complex emotional states. They can arise in the subject due to the discrepancy or inconsistency of the requirements placed on him by different social circles, of which he is a member.
At the same time, all the roles of a person are very important for him. At the same time, he can identify the significance of each of them in completely different ways. The individual manifestation of social roles by the subject has a specific shade, which directly depends on the acquired knowledge and experience, as well as on the desire and desire of a person to meet the expectations of the society of which he is a member. Author: Elena Suvorova
