SOCIOLO

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HAPTER 4

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SOCIA

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2 MAJOR COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL STRUCTURE…

STATUS: Status is your socially defined position in a group or in a society. Most people occupy several statuses (wife, mother, teacher, etc). *Statuses are ways of defining where a person fits in society & how they relate to others.

Some statuses are assigned according to qualities beyond a person’s control. These are called ASCRIBED statuses…they are based on inherited traits (make/female; race) or assigned automatically based on age (teen; adult; senior citizen). ASCRIBED statuses can not be earned…nor changed!

Other statuses are ACHIEVED through your own direct efforts & are based on skill, knowledge & ability. Ex: occupation; education; marital status.

The one status that tends to rank above all others for an individual is their MASTER STATUS, which can be achieved or ascribed. This may change over the course of your lifetime.

2 MAJOR COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL STRUCTURE…

ROLES: Role is the behavior (the rights & obligations) expected of each particular status. Roles bring statuses to life. You OCCUPY a status while you PLAY/PERFORM a role.

Each ROLE has a RECIPROCAL ROLE – a corresponding role associated with a status. EX: husband/wife; teacher/student.

ROLE EXPECTATIONS/PERFORMANCE

ROLE EXPECTATIONS – are the socially determined behaviors expected of a role.

EX: Doctors treating patients with skill/care; Police officers upholding the law.

ROLE PERFORMANCE – the ACTUAL role behavior. Sometimes it does not match the expectation. This sometimes occurs because many roles are contradictory.

PROBLEMS WITH ROLE PERFORMANCE

Each status may have many interrelated roles associated with it. Sociologists refer to these as the ROLE SET for that status. Because most of us have several statuses, we end up with many roles sets assigned to each of those. That can lead to problems…

ROLE CONFLICT – happens when role expectations for various statuses conflict with each other. EX: Employee/Parent strain;

ROLE STRAIN – is having trouble meeting the role expectations of a single status. EX: a teacher may have to rush a unit to keep up with the expected curriculum pace; a student having several major tests in one day may have to short change success in one subject for another.

PULLING IT ALL TOGETHER…

SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS – combine a system of statuses, roles, values and norms and organize them in order to satisfy the basic needs of society. EXAMPLES of major INSTITUTIONS found within a society include family, the economy, politics, education, religion, medicine, science.