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.