L: 4
Building Blocks of Social
Structure
Status and Role
• A status is a socially defined position in a
group or in a society.
• A role is the behavior—the rights and
obligations—expected of someone occupying
a particular status.
Ascribed and Achieved Status
Master status
Roles
• Most of the roles you perform have reciprocal
roles.
• These are corresponding roles that define the
patterns of interaction between related
statuses.
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Husband
Doctor
Employer
Athlete
Leader
wife
patient
employee
coach
follower
Role expectation
Role performance
•The socially determined
behaviors expected of a
person performing a role.
•The actual role behavior.
Role set: The different roles attached to a
single status.
Role conflict
Role strain
•It occurs when fulfilling
the role expectations of
one status makes it
difficult to fulfill the
expectations of another
status.
•It occurs when a person
has difficulty meeting the
role expectations of a
single status.
Role exit
• This is the process people go through to
detach from a role that has been central to
their self-identity.
• Statuses and their related roles determine the
structure of the various groups in society.
• When these statuses and roles are organized
to satisfy one or more of the basic needs of
society, the group is called a social institution.
• The most important institutions are:
Economic institution
Political institution
Education