Status and Role :what is role?
What is Role?
The concept of role is by no means a new one . It originally comes from the theatrical setting, referring to the parts which actors play in a stage production.Shakespeare uses the theatre as an analogy for the world as a whole and for the human experience. Actors obviously take on roles but so do the rest of us. In every society individuals play a number of different roles,according to varying contexts of their activities.
Modern sociologist E.Goffman 1959 has proposed dramaturgical approach *(social life as like a theatre drama) in sociology.He sees social life as through played out by actors on a stage-or on many stages,because how we act depends on the roles we are playing at a particular time.
Role is sociologically important because it demonstrates how individual activity is socially influenced and thus follows regular patterns. The first systematic use of the concept of role was by G.H Mead in 1934,a forerunner of symbolic interactionism. In this uses,roles are analysed as the outcome of a process of interaction that is tentative and creative. A second approach to role theory derives from Ralf Linton 1936,which later on became the hallmark of functionalism.
According to Ogburn and Nimkoff 1958 a role is "a set of socially expected and approved behaviour patterns consisting of both duties and privileges,associated with a particular position in a group".Some writers ,such as Kingsley Davis 1949 have confused the two terms role and role performance.For Davis,role refers to the actual behaviour of a status incumbent.It is acting as a set of duties and privileges as per requirements of his position . H.M.Johnson 1960 and many other writers differing from Davis call it role performance .According to Johnson ,"role is expectations and obligations held by others members concerning the behaviour of the position incumbent".
Ely Chinoy 1954 agrees with Johnson and uses role to refer to expectations and obligations.
The concept of role is by no means a new one . It originally comes from the theatrical setting, referring to the parts which actors play in a stage production.Shakespeare uses the theatre as an analogy for the world as a whole and for the human experience. Actors obviously take on roles but so do the rest of us. In every society individuals play a number of different roles,according to varying contexts of their activities.
Modern sociologist E.Goffman 1959 has proposed dramaturgical approach *(social life as like a theatre drama) in sociology.He sees social life as through played out by actors on a stage-or on many stages,because how we act depends on the roles we are playing at a particular time.
Role is sociologically important because it demonstrates how individual activity is socially influenced and thus follows regular patterns. The first systematic use of the concept of role was by G.H Mead in 1934,a forerunner of symbolic interactionism. In this uses,roles are analysed as the outcome of a process of interaction that is tentative and creative. A second approach to role theory derives from Ralf Linton 1936,which later on became the hallmark of functionalism.
According to Ogburn and Nimkoff 1958 a role is "a set of socially expected and approved behaviour patterns consisting of both duties and privileges,associated with a particular position in a group".Some writers ,such as Kingsley Davis 1949 have confused the two terms role and role performance.For Davis,role refers to the actual behaviour of a status incumbent.It is acting as a set of duties and privileges as per requirements of his position . H.M.Johnson 1960 and many other writers differing from Davis call it role performance .According to Johnson ,"role is expectations and obligations held by others members concerning the behaviour of the position incumbent".
Ely Chinoy 1954 agrees with Johnson and uses role to refer to expectations and obligations.
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