Status and Role:what is status?

                                   Status and Role

Since the influential writing of Ralph Linton 1936, status and role have become the key concepts of sociology. By status , Linton meant a position in a social system involving designated rights and obligation , where as by role he meant the behaviour oriented to the patterned expectations of others. Social status and role are analytic terms; they have a more general quality than the concrete descriptive terms to choose such analytic terms rather than descriptive terms like bus conductor , customer , father or mother etc.After Linton, these two terms have become the basic feature of structural-functional theory.
According to Merton, each social involves not a single associated role, but an array of roles to which he calls 'role set'.
The concept of status and role are basic building blocks of social structure or social systems.According to Parsons,'status-roles'are the sub-units of society. Participation by an actor in social system means that he is 'located' relative to other actors.This is his status.In the position he does various things , and what he does he called his role.
What is Status?
Simply defined ,a status is a socially defined position in a group 
or a social system ,such as female ,student ,teacher ,child,mother,father etc.A status occupant is expected by other to behave in a special way,relative to specific situation.
Most of the sociologist have used the two terms-position and status--synonymously,but some have made distinction between these terms .'Position' denotes one's situation in the role structure,which is subjective , while 'status' refers to the evaluative aspect of position-whether others see it as 'high' or 'low' .In this sense ,it is an objective terms.
According to Kingsley Davis (1946),"status is a position in the general institutional system,recognized and supported by the entire society."
For Horton and Hunt 1964"status is the rank or position of an individual in a group".Status in Weber's theory refers to the esteem or 'social honor' given to individuals or groups.
Though generally used synonymously - status and social status -there is a bit difference between the two terms. The term status simple indicates the position a person occupies in a group . Whereas social status is the amount of honor and prestige a person receives from members of community and from the larger society in a stratification system.