Examples of human statuses. Personal and social status of a person

Man does not exist outside of society. We interact with other people, we enter into various relationships with them. To designate a person's position among their own kind and characterize the behavior of an individual in certain situations, scientists have introduced the concepts of "social status" and "social role".

About social status

The social status of an individual is not only a person's place in the system of social relations, but also the rights and duties dictated by the position held. Thus, the status of a doctor gives the right to diagnose and treat patients, but at the same time obliges the doctor to observe labor discipline and conscientiously do his job.

The concept of social status was first proposed by the American anthropologist R. Linton. The scientist made a great contribution to the study of personality problems, its interaction with other members of society.

There are statuses at an enterprise, in a family, a political party, a kindergarten, a school, a university, in a word, wherever an organized group of people is engaged in socially significant activities and the members of the group have certain relationships with each other.

A person is in several statuses at the same time. For example, a middle-aged man is a son, a father, a husband, an engineer at a factory, a member of a sports club, a holder of an academic degree, an author of scientific publications, a patient in a clinic, etc. The number of statuses depends on the connections and relationships that a person enters into.

There are several classifications of statuses:

1. Personal and social. A person occupies a personal status in a family or other small group in accordance with the assessment of his personal qualities. Social status (examples: teacher, worker, manager) is determined by the actions performed by the individual for society.
2. Basic and episodic. The main status is associated with the main functions in a person's life. Most often, the main statuses are the family man and the worker. Episodic ones are associated with a moment in time during which a citizen performs certain actions: a pedestrian, a reader in a library, a student of courses, a theater audience, etc.
3. Prescribed, achievable and blended. The prescribed status does not depend on the desire and capabilities of the individual, since it is given at birth (nationality, place of birth, class). What is achieved is acquired as a result of the efforts made (level of education, profession, achievements in science, art, sports). Mixed combines the features of the prescribed and achievable statuses (a person who has received a disability).
4. Socio-economic status is determined by the amount of income received and the position that an individual occupies in accordance with his well-being.

The collection of all available statuses is called a status set.

Hierarchy

The society constantly evaluates the significance of this or that status and, on the basis of this, builds a hierarchy of positions.

Assessments depend on the usefulness of the business that the person is engaged in, and on the system of values ​​adopted in the culture. Prestigious social status (examples: businessman, director) is highly appreciated. At the top of the hierarchy is the general status, which determines not only a person's life, but also the position of people close to him (president, patriarch, academician).

If some statuses are unreasonably underestimated, while others, on the contrary, are excessively high, then they speak of a violation of the status balance. The tendency to lose it endangers the normal functioning of society.

The hierarchy of statuses is also subjective. A person himself determines what is more important to him, in what status he feels better, what benefits he derives from being in this or that position.

Social status cannot be something immutable, since people's lives are not static. The movement of a person from one social group to another is called social mobility, which is subdivided into vertical and horizontal.

Vertical mobility is said to be when the social status of an individual rises or falls (a worker becomes an engineer, a head of a department becomes an ordinary employee, etc.). With horizontal mobility, a person retains his position, but changes his profession (to an equivalent in status), place of residence (becomes an emigrant).

Intergenerational and intragenerational mobility is also distinguished. The first determines how much the children have increased or decreased their status in relation to the status of their parents, and according to the second, they judge how successful the social career of representatives of one generation is (types of social status are taken into account).

The channels of social mobility are the school, family, church, army, public organizations and political parties. Education is a social lift that helps a person achieve the desired status.

A high social status acquired by a person or a decrease in it indicates individual mobility. If the status is changed by a certain community of people (for example, as a result of a revolution), then group mobility takes place.

Social roles

Being in this or that status, a person commits actions, communicates with other people, that is, plays a role. Social status and social role are closely related, but differ from each other. Status is position, and role is socially expected behavior determined by status. If the doctor is rude and swears, and the teacher abuses alcohol, then this does not correspond to the status held.

The term "role" was borrowed from the theater to emphasize the stereotyped behavior of people of similar social groups. A person cannot do what he wants. The behavior of an individual is determined by the rules and norms characteristic of a particular social group and society as a whole.

In contrast to status, the role is dynamic, closely related to the personality traits and moral attitudes of a person. Sometimes role-playing behavior is adhered to only in public, as if putting on a mask. But it also happens that the mask grows together with its bearer, and the person ceases to distinguish between himself and his role. Depending on the situation, this state of affairs has both positive and negative consequences.

Social status and social role are two sides of the same coin.

Variety of social roles

Since there are many people in the world and each person is an individual, there are hardly two identical roles. Some role models require emotional restraint, self-control (lawyer, surgeon, funeral director), and for other roles (actor, educator, mother, grandmother) emotions are very much in demand.

Some roles drive a person into a rigid framework (job descriptions, charters, etc.), others have no framework (parents are fully responsible for the behavior of children).

The performance of roles is closely related to motives, which are also not the same. Everything is determined by social status in society and personal motives. An official is concerned about promotion, a financier is concerned with profit, and a scientist is concerned with the search for truth.

Role-playing set

A role-playing set is understood as a set of roles characteristic of a particular status. Thus, a doctor of sciences is in the role of a researcher, teacher, mentor, supervisor, consultant, etc. Each role implies its own ways of communicating with others. The same teacher behaves differently with colleagues, students, and the rector of the university.

The concept of "role set" describes the whole variety of social roles inherent in a particular status. No role is rigidly assigned to its bearer. For example, one of the spouses is left without work and for some time (and maybe forever) loses the role of a colleague, subordinate, leader, becomes a housewife (householder).

In many families, social roles are symmetrical: both husband and wife act equally as breadwinners, owners of the house, and educators of children. In such a situation, it is important to adhere to the golden mean: excessive enthusiasm for one role (director of a company, business woman) leads to a lack of energy and time for others (father, mother).

Role expectations

The difference between social roles and mental states and personality traits is that roles represent a historically developed standard of behavior. Requirements are imposed on the bearer of this or that role. So, a child must certainly be obedient, a schoolboy or student - to study well, a worker - to observe labor discipline, etc. Social status and social role oblige to act this way and not otherwise. The system of requirements is also called expectations.

Role expectations act as an intermediate link between status and role. Only such behavior that corresponds to the status is considered role-playing. If the teacher, instead of giving a lecture on higher mathematics, begins to sing to the guitar, then the students will be surprised, because they expect other behavioral reactions from the assistant professor or professor.

Role expectations are composed of actions and qualities. Taking care of the child, playing with him, putting the baby to bed, the mother performs actions, and the successful completion of actions is facilitated by kindness, responsiveness, empathy, and moderate severity.

Compliance with the role played is important not only to those around, but also to the person himself. The subordinate seeks to earn the respect of the boss, receives moral satisfaction from the high assessment of the results of his work. The athlete trains hard to set the record. The writer is working on a bestseller. The social status of a person obliges him to be at his best. If the expectations of the individual do not correspond to the expectations of others, then internal and external conflicts arise.

Role conflict

Inconsistencies between role bearers arise either from a mismatch of expectations or from the fact that one role completely excludes the other. The young man more or less successfully plays the role of son and friend. But friends call the guy to the disco, and his parents demand that he stay at home. An ambulance doctor's child fell ill, and the doctor was urgently called to the hospital, as a natural disaster happened. The husband wants to go to the dacha to help his parents, and the wife books a trip to the sea to improve the health of the children.

Resolving role conflicts is not easy. The participants in the confrontation have to decide which role is more important, but in most cases, compromises are more appropriate. The teenager returns from the party early, the doctor leaves his child with his mother, grandmother or nanny, and the spouses agree on the timing of participation in summer cottage work and travel time for the whole family.

Sometimes the resolution of the conflict becomes a way out of the role: change of work, admission to university, divorce. Most often, a person realizes that he has outgrown this or that role, or it has become a burden to him. Role reversal is inevitable as the child grows and develops: infant, toddler, preschooler, primary school student, teenager, youth, adult. The transition to a new age level is provided by internal and external contradictions.

Socialization

From birth, a person learns the norms, patterns of behavior and cultural values ​​characteristic of a particular society. This is how socialization takes place, the social status of the individual is acquired. Without socialization, a person cannot become a full-fledged person. Socialization is influenced by the media, cultural traditions of the people, social institutions (family, school, labor collectives, public associations, etc.).

Purposeful socialization occurs as a result of education and upbringing, but the efforts of parents and teachers are adjusted by the street, the economic and political situation in the country, television, the Internet and other factors.

The further development of society depends on the effectiveness of socialization. Children grow up and take the status of parents, take on certain roles. If the family and the state did not pay enough attention to the upbringing of the younger generation, then degradation and stagnation set in in public life.

Members of society agree their behavior with certain standards. These can be prescribed norms (laws, regulations, rules) or unspoken expectations. Any non-compliance with the standards is considered a deviation, or deviation. Examples of deviation are drug addiction, prostitution, alcoholism, pedophilia, etc. Deviation is individual, when one person deviates from the norm, and group (informal groups).

Socialization occurs as a result of two interrelated processes: internalization and social adaptation. A person adapts to social conditions, masters the rules of the game, which are obligatory for all members of society. Over time, norms, values, attitudes, ideas about what is good and what is bad become part of the inner world of the individual.

People are socialized throughout their lives, and at each age stage, statuses are acquired and lost, new roles are mastered, conflicts arise and are resolved. This is how personality develops.

All possible roles of a person in society as a person cannot arise without an appropriate predetermining factor. In this case, it is the position of the individual in society, which is a very complex system. At the same time, it is quite simple to understand what social status is, how it is related to the previous aspects.

The role of man in society

Any modern inhabitant is endowed with many rights and responsibilities, and hence a number of specific roles. If we are talking about a child, then its main functions will be those that are part of the range of responsibilities in the family, school, public transport, in circles, etc. If we consider the social status of a woman, then it is common for her to simultaneously fulfill the roles of wife, mother, daughter , employee, student, customer, friend and be in other, equally important guises. However, one cannot deny the fact that it would be somehow strange and unnatural to see an adult wealthy man sitting at a school bench, and a first grader driving a trolleybus. Such actions run counter to the corresponding position occupied by a person in the world around him.

Determination of social status

Social status is the position of an individual in a social system - society, which is predetermined by the presence of appropriate opportunities, interests, knowledge, rights and responsibilities. As a rule, a self-sufficient full-fledged person has several statuses at the same time, realizing their components throughout his life.

Among the complex status set, one can single out the so-called superstatus, which is the main indicator of the integration of a person into society. Often this criterion is considered to be the profession, place of work, or the main type of employment. When we meet a person, we almost always think about what the stranger does for his living.
Other qualities and properties of the individual are also of interest. Although the decisive factor may be other factors, including national, religious or racial identity, sexual orientation, past life experience or previous convictions.

Varieties of position in society

Trying to recognize what social status is, you should familiarize yourself with its classification. Any position of an individual in the life of society can be attributed to two fundamental types. The first type is the performances prescribed to a person regardless of his desire, capabilities and financial components. These include gender, place of birth, national characteristics, ethnic origin. The second type is the achieved social status or acquired, as it is often said about it. It is on the desire and abilities of a person that the achievement of his goals and heights directly depends. After all, husbands, leaders, doctors of sciences, football players, writers or engineers are not born, they become.

Prescribed social status

The modern system of society is a very complex functioning formation, the institutions of which stop working if any person fails to fulfill the mass of duties indicated by relations in individual social groups. With the aim of unanimously agreed fulfillment of the duties of the prescribed status, from the very birth, a person goes through a long path of preparation and training to fulfill the established roles. The initial stage of personality formation takes place in early childhood according to additional criteria, which often serve as a formula for achieving success in the future. Age and sex criteria serve as the basis for role prescriptions in society. They are followed by racial, ethnic, and religious and class gradations.

The first role-based learning, which continues in childhood, is some of the processes of socialization depending on gender. In later life, they will have a huge impact on the formation and characteristics of the social status of an already established adult. For example, from the moment of birth, girls are prepared with pink undershirts, many dolls and princesses. Young girls are gradually prepared for adulthood, teaching culinary tricks and the secrets of keeping the hearth home. It is not customary to raise little ladies in a boyish style. And although this type of upbringing can sometimes be found, it is mostly considered bad form.

Features of Prescribed Status

As for the education of boys, in adulthood it demonstrates the consequences of the educational process, which can be safely attributed to the opposite type. From an early age, they know that it is better to be strong than weak, because they have to protect timid girls, and then become the support and strong shoulder of their whole family. Such methods, contributing to the formation of personality, determine in the future the different social statuses of men and women.

It should be noted that many modern professions are relevant for both sexes. Some jobs are available for women to do, and they can do them as well as men, and vice versa. For example, in some states, girls are not hired as domestic workers in wealthy homes. In particular, in the Philippines, only men are hired to do secretarial work, while some of the hard work in the agricultural industry is predominantly amenable to the weaker half of humanity.

Acquired position in society

What is social status can be understood through the prism of the results achieved. Each personality is provided with a wide range of possibilities due to the prescribed statuses. Each person can acquire a new position in society using their individual abilities, preferences, diligence or, oddly enough, luck. After all, Michael Young, the famous British sociologist, was quite successfully able to formulate such a phenomenon. He talked about the fact that important titles of kings, lords and princesses are prescribed social statuses that are assigned to an individual, regardless of his efforts to achieve high ranks.

The acquired social status of a person in society is not given from birth; only persons who are suitable for this can take possession of the corresponding position. Not all people born in male guise can acquire the status of husband or father. This will not happen automatically - it all depends on the actions, behavior and attitude to life of a particular individual. The desired status is achieved through the use of talent, desire, dedication and active position.

The predominant importance of social statuses

Often in traditional societies, the prescribed statuses are decisive, since the further type of activity and the corresponding occupation of a particular public place depends on many factors associated with the moment of birth. Men often try to be like their fathers and grandfathers, imitating them and wanting to adopt their skills in professions familiar from childhood. In addition, by nature, a man is a hunter, fisherman and warrior. Naturally, in the literal sense, it is quite difficult to realize this part of male destiny in industrial societies, but having the freedom to choose occupations to achieve this or that position, incredible opportunities open up for today's "earners".

Ranking in society by social status

For the successful functioning of the social system, a sufficient level of mobility of labor resources is required, which leads to the priority manifestation of orientation towards the personal characteristics of individuals, to the change of one status to another by applied efforts. Meanwhile, the movement up the status ladder is under the constant control of the entire society in order to comply with the principles of justice, which allow only those people who were able to truly prove themselves to acquire a high position in society. Those who have not been able to find their successful “environment” will have to pay the price of non-competitiveness and failure in new roles.
Hence, there is a huge number of people who, being in this situation, do not feel a sense of satisfaction.

How to achieve a high place in society?

To understand what a high-level social status is and how to use its privileges, only a person who has passed a long and difficult path will be able to. It also happens that the acquired position in the future obliges the individual to make changes not only in work, but also in everyday life, place of residence, circle of acquaintances and friends. When a person has to face difficulties that are far removed from the experience of their ancestors due to significant differences between her social status and the social status of her parents, the process of accepting new roles is predetermined by the status that has arisen.

An ideal society is considered to be where the predominant number of social statuses are acquired. Isn't it fair if every person finds his place under the sun and strives for it, proving it with his abilities, work or talent? In addition, the opportunity to successfully prove itself provides a chance to justify any significant shortcomings.

The absolutely opposite picture is society, where in most cases the position in society is prescribed, and a person does not expect an increase in his status, does not apply even the slightest effort to this. People who earn little money doing non-prestigious work do not feel guilty that they have a low social status. Without comparing the current state of affairs with the situation of other, more ambitious and impetuous people, such an individual is not oppressed by a feeling of dissatisfaction, insecurity or fear of losing something.

Thanks to socialization, the individual joins social life, receives and changes his social status and social role. Social status -it is the position of an individual in a society with certain rights and responsibilities. The personality status can be: profession, position, gender, age, marital status, nationality, religiosity, financial situation, political influence, etc. R. Merton called the totality of all social statuses of a person a “status set”. The status that has a dominant influence on the lifestyle of the individual, his social identity, is called main status. In small, primary social groups, it is of great importance personal status a person, formed under the influence of his individual qualities (Appendix, Scheme 6).

Social statuses are also subdivided into prescribed (ascriptive), i.e. obtained independently of the subject, most often from birth (race, gender, nationality, social origin) and achieved, i.e. acquired by the individual's own efforts.

There is a certain a hierarchy of statuses, a place in which is called a status rank. High, medium and low status ranks are distinguished. Mismatch of statuses, those. contradictions in the intergroup and intragroup hierarchy arise under two circumstances:

• when an individual occupies a high status rank in one group and low in another;
• when the rights and obligations of one status contradict or interfere with the fulfillment of the rights and obligations of another.

The concept of "social status" is closely related to the concept of "social role", which is its function, the dynamic side. A social role is the expected behavior of an individual who has a certain status in a given society. According to R. Merton's definition, the set of roles corresponding to a given status is called a role-playing system ("role-playing set"). The social role is divided into role expectations - what, according to the rules of the game, is expected from a particular role, and role behavior - what a person performs within the framework of his role.

Any social role, according to T. Parsons, can be described using five main characteristics:

• the level of emotionality - some roles are emotionally restrained, others are relaxed;
• method of obtaining- prescribed or achieved;
• scale of manifestation - severely limited or blurred;
• degree of formalization - strictly established or arbitrary;
• motivation - for general profit or for personal benefit.

Since each person has a wide range of statuses, it means that he also has many roles corresponding to this or that status. Therefore, in real life, there are often role conflicts. In the most general form, two types of such conflicts can be distinguished: between roles or within one role, when it includes incompatible, conflicting responsibilities of the individual. Social experience shows that only a few roles are free from internal tensions and conflicts, which can lead to refusal to fulfill role obligations, to psychological stress. There are several types of defense mechanisms that can be used to reduce role tension. These include:

• "Rationalization of roles", when a person unconsciously seeks the negative aspects of a desired, but unattainable role with the aim of his own reassurance;
• "Role sharing" - presupposes a temporary withdrawal from life, exclusion of unwanted roles from the consciousness of an individual;
• "Regulation of roles" - is a conscious, deliberate release from responsibility for the performance of a particular role.

Thus, in modern society, each individual uses the mechanisms of unconscious protection and conscious involvement of social structures in order to avoid the negative consequences of role conflicts.

Social status

A person somehow behaves (performs an action), being in, interacting with different social groups: family, street, school, labor, army, etc. which he occupies in them, his functional responsibilities in these groups uses the concept of social status.

- these are the duties and rights of a person in the system of social ties, groups, systems... It includes duties(roles-functions) that a person must perform in a given social community (study group), communication (educational process), system (university). Rights - these are the duties that other people, social connection, social system must fulfill in relation to a person. For example, the rights of a student in a university (and at the same time the obligations of the university administration towards him) are: the presence of highly qualified teachers, educational literature, warm and bright classrooms, etc. attend classes, study educational literature, take exams, etc.

In different groups, one and the same individual has a different social status. For example, a talented chess player in a chess club has a high status, while in the army he may have a low status. This is a potential cause of frustration and interpersonal conflict. The characteristics of social status are prestige and authority, representing the recognition of the individual's merits by others.

Prescribed(natural) are the statuses and roles imposed by society on an individual, regardless of his efforts and merit. Such statuses are determined by the ethnic, family, territorial, etc. origin of the individual: gender, nationality, age, place of residence, etc. Prescribed statuses have a tremendous impact on the social status and lifestyle of people.

Acquired(achieved) are the status and role achieved by the efforts of the person himself. These are the statuses of a professor, writer, astronaut, etc. Among the acquired statuses, one can distinguish professionally-official, which captures the professional, economic, cultural, etc. position of the individual. Most often, one leading social status determines the position of a person in society, this status is called integral. Quite often, it is due to the position, wealth, education, sports success, etc.

A person is characterized by a set of statuses and roles. For example: man, married, professor, etc. statuses form status dialing of a given individual. Such a set depends both on natural statuses and roles, and on acquired ones. Among the many statuses of a person at each stage of his life, the main one can be distinguished: for example, the status of a schoolchild, student, officer, husband, etc. In an adult, status is usually associated with a profession.

In a class society, the set of status is of a class nature, depending on the social class of a given person. Compare, for example, the status set of "new" Russian bourgeois and workers. These statuses (and roles) for representatives of each social class form a hierarchy according to the degree of value. There is an interstate and inter-role distance between statuses and roles. It is also characteristic of statuses and roles in terms of their social significance.

In the process of life, there is a change in the status set and roles of a person. It occurs as a result of both the development of the needs and interests of the individual, and the challenges of the social environment. In the first case, the person is active, and in the second, he is reactive, showing a reflex reaction to the influence of the environment. For example, a young man chooses which university to enter, and once he is in the army, he is forced to adapt to it, counting the days until demobilization. A person is inherent in the ability to increase and complicate the status and role set.

Some philosophers see the meaning of individual life in the self-realization of their abilities and needs, raising the status and role set. (This is the basis, in particular, of the above Maslow system of needs.) What is the reason for this phenomenon? It is due to the fact that, on the one hand, self-realization is laid in the “foundation” of a person - in his freedom, ambitions, and competitiveness. On the other hand, external circumstances often raise or lower people in the status set. As a result, people who are able to mobilize their abilities and will progress through life from one status level to another, crossing from one social stratum to another, higher one. For example, a schoolboy - a student - a young specialist - a businessman - a president of a company - a pensioner. The last stage of the status recruitment, associated with old age, usually puts an end to the process. preservation status dialing.

Adaptation of a person to his age and changing social status is an important and complex issue. Our society is characterized by weak socialization towards old age (and retirement). Many find themselves unprepared for old age, defeat in the fight against age and disease. As a result, retirement, leaving the work collective for a family that was considered a minor social group, was usually accompanied by severe stress, role conflicts, illness and premature death.

Social role

The social behavior of an individual, community, institution, organization depends not only on their social status (rights and obligations), but also on the surrounding social environment, consisting of the same social subjects. They expect a certain social behavior according to their needs and "orientations towards others". In this case, social behavior takes on the character of a social role.

A social role is behavior that (1) arises from a person's social status and (2) is expected by others. As expected behavior, the social role includes a set that determines the expected sequence of the subject's actions, which is adequate to his social status. For example, a talented chess player is expected to play a professional game, the president is expected to be able to formulate the country's interests and realize them, etc. Therefore, a social role can be defined as behavior that meets the social norms adopted in a given society.

How does the subject's social environment force him to follow certain norms leading to the behavior expected by this environment? First of all, socialization, the upbringing of such norms is of great importance. Further, society has a mechanism sanctions - punishments for non-fulfillment of the role and rewards for its fulfillment, that is, for the observance of social norms. This mechanism operates throughout a person's life.

Social status and role are closely interrelated, it is no coincidence that they are often not differentiated in European sociology. "Status" in this sense of the word is equivalent to role, although it is the latter term that has a wider circulation, "write the English sociologists. The behavioral side of social status, expressed in the role, allows us to distinguish between them: social status can include several roles. For example, the status of a mother includes the roles of a wet nurse, doctor, caregiver, etc. The concept of role also allows us to highlight the mechanism for coordinating the behavior of different subjects in social communities, institutions, organizations.

Strict fulfillment of social roles makes people's behavior predictable, streamlines social life, and limits its chaos. Role learning - socialization - begins in early childhood with the influence of parents and loved ones. At first, it is unconscious for the child. They show him what to do and how, and reward him for the correct performance of the role. For example, little girls play with dolls, help mothers with housework; boys, on the other hand, play cars, help their fathers with repairs, etc. The education of girls and boys forms their different interests, abilities, and roles.

The expected behavior is ideal because it is based on a theoretical situation. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish from the social role real role behavior, t. s. playing a role in specific conditions. For example, a talented chess player can play badly for certain reasons, that is, not cope with his role. Role behavior usually differs from the social role (expected behavior) in many ways: abilities, understanding, conditions for the implementation of the role, etc.

Role-playing is determined primarily role requirements that are embodied in social norms grouped around a given social status, as well as sanctions for performing the role. A significant influence on the role of a person is exerted by the situation in which he finds himself - first of all, other people. Subject models role expectations - orientation, primarily in relation to other people with whom he is associated in a situation. These people act as an additional member of mutual role orientations. In these role expectations, a person can focus on himself (his worldview, character, abilities, etc.). Parsons calls this expectation-orientation attributive(ascriptive). But role expectations-orientations can refer to the performance of the other. This role-playing expectation Parsons calls achievable. Attribute-achievement orientation is an important aspect of status-role behavior.

In the process of socialization, a person learns to perform different roles: a child, student, student, comrade, parent, engineer, soldier, pensioner, etc. Role-based learning includes: 1) knowledge of their duties and rights in this area of ​​social activity; 2) the acquisition of psychological qualities (character, mentality, beliefs) corresponding to a given role; 3) the practical implementation of role-playing actions. Learning the most important roles begins in childhood with the formation of attitudes (good or bad), focusing on a certain sequence of actions and operations. Children are playing different roles, imitate everyday behavior of others. They are aware their rights and responsibilities: children and parents, comrades and enemies, etc. Gradually comes awareness of the reasons and results of their actions.

Social role characteristics

One of the first attempts to systematize social roles was undertaken by T. Parsons and his colleagues (1951). They believed that any social role is described by four characteristics:

Emotionality... Some roles require emotional restraint. These are the roles of a doctor, nurse, commander, etc. Others do not require emotional restraint. These are the roles of, for example, excavator, bricklayer, soldier, etc.

Purchase method... In accordance with these criteria, roles (like statuses) are divided into prescribed and acquired(restrained - unrestrained). The first roles (gender, age, nationality, etc.) are formed as a result of socialization, and the second (schoolchild, student, graduate student, scientist, etc.) - as a result of their own activity.

Formalization... Roles are divided into informal and formal. The first ones arise spontaneously in the process of communication, based on education, upbringing, interests (for example, the role of an informal leader, "the soul of the company", etc.); the latter are based on administrative and legal norms (the role of a deputy, a policeman, etc.).

Motivation... Different roles are due to different needs and interests, just as the same roles are due to the same needs. For example, the role of the president is conditioned by the historical mission, lust for power, and the accident of birth. At the same time, the roles of the "oligarch", professor, wife, etc. may be determined by economic motives.

A person interacts with different people and social groups on a daily basis. It rarely happens when he fully interacts only with members of one group, for example, a family, but at the same time he can be a member of a labor collective, social organizations, etc. position due to the relationship with other members of the group. To analyze the degree of inclusion of an individual in various groups, as well as the positions that he occupies in each of them, the concepts of social status and social role are used.

Status (from lat. status- position, state) - the position of the citizen.

Social status usually defined as the position of an individual or group in a social system that has characteristics specific to this system. Each social status has a certain prestige.

All social statuses can be divided into two main types: those that are prescribed to an individual by a society or a group, regardless of his abilities and efforts, and those that a person achieves through his own efforts.

Variety of statuses

There is a wide range of statuses: prescribed, attainable, mixed, personal, professional, economic, political, demographic, religious, and consanguineous, which belong to a variety of basic statuses.

1. Prescribed status - acquired regardless of their desires, imposed by society, regardless of the conditions and merits of the individual (social origin, place of birth). Within the prescribed statuses, the so-called natural statuses are often distinguished - gender, nationality, race.

2. Acquired (achieved) - positions that a person achieves himself (teacher, professor, etc.).

3. General status - the status of a person, his rights and obligations, the status of a citizen. General statuses are, as it were, the foundation of an individual's status position.

In addition to them, there is a huge variety of episodic, non-mainstream statuses. These are the statuses of a pedestrian, a passer-by, a patient, a witness, a participant in a demonstration, a strike or a crowd, a reader, a listener, a TV viewer, etc. As a rule, these are temporary states. The rights and obligations of the holders of such statuses are often not registered in any way. They are generally difficult to identify, say, from a passer-by. But they are, although they affect not the main, but the secondary traits of behavior, thinking and feeling. So, the status of a professor determines a lot in the life of a given person. And his temporary status as a passer-by or a patient? Of course not.

So, a person has basic (determining his life activity) and non-basic (influencing the details of behavior) statuses. The former are significantly different from the latter.

In addition, the integral and personal statuses of a person are distinguished. Integral status - determines the style or way of life of a person, the circle of his acquaintances and demeanor. The most used, cumulative, integrative indicator of the status position is the profession.

Personal status is the position that a person occupies in a small or primary group (depending on how he is assessed by his individual qualities).

Behind each status - permanent or temporary, basic or non-basic - there is a special social group or social category. Catholics, Conservatives, Engineers (main statuses) form real groups. For example, patients, pedestrians (minor statuses) form nominal groups or statistical categories. As a rule, carriers of minor statuses do not coordinate their behavior with each other and do not interact.

People have many statuses and belong to many social groups, the prestige of which is not the same in society: merchants are valued above plumbers or handymen; men have more social "weight" than women; belonging to a titular ethnic group in a state is not the same thing as belonging to a national minority, etc.

Over time, public opinion is developed, transmitted, supported, but, as a rule, the hierarchy of statuses and social groups is not registered in any documents, where some are valued and respected more than others.

A place in such an invisible hierarchy is called rank which is high, medium, or low. Hierarchy can exist between groups within the same society (intergroup) and between individuals within the same group (intragroup). And the place of a person in them is also expressed by the term "rank".

The discrepancy between statuses causes a contradiction in the intergroup and intragroup hierarchy, which arises under two circumstances:

1. when an individual occupies a high rank in one group, and a low one in the second;

2. when the rights and obligations of the status of one person contradict or interfere with the fulfillment of the rights and obligations of another.

A high-paid official (high professional rank) will most likely also have a high family rank as a person who ensures the material well-being of the family. But this does not automatically mean that he will have high ranks in other groups - among friends, relatives, colleagues.

Although statuses enter social relations not directly, but only indirectly (through their carriers), they mainly determine the content and nature of social relations.

A person looks at the world and treats other people in accordance with his status. The poor despise the rich, and the rich despise the poor. Dog owners do not understand people who love cleanliness and order on their lawns. A professional investigator, albeit unconsciously, divides people into potential criminals, law-abiding ones, and witnesses. A Russian is more likely to show solidarity with a Russian than with a Jew or Tatar, and vice versa.

Political, religious, demographic, economic, professional statuses of a person determine the intensity, duration, direction and content of social relations of people.

Social status of a person- this is the social position that he occupies in the structure of society. Simply put, it is the place that an individual occupies among other individuals. For the first time this concept was used by the English lawyer Henry Maine in the middle of the 19th century.

Each person simultaneously possesses several social statuses in different social groups. Consider the main types of social status and examples:

1. Inborn status. Unchanged, as a rule, the status received at birth: gender, race, nationality, class or class.
2. Acquired status. What a person achieves in the course of his life with the help of knowledge, skills and abilities: profession, position, title.
3. Prescribed status. The status that a person acquires due to factors beyond his control; for example - age (an elderly man can do nothing about the fact that he is elderly). This status changes during life and passes into another.

Social status gives a person certain rights and responsibilities. For example, having achieved the status of a father, a person receives the responsibility to take care of his child.

The totality of all the statuses of a person that he possesses at the moment is called status dialing.

There are situations when a person in one social group occupies a high status, and in another - a low one. For example, on the football field you are Cristiano Ronaldo, and at the desk you are a poor student. Or there are situations when the rights and obligations of one status interfere with the fulfillment of the rights and obligations of another. For example, the president of Ukraine, who is engaged in commercial activities, which he has no right to do under the constitution. Both of these cases are examples of status incompatibility (or status mismatch).

Social role concept.

Social role is a set of actions that a person is obliged to perform in accordance with the achieved social status. More specifically, it is a pattern of behavior that follows from the status associated with this role. Social status is a static concept, and social role is dynamic; as in linguistics: status is the subject, and the role is the predicate. For example, the best football player in the world in 2014 is expected to play great. Great acting is a role.

Types of social role.

The generally accepted system of social roles developed by the American sociologist Talcott Parsons. He divided the types of roles according to four main characteristics:

By the scale of the role (that is, by the range of possible actions):

• broad (the roles of husband and wife imply a huge number of actions and varied behavior);
• narrow (the roles of the seller and the buyer: he gave money, received the goods and change, said "thank you", a couple more possible actions and, in fact, that's all).

By the way you get a role:

• prescribed (roles of man and woman, young man, old man, child, etc.);
• achievable (the role of a pupil, student, employee, employee, husband or wife, father or mother, etc.).

By the level of formalization (formality):

• formal (based on legal or administrative norms: police officer, civil servant, official);
• informal (emerging spontaneously: the role of a friend, "the soul of the company", a merry fellow).

By motivation (according to the needs and interests of the individual):

• economic (the role of an entrepreneur);
• political (mayor, minister);
• personal (husband, wife, friend);
• spiritual (mentor, educator);
• religious (preacher);

In the structure of the social role, an important point is the expectation by those around him of a certain behavior from a person in accordance with his status. In case of non-fulfillment or one's role, various sanctions are provided (depending on a specific social group) up to depriving a person of his social status.

Thus, the concepts social status and role inextricably linked, since one follows from the other.