Components of Social Structure
There are five main components to social structure:
1. Norms (was covered in Lesson 1.05)
2. Statuses
3. Roles
4. Groups (will be in Lesson 2.05)
5. Social Institutions (will be in Lesson 2.07)
Think about your group of friends. Have you noticed that one or two tend to be informally in charge of the details? You might be the one who calls everyone and makes reservations or buys the tickets for the others. If so, you would have the informal role of "organizer." Or possibly, you are the one that seems to make all of the jokes, you might have the informal role of "prankster." Ultimately, within every group, there are specific "hats that people wear." Those hats are what we call "statuses."
A status is a specific position that an individual occupies in a group.
Anything that you can call yourself (sibling, employee, student, friend, etc.) are all statuses. Ultimately, a person occupies a variety of statuses at the same time. If you were to take out a sheet of paper and write down all of the statuses that you occupy, this list would be your "status set."
A status set is all of the statuses that an individual might occupy at the same time; the entire collection of social statuses occupied by an individual.
There are three basic types of statuses:
1. Ascribed Status is present at birth (race,
sex, or class).
2. Achieved Status is attained through one's
choices and efforts (college student, movie
star, teacher, or athlete).
3. Master Status is a status which stands out
above our other statuses and which
distracts others from seeing who we really
are.
Statuses can be either positive or negative.
For example, what if you were born into poverty? Poverty would be a negative ascribed status that you must overcome.
What if you robbed a store or were addicted to drugs? "Felon" and "drug addict" would be negative achieved statuses. In these two examples, you chose to do something that had a negative impact on your status in society.
Your master status is a little bit more difficult to understand. Simply put, your master status is a status that you consider to be the most important. Ultimately, this could be a variety of things. For most people, if they have children, being a parent is their master status. However, as a high school student, your master status could be student, your religious preference, athlete, etc.
In an abstract way, your master status is the status that defines you. Some people do not get to "choose" their master status. For example, the President of the United States is a master status, even if he or she would prefer the master status of parent. A convicted felon might see that felon becomes his or her master status in the eyes of society, despite what he or she personally chooses to be.
Status inconsistency happens when the occupancy of statuses, with levels of various rewards, are inconsistent with one another.
Basically, status inconsistency happens when two statuses that an individual occupy simply don't go together. For example, if a police officer was also a drug dealer or a student were to date his or her teacher.
Status symbols are material signs that inform others of a person's specific status.
People often choose to use visible means to let others know their status. For example, wearing a wedding ring proclaims that a person is married; driving a Rolls-Royce announces that a person has the financial means to own an expensive car.
Status symbols can also be negative and not a choice.
A convicted sex offender must register with local authorities and their name gets entered into a searchable database that the public can access.
Incarcerated individuals who clean the roadside are required to wear certain uniforms that label them as such.
Statuses are static. This means that you simply occupy a status. However, every status has specific behavioral expectations. The status expectations are what sociologists call "roles."
A role is the expected behavior associated with a particular status position.
Roles are what the individual or group
occupying a particular status position
is supposed to do. For example,
consider the following statuses: leader,
secretary, and student. Leaders of
groups are supposed to be more committed to the group's norms than followers; secretaries are supposed to answer the office phone and relay messages; students are supposed to attend classes and prepare for exams.]
Can you think of other roles for these statuses?
The behaviors listed in the previous examples are what we call role expectations. Role expectations are the ideal expectations of a status. However, sometimes you have a status but do not complete the role expectations. Consider the example of a student again. If you're not studying, taking tests, or going to class, then you're not fulfilling the role of student. Just because you have a status, does not mean you're meeting the expectations of the role.
The actual performance that takes place is what we call role performance. The vast majority of the time, the role performance falls short of the ideal role expectations.
For example, under the status of "automobile owner," a role expectation is to keep the car clean. However, as most of us realize, our role performance falls somewhat short because of our busy lives and other priorities.
Role strain is when conflicting roles can occur within the same status.
Basically, role strain is the burden one feels within any given status. An example of this might be a mother of three children who are all involved in different after-school activities. She feels strain because she cannot be at three events at once.
However, sometimes the conflict arises when one or more statuses compete with each other. This is called role conflict.
Role conflict is a condition in which the performance in one status interferes with the performance of a role in another status.
Here are some examples of role conflict:
- Having a job that requires you to be at work at 8:00 AM Monday-Friday and being a high school student. This is a logistical role conflict.
- A teacher being best friends with his or her students. This is a philosophical role conflict.
- Being a Christian and being a bully at school. This is a moralistic role conflict.
