Lesson 6: Socialization

Structure and Society

Social Structure and Status
The underlying pattern of social
relationships in a group is called social
structure.
Status is one very important element of
social structure. Ascribed statuses are
assigned at birth; achieved statuses are
earned or chosen.
Social Structure
It is a concept that means the network of
interrelated statuses and roles that guide
human interaction.
Status
A status is a socially defined position in a
group or in a society. Status helps us
define who and what we are in relation to
others within the some social structure.
Some social statuses are acquired at birth.
For example:
a newborn female instantly becomes a
child and a daughter.
Types of Social Statuses
1. Ascribed Status
2. Achieved Status
Ascribed Status
Neither earned nor chosen, not based on
an individual’s abilities, efforts, or
accomplishments.
Achieved Status
Earned or chosen. Individuals acquired an
achieved status through their own direct
efforts.
Social Structure and Roles
People interact according to prescribe
roles. These roles carry certain rights and
obligations. Sometimes conflict or strain
occurs an individual has too many roles to
play.
Roles
Statuses serve simply as social categories.
Roles are the component of social
structure that bring statuses to life.
As anthropologist Ralph Linton noted, you
occupy a status, but you play a role. Every
person plays many different roles
everyday.
Most of the roles that you perform have
reciprocals roles. These are corresponding
roles corresponding roles that define the
patterns of interaction between related
statuses.
For example, one cannot fulfil the role
associated with the status of husband
without having someone else perform the
role that goes along the status of the wife.
Some other statuses that require
reciprocal roles are doctor-patient,
teacher-student, coach-athlete,
employer-employee, and sales
Rights and Obligations
An expect behavior associated with a
particular status is a role. Any status
carries with it a variety of roles.
For example:
The roles of a modern doctor, for
example, include keeping informed about
new medical development, scheduling
office appointments, diagnostic illness,
and prescribing treatment.
Rights
-are behaviors that individuals expect from
others.
Obligations
-are behaviors that individuals are
expected to perform toward others.
The rights of one status correspond to the
obligations of another.
For example:
Doctors, for example, are obliged to
diagnose the patients’ illnesses.
Correspondingly, patients have the right to
expect their doctors to diagnose to the
best of their ability.
-another examples-
Roles Conflict, Role Strain, and Role Exit

People may experience role strain, which

describes tension within a single role.
Alternatively, people can experience role
conflict, which describes tension between
two or more social roles. Finally, role exit
describes the act of an individual leaving a
role they previously occupied.
Roles Conflict
Role conflict: tension between two or
more roles
Competing expectations between two
roles held by same person
e.g.: A working mother may experience
role conflict between her duties as a
mother and her job as an employee.
Roles Strain
Role strain: tensions within one role
Competing demands within the same social
role
e.g.: A student who is stressed by
simultaneous commitments to student
government and finishing her homework is
experiencing role strain within her single role
as a student.
Roles Exit
Role exit: individual disengages from/leaves a
role
May result from role strain or role conflict;
People can replace exited role with a new
social role
e.g.: When an individual retires from a long
career, they experience role exit from the
role of employee and transition to a new role
of a retiree.
-another examples-