Social statuses and roles. Social role and social status

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. This concept was first used by the English jurist Henry Maine in the mid-19th century.

Each person simultaneously has several social statuses in different social groups. Let's look at the main types of social status and examples:

Natural status. As a rule, the status received at birth is unchanged: gender, race, nationality, class or estate.
Acquired status. What a person achieves in the course of his life with the help of knowledge, skills and abilities: profession, position, title.
Prescribed status. The status that a person acquires due to factors beyond his control; for example - age (an elderly man cannot do anything about the fact that he is elderly). This status changes and changes over the course of life.

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 a person currently possesses is called status set.

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, but at the desk you are a poor student. Or there are situations when the rights and responsibilities of one status interfere with the rights and responsibilities 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).

The concept of social role.

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

Types of social role.

generally accepted system of social roles developed by American sociologist Talcott Parsons. He divided 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 involve a huge number of actions and varied behavior);
narrow (roles of seller and buyer: gave money, received goods and change, said “thank you,” a couple more possible actions and, in fact, that’s all).

How to get a role:

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

By level of formalization (officiality):

formal (based on legal or administrative norms: police officer, civil servant, official);
informal (that arose spontaneously: the roles of a friend, “the soul of the party,” a merry fellow).

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

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

In the structure of a social role, an important point is the expectation of others of a certain behavior from a person according to his status. In case of failure to fulfill one’s role, various sanctions are provided (depending on the specific social group) up to and including depriving a person of his social status.

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

Thanks to socialization, an individual joins social life, receives and changes his social status and social role. Social status -it is the position of an individual in society with certain rights and responsibilities. The status of an individual 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 an individual a “status set.” The status that has a dominant influence on an individual’s lifestyle, his social identity, is called main status. In small, primary social groups, it is of great importance personal status of a person, formed under the influence of his individual qualities (Appendix, diagram 6).

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

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

when an individual occupies a high status rank in one group and a low one in another;
when the rights and duties of one status conflict or interfere with the rights and duties of another.

The concept of “social status” is closely related to the concept of “social role”, which is its function, its 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 system (“role 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:

level of emotionality - some roles are emotionally restrained, others are relaxed;
method of obtaining- prescribed or achieved;
scale of manifestation - strictly limited or vague;
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 one or another 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 and 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 looks for the negative aspects of a desired but unattainable role in order to calm himself down;
"role separation" - involves temporary withdrawal from life, exclusion of undesirable roles from the individual’s consciousness;
"role regulation" - represents a conscious, deliberate release from responsibility for fulfilling a particular role.

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

Social status

A person behaves (performs an action) in one way or another, being in, interacting with different social groups: family, street, educational, labor, army, etc. To characterize the degree of inclusion of an individual in various social connections and groups, as well as positions, which he occupies in them, his functional responsibilities in these groups the concept of social status is used.

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

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

Prescribed(natural) are statuses and roles imposed by society on an individual, regardless of his efforts and merits. 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 huge impact on the social status and lifestyle of people.

Acquired(achieved) are the status and role achieved through the efforts of the person himself. These are the statuses of professor, writer, astronaut, etc. Among the acquired statuses there are: professionally- official, which captures the professional, economic, cultural, etc. position of the individual. Most often, one leading social status determines a person’s position in society; this status is called integral. Quite often it is determined by 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 set of this individual. This 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, one can single out the main one: for example, the status of a schoolboy, student, officer, husband, etc. In an adult, status is usually associated with profession.

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

In the process of life, a person’s status set and roles change. 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 reflexive reaction to the influence of the environment. For example, a young man chooses which university to enter, and once in the army, he is forced to adapt to it, counting the days until demobilization. A person has the inherent ability to increase and complicate his status and role set.

Some philosophers see the meaning of individual life in the self-realization of one’s abilities and needs, the elevation of one’s status and role set. (In particular, the above system of needs according to Maslow comes from this.) What is the reason for this phenomenon? It is due to the fact that, on the one hand, self-realization is embedded in the “foundation” of a person - in his freedom, ambitions, and competitiveness. On the other hand, external circumstances often elevate or lower people in the status set. As a result, people who are able to mobilize their abilities and will advance throughout life from one status level to another, moving from one social stratum to another, higher one. For example, a schoolchild - a student - a young specialist - a businessman - the president of a company - a pensioner. The last stage of status recruitment, associated with old age, usually puts an end to the process conservation status set.

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 and defeat in the fight against age and disease. As a result, retirement, leaving the workforce for a family that was considered a secondary 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 responsibilities), but also on the surrounding social environment, consisting of the same social subjects. They expect a certain social behavior in accordance with their needs and “other-oriented”. In this case, social behavior takes on the character of a social role.

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

How does a subject's social environment force him to follow certain norms that lead to the behavior expected by that environment? First of all, socialization and the education of such norms are of enormous importance. Further, in society there is a mechanism sanctions - punishments for failure to fulfill a role and rewards for its fulfillment, i.e., for compliance with social norms. This mechanism operates throughout a person’s life.

Social status and role are closely interrelated; it is no coincidence that in European sociology they are often not distinguished. "Status" in this sense of the word is equivalent to roles, although it is the latter term that is more widely used,” write English sociologists. The behavioral side of social status, expressed in roles, allows them to be distinguished: social status can include several roles. For example, the status of a mother includes the roles of nurse, doctor, educator, etc. The concept of role also allows us to highlight the mechanism for coordinating the behavior of different subjects in social communities, institutions, and 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 of an unconscious nature for the child. He is shown what and how to do, and is encouraged for performing the role correctly. For example, little girls play with dolls and help their mothers with housework; boys play with cars, help their fathers with repairs, etc. Education for girls and boys gives them different interests, abilities, and roles.

The expected behavior is ideal because it comes from a theoretical situation. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish from a social role actual role behavior, t.s. performance of a role in specific conditions. For example, a talented chess player may play poorly for certain reasons, that is, fail to cope with his role. Role behavior usually differs from the social role (expected behavior) in many ways: abilities, understanding, conditions for implementing the role, etc.

Role performance is determined primarily role requirements, which are embodied in social standards, grouped around a given social status, as well as sanctions for fulfilling the role. A person’s roles are significantly influenced by the situation in which he finds himself—first of all, by other people. Subject models role expectations - orientation, primarily in relation to other people with whom he is associated in the 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 role expectation-orientation attributive(ascriptive). But role expectations-orientations may relate to the results of another’s activities. Parsons calls this role expectation Achievable. Attribute-achievement orientation is an important aspect of status-role behavior.

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

Characteristics of a social role

One of the first attempts to systematize social roles was made 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, a digger, a mason, a soldier, etc.

Purchase method. In accordance with these characteristics, roles (as well as statuses) are divided into prescribed and purchased(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 one’s 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 second ones are based on administrative And legal norms (roles of a deputy, policeman, etc.).

Motivation. Different roles are determined by different needs and interests, just as the same roles are determined by the same needs. For example, the role of the president is determined by a historical mission, lust for power, and an accident of birth. At the same time, the roles of “oligarch”, professor, wife, etc. can be determined by economic motives.

Man, being a social being, interacts with various social groups, participates in various joint actions, and is a member of different social groups at the same time. In each of these groups the individual occupies a different position and performs different functions. The concept of personality is inextricably linked with such concepts as “social role” and “social status”.

Social status- this is the position of a person in the structure of a group or society, associated with certain rights and responsibilities.

Social role is a system of expected behavior that is determined by normative responsibilities and the rights corresponding to these responsibilities.

An individual simultaneously performs not one, but several social roles, sometimes even many: in a family he is a son, a brother, a husband, a grandson, and a father; in other social groups he is a superior to his subordinates and a subordinate to his superior, etc. .

The position of a person performing only one role is always pathological and assumes that he lives in conditions of complete isolation from society (is a patient in a psychiatric clinic or a prisoner in prison).

If status is a set of rights, privileges and responsibilities, then social role is actions within this set of rights and responsibilities.

Just like a person can have many roles and social statuses. In general, any social status presupposes a corresponding role and vice versa.

Classification of social statuses.

There are: prescribed and acquired (achieved)

Prescribed status is a status received by an individual from birth or due to factors independent of its bearer (age, gender, race, socio-economic status of parents).

Achievable status is the status acquired in society through the efforts and merits of the individual. Level of education, professional achievements, career, socially successful marriage - all this affects a person’s status in society.

In primitive societies, statuses are more often prescribed, acquired, and appear only in developed societies.

Status can also be group or personal.

Personal status is determined by the personal qualities and character traits of the individual, manifested at the level of a small group in which the individual functions directly - family, work team, circle of close friends.

Group status characterizes an individual as a member of a large social group - as a representative of a class, nation, profession, and a bearer of gender and age characteristics.

Social role should be viewed in terms of role performance and role expectation. Our roles are determined primarily by what others expect of us (for example, a mother should take care of children, children should respect their parents, etc.) Role performance is how an individual actually behaves in a given role.

The concept of “role tension” is associated with these same concepts.

Role tension– difficulties in fulfilling role obligations and inconsistency of the individual’s internal attitudes with the requirements of the role.

Role tension may increase due to inadequate role training or role conflict.

Inadequate role training: learning social roles in the process of socialization must be continuous and consistent: the experience of each life stage serves as preparation for the next. Currently, teaching social roles is based on discontinuity, so often a student is not ready for work, an elderly worker for retirement, a young mother for raising a child, etc.

Role learning has at least two aspects:

It is necessary to learn to perform duties and exercise rights in accordance with the role played.

It is equally important to acquire attitudes, feelings and expectations appropriate to the given role.

Role conflicts can be:

Between roles (role of mother and role of leader)

Within one role (a person publicly proclaims one point of view, and in a narrow circle – a completely opposite one)

There are several ways to reduce role tension:

Rationalization of roles is one of the ways to protect against a person’s painful perception of any situation with the help of concepts that are socially and personally desirable for him (for example, the commandment “thou shalt not kill” for Catholics of the Middle Ages was fair only in relation to people of true faith, but infidels could not considered human and could be killed)

Separation of roles is the temporary removal of one of the roles from life and turning it off from the individual’s consciousness, but while maintaining a response to the system of role requirements inherent in this role (for example, a doctor at work, a father and husband at home, a military man at work, a brother and son at home and etc.)

Role regulation is a formal procedure by which an individual is relieved of personal responsibility for the consequences of the role he performs (for example, a husband makes excuses to his wife for a long absence, saying that his work required it).

Role (French role) - the image embodied by the actor

A role is the expected behavior determined by a person’s status (Linton, cited in Merton, 1957).

A social role is an expectation (expectation) placed by society on an individual occupying a particular status. It does not depend on the personality itself, its desires, and exists, as it were, apart from and before the personality itself.

In other words: a social role is an expected pattern of behavior that corresponds to a certain social status and does not depend on the individual.

For each social role, behavioral characteristics are different. The limits are limited, but the very performance of the role of any status is a creative process. Children's status is usually subordinate to adults, who expect children to play subordinate roles. The status of soldiers is different from that of civilians; The role of soldiers is associated with risk and fulfillment of the oath, which cannot be said about other groups of the population.

Each social status usually includes a number of social roles. The set of roles corresponding to a given status is called a role set (R. Merton, 1957). So the teacher has one status, but the roles in relation to the head of the department and the student are different, i.e. with one status you can have many roles. Talcott Parsons introduced the concept of role pluralism. This is a combination of important long-term roles and temporary, situational roles.

An equally important problem is learning roles. Roles are learned through the process of socialization, and their number is constantly increasing.

Socialization is a fairly broad process that includes both the acquisition of skills, abilities, knowledge, and the formation of values, ideals, norms and principles of social behavior.

In early childhood, a person plays one role - a child who is taught certain rules of the game. Then the role of a kindergarten student and a member of the primary social group for playing together, spending time, relaxing, etc. is added to it. In the future, the child plays the role of a student, a member of a youth group, a participant in social activities, and a member of various interest groups.

Returning to the fact that each individual can have a large number of statuses, and those around him have the right to expect him to fulfill roles in accordance with these statuses. In this sense, status and role are two sides of the same phenomenon: if status is a set of rights, privileges and responsibilities, then a role is an action within the framework of this set of rights and responsibilities.

The social role consists of:

Role expectations and

Role-playing (games).

Note that there is no complete coincidence between role expectation and role performance. The quality of role performance depends on many conditions, among which the conformity of the role with the needs, interests and individual qualities of the individual is crucial.

Role expectations can be formal or informal. The most striking example of formal role expectations is laws. For example, the law on criminal liability for actions causing harm to other people. Other expectations, less formal—for example, table manners, dress code, and politeness—are informal but also have a strong impact on our behavior.

Our roles are defined by what others expect of us. In our society (and most others), it is expected that parents should take care of their children, that an employee should do the work assigned to him, that close friends care about our problems. If there is a failure to perform a role according to our expectations, role conflict arises. The discrepancy between role expectations and role performance, the contradiction of role expectations of several roles (at least two) causes the emergence of role conflict. For example, parents and peers expect different behavior from a teenager, and he, playing the roles of son and friend, cannot simultaneously meet their expectations. Even more often, this conflict - a mismatch of roles - accompanies the life of an adult.

When a person’s actions correspond to role expectations, he receives social rewards (money, respect); failure to meet role expectations entails punishment (deprivation of material benefits, freedom, public attention, etc.). Rewards and punishments combined are called sanctions. Whether applied by one or more interacting individuals or by others, sanctions reinforce rules that determine what behavior is appropriate in a given situation (Goode, 1960).

Social roles can be institutionalized or conventional. Institutionalized: institution of marriage, family (social roles of mother, daughter, wife)

Conventional: accepted by agreement (a person can refuse to accept them).

Cultural norms are learned primarily through role learning. For example, a person who masters the role of a military man becomes familiar with the customs, moral norms and laws characteristic of the status of this role. Only a few norms are accepted by all members of society; the acceptance of most norms depends on the status of a particular individual.

What is acceptable for one status is unacceptable for another. Thus, socialization as the process of learning generally accepted ways and methods of actions and interactions is the most important process of learning role behavior, as a result of which the individual truly becomes a part of society.

The types of social roles are determined by the variety of social groups, types of activities and relationships in which the individual is included. Depending on social relations, social and interpersonal social roles are distinguished.

Social roles are associated with social status, profession or type of activity (teacher, student, student, salesperson). These are standardized impersonal roles, built on the basis of rights and responsibilities, regardless of who plays these roles. There are socio-demographic roles: husband, wife, daughter, son, grandson... Man and woman are also social roles, biologically predetermined and presupposing specific modes of behavior, enshrined in social norms and customs.

Interpersonal roles are associated with interpersonal relationships that are regulated at the emotional level (leader, offended, neglected, family idol, loved one, etc.).

In life, in interpersonal relationships, each person acts in some dominant social role, a unique social role as the most typical individual image, familiar to others. Changing a habitual image is extremely difficult both for the person himself and for the perception of the people around him. The longer a group exists, the more familiar the dominant social roles of each group member become to those around them and the more difficult it is to change the behavior pattern habitual to those around them.

Characteristics of roles

An attempt to systematize social roles was made by Talcott Parsons and his colleagues (1951). They believed that any role could be described using five basic characteristics:

1. Emotionality.

2. Method of receipt.

3. Scale.

4. Formalization.

5. Motivation

1. Emotionality. Some roles (for example, a nurse, a doctor, or a funeral home owner) require emotional restraint in situations that are usually accompanied by intense expression of feelings (we are talking about illness, suffering, death). Family members and friends are expected to show less reserved expressions of feelings.

2. Method of receipt. Some roles are conditioned by prescribed statuses - for example, child, youth or adult citizen; they are determined by the age of the person playing the role. Other roles are won; When we talk about a doctor of medicine, we mean a role that is not achieved automatically, but as a result of the individual’s efforts.

3. Scale. Some roles are limited to strictly defined aspects of human interaction. For example, the doctor and patient roles are limited to issues that directly relate to the patient's health. A broader relationship is established between a small child and his mother or father; Each parent is concerned about many aspects of their child’s life.

4. Formalization. Some roles involve interacting with people according to set rules. For example, a librarian is obliged to issue books for a certain period of time and demand a fine for each day of overdue from those who delay the books. When performing other roles, you may receive special treatment from those with whom you have a personal relationship. For example, we do not expect a brother or sister to pay us for a service rendered to them, although we might accept payment from a stranger.

5. Motivation. Different roles are driven by different motives. It is expected, say, that an enterprising person is absorbed in his own interests - his actions are determined by the desire to obtain maximum profit. But a social worker like the Unemployment Compensation Bureau is supposed to work primarily for the public good, not for personal gain.

According to Parsons, every role includes some combination of these characteristics. For example, the role of a prostitute. Usually these ladies do not show any feelings towards their clients. This role is achieved rather than prescribed, since it is acquired on the basis of certain activities. It is strictly limited to sex offered for money. Typically, prostitutes serve their clients in accordance with accepted rules - a set fee for a certain type of service. Prostitutes work for their own benefit - sexual services for personal gain.

While performing roles, a person, as a rule, experiences emotional and moral experiences, may come into conflict with other people, experience a moral crisis, and duality. This gives rise to discomfort, uncertainty, and psychological distress, which are signs of role tension.

The main causes of role stress are primarily role conflicts.

Just as the forms, reasons, and situations that give rise to role tension are diverse, so are the ways to overcome them. We are not talking about overcoming the fundamental principles, the root causes of psychological stress in the course of role behavior - we are only talking about ways to overcome stress and possible depression.

One such way is the method of rationalizing role expectations, which creates illusory but seemingly rational excuses for failure.

Rationalization of role expectations can reduce aspirations, transfer aspirations from one prestigious status to another, but in a different area (for example, from production to family, and vice versa).

The essence of the principle of role separation, as a way to overcome role tensions, is the conscious differentiation of the rules, techniques, and norms inherent in the performance of one role from the norms and patterns of behavior inherent in another role.

The principle of role hierarchization can also play a huge role in overcoming serious psychological experiences generated by the clash of role predictions. “What is more important to me - children, family, or science?” Faced with such a dilemma, a person finds himself in a dead end, the way out of which is for the individual to choose one of these roles as a priority. And in conflict situations, one should follow the instructions of the preferred role.

Role regulation is the conscious, purposeful actions of a society, nation, team, family, the purpose of which is to overcome the psychological stress of the individual caused by role conflict.

One of the forms of role regulation, associated with the approval (propaganda) by government bodies and the media of new standards of role behavior (could play a significant role in establishing in our society a model of an entrepreneur, farmer, etc., increasing their prestige).

The first point of view is presented in the textbook “Fundamentals of Sociology” by A.I. Kravchenko (37, pp. 65 – 77).

Social status– is a stable position of an individual within a social group, associated with certain rights and responsibilities. However, we must keep in mind that each individual at each given moment of his life has not one, but several statuses, i.e. belongs to different communities and occupies different positions in social groups. In a certain sense, we can say that an individual in society is a multi-status being. At the same time, a dominant position stands out in this status diversity. This status is called the main one, and, as a rule, it is determined by the position that a person holds in one or another social structure: director, professor, engineer, lawyer, worker, etc.

The system of statuses that characterizes a person’s position in society is mobile and changeable. But there is always a certain constant component in it, which is formed by innate or prescribed statuses. They determine the position of the individual in society in connection with his social origin: worker, peasant, intellectual, etc., and also indicate the individual’s belonging to a social group inherited from his parents: gender, nationality, race... Sometimes natural statuses are highlighted in the literature , which are understood as stable objective characteristics of a person associated with his origin and periods of life: childhood, youth, maturity, old age.

The status classification distinguishes achieved statuses– is a position in society acquired by an individual thanks to his efforts and will, requiring from him certain knowledge, abilities, education, and qualifications. This group is sometimes called professional and official, and it is this group that is the basis for the formation of the main status of an individual.

The above classification does not exhaust the variety of statuses existing in society.

So, social status is the position, position of an individual or group that they occupy in the social system. Each status is connected to others through a system of rights and responsibilities. For example: the status “teacher” makes sense only in relation to the status “student”. He has the right to teach the student his subject, assessing his knowledge, certifying him or not, depending on how the student performs his main function - to study. In other words, the teacher and the student enter into social interactions with each other as representatives of two social groups, as bearers of social status. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the following.

Social statuses are interconnected, but do not interact with each other.
Only status-bearing subjects interact with each other through the performance of their functions.
It is not statuses that enter into social relations, but individuals and groups occupying corresponding positions.
Social relations connect statuses, but these relations are realized through the subjects of social interaction and their roles.

The role theory of personality occupies a significant place in sociology. Its main provisions were developed and formulated by American sociologists George Herbert Mead, Robert Merton, Talcott Parsons and other researchers. The main provisions of this theory are described by A.A. Radugin and K.A. Radugin (53, pp. 70 – 78), Zh.T. Toshchenko (63, pp. 310 – 328), A.I. Kravchenko (37, pp. . 73 – 77), E.V. Tadevosyan Sociology. Textbook (61, pp. 143 – 158) and other literature.

Pay attention to the difference and connection between social roles and social statuses. If status is the position of an individual in any hierarchical social structure, expressed by a set of rights and responsibilities, then a role is a dynamic activity characteristic of status, i.e. process implementation of status rights and obligations.

In this regard, a social role can be defined as the expected behavior of a social subject associated with his status and typical for individuals of the corresponding status in a given society. One status usually involves many roles. role requirements . They are expressed in specific social norms, grouped around the corresponding social status. The following elements are usually distinguished in the normative structure of a social role.

A description of the type of behavior appropriate for the role.
Prescriptions, i.e. requirements or norms associated with a given behavior.
Criteria for assessing the prescribed role.
Sanction, i.e. the reaction of society or a social group to the quality and consequences of fulfilling a social role, implemented in the form of reward or punishment.

The meaning of social sanctions is to induce an individual to a certain type of behavior, and they perform the most important function of regulating social interaction.