A role is a behaviour that is generally expected of one who occupies a particular status. As Linton put in ‘we occupy statuses, but we play roles’. Human interaction is defined by the relationship among various roles, such as student, son, teacher, parent, etc. In the course of a day everyone performs a variety of social roles, each carrying a set of behavioural expectations that are dependent on the social context.
The exact nature of these roles depends upon the particular cultural system one is situated in. Thus, it is quite possible that in some cultures, if men were to be openly emotional but in many other cultures it is not the expected behaviour. The roles people are not only specifically dependent on actual situations but are influenced by the larger cultural normative structure. Role expectations are not always found in written form.
Although sometimes they are. The cost of the Republic for example specifies that married women should not have jobs as it interferes with their role as mothers. In many instances such written expectations are not always found but one is exposed to these expectations as unwritten codes.
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You must have noticed that in our own context of India, that in the female role there are less expectations at least in the context of jobs. However, our culture constantly sends messages as to what a woman should be it the Indian movies, mythologies, epics sayings and of course the subtle do’s and don’ts of everyday life. Every person plays several roles in their lifetime and sometimes these roles carry different role expectations.
These conflicting expectations are called role conflict. For example, a mother may be expected to be a good mother which involves a commitment to her children. This commitment may come in conflict with her role as head of an organisation or employer which involves in equal expectations.
You may have experienced this conflict yourself and have seen others experiencing it when people resolve these conflicting demands by prioritising or closing one commitment over the other. Some statuses are more important than others in some people’s lives. Such a status in a person’s life has been called as master status by sociologists.