Learning Our Identity » Roles, Status and Stereotypes

Roles

In the last lesson, Culture, Norms, Values and Customs, you met some of the building blocks of society. Three more are roles, status and stereotypes. All of them are made by people, so they are part of social construction.

Think about your day. At school you are a student. At a football club you might be a team captain. At a part-time job you might be a shop assistant. In each place people expect you to act in a certain way.

Key terms:

• Role: the pattern of behaviour that is expected of a person who holds a particular position in society, such as a parent, a teacher or a student.
• Role conflict: when the expectations of two or more of a person's roles clash, so they cannot meet them all at the same time.

Roles come with norms attached. A teacher is expected to plan lessons and be fair. A student is expected to listen and complete work. Most people play many roles, and the roles change as we move between situations.

Role conflict

Sometimes the demands of two roles collide. This is role conflict.

People deal with role conflict in different ways. They may choose one role over the other, ask for help, or find a compromise.

Status

Every role comes with a position in society. Sociologists call this position a status. Some positions are given more respect than others.

Key terms:

• Status: the position a person holds in society or in a group, and the amount of respect or prestige linked to it.
• Ascribed status: a status a person is given at birth or gains without choosing it, which they usually cannot change.
• Achieved status: a status a person earns through their own effort, ability or choices.

Most people have a mix of ascribed and achieved statuses at the same time.

Ascribed status is not always fixed for ever. Your age is ascribed, but it changes as you grow older. A status such as "child" turns into "adult". The key point is that you did not choose it.

Stereotypes

People often make quick judgements about others based on their group.

Key terms:

• Stereotype: an over-simplified and fixed idea about what all members of a group are like.

Stereotypes may be about gender, age, ethnicity, religion, social class, a job or a place. They are usually shared widely in a society and learned from family, friends and the media.

• "Teenagers are lazy and always on their phones."
• "Older people cannot use technology."
• "Girls are good at caring and boys are good at sport."

Stereotypes are almost always misleading. They treat everyone in a group as the same, ignore differences between individuals and often give an unfair picture. Some stereotypes sound positive, such as "everyone from that country is good at maths", but they are still stereotypes because they treat all people in a group as the same.

How they influence our behaviour

These three ideas shape how we act, often without us noticing.

• Roles tell us how to act. A student behaves differently in a lesson than at a party because the roles come with different expectations.
• Status affects how people treat us. People often listen more carefully to someone with high status, such as a judge or a head teacher.
• Status can motivate us. The wish for an achieved status, such as becoming a doctor, can push someone to study hard.
• Stereotypes affect how people treat each other. A manager who believes a stereotype about older workers may choose a younger person for a job without checking their skills.
• Stereotypes can affect our own choices. A girl who hears "girls are not good at science" may choose different subjects, because she believes people expect her to.

How they influence our social identity

Our social identity is how we see ourselves and how others see us as members of groups. Roles, status and stereotypes all feed into it.

• Roles give us part of who we are. Saying "I am a student, a sister and a volunteer" describes your identity through your roles.
• Status gives us a sense of our place in society. An achieved status such as a qualification can build pride, and an ascribed status such as belonging to a family or a community gives a sense of belonging.
• Stereotypes shape how others see us. They can also affect how we see ourselves, because we are influenced by what others expect of us. Some people accept a stereotype and some work hard to prove it wrong.

Because roles, status and stereotypes are socially constructed, they differ between societies and can change over time. For example, in many societies the roles and status of women and men have changed a great deal in the last hundred years.

Exam-style question

(a) Define the term stereotype. [2 marks]

(b) Give two examples of achieved status. [2 marks]

(c) Explain three ways in which roles, status or stereotypes can influence the behaviour of individuals. [6 marks]