Enduring, predictable patterns of social relations among different people or elements of a social system
A kind of social structure made up of a number of relationships and used to achieve certain social goals
Culturally constructed and socially enforced practices that people are expected to follow when interacting with one another
Rules or expectations about how people are to behave in particular social situations
Gestures used to reward or punish behaviour
George Herbert Mead (1863–1931) sought to understand the relationship between roles and identities, and coined the term generalized other for the ways individuals internalize the expectations of others and govern themselves accordingly.
Max Weber (1864–1920) was the first sociologist to realize the significance of formal organization and bureaucracies for society.
Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929) articulated the theory of the looking-glass self, and noted that primary groups (e.g. families, peers) were the main agents of social learning.
Herbert Blumer (1900–1987) helped to establish social constructionism, the view that social reality is created through a continuous process in which we all participate.
Robert Merton (1910–2003) developed the concept of reference groups to identify the groups to which an individual compares himself (and judges himself), whether or not he is a member. He also contributed significantly to our understanding of the dysfunctions of bureaucracy, especially the bureaucratic personality.
Erving Goffman (1922–1982) argued that social life could be thought of as a theatrical production, consisting of costumes, audiences, roles, and scripts—a sociological perspective termed the dramaturgical approach.
Howard Becker (b. 1928) devised labelling theory to explain how certain roles come to be branded “deviant.”
The expected behaviour of an individual in a particular social position and the duties associated with that position
Roles shape our behaviour and sense of self
All the ways in which we view ourselves and in which others view us, based on the roles we play
How we take on existing, defined roles (Mead)
How we leave a defining role to take on another (Ebaugh)
How we willingly take on a role and related identity (Goffman)
How we take on a role reluctantly and separate our inner self from the related identity (Goffman)
How we create new roles through interaction
The stress we feel when the expectations of two or more of our roles are in conflict (role conflict)
Individuals outside the mainstream internalize labels applied by members of the dominant class (Becker)
People behave like actors, with different roles for public (front-stage) and private (back-stage) interactions (Goffman)
People see themselves as they believe others see them (Cooley)
Collections of individuals with defined sets of members and goals
Groups of tightly interconnected people united by common interests and contempt for outsiders
Sprawling social units consisting of ties and nodes with no shared goal or identity
Large groups with a formalized structure of statuses, roles, and relationships, formed to achieve a common goal