Types of social science statuses. Social status of a person. Working class problems

Social status- a position occupied by a person in society and associated with certain rights and responsibilities. The term “status” entered sociology from the Latin language and originally in Ancient Rome meant legal status legal entity. At the end of the 19th century. English historian G.D.S. Maine uses this term to denote the social position occupied by an individual in society. In modern sociology, social status- a position occupied by an individual or group in society in accordance with profession, socio-economic status, political opportunities, gender, origin, marital status. Social status characterizes the place of an individual in the system of social interactions and the assessment of his activities by society.

Since each person is characterized by several status characteristics, R. Merton introduced into sociology the concept of “status set”, used to designate the entire set of statuses of a particular individual. Status set- this is the entire set of statuses that characterize a given person in the variety of his interactions with other individuals on the issue of fulfilling his rights and responsibilities. In this totality, the main status of the individual is highlighted. The main status is the one that determines the attitude and direction of the individual, the content and nature of his activities, lifestyle, behavior, and circle of acquaintances.

In sociology, it is customary to distinguish between two statuses – personal and social. Social status- This is the position occupied objectively by a person in society. It is determined by the responsibilities and rights that society gives an individual, regardless of his individual characteristics. Personal status- this is the position occupied by a person in a small group, determined by his individual qualities. Social status characteristics serve to introduce people to each other. Personal status is important in communication between well-known people, since personal characteristics are essential here. Depending on whether a person occupies a certain social position due to inherited characteristics (gender, race, nationality) or due to his own efforts, two types of statuses are distinguished: prescribed and achieved. Prescribed status- a status in society that an individual occupies regardless of his consciousness, desires, will, aspirations and over which he has no control. Achieved status- a social position that a person acquires through his own efforts. Therefore, the achieved status is the individual’s reward for his talent, work, determination, or is a consequence of his failures.

The most important dimensions of status are prestige and power. Prestige– a set of qualities that are subject to high social evaluation. Prestige indicates that a social object belongs to a limited group and its high significance in social life. In society, individuals are endowed power depending on its level and limitations, they occupy a certain position in society. An individual acquires power either due to his involvement in government government structures or because he has acquired high authority.

The role theory of personality describes its social behavior using the concepts of “social status” and “social role.” Every person in social system occupies several positions. Each of these positions, which involves certain rights and responsibilities, is called a status. A person can have several statuses. But more often than not, only one determines his position in society. This status is called main or integral. It often happens that this main status is due to his position (for example, director, professor). Social status is reflected both in external behavior and appearance (clothing, jargon, signs of professional affiliation, etc.) and in internal position (in attitudes, value orientations, motivations, etc.).

In sociology, social status is understood as an assessment of the objective position of a person or social group in a hierarchical system of social stratification. And usually the term is used when talking about an increase, improvement in the position of an individual or group, or vice versa, about a decrease.

Social status is an objective and comprehensive characteristic of a person’s position in the social system, or, as Sorokin argued: “Social status is a place in social space.” Each individual occupies one, most important place in society, and has one main or general status; this is an assessment of his position in society as a whole. But a person is objectively included in various groups and communities, and together with them he also occupies a certain place in society, and in the crayfish of a certain group or community his place status may be different. The main status is determined primarily by his type of activity, because in the public consciousness any type of activity is characterized by income, therefore, by its material capabilities. But there are other statuses and provisions that are also important to consider.

Smelser gave this example. For an American, race is of great importance. For us - less. Status may have ethnic connotations. There is the status of the head of the family. A person is included in a mass of systems, relationships and interdependencies and has different statuses. Each status, both main and non-main, presupposes a certain behavior of a person that is expected of him in accordance with his status. The more a person is included in public life, the more status he has. In addition to dividing statuses into main and non-main, there are 2 more types of statuses: prescribed and acquired. Prescribed - the status that a person receives at birth (often social status can also be prescribed, although a person’s social status often changes with age). But most statuses are acquired. This is marital status, professional status, including the main status. As a rule, people strive to acquire a higher status than they already have.

If we consider a formalized status, then in it a person’s behavior and actions are predetermined by instructions, rules, laws (primarily professional status, civil, etc.). There are professions and activities where there is a high degree of formalization. There are completely unformalized statuses (the status of an informal leader in small groups).

In any status, and especially in a professional one, a person enters into different relationships with people, into different structures, and these are called social roles. Some statuses even imply a role set, a set of roles that a person plays within the framework of his status.

Each status involves from one to many roles, and any person has several statuses and plays an even greater number of social roles. A social role, like social status, creates a certain expectation of others about your behavior, and you act in accordance with this expectation.

Natural and professional-official statuses are also distinguished. The natural status of an individual presupposes significant and stable characteristics of the individual (man, woman, youth, old man, etc.). Professional and official status is the basic personality status for an adult. It records social, economic and professional status - for example, banker, lawyer, engineer.

In any status, and especially in a professional one, a person enters into different relationships with people, into different structures, and these are called social roles. A social role is a set of actions that a person occupying a given status in the social system must perform. Each status usually includes several roles. The set of roles arising from this status, is called a role set.

Each status presupposes that an individual has from one to many roles, but any person has several statuses and plays an even larger number of social roles. A social role, like social status, causes others to have a certain expectation of your behavior, and you act within the appropriate framework of this expectation. The roles each person plays are influenced by a number of circumstances:

Waiting for others

Personal qualities,

Traditions, specific features, developing in different social groups and communities.

One of the first attempts to systematize roles was made by Parsons. He believed that any role is described by five main characteristics:

Emotional - some roles require emotional restraint, others - looseness;

With the way of obtaining a role - some are prescribed, others are won;

Scale - some roles are formulated and strictly limited, others are blurred;

Formalization - action in strict established rules ah or arbitrarily;

Motivation - for personal profit, for the common good, etc.

Any role is characterized by some set of these five properties.

Role requirements (instructions, regulations and expectations of appropriate behavior) are embodied in specific social norms grouped around social status.

It should be noted that any role is not a pure model of behavior. The main link between role expectations and role behavior is the character of the individual, i.e. human behavior does not fit into a pure scheme. It is the result of a particular person's unique interpretation of the role.

sociology institute status community city

Man does not exist outside of society. We interact with other people and enter into various relationships with them. To indicate a person’s position among his own kind and the characteristics of an individual’s behavior in certain situations, scientists introduced the concepts of “social status” and “social role.”

About social status

The social status of an individual is not only a person’s place in the system of social relations, but also the rights and responsibilities dictated by his position. Thus, the status of a doctor gives the right to diagnose and treat patients, but at the same time obliges the doctor to observe labor discipline and conscientiously perform his work.

The concept of social status was first proposed by the American anthropologist R. Linton. The scientist made a great contribution to the study of the problems of personality and its interaction with other members of society.

There are statuses in an enterprise, in a family, in a political party, kindergarten, school, university, in a word, wherever an organized group of people is engaged in socially significant activities and the members of the group have certain relationships with each other.

A person is in several statuses at the same time. For example, a middle-aged man acts as a son, father, husband, engineer at a factory, member of a sports club, holder of an academic degree, author of scientific publications, patient in a clinic, etc. The number of statuses depends on the connections and relationships into which the individual enters.

There are several classifications of statuses:

1. Personal and social. A person occupies a personal status in a family or other small group in accordance with the assessment of his personal qualities. Social status (examples: teacher, worker, manager) is determined by the actions performed by the individual for society.
2. Main and episodic. Primary status is associated with the main functions in a person's life. Most often, the main statuses are family man and worker. Episodic are associated with a moment in time during which a citizen performs certain actions: a pedestrian, a reader in a library, a course student, a theater viewer, etc.
3. Prescribed, achieved and mixed. The prescribed status does not depend on the desires and capabilities of the individual, as it is given at birth (nationality, place of birth, class). What is achieved is acquired as a result of the efforts made (level of education, profession, achievements in science, art, sports). Mixed combines the features of the prescribed and achieved statuses (a person who has received a disability).
4. Socio-economic status is determined by the amount of income received and the position that an individual occupies in accordance with his well-being.

The set of all available statuses is called a status set.

Hierarchy

Society constantly evaluates the significance of this or that status and, on the basis of this, builds a hierarchy of positions.

Assessments depend on the benefits of the business in which a person is engaged, and on the system of values ​​​​accepted in the culture. Prestigious social status (examples: businessman, director) is highly appreciated. At the top of the hierarchy is the general status, which determines not only a person’s life, but also the position of people close to him (president, patriarch, academician).

If some statuses are unreasonably low, while others, on the contrary, are excessively high, then they speak of a violation of status balance. The trend towards its loss threatens the normal functioning of society.

The hierarchy of statuses can also be subjective. A person himself determines what is more important to him, in what status he feels better, what benefits he derives from being in one position or another.

Social status cannot be something unchanging, since people's lives are not static. The movement of a person from one social group to another is called social mobility, which is divided into vertical and horizontal.

Vertical mobility is spoken of when the social status of an individual increases or decreases (a worker becomes an engineer, a department head becomes an ordinary employee, etc.). With horizontal mobility, a person maintains his position, but changes his profession (to one of equal status), place of residence (becomes an emigrant).

Intergenerational and intragenerational mobility are also distinguished. The first determines how much children have increased or decreased their status in relation to the status of their parents, and the second determines how successful the social career of representatives of one generation is (types of social status are taken into account).

The channels of social mobility are school, family, church, army, public organizations and political parties. Education is a social elevator that helps a person achieve the desired status.

A high social status acquired by an individual or a decrease in it indicates individual mobility. If the status of a certain community of people changes (for example, as a result of a revolution), then group mobility takes place.

Social roles

While in one status or another, a person performs actions, communicates with other people, that is, plays a role. Social status and social role are closely interrelated, but differ from each other. Status is position, and role is socially expected behavior determined by status. If a doctor is rude and swears, and a teacher abuses alcohol, then this does not correspond to the status he holds.

The term “role” was borrowed from theater to emphasize the stereotypical behavior of people of similar social groups. A person cannot do as he wants. The behavior of an individual is determined by the rules and norms characteristic of a particular social group and society as a whole.

Unlike status, a role is dynamic and closely related to a person’s character traits and moral attitudes. Sometimes role behavior is adhered to only in public, as if putting on a mask. But it also happens that the mask fuses with its wearer, and the person ceases to distinguish between himself and his role. Depending on the situation, this state of affairs has both positive and negative consequences.

Social status and social role are two sides of the same coin.

Diversity of social roles

Since there are many people in the world and each person is an individual, it is unlikely that there will be two identical roles. Some role models require emotional restraint and self-control (lawyer, surgeon, funeral director), while for other roles (actor, teacher, mother, grandmother) emotions are very much in demand.

Some roles drive a person into rigid boundaries ( job descriptions, statutes, etc.), others have no framework (parents are fully responsible for the behavior of their children).

The performance of roles is closely related to motives, which are also different. Everything is determined by social status in society and personal motives. An official is concerned with promotion, a financier is concerned with profit, and a scientist is concerned with the search for truth.

Role set

A role set is understood as a set of roles characteristic of a particular status. Thus, a doctor of science is in the role of a researcher, teacher, mentor, supervisor, consultant, etc. Each role implies its own ways of communicating with others. The same teacher behaves differently with colleagues, students, and the rector of the university.

The concept of “role set” describes the whole variety of social roles inherent in a particular status. No role is strictly assigned to its bearer. For example, one of the spouses remains unemployed and for some time (and perhaps forever) loses the roles of colleague, subordinate, manager, and becomes a housewife (householder).

In many families, social roles are symmetrical: both husband and wife equally act as breadwinners, masters of the house and educators of children. In such a situation, it is important to adhere to the golden mean: excessive passion for one role (company director, businesswoman) leads to a lack of energy and time for others (father, mother).

Role Expectations

The difference between social roles and mental states and personality traits is that roles represent a certain historically developed standard of behavior. There are requirements for the bearer of a particular role. Thus, a child must certainly be obedient, a schoolboy or student must study well, a worker must observe labor discipline, etc. Social status and social role oblige one to act one way and not another. The system of requirements is also called expectations.

Role expectations act as an intermediate link between status and role. Only behavior that corresponds to status is considered role-playing. If a teacher, instead of giving a lecture on higher mathematics, starts singing with a guitar, then students will be surprised, because they expect other behavioral reactions from an assistant professor or professor.

Role expectations consist of actions and qualities. Taking care of the child, playing with him, putting the baby to bed, the mother performs actions, and kindness, responsiveness, empathy, and moderate severity contribute to the successful implementation of actions.

Compliance with the role being performed is important not only to others, but also to the person himself. A subordinate strives to earn the respect of his superior and receives moral satisfaction from a high assessment of the results of his work. The athlete trains hard to set a record. The writer is working on a bestseller. A person’s social status obliges him to be at his best. If an individual's expectations do not meet the expectations of others, then internal and external conflicts arise.

Role conflict

Contradictions between role holders arise either due to inconsistency with expectations, or due to the fact that one role completely excludes another. The young man more or less successfully plays the roles of son and friend. But the guy's friends invite him to a disco, and his parents demand that he stay at home. The emergency doctor's child falls ill, and the doctor is urgently called to the hospital because a natural disaster has occurred. The husband wants to go to the dacha to help his parents, and the wife books a trip to the sea to improve the health of the children.

Resolving role conflicts is not an easy task. Participants in the confrontation have to decide which role is more important, but in most cases compromises are more appropriate. The teenager returns from the party early, the doctor leaves his child with his mother, grandmother or nanny, and the spouses negotiate the timing of participation in dacha work and travel time for the whole family.

Sometimes the solution to the conflict is leaving the role: changing jobs, going to university, getting a divorce. Most often, a person understands that he has outgrown this or that role or that it has become a burden to him. A change of roles is inevitable as the child grows and develops: infant, toddler, preschooler, primary school student, teenager, young man, adult. The transition to a new age level is ensured by internal and external contradictions.

Socialization

From birth, a person learns the norms, patterns of behavior and cultural values ​​characteristic of a particular society. This is how socialization occurs and the individual’s social status is acquired. Without socialization, a person cannot become a full-fledged individual. Socialization is influenced by the media, cultural traditions of the people, social institutions (family, school, work collectives, public associations, etc.).

Purposeful socialization occurs as a result of training and upbringing, but the efforts of parents and teachers are adjusted by the street, the economic and political situation in the country, television, the Internet and other factors.

The further development of society depends on the effectiveness of socialization. Children grow up and occupy the status of their parents, taking on certain roles. If the family and the state do not pay enough attention to the upbringing of the younger generation, then degradation and stagnation occur in public life.

Members of society coordinate their behavior with certain standards. These may be prescribed norms (laws, regulations, rules) or unspoken expectations. Any non-compliance with standards is considered a deviation, or deviation. Examples of deviation are drug addiction, prostitution, alcoholism, pedophilia, etc. Deviation can be individual, when one person deviates from the norm, and group (informal groups).

Socialization occurs as a result of two interrelated processes: internalization and social adaptation. A person adapts to social conditions, masters the rules of the game, which are mandatory for all members of society. Over time, norms, values, attitudes, ideas about what is good and what is bad become part of the inner world of the individual.

People are socialized throughout their lives, and at each age stage, statuses are acquired and lost, new roles are learned, conflicts arise and are resolved. This is how personality development occurs.

Social status

Social status is an indicator of the position occupied by an individual in society. Each person has several statuses (son, he is also a geologist, he is also a goalkeeper).

There are a distinction between ascribed (innate) and achieved (acquired) statuses. The ascribed status is received automatically - by ethnic origin, place of birth, family status - regardless of personal efforts (daughter, Buryat woman, Volzhanka, aristocrat). Achieved status - writer, student, spouse , officer, laureate, director, deputy - are acquired through the efforts of the person himself with the help of certain social groups - family, brigade, party.

However, the statuses are unequal. Position in society determines the main status, which, as a rule, is based on position and profession. Profession serves as the most used, cumulative, integrative indicator of a status position - the type of work determines such “status resources” of a person as authority, prestige, and power.

In the 90s, a person’s wealth, ownership of property and financial resources, and the opportunity to “live beautifully” began to emerge as leading statuses. In this situation, not qualifications, not skill, not creativity, but the possession of real estate and a bank account became the goal of a significant part of young people, who began to consider obtaining a specialty as an element or step in achieving significant material wealth.

In this regard, it should be noted the importance of the individual’s real starting position, which influences his assessment of society, gives a certain point of view on the world, which largely determines further behavior. People from families with different social statuses have unequal conditions for socialization and unequal opportunities for education. Some people have great opportunities, while others have their paths closed from birth. For example, a child from a middle class family (ascribed status) has greater opportunities to become a doctor or scientist (achieved status) than a child from a lower class background. In this regard, there is growing resistance in society to the creation of elite educational institutions, the quality of education in which is bought for money, depriving a significant part of young people of the opportunity to have an equal starting position in life.

An important characteristic of each status is the range and freedom of other statuses. Any individual decision regarding one’s own destiny consists in a constant choice of ways to overcome specific social inequality and in the desire to have appropriate conditions that ensure one’s competitiveness in life.

Social status, while providing certain rights and opportunities, obliges us to a lot. With the help of statuses, relationships between people are ordered and regulated. Social statuses are reflected both in external behavior and appearance - clothing, jargon, manners, and in the internal position of the individual - attitudes, value orientations, motives. Each status requires and gives people the opportunity to achieve social expectations of people or modify them, if it does not create conditions for the implementation of these expectations. In this sense, the famous Polish sociologist F. Znanecki (1882-1958) is right, who believed that the sociologist must take the human individual not only as he “really is” organically and psychologically, but as he is “made” by others and by himself in them and his own experience of social life. From a sociological point of view, in an individual, his social position and function are primary. The organic and psychological characteristics of an individual, according to Znaniecki, are simply the material from which a social personality is formed in the process of education and self-education.

Role theory of personality

A role is a type of behavior of an individual determined by its status. The set of roles corresponding to a given status is defined as a role set. A role is objectively determined by a social position, regardless of the individual characteristics of the person occupying this position. Fulfilling a role is associated with a person’s desire to conform to accepted social norms and the expectations of others.

Roles are learned through the process of socialization, and their number is constantly increasing. 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.

Since each person plays several roles, role conflict is possible: parents and peers expect different behavior from the 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.

There is never a complete match 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 and interests of the individual is crucial. Those who do not fulfill their role in accordance with expectations come into conflict with society and incur social and group sanctions.

Considering the properties of the role, T. Parsons formulated the following characteristics and dependencies. Thus, some roles are clearly limited in space and time (schoolchild, student), others are blurred and uncertain (membership in public organizations, interest groups), the third part is long-lasting (the role of an employee throughout his working life, fatherhood , motherhood, etc.).

Equally important is the fact that some roles require adherence to strictly established rules (soldier, member of a production organization), while for another part these requirements are established quite arbitrarily (member of a music club or public organization).

The fulfillment of a role is also associated with its motivational characteristics: in one case, the role is oriented towards obtaining personal benefits (owner of private property), in the other - towards public, social interests (member of a political party, member of a cooperative, etc.).

And finally, it is also important that the performance of some roles is strictly regulated (the role of a security guard, firefighter, duty officer), while other roles can be enriched or lose some features, which most clearly happens in the process of moving up the career or professional ladder.

Social roles and their meaning for humans are interpreted differently in the scientific literature. The behaviorist concept of social role limits the subject of research to the directly observable behavior of people, the interaction of individuals: the action of one turns out to be a stimulus that causes a response from the other. This allows us to describe the process of interaction, but does not reveal the inner side of the personality, the nature of social relations, roles and social expectations. The internal structure of the personality (ideas, desires, attitudes) is conducive to some roles, but does not contribute to the choice of other roles. Role expectations are also non-random situational factors: they arise from the demands of the social environment.

The social role that a person performs is very significant in his life, in his ability to function effectively within society. “A person sells not only goods, but sells himself and feels like a commodity... And as with any product, the market decides how much they cost certain human qualities, and even determines their very existence. If the qualities that a person can offer are not in demand, then he has no qualities at all..." (E. Fromm, 1969).

That is why activity should be considered from a social perspective, manifested in a person’s desire to realize himself as an individual both in accordance with his social status and social role.

Resolving role conflicts

Organizational methods for resolving role conflicts

To make sure that there is a role conflict, you can observe employees and identify a number of signs: restriction of relationships, an emphatically official form of communication, critical statements addressed to an opponent, and others. The individual psychological characteristics of employees make it possible to analyze the early symptoms of a hidden conflict at the stage of a conflict situation.

With resolution various types role conflicts, first of all, the implementation of a number of management decisions can be very useful.

Resolution (overcoming) of intrapersonal conflict, including role conflict, is understood as restoring the coherence of the individual’s inner world, establishing unity of consciousness, reducing the severity of contradictions in life relationships, and achieving a new quality of life. Resolving role conflict can be constructive or destructive. When constructively overcoming a conflict, peace of mind is achieved, understanding of life deepens, and a new value consciousness arises. Resolution of role conflict is realized through: the absence of painful conditions associated with the existing conflict; reducing the manifestations of negative psychological and socio-psychological factors of intrapersonal conflict; improving the quality and efficiency of professional activities.

Depending on individual characteristics, people relate to internal contradictions differently and choose their own strategies for getting out of conflict situations. Some are immersed in thoughts, others immediately begin to act, others plunge into the emotions overwhelming them. It is important that a person is aware of his own individual characteristics, develops his own style of resolving internal contradictions, and a constructive attitude towards them. Methods of conflict resolution, time spent on this for people with different types temperament are different. The choleric person decides everything quickly, preferring defeat to uncertainty. The melancholic person thinks for a long time, weighs, estimates, not daring to take any action. However, such a painful reflexive process does not exclude the possibility of radically changing the current situation. The properties of temperament influence the dynamic side of resolving intrapersonal contradictions: the speed of experiences, their stability, individual rhythm of flow, intensity, direction outward or inward.

There are different ways for men and women to resolve conflicts. Men are more rational; with each new intrapersonal experience, they enrich their set of means of resolving the situation. Women rejoice and suffer in a new way every time. They are more diverse in personal characteristics, and men are more diverse in role characteristics. Women have more time to update and, as it were, re-edit the accumulated experience; men are less inclined to return to what they have experienced, but they are able to get out of the conflict in a timely manner.

Conflict regulation is an ordered set of actions by the participants in the conflict, as well as third parties (mediators) to overcome the conflict using various means and techniques, interconnected in space and time, taking into account the conditions and dynamics of the conflict situation. Basic elements of technology: means; methods; actions.

Good ways to prevent role conflicts are conversation, explanation, and the formation of a culture of interpersonal relationships; psychological measures to build relationships according to the type of extension, refusal to use behavioral conflictogens of superiority, aggression, selfishness; administrative measures: changing working conditions; transfer of potential conflictants to different units, shifts, etc.

There is a close organic connection between sanitary-hygienic, psychophysical and aesthetic working conditions and the emergence of intrapersonal relationships. What causes deviations and disruptions to the normal functioning of the human body will necessarily - directly or indirectly, sooner or later - affect a person’s disposition of spirit, his perception of his own role and, therefore, the effectiveness of his work. Noise and vibrations in the workplace, gas pollution and pollution, ambient temperature and humidity levels that do not meet standards, insufficient or uneven lighting of workplaces will cause workers fatigue and irritation, the causes and sources of which they are not aware of. This condition negatively affects work and reduces perception of aesthetic events. A typical example would be the relationship between workplace lighting and painted equipment. It is known that illumination relates to sanitary and hygienic working conditions, and color - to aesthetic ones. However, when production facilities are poorly lit, even the selection of colors is not pleasant. In poor lighting, colors fade: blue appears gray, green appears dirty gray.

Psychotherapeutic methods for resolving role conflicts

In some cases, it is advisable to use psychotherapeutic methods for resolving role conflict. Employees are sent to undergo a psychotherapeutic course. The main type of role-playing psychotherapy, as a means of solving psychological problems associated with role-playing personality development, is psychodrama. This method makes it possible to simulate human lives, experience events of the past, present and future, both existing and those that did not exist and could not exist, to recreate any, even the most fantastic, roles. By means of psychodrama it is possible to correct life roles and scenarios, to identify personal roles that, as a result of role socialization, have been blocked, repressed or undeveloped. For this purpose, there is a specific psychodramatic technique of “anti-role”, which helps not only to analyze the role repertoire, but also to develop it, freeing those areas of the personality that were repressed.

Psychodrama belongs to the methods of action. This means that situations associated with personal choice, decision-making, rehearsal of the future can be miraculously simulated and processed in such a way that a person himself will find solutions or make a choice, see the advantages and disadvantages of different options, and become aware of the psychological difficulties that accompany the choice ( internal barriers, erroneous stereotypes, fears or unconscious reluctance, etc.). This approach makes it possible to take a different look at a person’s value systems, revise them, abandon erroneous values, and pay attention to those values ​​that were previously overlooked or considered insignificant. Psychodrama techniques help to reveal the spontaneity and creativity of the individual, as well as the development of role competence, that is, the ability of the individual to quickly master his psychological roles, act as a full subject of these roles, include role behavior in the process of his own life and work, which makes it possible to solve various life problems, including those related to role conflicts.

There are many variants and approaches of psychodrama, depending on the nature of the psychological problems, the composition of the psychotherapeutic group and other psychological and clinical indications.

To overcome role conflicts, mutual adjustment of the role expectations of the individual and the group or communication partners is often necessary. This leads to mutual acceptance of the other person’s roles, that is, acceptance of the person as he is. The last condition is especially important, since non-acceptance of a person and his roles is one of the main reasons for the emergence of all role conflicts. Mutual correction of role expectations can be accomplished using the psychodramatic “role exchange” technique. Communication partners alternately play the role of themselves and their partner, having the opportunity to “look” at themselves from the outside and be in the image of another person.

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:

1. Natural status. As a rule, the status received at birth is unchanged: gender, race, nationality, class or estate.
2. Acquired status. What a person achieves in the course of his life with the help of knowledge, skills and abilities: profession, position, title.
3. 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 has in the world this moment, 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 play well. 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 role scale (that is, by range 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, employee, 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.