Social Structures
Members of every society rely on social structure to make sense of everyday situations. Social
structure refers to social patterns that guide our behavior in everyday life. The building blocks of
social structure are status and role.
Characteristics of Social Structure
1. A person holds a status and performs a role. For example, holding the status of student
leads you to perform the role of attending classes and completing assignments.
2. Both statuses and roles vary by culture. In the United States, the status of “uncle” refers to
the brother of a mother or a father. In Pakistan, the word for “uncle” is different on the
mother’s and father’s sides of the family, and the two men have different responsibilities.
3. In every society, actual role performance varies with an individual’s unique personality,
Status:
Status is a social position that a person holds. Status is part of our social identity and helps define
our relationship to others. Sociologists classify statuses in terms of how people attain them.
Types of Status
● Ascribed Status: An ascribed status is a social position a person receives at birth or takes
on involuntarily later in life. Ascribed status is involuntary.
Examples of ascribed statuses include being a daughter, a Pakistani, a teenager, or a
widower. Ascribed statuses are matters about which we have little or no choice.
● Achieved Status: An achieved status refers to a social position a person takes on
voluntarily that reflects personal ability and effort.
Achieved statuses include college student, Olympic athlete, nurse, software writer, police
officer, and thief.
● Master Status: Some statuses matter more than others. A master status is a status that has
special importance for social identity, often shaping a person’s entire life.
For most people, a job is a master status because it reveals a great deal about a person’s
social background, education, and income. In a few cases, name is a master status; being
in the Bush or Kennedy family attracts attention and creates opportunities. A master status
can be negative as well as positive. Take, for example, serious illness. Sometimes people,
even longtime friends, avoid cancer patients or people with AIDS because of their
illnesses.
● Master Symbol: A status symbol is a visible, external symbol of one's social position, an
indicator of economic or social status. Many luxury goods are often considered status
symbols.
Role:
Role is behavior expected of someone who holds a particular status.
Types of Role
1. Role Set: Robert Merton introduced the term role set to identify a number of roles
attached to a single status. Because we hold many statuses at once—a status set—
everyday life is a mix of many roles.
2. Role conflict is the conflict among the roles connected to two or more statuses. People in
modern, high-income nations juggle many responsibilities demanded by their various
statuses and roles. As most mothers (and more and more fathers) can testify, the
combination of parenting and working outside the home is physically and emotionally
draining.
3. Role strain refers to tension among the roles connected to a single status. A college
professor may enjoy being friendly with students. At the same time, however, the
professor must maintain the personal distance needed to evaluate students fairly. In short,
performing the various roles attached to even one status can be something of a balancing
act.
