Status

• Status: A social position that a person holds

• Status is a part of social identity and helps define relationships to
others.
• Its carry “prestige”
• George Simmel (1950) “before we can deal with anyone, we need
to know who the person is.

Status Set
Status set: All the statuses a person holds at a given time.
• A teenage girl may be a daughter to her parents, a sister to her
brother, a student at her school, and a goal keeper in her football
team.
• Status sets change over the life course.
• Over the life course people gain and lose many statuses.
 Social Structure: Status Set
Harley
Friend club
member
Sports
Boss participan
t

Social
positions a
Dance Business
person
partner manager
holds at a
given time

LO 6.2 State the importance of status to social organization.

 Types of Status

Ascribed: Achieved:
a social position a a social position a
person receives at birth person takes on
or takes on involuntarily voluntarily that reflects
later in life. personel ability and
e.g. being a daughter, a effort
Malay, a teenager, or a e.g. honors student, Olympic
widower athlete, nurse, software
writer, and thief.
 Master Status
A status that has special
importance for social
identity, often shaping a
person's entire life.
e.g. a job, it involves a great
deal about a persons social
background, education and
income.
e.g. name, being in the Najib
Razak or Mahatir family
attract attention and creates
opportunities.
It can be negative as well
as positive
e.g. serious illnesses like
cancer or AIDS, gender,
disability.
- e.g. sometimes, people or
even long time friends, avoids
cancer patients or people
with AIDS because of their
illness.
 Master Status

Continued….

As another example, the fact that all societies limit the opportunitie
women makes gender a master status.

Sometimes a physical disability serves as a master status to the p

where we dehumanized people by seeing them only in terms of
disability.
 Physical Disability as a Master Status
• Physical disability
works in much
the same ways as
class, gender, or
race in defining
people in the
eyes of others.
How do you think the loss of an
arm or a leg affects a person's
social identity and sense of self?
 Role
• A second important social structure is Role: Behavior expected
of someone who holds a particular status.
Linton, (1937b) A person holds a status and performs a role.
• For e.g. holding the status of student leads you to perform the
role of attending classes and completing assignments.

• Both statuses and roles very by culture. E.g. U.S & Vietnam,
‘uncle’ – different responsibilities

LO 6.3 State the importance of role to social organization.

 Role Set
• Everyday life is a mixture of
many roles.
• Role set definition: a number
of roles attached to a single
status.
• Who introduced the term ROLE
SET?
• Rober K Merton (1968).
• Figure shows FOUR STATUSES
of one person, each status
linked to a different role set.

LO 6.3 State the importance of role to social organization.

A global perspective:
A global perspective
shows that the roles
people use to define
their lives differ from
society to society.

For example: in low

income countries,
people spend fewer
years as students, and
family roles are of ten
very important to social
identity.

In high income
countries total Housework in Global Perspective
opposite.
Housework in Global Perspective
 Role Conflict
People in modern and high income
nations carry may responsibilities
Example
demanded by their various statuses
and roles.
• Combination of parenting and • A police officer who catches her
working outside own son using drugs at home
• Definition of Role Conflict: role • Roles: Mother and police officer
conflict as conflict among the roles
connected to two or more statuses.
(emotionally)
• This is happened when we try to
responed to the many statuses we • Sometimes, people put off
hold. having children in order to stay
• -when you need to decide on the “fast track” for career
-”something has to go” success.
 Role Strain
• Definition: Role strain refers to tension among the roles connected to a
single status.

• Manager who tries to balance concern for workers with task requirements
• Roles: Office manager and fellow worker
• How to solve problem or what is the strategy: “Leave the job at work”

• Exp. A college professor may enjoy being friendly with students. At the
same time the Prof must maintain the personal distance. He needed to
evaluate students fairly.
• “Balancing act’
 Role Exit
• Helen Rose Fuchs Ebaugh (1988)
• She left the life of a Catholic nun to become a university sociologist
• She began to study her own experience of role exit,
• Definition: the process by which people disengage from important
social roles.

• It is basically, studying a range of social “exes”,including ex-nuns, ex-

doctors, ex-husbands, and ex-alcoholics,

• Even people are moving on, a past role can continue to influence their
lives.

• E.g. an ex-nun may hesitate to wear stylish clothing ad makeup

 Role Exit
Role exit
Process of becoming an “ex”
Involves disengaging from
social roles
Can be very traumatic
without proper preparation
Can contribute to doubts
about ability to continue with
a certain role
Involves examination of new
roles that lead to a turning
point