Page 143 - Essencials of Sociology

116 CHAPTER 4 Social Structure and Social Interaction

FIGURE 4.4 Role Strain and Role Conflict

You You

Son or
daughter Friend Student Worker Student

Visit mom in Go to 21st Prepare for Come in for Do well in Don't make
hospital birthday tomorrow's emergency your classes other students
party exam overtime look bad

Role
Role Conflict
Strain
Source: By the author.

and happily running errands. Or this description may not even come close to your par-
ticular role performance.
Ordinarily, our statuses are separated sufficiently that we find little conflict between
our role performances. Occasionally, however, what is expected of us in one status
(our role) is incompatible with what is expected of us in another status. This problem,
known as role conflict, is illustrated in Figure 4.4, in which family, friendship, stu-
dent, and work roles come crashing together. Usually, however, we manage to avoid
role conflict by segregating our statuses, although doing so can require an intense
juggling act.
Sometimes the same status contains incompatible roles, a conflict known as role
strain. Suppose that you are exceptionally well prepared for a particular class assignment.
Although the instructor asks an unusually difficult question, you find yourself knowing
the answer when no one else does. If you want to raise your hand, yet don’t want to
make your fellow students look bad, you will experience role strain. As illustrated in Fig-
ure 4.4, the difference between role conflict and role strain is that role conflict is conflict
between roles, while role strain is conflict within a role.
Watch on MySocLab
Video: Ways We Live Sign-Vehicles. To communicate information about the self, we use three types of
sign-vehicles: the social setting, our appearance, and our manner. The social setting is
role conflict conflicts that some- the place where the action unfolds. This is where the curtain goes up on your perfor-
one feels between roles because mance, where you find yourself on stage playing parts and delivering lines. A social set-
the expectations are at odds with ting might be an office, dorm, living room, classroom, church, or bar. It is wherever you
one another
interact with others. The social setting includes scenery, the furnishings you use to com-
role strain conflicts that someone municate messages, such as desks, blackboards, scoreboards, couches, and so on.
feels within a role The second sign-vehicle is appearance, or how you look when you play your roles. On
sign-vehicle the term used by the most obvious level is your choice of hairstyle to communicate messages about your-
Goffman to refer to how people self. (You might be proclaiming “I’m wild and sexy” or “I’m serious and professional”
use social setting, appearance, and and, quite certainly, “I’m masculine” or “I’m feminine”). Your appearance also includes
manner to communicate informa- props, which are like scenery except that they decorate your body rather than the set-
tion about the self
ting. Your most obvious prop is your costume, ordinarily called clothing. You switch