Roles

---Concept of ROLE: are the "bridges" which enable us to span "clusters" of "definitions of the situation"

---ROLE: a typified response to a typified expectation

-------"The role Provides the PATTERN according to which the individual is to act in the particular situation"

---Roles do MORE than merely regulate behavior
-------But also provide us with how to FEEL and THINK
---THUS: roles are "complete sets"
---People BECOME their roles
-------roles have our "identities" attached...our "social identities"
-------"The role forms, shapes, patterns both action & actor"

What is the SIGNIFICANCE OF ROLE THEORY?

(Through it we can see that IDENTITY is SOCIALLY Bestowed, Sustained, and Transformed---process of Socialization)

1. BESTOWED

-------process by which a child learns to be a participant member of society
-------"self" is a process of "discovery of society"
-------"taking the role of the other"
-----------"SIGNIFICANT OTHERS" (individuals)
-----------"GENERALIZED OTHER" (society)
-------THUS, identity is not a "given"...but is bestowed in acts of SOCIAL RECOGNITION
-----------"WE BECOME THAT AS WHICH WE ARE ADDRESSED"
-----------"TO BE HUMAN IS TO BE RECOGNIZED AS HUMAN"

2. SUSTAINED

-------we need other's recognition through roles
-------"identity comes with conduct and conduct occurs in response to a specific social situation"
-------we choose our associates to sustain our interpretations
-------SOCIALLY, "human dignity is a matter of social Permission."

3. TRANSFORMED

-------occurs through "rites of passage"
----------involves groups
----------involves repudiation of old identity and initiation into a new one

THUS: role theory is a "sociological anthropology"
---a view of man based on his existence in society

PERSONA = MASK = PERSON

---a repertoire of roles

---Self is a process ("Sociological view of Personality")
---RATHER THAN a "continuity of self" (a "given" from the beginning of one’s life)
---(KESSEL: Berger is referring to a "social self"... not a "core or authentic self")
---there is a "discontinuity" of self
-------can change from situation to situation
----------BUT NOT a "multiple personality"
-------thus, our consciousness gets segregated too
---Thus, much of what passes for "sincerity" is a man being taken in by his own "role-act"

---MACRO (and MESO) structures will manufacture "Persons" (roles-players)

-------i.e. "Person selection"
----------"Every social structure selects those persons that it needs for its functioning and eliminates in one way or another those that do not fit"