What does the concept of the social role of personality mean? Why, even those who are struggling to behave the same in all situations, still act differently when at home or at work, while in the store or at a party. The fact is that we are constantly changing our social roles depending on the situation and the situation around. This is absolutely natural for every person.
From the point of view of psychological science, a social role is a formed behavioral image that is endowed with a combination of self-determined (subjective) and generally established (objective) functions.
How the social role is revealed and realized depends on how a person feels his current status and how pleased he is with it, on what society expects from the individual in a given situation, from relations with partners in life in society.
The concept of social role includes the importance of the individual in society with all the features of its manifestation. This refers to status - the position of a person. Statuses can be professional, family, political, religious - and these are only the most pronounced. In addition, we are buyers, patients, listeners, readers ... People can enter the same social community without communicating with each other and without knowing each other. They simultaneously belong to many groups, and by their role in some determine behavior in others. For example, a successful businessman, occupying a high position among entrepreneurs, is likely to occupy a high status in a group of relatives. However, this is an optional condition.
The social role of man as a man or woman is predetermined by nature. It is also clear in advance how to play the role of a fireman, and doctors - professional roles.
Some social roles of personality are easily subject to change, while others are stable. For example, interpersonal roles. It is difficult to force yourself to suddenly fall in love with a person who causes antipathy, to abandon the role of leader and become a slave. Therefore, with the choice and adoption of such a role, which can become your "second skin", you need to be especially careful. If you need to part with a social role that negatively affects the course of life, you need to try to switch to a new occupation, a new person, objectively reasoning that such changes will really benefit.
We can distinguish hidden and relevant roles - those that appear here and now. It so happens that in an unforeseen situation you have to act according to a pattern unusual for us, to take on the role of others who cannot be near and take their place. Such roles are called spontaneous. The transition from childhood to adolescence, growing up, creating a family, the appearance of children, maturity - all this and much more brings new social roles to our lives and corrects existing ones. An adequate perception of new statuses, potential and desire to learn in order to successfully pass one’s life position are important here. Everything has its own time, therefore, children should stay as children as they should - with all the ensuing consequences, in order to later cope with the new status.
Socialization — the training of one or another new social role — more often occurs “in the process”, through observing and copying the behavior of others by others, adapting it “for oneself”.
If mastering the role is not good enough, asocial behavior can occur both in this group and in others. Therefore, the social role must be comprehensible, it must be fulfilled and improved. If a person spends more time in one role than in the others, it means that today he asserts himself precisely in this quality.