Roles in Institutions Essay

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Institutions require people to play roles. Stores require the customer role. Businesses require an employee role. Hospitals require the patient role. Marriage requires the spouse role. Family requires the parent/sibling/child roles. Religions require the faithful believer/adherent role. And so on…

Quotes:

“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts”

~William Shakespeare in As You Like It

“Institutions are embodied in individual experience by means of roles. . . . By playing roles, the individual participates in a social world. By internalizing these roles, the same world becomes subjectively real to him.”

~The Social Construction of Reality, p. 91

Resources:

After reading and watching the materials in this section answer all three of the following writing prompts:

Think about the many social roles you play in your life. Begin brainstorming by writing at least 10 of your current roles on paper and think about what is expected of you in each of these roles. Select one that is particularly important to your sense of self to use for the following three prompts:

1) Reply to this post, in the first paragraph describe: a) the institution that requires this role, b) the actions you perform in the role and c) the qualities you embody to play it well.

      • For example, in the role of college student, which is required by universities (the institution), one might be expected to turn assignments in on time (an action performed) and to be intellectually curious (a quality embodied).

2) In a second paragraph answer these questions: Do any aspects of your role feel unnatural? Have you ever experienced role strain or role conflict in that particular role? If so, explain; if not, explain how you have avoided that.

3) In a third paragraph, provide two brief examples of the impact that culture, norms, or history have on the role that you selected. In other words, what features of the role you picked is unique to this specific time and place, and is different in other times and places?

      • For example, a U.S. wife in the 1950s would have felt much greater pressure to be a stay-at-home mom than a woman today. But currently a wife may feel great pressure to juggle the responsibilities of both a career and a family. Optional: check out this 2min clip (Links to an external site.) about evolving women’s roles in the 1950s.

Please like two or three of your classmates answers that you think are well-written and insightful. The thread will order by likes.

 
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