EDP 5285-01
SPRING 2009
PROFESSOR SUSAN CAROL
LOSH
YES, INDEED. TIME REALLY FLIES.
REMEMBER! YOUR PAPER PROSPECTUS IS DUE FEBRUARY 10. |
| GROUP PROCESSES |
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ASPECTS OF GROUP STRUCTURE II |
| TOPICS |
|
ROLES |
CONFLICT |
STUFF" |
|
GROUPS |
| GROUPS AND SOCIAL ROLES |
Before there were social roles, there were GROUPS. Social roles emerge from groups. In fact, in nearly all cases, the division of labor in groups is the major cause of creating social roles. Even the most rudimentary groups tend to create a specialized division of labor and interlocking, interdependent positions.
As groups survive, they become more complex, taking on many new tasks. Recall that formal groups tend to create or acquire a history, symbols, written rules, links to other groups, and all these group resources breed complexity. For example, I belong to the local Sheltie Club. When we began, our major activity was to sponsor a Specialty Show each February (these allow the winning dogs to accumulate points toward a national championship). After a few years, we added agility training, "fun shows," the "Rescue Raffle" and educational seminars. Each new task required completing a variety of coordinated jobs, plus, typically, someone to supervise the entire event.
Such a proliferation of tasks requires--and creates a coordinated and interdependent division of labor. The group can accomplish tasks (e.g., a Specialty Show) that no one member could achieve alone. As groups grow in size, it becomes easier to create a specialized division of labor. The increase in people available to do "group work" means that we can select individuals--or have them volunteer--with the appropriate talents, skills, and interests for each job.
If you check out the bumper sticker on
the back of my car, it says:
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Thus, from this division of labor in
groups frequently comes the development of specialized social
roles.
No group? In all
probability, no specialized social roles (unless these are borrowed from
another location.)
A a role is a social position with an accompanying, attached set of rights, duties, and scripts (perscriptives and perogatives).
When roles are arranged in some type of hierarchy, or "chain of command," we have a stratified social system.
The most critical aspect of roles
is that they transcend individuals because they are social positions:
anyone
who occupies a specific role is expected to display a minimal level of
its scripts and duties. Some role requirements are codified and formal,
others are informal. While latitude often exists in how to play a role,
there are also usually minimal defining criteria.
 Some
presidents have been military heroes (George Bush, Sr) and some have not
been in the military (Bill Clinton or Barack Obama.) It doesn't matter
whether the President of the United States has had military experience
or not (except on the campaign trail where it can take on importance),
she or he is the Chief of the Armed Forces. That is constitutionally mandated
for the
role, not the individual. |
Because most of us belong to many different groups, we occupy many different roles. Because we occupy so many roles, and because different people can have different expectations for the same role, roles can create stress for the individual. Frequently role conflict arises when these expectations are inconsistent in some way. Conflict can be externally or internally imposed.
| ROLE CONFLICT |
(1) Interrole
conflict occurs because expectations for
different roles held by a single
individual clash. This
happens because we typically belong to several groups. Certain times of
the year tend to be "crunch times" when competing demands may occur: April,
when income taxes are due or the Thanksgiving, Hannukah, Christmas, Kwaanza,
and New Year's holidays, extending from late November to early January.
What happens? In
December your boss wants more hours for the holiday sales just when you
have finals. A critical meeting for my Sheltie Club occurs at the identical
time I must move my mother down to Florida. The only time my child's teachers
can meet conflicts with a class I must teach.
We cope with interrole conflict in several ways.
| THE POSITIVE SIDES OF GROUP AND ROLE PROLIFERATION |
Membership in a plethora of groups and playing a wide variety of roles can be problematic. If you have "role overload" you feel may feel stressed and anxious. During the 1970s and 1980s, one psychiatrist after another came forward to assert that "working mothers" (now there's an oxymoron) risked damage to their mental and physical health. The "soccer mom," dashing from work to endless child activities is one example.
Not so, as it turns out. There are benefits to playing multiple roles. Roles in one group can create a "buffer" for roles in other groups, thereby contributing to positive mental health. For example, just when everything at work "falls apart," your family rallies to your side and your friends throw you a surprise birthday party. Your dating life is "the pits" but your boss gives you a raise in pay. Lois Verbrugge (among others) found that the happiest individuals in the 1990s were married women with children and part-time jobs; when not totally overloaded with role demands, these women enjoyed the variety of tasks in a variety of groups in their daily environments.
Nearly all U.S. research has found that married men are happier and live longer than never or previously married men (these results apply to men over 30). While there are several explanations for this finding, including self-selection effects, some type of buffer effect also seems likely here. Further, a University of Michigan national panel study that tracked men from high school on found that married men spend less time in bars, and thus drink and smoke less. If they divorce, the same men then end up spending more time in drinking establishments.
Let us not forget that political scientist Robert Putnam asserts (and marshalls supportive evidence) that belonging to several groups indicates high "civic engagement." He believes the societies with overall high levels of civic engagement are more democratic and more stable.
The Putnam article under external links fits very well. Note that you can only access the "Bowling Alone" article through a Florida State University server (try the Library Proxy and The Journal of Democracy under Political Science journal search for this one); the Website is no longer open for public browsing unless the university has an agreement with the journal (as FSU does). You may get an idea of the article through the review of Robert Putnam's book, reviewed in the Washington Post HERE. Also, remember that you can use the FSU Library "distance proxy system" to access many resources.
Belonging to different groups (and playing different roles within them) can also improve your physical and social health. As you stay happier, your cortisol levels tend to be lower and your immune system functions better. Studies of "how we met" suggest that most people meet their significant others through the groups they belong to. These may be parties thrown by friends, college buddies or people at work. Only a small fraction of the population enters serious love relationships with people they met online, or with total strangers met at bars or through singles clubs (note: if introduced by a friend at said club or lounge, that counts as "group" and so do "Cheers" type club situations with long-term regulars.).
Further, members of abusive families tend to be isolated. It is true that domestic violence flourishes "behind closed doors." Although they are often not aware of their motives, domestic abusers typically try to isolate their victims, cutting them off from friends, family, work friendship groups, hobby groups, and other groups that might try to protect the individual from harm, or who would at least have the opportunity to notice that something is wrong. On the flip side, social isolation may foster frustration and family abuse.
There is some suggestion
that the victims of bullying, too, may be both isolated by choice and
by
their attackers. Staying involved helps children, students, and adults.
High school teachers complain their students are disengaged, reluctant
to become involved with school activities. Unfortunately many aspects of
the American way of life mitigate against civic involvement. Americans
tend to move dwellings every few years, thus are less likely to form neighborhood
attachments. Changing cities exerbates the problem. With more single parents
and more employed couples, there is less likely to be a parent home to
assist children and take them to activities and less time to engage one's
children in activities in the first place. The emphasis on standardized
testing in the K-12 system means students may be so busy studying for these
tests that they are less likely to participate in extra-curricular activities.
| "CO-DEPENDENCY" AND INTERDEPENDENCE: THE ISSUE OF ROLES |
One "pop" issue in studies of families and love relationships has been that of "co-dependency." Someone who is "co-dependent" has an "unhealthy," "overly-dependent" relationship with another person, usually a love object. The co-dependent has no independent interests, no separate identity, and he, or, more typically applied, she, almost exists as an "auxilliary being" to the beloved or mate. The term "co-dependent" has sometimes been applied to married women who do not hold jobs outside the home. Less frequently, it has been applied to those who are extremely obsessive about their jobs.
Co-dependency is viewed as unhealthy by clinicians and therapists. If the love relationship is severed due to death or separation, the "co-dependent," who has either never developed an independent personality or who abandoned their independence long ago to "fuse" with the beloved, is left adrift. Their only thought may be to latch on to a new love interest, thus re-starting a co-dependent relationship.
My concern is when co-dependency, which implies an asymmetric, lopsided relationship, is confused with interdependence, in which each partner to the relationship (or group member) has something to offer and is likely to receive something else in turn. While it is controversial whether a relationship in a modern economy in which one partner holds all the financial cards is truly "equal," a marriage in which one spouse (generally the wife) keeps house and raises children fulltime is not necessarily "co-dependent." Far from it. As long as both spouses recognize the value of the wife's services, the wife has her own interests, and she has some financial security (e.g., her own retirement account), it is much more likely that husband and wife see the marriage as a unit, with each partner making contributions. This is an interdependent division of labor, and it has a time-honored place in history.
What becomes important, studies of the family tell us, is that both wife and husband believe that each makes important contributions to the marriage and family and that both agree on what the division of labor in that family should be. If both spouses believe the wife should be a full-time homemaker--and she is--they report enhanced marital happiness. If both spouses believe the wife should be active in the economic marketplace--and she is--the couple ALSO reports enhanced marital happiness. It is the concordance of role expectations across members of the couples, and whether these expectations are fulfilled, that are important, not the concrete specifics of the role performance.
| THE CONCEPT OF REFERENCE GROUPS |
We can conceive of membership in groups as generally falling on a continuum, depending upon how clear-cut the rules are for membership, the clarity of boundaries between members and non-members, how frequently members interact, the intensity of one's involvement in the group, and how much an individual identifies with the group and is considered a group member by others (including other group members).
Even groups that you do not belong to can influence you in several ways.
First, of course, are anticipatory groups, the groups that you want to join or expect to join. College faculty are an important referent for many graduate students and practitioners are important for professional school students. Pledges anticipate becoming full-fledged sorority or fraternity members and engaged couples look forward to forming a family unit.
Anticipatory groups may be even more influential for the individual than membership groups. The aspirant may have to demonstate skills or qualities through some sort of initiation process in order to become a member in the first place. The individual may be uncertain whether membership will be awarded and thus not take anything for granted.
However, even groups which are neither membership nor anticipatory groups may be influential.
A reference group has been described as "any group to which you refer your beliefs, attitudes, or behavior."
This is pretty vague! But we can narrow the concept down to normative versus informational (sometimes called comparative) reference groups.
 OVERVIEW |
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Susan Carol Losh January
26 2009
Role
Overload?
