role conflict and resocialization

Explaining any sociological term to someone who has no previous understanding of the topic is both fascinating and daunting. It is necessary to include relevant diagrams to ensure that the individual understands each aspect. In this scenario, a coworker seemed to be familiar with the occurrence of resocialization and position tension in daily life. However, they lacked discernment in fields such as sociological principles.
Resocialization happens as people's lives are forced to adjust, requiring them to adapt to new circumstances and conditions. There are the circumstances and cases that necessitate such improvements. Most of these people, despite undergoing various changes, do not realize that they had resocialized. To make it clearer, a comparison of life in Vietnam and America is relevant. For Nancy, a work colleague, life on a different continent is not something she has ever experienced. Nonetheless, explaining resocialization by use of my Vietnam experience makes it easy to understand the concept. Life in Vietnam is entirely different from that in America and requires changes in every aspect from the food, to greetings, and even language. The exercise found that less grand changes also count as resocialization as long as change and adjustment are involved. Nancy also discovered that moving from her home in the past required various shifts in the schedule. Despite moving within the same city, she found it peculiar going to an empty apartment unlike at home where she would find her parents or siblings in the house already. The nights became lonely at first and she had to find more activities to in which to engage. This situation is akin to an experience of moving to America from Vietnam but on a less grand scale which explains the concept of resocialization.

Another important concept of sociology is role conflict. It refers to situations where differing options conflict for an individual. This concept could apply to a vice principal in a school where their child goes, and the former is required to suspend the latter for a mistake. The vice principal will be obligated as the disciplinarian but feel conflicted as a parent. In the case of Nancy, who is the human resource manager’s assistant, role conflict is common, yet she does not know that she is experiencing this sociological issue. As a twenty-five-year-old lady, she explained that she had maintained both childhood and teenage friendships. When some of these friends are turned down for employment at the firm, she faces conflict having to deliver the news. In such a case, Nancy undergoes role conflict between the two differing stances. On the one hand, she ought to maintain professionalism and carry out her responsibilities while on the contrary, she is a friend to the person in question. On one instance, Nancy was in a dilemma with one of her closest friends whereby unbeknownst to her, she experienced role conflict. The latter had been considered for a position at the company, which he had been in desperate pursuit for a year. Nancy knew from her boss that the friend would receive a call for the job. Unfortunately, he was giving up and planning to move to a different city. At this point, Nancy did not know whether to tell the good news to her friend or retain the information as her professional role demanded.

Subject’s Name

Subject’s Age

(in years)

Subject’s Gender (m/f)

Subject’s Relationship to Researcher

Frequency of Interaction with Subject in 2016

Nancy

25

F

Colleague

Once every fortnight

Concept

Time Spent Teaching It (minutes)

Subject’s Receptiveness

(1-5)

Unexpected Questions/Events

Resocialization

30

4

Does resocialization change the character of a person permanently or just influence them?

Role Conflict

20

4

The subject concluded that the painful choice made in the situation of role conflict could not be morally categorized as it mostly occurs in a position of power and is not right or wrong.



My overall experience was refreshing. It allowed me to review the concepts and approach them from a different point of view. It revealed new aspects to me such as the differences between role conflict and role strain. In the case of Nancy, struggling to deliver news to someone that she has no other responsibility to would be role strain while conflict involves two differing roles. The person in role conflict picks the duty that they value more. To predict a person’s behavior and their most likely decision during the conflict, one must understand what they value more between two roles.

Works Cited

Thompson, William E., Joseph V. Hickey, and Mica L. Thompson. Society in focus: An introduction to sociology. Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.