Role Statuses

The social status of a person in society refers to the role (Benokraitis 86). Each role held by an individual is important, because its social identity is established. I am a registered voter and Christian, between my statuses. The legislation of the country allows citizens to vote. Therefore I have a responsibility to uphold and follow Christian principles. I am a Christian. Role conflict is a situation in which a person is “playing more than two roles” which are opposing (Benokraitis 86). An instance of a role conflict is a college student who is playing parental roles and studying at the same time. Parenting requires a lot of time and dedication as well as studies. It is quite challenging to succeed in both as balancing time becomes difficult. On the other hand, role strain refers to when there is a clash of “demand within the same role” (Benokraitis 86). For example, when a student does several exams at the same time or the same day that a favorite tournament takes place. At such instance, h/she is in a dilemma which activity to choose since both are important. In role strain, an individual experiences conflict with one role whereas role conflict includes many tasks whereby functions collide against each other. Nonetheless, role conflict occurs when a person has a duty to play for both the organization and his/her personal life, thus face tension. On the other hand, role strain involves different roles, which requires a person to make choices between tasks.Setting priorities helps an individual to deal with role conflict. When caught in a role conflict, I often handle what I value first. For example, I attend classes regularly and only watch movies after school. On the other hand, I practice compartmentalizing to deal with role strain. Compartmentalization of functions involves allocating time or day for every mission. For example, I would decide to study the course in the morning, work part time in the evening, and engage in leisure during the weekend. In conclusion, role statuses play a role in defining a person’s identity. In most cases, people have many roles to play hence resulting in role strain and conflict. However, compartmentalization and prioritization of tasks help a person to cope with the situations. Work CitedBenokraitis V. Nijole. SOC. Cengage Learning, 2015. Print.