Communication and relationships are as important to humans as breathing. After all, without them we will not be able to learn even the most basic things. From the very beginning of life, we communicate with our family, then with children, adults, and then we ourselves grow up. Relationships with every page of life change: first we are children, sisters, brothers, then for some we are friends, classmates, colleagues, subordinates or managers. Depending on the functions we perform, we play different social roles.
The place of social role in our life
When a person enters society, he carries something with him and takes something for himself. As a member and direct participant one of the public social groups, he has some status.
Conflict - what kind of phenomenon?
It should be noted that in order to fulfill a social role, a person needs certain skills and time to learn how to do this. Sometimes it turns out that the same subject must perform conflicting duties. A striking example is the wife-director. At home she should be subordinate to her husband, and at work she should indicate to her subordinates. Because of this, contradictions appear within the individual (internal conflicts) and tense relationships with others. It is precisely because of his status and position in society that certain requirements are imposed on a person. Social role is the behavior of people depending on different requirements for them. One and the same person can simultaneously be a brother, father, son-in-law, worker, friend.
These types of role conflicts differ significantly from each other. Inter-role conflicts occur when the behavior of a person performing different roles does not meet the expectations of others. These expectations and requirements in most cases do not depend on the subject himself. They are formed public opinion, traditions, stereotypes. Intra-role confrontations depend on a person’s perception of his behavior in terms of the expectations that his environment has for him. There is a process of layering the ideas of people and their groups onto the role performed by one subject.
Types of role conflicts are complemented by one more: personal-role conflict. It involves a discrepancy between the role and the needs and values of the individual. This type of collision is also considered intrapersonal. Such examples of role conflicts from life are common. Thus, an honest young accountant, trying to do his job correctly, will constantly struggle within himself if his superiors expect him to engage in financial fraud for their own benefit.
Why does role conflict occur?
Collisions between people, their expectations and ideas, in to a greater extent depend on the formed norms and rules of society. If a person does not conform to established stereotypes and rules, as well as legal norms for regulating behavior, he experiences a role conflict. You need to understand that it does not appear on empty space. First, a person’s action occurs (within the framework of his activity), then his behavior is analyzed from the outside based on the listed mechanisms, then an assessment is given.
Specifics of role conflicts
There are several specific points that apply only to role-playing confrontations:
- the close connection of such a conflict with a person’s position in society (his interaction and relationships with others);
- dependence on character psychological expectations society (inconsistency, heterogeneity, which is determined by the activities of the individual, his position in society and the content of actions).
Mechanisms of psychological defense during clashes of expectations
Role conflict brings discomfort to a person, because any interference in his inner world is regarded as an encroachment on the security and recognition of the individual. Therefore, during such collisions, they trigger defense mechanisms psychics that help the subject maintain internal harmony.
- Separation of roles. A person deliberately temporarily stops performing one of the roles, thereby giving himself the opportunity to rest and “reboot”. But, at the same time, he continues to respond to the requirements that relate to the performance of this role.
- Rationalization. It occurs when the subject wishes, but due to certain circumstances, cannot behave according to the expectations of others. Defending against a significant role, the human psyche looks for its negative aspects in order to prevent role conflict. Examples of such defense are often found among schoolchildren, people who cannot achieve their goals.
The difference between tension and conflict within a role
We all go through a certain process of socialization. More from small age children repeat the actions of adults, thereby adopting experience and role behavior. Everyone goes through the process of socialization differently, some have had good experience since childhood, others have not seen anything positive. When a person grows up, he begins to behave according to his position and role. And here role tension may arise - the subject is simply not ready for the demands that the public places on him. To eliminate such tension, students undergo practical training, teenagers learn household management skills, and so on.
Tension increases and leads to conflict when opposing roles are layered on top of each other. For example, a girl is passing exams, being a successful student, and trying to care for a child, having recently taken on the role of mother.
Readiness to fulfill a social role as a way to prevent role conflicts
We already know that social roles and role conflicts are closely related to each other. But just as in medicine there is the concept of disease prevention, so in psychology there is the direction of preventing role conflicts. Everything is quite simple - you just need to be prepared to fulfill a social role in order to avoid tension and conflicts associated with it.
Ways to resolve role conflicts
They are divided into two types:
The first type is that a person has the opportunity to protect himself from role conflicts. He may quit his job, stop communicating with former friends, change your vacation spot, and so on.
The second type, on an unconscious level, protects us from unnecessary stress associated with role tension and conflict. Here the classic defense mechanisms come first: repression, isolation, rationalization, identification and some others. He begins to act actively when there is no way to solve the situation differently; the person either does not know how to do it or cannot. In this case, it is not the situation of conflict or tension that changes, but the person’s attitude towards it, his perception of the environment.
social conflict role interpersonal
In modern sociology there is a distinction various types role conflicts Yu.G. Volkov “Sociology” Publisher: “Peter, St. Petersburg” (2009) p.366. Interrole conflict occurs when one person has to perform multiple roles simultaneously. This manifests itself when significant areas of his roles intersect, and within a certain situation, mutually exclusive role expectations collide. An example would be a woman combining career and family. Also simple example a trivial situation of inter-role conflict may arise when the husband’s parents do not like his wife and his filial duty conflicts with marital responsibilities. IN in this case The solution to the problem comes down to living separately from your parents and not depending on them financially.
Intra-role conflict occurs when a social role involves complex relationships and conflicting social expectations. For example, a foreman at a factory is obliged to manage the workers as the administration of this enterprise requires of him, and at the same time strive to improve their working conditions, as the workers demand of him.
Situational role conflict arises in situations when new expectations related to new role, but he cannot respond adequately to them, because he is still in the old role and is not ready to perform a new one. For example in India for a long time there was a custom of marrying off girls to early age. When a young wife had a child, she could not yet become a full-fledged mother due to her psychological development. In Rabindranath Tagore's story, early motherhood led to the death of the baby. He drowned when the girl went to play with dolls with her friends, leaving the child unattended. People who have been performing the same social role for a long time develop corresponding habits. For example, those who, by occupation, constantly speak in front of an audience, develop a professional habit of speaking loudly, clearly and expressively, which they then cannot get rid of in the family. Sometimes society itself requires certain habits and skills from the performer of any social role, for example, absolute cleanliness of hands from a surgeon. Fulfilling a social role involves a certain degree of unfreedom. Indeed, when performing a role, a person acts not as his individuality requires, but according to regulatory requirements, which his role imposes on him. Some roles are so regulated that they prescribe almost every action for a person (for example, a worker on an assembly line). Fulfilling such roles often causes a feeling of psychological oppression associated with the alienation of the individual. Other roles have greater degree freedom, and still others even require individual modifications from their carriers, for example, the role of an applicant scientific degree requires a certain novelty scientific developments. Psychological comfort and quality of performance of role responsibilities are related to the extent to which the role corresponds personal characteristics the individual, and his skills and abilities to the requirements of the role. In this case, there is no or almost no alienation when performing a role and maximum “fusion” of the individual with the role is achieved. We can say that role behavior is a kind of synthesis of the individual and those introduced by role requirements. It would be a mistake to think that any social role limits human freedom, as R. Dahrendorf believed.
Since man is a social being, part of his individuality is realized precisely in social roles. Possible roles are being explored as early as childhood, when a child seems to “pretend” to take on the role of mother, teacher, commander in the game. This phase social development called socialization. During the further process of socialization, the person acts as a carrier own roles(daughter, student) and, by performing them, learns to master new roles that are yet to come. For example, by helping her mother with housework as a daughter, a girl learns to fulfill the role of a housewife and mother; By obeying his parents in the role of a son, the boy prepares to fulfill the role of a student and obey the teacher when he goes to school. The process of socialization lasts many years, in fact, a lifetime. This means that a person's relationship to the roles of other people never stops. A person, playing his roles, constantly encounters other people's roles that are still unknown to him. Describing these processes, J. Mead speaks of the presence in human personality social aspect(I through the eyes of the Other), which includes a set of interiorized roles, and actually personal aspect(I-center), not filled with social roles and able to distance himself from them. J. Mead and other representatives social psychology showed that the human self develops and reaches the fullness of existence only when it is freed from pure subjectivity and reflects itself in outside world, fulfilling a complex of social roles.
Acceptance of a social role also presupposes the abandonment of habits that are incompatible with this role P.D. Pavlenok, L.I. Savinov, G.T. Zhuravlev “Sociology training manual” 3rd ed. (2009), p. 348. For example, a doctor with the inclinations of a clinical scientist must give up the opportunity to leave a patient’s disease to its natural course in order to observe its development “for science.” The husband must renounce absolute freedom to have extramarital affairs. Sometimes a person encounters such social requirements, which cause him a crisis of self-identification, i.e. which he cannot internalize and make part of his personality without thereby destroying his personal core. Psychologists state that people become sick due to certain role demands. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the socio-historical nature of the reaction to role alienation. For example, in despotic societies Ancient East masses of people during many years suffered such severe forms of role alienation that are completely unbearable and even unimaginable in a modern individualistic society.
Role conflict is not conflict situation which occurs between two or more people. This happens inside every person. We can say that we all have several personalities within ourselves. Don't make hasty conclusions about your own mental state. So, each of us performs certain social roles (mother, boss, daughter, etc.). It is between each of them that we will discuss further.
Types of role conflicts
- Status conflict. No one is immune from this. So, the person takes a new position. Some hopes and expectations are placed on her and suddenly, for certain reasons, she fails to meet them. As a result, this gives rise to the opinion of others about her as an incompetent person, unable to fulfill her promises. Moreover, if the work is of a team nature, difficulties arise in interacting with each of the employees.
- Inner Self. The reason for this role conflict is the contradictions that have arisen between one’s own expectations and personal abilities. For example, a person believes that he is able to cope with certain life's difficulties, but in practice his expectations are not met, he is seized by panic and is unable to do anything. It would not be superfluous to give an example when a person finds it difficult to cope with fulfilling a new role for the reason that he has not yet “grown” from the previous one. In India, girls were married off early. One such bride's child drowned. What was the reason? His young mother did not notice the danger because... went to play with dolls with peers.
- Ambiguity. Intrapersonal role conflict arises when an individual faces two different demands, the ambiguity of the conditions of which can plunge him into stressful state. For example, the maximum effective implementation carry out their work duties subject to compliance with the prescribed safety regulations. Everything would be fine, but at this plant and business such rules were not provided.
- Insufficient resources. In this case, the cause of role conflict is a lack of time, the influence of circumstances, absence, etc., which makes it impossible to complete the tasks assigned to the person.
What is the essence of role conflict?
Role conflict is a kind of negative experience, which appeared as a struggle between parts inner world person. This is a kind of indicator of the presence of problems in interaction with environment. It delays decision making. Thanks to such a conflict, a person develops, strives for self-identification, improves, and thereby learns his own “I”. Of course, no one says that this process can be pleasant, but, as you know, nothing great or significant comes easy. At first, at the moment 
role formation, it is considered quite normal for some inconveniences to occur. In many ways, it depends on the actions of the individual whether he or she can cope with a role conflict or not.
A striking example of such role conflicts from life are the following: a person with humanitarian warehouse the mind comes into technical university, where, of course, he faces difficulties. No less common is the conflict when you have to “get used to” the role of a mother, married woman, pensioner or student.
So that overcoming a conflict of any nature occurs without special negative consequences, you need mental preparation, willpower and a desire to improve your mental health.
Types of role conflicts
The situations described are related to different types role conflicts. Despite large number classifications of role conflicts in scientific literature, most authors (in particular, in the literature on the theory of psychodrama) name their main types:
a) interpersonal - conflict between different roles of different people;
b) intrapersonal - conflict between role and role expectations others;
c) interrole - conflict between incompatible roles played by one individual;
d) intra-role - a conflict between the role that needs to be played and the internal needs of the individual (role self-concept).
We have arranged the types in order of increasing depth of personal problems. Although there is no correspondence between the types of role conflicts and the types of roles described earlier (in each type of conflict any roles can be involved), the first two types most often relate to social roles, and the other two most often relate to personal roles.
At first glance, it seems that it is difficult to navigate the variety of contradictions described. However, after detailed analysis we can conclude that all types of situations and all types of role conflicts obey the same pattern. All of them can be reduced to the contradiction between internal and external factors personality functioning, or between internal (that is, related to own personality) and external (that is, related to society) values of the individual.
Features of role conflict
The main features of role conflict are the absence of clear stages in the development of the conflict and the impact on interpersonal conflicts.
As we know, a conflict always consists of a pre-conflict situation, the beginning of the conflict, its escalation, resolution and a post-conflict period. Role conflict can develop into a crisis.
The functions of role conflict are also divided into positive and negative. Positive functions include the ability of role conflict to stimulate personal development, the ability, in the course of resolving the conflict, to eliminate in the enterprise those shortcomings that lead to role difficulties.
The negative functions of role conflict relate to possible deviations in an individual’s behavior and the emergence of interpersonal conflicts.
A person and the role he performs are connected by certain psychological characteristics that are suitable for fulfilling certain social roles. By ignoring this dependence, people experience role tension and role conflict.
An example of role tension is when a person, under the pressure of circumstances, performs a role that does not meet his interests, inclinations, or internal attitudes. If the role conflict escalates, this can lead to a refusal to fulfill role responsibilities, then the person receives internal stress and moves away from this role.
Your role is the high-quality realization of yourself according to strengths of his socio-psychological type.
Role tension and role conflict represent serious social and psychological problem.[ Frolov S.S. Sociology: Textbook. -- 3rd ed., add. M.: Gardariki, 2004. -- 344 pp.]
Often internal contradictions employees and conflicts have a negative impact on their interpersonal relationships with colleagues. There are times when role conflicts are not realized by them and then they bring trouble for no apparent reason. I will give an example of several unconscious internal conflicts and their impact on interpersonal relationships. For example, due to internal conflict a person begins to show aggression and a desire to humiliate others. This leads to clashes with his offended colleagues. In this case, this is typical for inter- and intra-role conflicts.
Intra- and interpersonal conflicts in themselves already gravitate toward interpersonal confrontation.
Role set- a set of roles corresponding to a certain social status.
Role conflict- a clash of role demands placed on an individual, caused by the multiplicity of social roles simultaneously performed by him.
Role behavior and role conflicts
A set of roles corresponding to a specific one allows its bearer most of time to “mind your own business” - carry out your role behavior in various forms And in various ways. A social role is always standard because it represents a system of expected behavior that is determined by normative responsibilities and rights. Although the roles are strictly defined, there are capable and incapable students, brave and cowardly soldiers, talented and untalented politicians. The fact is that people perform standard roles as individuals. Each individual understands his social role in his own way and performs it differently. In modern sociology, the actual fulfillment of a social role by an individual is called role behavior.
Regulatory requirements associated with social role, as a rule, are more or less known to the participants in role interaction and give rise to corresponding role expectations: all participants in the interaction expect from each other behavior that fits into the context of these social roles. However, the social role is considered not only in terms of role expectations (expectations), but also role-playing, i.e. how the individual actually performs his role.
Expectations represent requirements enshrined in the system of social norms and imposed on the behavior of an individual in connection with the fulfillment of one or another social role. Despite the fact that role normative requirements are an element of the system of social norms accepted in a given society, they are nevertheless specific and valid only in relation to those who occupy a certain position. social position. Therefore, many role requirements are completely absurd outside of a specific role situation. For example, a woman who comes to see a doctor undresses at his request, fulfilling her role as a patient, but if a passer-by on the street makes a similar demand, she will run or call for help.
The relationship between special role norms and complex character. Some role prescriptions are not at all related to social norms. Other role norms are of an exceptional nature, placing the people performing them in a special position when they are not subject to general norms. For example, a doctor is obliged to maintain medical confidentiality, and a priest is obliged to maintain the secret of confession, therefore, by law, they are not subject to the obligation to disclose this information when testifying in court. The divergence between general and role norms can be so great that the role holder is almost subject to public contempt, although his position is necessary and recognized by society (executioner, secret agent police).
In general, there is never a relationship of identity between social and role norms. Society imposes a social role on a person, but its acceptance, rejection, and fulfillment always leave an imprint on real behavior person. Therefore, when fulfilling social roles, role tension may arise—a difficulty associated with improper role preparation and unsuccessful role performance. Role tension often results in role conflict.
Role conflict in modern sociology it is considered as a clash of role demands placed on an individual, caused by the multiplicity of social roles simultaneously performed by him. Sociologists distinguish two types of role conflicts: conflicts between social roles; conflicts within one social role.
Interrole conflicts arise when different social roles, the bearer of which is the individual, contain incompatible prescriptions (requirements). For example, a woman plays her role well at work, but at home she fails in the roles of wife and mother. In a situation where the husband's parents do not like his wife, his filial duty conflicts with the husband's duties.
Intra-role conflicts arise where the social role involves complex relationships and conflicting social expectations. Within many social roles there are conflicts of “interest,” for example, the requirement to be honest with people conflicts with the desire to “make money.”
Man is a social being, and a significant part of his sociality is concentrated in social roles. Mastering possible roles occurs even in childhood, when the child in the game seems to “pretend” to take on the role of “mother”, “teacher”, “commander”. In sociology, this phase of social development is called socialization. Subsequently, in the process of socialization, a person acts as a bearer of his own roles and, fulfilling them, learns to master new roles that are yet to come. By helping her mother with housework as a daughter, the girl learns to play the role of housewife and mother. By obeying the parents in the role of son, the child prepares to fulfill the role of student and obey the teacher when he goes to school.
In modern sociology, there are three ways to resolve role conflicts: o rationalization - a way to resolve role conflict through a conscious search negative aspects a desired but unattainable role. For example, a girl who is not married
explains his situation by the rudeness and limitations of modern men; o separation of roles is a way of resolving role conflict, which consists in temporarily excluding one of the social roles from life. For example, a sailor located in long voyage, do not report the death of the mother, thereby excluding the role of the son from his consciousness, so as not to cause stress; o role regulation is a way of resolving role conflict by shifting responsibility for its consequences to others. For example, the habit of “washing your hands”, thanks to which the individual is constantly freed from personal responsibility for the consequences of fulfilling one or another social role, shifting responsibility to others, objective circumstances, “vicissitudes of fate.”
Using these methods unconscious defense and conscious connection public structures the individual can avoid dangerous consequences role conflicts.
Role conflicts and their types
Interrole conflict arises because the same person has to perform several roles simultaneously. This happens when significant areas of his roles intersect and, within a certain situation, mutually exclusive role expectations collide. For example, role conflict in one form or another inevitably arises among working women who are forced to combine professional and family roles. Such moments give rise to tragic collisions, which can be avoided with the help of role strategies - special efforts to optimally combine one’s roles. Another simple example is the banal situation of inter-role conflict, when the husband’s parents do not like his wife and his filial duty conflicts with marital responsibilities. The role strategy in this case may come down to living separately from the parents and not being financially dependent on them.
Intra-role conflicts arise when a social role involves complex relationships and conflicting social expectations. For example, a foreman at a factory must manage the workers as required by the administration, and at the same time strive to improve their working conditions, as the workers demand of him.
"Situational role conflict“, described by K. Thomas, arises in situations when new expectations associated with a new role are directed at an individual, and he cannot adequately respond to them because he is still in the old role and is not ready to fulfill a new one. For example, in India for a long time there was a custom of marrying off girls very early; When the young wife had a child, she was not yet ready to take on the role of mother. In the story of Rabindranath Tagore, the child of such a girl-mother drowned, left unattended by her when she went to play with dolls with her friends.
People who perform the same social role for a long time develop specific habits. For example, those who, by occupation, constantly speak in front of an audience, develop a professional habit of speaking loudly, clearly and expressively, which they then cannot get rid of in the family. Sometimes society itself requires certain habits and skills from a person, for example, absolute cleanliness of hands from a surgeon. Such habits and customs are called role attributes. The normative core of a role is usually surrounded by a number of non-normative attributes, which also participate in the formation of behavioral expectations.
Fulfilling a social role implies some degree of unfreedom. Indeed, when performing a role, a person acts not as his individuality requires, but according to the normative requirements that his role imposes on him. Some roles are so externally regulated that they dictate almost every movement (for example, a worker on an assembly line); their performance often causes a feeling of psychological oppression associated with alienation. Other professional roles allow a greater degree of freedom, and still others even require individual modifications from their carriers, for example, the role of an applicant for an academic degree requires a certain novelty of scientific developments. Psychological comfort and the quality of fulfilling role responsibilities are related to the extent to which the role corresponds to the personal characteristics of the individual, and his skills and abilities to the requirements of the role. In this case, there is no or almost no alienation when performing a role and maximum “fusion” of the individual with the role is achieved. We can say that role behavior is a kind of synthesis of the individual and those introduced by role requirements.
However, one should not assume that the presence of a social role limits individual freedom (as R. Dahrendorf understands it). Man is a social being, and a significant part of his sociality is concentrated in social roles. The study of possible roles occurs in childhood, when the child seems to “pretend” to take on the role of mother, teacher, commander in the game. This phase of social development is called sociabilization. During the further process of socialization, a person acts as a bearer of his own roles (daughter, student) and, by fulfilling them, learns to master new roles that are yet to come. For example, by helping her mother with housework as a daughter, a girl learns to fulfill the role of a housewife and mother; By obeying his parents in the role of a son, the boy prepares to fulfill the role of a student and obey the teacher when he goes to school.
The process of socialization lasts many years, in fact, a lifetime. This means that a person's relationship to the roles of other people never stops. A person, playing his roles, constantly encounters other people's roles that are still unknown to him. Describing these processes, J. Mead speaks of the presence in the human personality of a social aspect (I through the eyes of the Other), which includes a set of interiorized roles, and the personal aspect itself (I-center), not filled with social roles and capable of distancing itself from them.
J. Mead and other representatives of social psychology showed that the human self develops and achieves the fullness of existence only when it is freed from pure subjectivity and reflects itself in the outside world, fulfilling a set of social roles.
Accepting a certain social role also means rejecting the possibilities of behavior that are incompatible with this role, which are hidden in a person’s inner self. For example, a doctor with the makings of a clinical scientist must give up the opportunity to leave the patient’s disease to its natural course in order to observe its development “for science.” The husband must renounce absolute freedom to have extramarital affairs.
Sometimes a person is faced with role demands that cause him a crisis of self-identification, i.e. which he cannot internalize and make part of his personality without thereby destroying his personal core. Psychologists state that people become sick due to certain role demands. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the socio-historical nature of the reaction to role alienation. For example, in the despotic societies of the Ancient East, masses of people for many years endured such severe forms of role alienation that are completely unbearable and even unimaginable in a modern individualistic society.
Formation of role conflict
(country, region, city, district, village) is a system of institutions and organizations. It can function normally if people constantly perform huge amount roles corresponding to their statuses. This applies to social communities, also having social status and role. For example, one study group at the university has a high educational status, and the other group - low. The same strong study group can play football poorly, while a weak one can play football well.
The characteristic of a person is intrapersonal role conflict. It represents a conflict between different legitimated role expectations in a given situation. Emphasizing legitimized role expectations means that the choice is not between legitimate and deviant role expectations. An example would be the conflict between the role of an athlete and the role of a student. A person experiences a state of tension, discomfort, and depression, since both roles and their corresponding sets of values are important to him. Resolving such a conflict in favor of one of the roles and values or a compromise between them is associated with the distribution of time and energy.
Role conflict also affects connections with other people. This means that from intrapersonal he becomes interpersonal. As a student and athlete, a person enters into certain social connections and systems (academic, sports), which also have role expectations for him. One has to take into account the role expectations of others that influence a person. In this regard, a person who is more motivated by studies may choose the role of an athlete if he is on a sports team. good coach and friends. This leads to a redistribution of time and effort in favor of the athlete's role. The conflict in which people play is also interpersonal. different roles: for example, the roles of superior and subordinate, pragmatist and romantic, internationalist and nationalist, etc.
Role conflict arises when people, social groups, institutions, organizations do not implement the intended plan for status and role elevation. For example, a person interested in protecting doctoral dissertation, remains a candidate of sciences; a company aiming to enter the international market remains within the national market, etc. This state can be due to many reasons: a contradiction between needs and roles; role conflict; mismatch between abilities and roles, and others. In this case, a conflict arises between failed role and other human roles, as well as the roles of a social group, institution, organization. It can be resolved either by implementing a role, or by changing values-roles, or by coming to terms with external circumstances.
The discrepancy between a person’s character and his roles is natural at the stage of role formation. It is important to choose roles that suit our character, or, conversely, to adapt our character to social roles. In the first case, a person must choose a profession, wife, society, etc., depending on his needs, temperament, mentality, and lifestyle. For example, a person with a lack musical abilities should not become a musician, etc. In the second case, a person has to “get used to” a new role: student, military man, married, etc. Usually both processes occur simultaneously, but with different intensity.
Often a conflict arises between the abilities of the subject and the requirements of the new role: student, employee, husband, father, citizen, etc. Its result is poor performance of one’s role. For example, in the first year a student studies satisfactorily, although he did well at school. He is faced with the task of developing his abilities and character in relation to new conditions and roles, which requires time and effort. This also applies to social communities, institutions, organizations: for example, before many social institutions USSR during the transition to post-Soviet society.
Role conflict arises during the transition from one leading role to another, for example, from the role of an employee to the role of a pensioner. Overcoming such a conflict (changing and demoting roles) requires mental preparation, time and effort, and will. Such a conflict is inherent in social groups, institutions, organizations. For example, the transformation of former Soviet workers from a nominal “hegemon” into a virtually powerless class, or scientists from a relatively prosperous layer into the poor became a very difficult and painful transformation.
Role conflict plays a big role in the formation deviant behavior and motivation. The psychological tension and frustration that arises along with it interfere with the harmonious integration of the individual into social connection and the system, its assimilation of conformal values and motivations. Parsons identified the mechanisms of socialization (learning), protection and adaptation (to the situation, environment) in the human structure. Socialization mechanism is a process as a result of which a person acquires new motivational (need, cognitive, evaluative) orientations, new value orientations, new objects, new interests. Protection mechanism - these are processes of overcoming internal conflict between different needs, motivations, value orientations, roles-statuses. Adaptation mechanisms - these are the processes by which a person overcomes tension and conflict in his relationship with the action situation. In this case, the mechanisms of protection and adaptation, after implementation, dissolve in the mechanism of socialization.
