Social position. Rol and Status.

The social position of a person is determinated by two concepts wiches are like the two sides of a coin: ROL and STATUS.

The ROL is a coherent set of activities usually done by a person.
All ROLS have norms; they have obligations.
They produce expectations from the ones who recive the effect of his activity.

Persons can't have only one ROL, but more than one. We all have some rols wiches we use depending on the surrounding we are.
Some times there are such different rols that we have an internal or social conflict.

On the other hand we have the STATUS wich is a set of rights and honors of a person. Often we're talking about status like a dignity, category of a person, but these consepts are sometimes incorrect.

So, when we're talking about status we're refering on what reaction can we wait of others in front of a determinated rol.

Of course we only can wait a determinated reaction if the person knows wich is your status. So we'll say that a person must express his status. We can express our status by clothing, our way to talk, our determinate signs.


We said that rol and status are the ones what determinates our social position. We could say that the rol is more dinamic and status is more static. Here are four rols and status of mine.

1. Status: a student in a School. Rol: study, do exercises, listen, aswer.
2. Status: Diver. Rol: go diving, study, write reports, calculate the surfacing code, do the body check.
3. Status: Last child in the family. Rol: obey, listen, report, ask...
4. Status: Person. Rol: live, eat, do not kill...