Editing Role (section)

{{Short description|Expected social behavioural norms}}
{{About|the sociology term|the performing arts term|Character (arts)|other uses}}
A '''role''' (also '''rôle''' or '''social role''') is a set of connected [[behavior]]s, [[rights]], [[moral obligation|obligation]]s, beliefs, and [[social norm|norms]] as conceptualized by people in a social situation. It is an 
expected or free or continuously changing behavior and may have a given individual [[social status]] or [[social position]]. It is vital to both [[structural functionalism|functionalist]] and [[interactionism|interactionist]] understandings of society. Social role theory posits the following about social behavior:

# The [[division of labour]] in society takes the form of the interaction among heterogeneous specialized positions, we call roles.
# Social roles included appropriate and permitted forms of behavior and actions that recur in a group, guided by social norms, which are commonly known and hence determine the expectations for appropriate behavior in these roles, which further explains the position of a person in the society.
# Roles are occupied by individuals, who are called [[Actor (UML)|actors]]. 
#When individuals approve of a social role (i.e., they consider the role [[legitimacy (political)|legitimate]] and [[construal|constructive]]), they will incur costs to conform to role norms, and will also incur costs to [[Social control|punish those who violate]] role norms.
# Changed conditions can render a social role outdated or illegitimate, in which case social pressures are likely to lead to role change.
# The anticipation of [[Reinforcement|rewards]] and [[punishment]]s, as well as the satisfaction of behaving pro-socially, account for why agents conform to role requirements.

The notion of the role can be and is examined in the [[social science]]s, specifically [[economics]], [[sociology]] and [[organizational theory]].