The semester is in full swing, and there is a good chance you are busy. Really busy. From Zoom classes to Zoom office hours and Zoom study groups, people everywhere are incredibly busy. Have you ever taken the time to consider why you are so busy? Why things are so hectic? On the surface, it is because you are involved in many activities, but sociology can offer you deeper insight into why you feel like you don’t even have time to catch your breath. Sociologically speaking, your busyness is related to your social roles, the expected patterns of behaviors for specific statuses and positions. Even just over the course of one week, the roles you play run the gamut from student to teacher, employee to the club president. Let’s look at the different ways roles can affect your life.
Using your role as a student as the first example, you might think that being a student is all about getting an education. Actually, being a student means that you have a role set, a complement of role-relationships within a single role. In other words, there is a group of relationships associated with the role of student that you are expected to maintain. These relationships are with various professors, teaching assistants, coaches, classmates, roommates, and dorm mates. Each relationship has its own nuance and responsibilities.
Next, being a student means you probably experience quite a bit of role strain, incompatible demands, and expectations within a single role. For example, look at your calendar. Now, do you see the paper, presentation, and exam that all due in the next three days? Well, that combination of demands means that you are experiencing strain. You are being pulled in several different directions based on the demands associated with your role as a student.
What if you are a student who also works 35 hours per week, has a child, and is the president of your student organization? If you have all of that going on, you are probably experiencing role conflict, competing demands resulting from two or more statuses. Your various responsibilities are pulling you in several different directions, and they conflict with one another. So, look back at your calendar. You have a work training session on Friday morning and a class project due Friday afternoon. Your child’s birthday party is on Saturday, and you are chairing a student organization fundraiser on Saturday night. You have much to do, and everything needs to be done NOW. In this instance, the demands of the various roles are pulling you in different directions and are in conflict with one another.
