Status Inconsistency and Role Conflict

Abstract

The idea that a social structure is not necessarily consistent in the demands it imposes on, or in the expectations it generates in, its occupants and the persons who interact with them has served sociology powerfully over a long period of time. This idea is at least implicit, for example, in Marx's analysis of the contradictions in class structure and the dialectic through which these contradictions work themselves out; in Weber's delineation of the multiple principles on which a stratification system can be built; in Sumner's postulate of a strain toward consistency in the elements of culture; in Pareto's treatment of the gap between elite definition and capacity; in Durkheim's vision of the possibilities inherent in the division of labor; in Park's and his students' elaboration of the concept of marginal man; in Thomas' writings on the conflicts of values and attitudes; and in Linton's treatment of the relationships between social system and society. This chapter focuses on two contemporary versions of this basic idea, the concepts of status inconsistency and role conflict, and on their literatures. Our interest is in the consequences of the social structural and normative inconsistencies, contradictions, and conflicts that are the referents of these concepts. The concept of status inconsistency has its origin in a macrostructural orientation to sociology; the concept of role conflict has its origin in a somewhat more microstructural view and in social psychological theoriz-