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Chapter 3 Discussion Questions
Intro To Sociology (University of Alabama)
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Chapter 3 Discussion Questions
Laura Smith
SOC 101-001
23 January 2013
1. A status is a social category that is distinct from other groups whose individuals are
expected to act/think/speak a certain way, while roles are the behaviors that members
of a certain status are expected to maintain. This system creates predictability in our
society by ensuring that people from certain categories act in a way that is predictable
to members of other groups. In this way people have a general idea of what to expect
from the “generalized other”.
2. The adoption of a role or identity also usually means the adoption of a certain set of
behaviors to go along with it. People who have been labeled with a certain role are
generally expected to act similarly to other members of society that also have that role.
For example, if someone is charged with a crime and is sent to jail, they are more likely
to act like criminals, even if the crime they committed was unusual to their normal
identity.
3. “The Rhetoric and Reality of ‘Opting Out’” describes the conflict of many welleducated, successful women between their roes of mother and full-time worker.
Because of their high-paying, fulfilling jobs and the pressure put on them by their
bosses and husbands, these women are reluctant to give up their role of breadwinner
in their household, but the instinct and intense desire to care for their children often
overpowers their reluctance to leave their jobs. Those close to the conflicted mother
often only make things worse by not allowing much job flexibility (bosses) and lacking
any meaningful advice or input on the matter (significant others).
4. The women in Stone’s research decided that staying at home full-time with their
children was the only way to truly feel as if they were fulfilling their roles. When at
work, these moms would miss their children terribly and could only think about
leaving early to see them, but when at home they would be plagued by guilt because of
the work that they left undone at their job. Switching to part-time is another option
that some of these women could have chosen, as long as they could work out the details
with their bosses, but the overall choice is clear: new mothers can choose to either care
for their child or maintain a fulfilling, progressing career. These options reveal that
our society is expecting parents to perform these roles separately and completely, even
in the face of the role conflict that is imminent.
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