Role Strain
Role conflict describes the situation of a person dealing with the challenge of occupying two social positions simultaneously. However, even a single position can cause problems. Sociologists use term role strain to describe difficulties that result from the differing demands and expectations associated with the same social position.
In the opening example, social psychologist Philip Zimbardo unexpectedly experienced role strain. He initially saw himself merely as a college professor directing an imaginative experiment in which students played the roles of either guard or in mate. However, he soon found that as a professor, he is also expected to look after the welfare of the students or at least not to endanger them. Eventually he resolved the role strain by making the difficult decision to terminate the experiment. Twenty-five years later, in a television interview, he was still reflecting on the challenge of this role strain (CBS News 1998).