Role Conflict
• Role conflict occurs when we are expected to conduct two or more incompatible social roles at the same time.
• For example, working mother has a difficulty to go together as a mother, a wife, and an office worker.
• Other examples: university students, middle-level executives.
• Another role conflict also occurs when fulfilment of the roles of one status may violate the roles of a second status. (e.g. as a member of student union, and as a friend)
• People solve the conflict by managing time, distributing energy effectively, or giving up one role.
References and Recommended Books
• Blumer, Herbert (1969a) Symbolic Interactionism; Perspective and Method.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
• Bruce, Steve and Steven Yearley. 2006. The Sage Dictionary of Sociology. Los Angeles and London: SAGE Publications Ltd.