role theory52709

[Adam Blatner]

back home from visiting kids... 
    Comments on  REGINA SEWELL  and her remarks to  Jenny Wilson on, May 20, 2009 re role theory.
    RS  My framework (as a sociologist) is that roles are social constructions. 
             AB: I would say as a slight modifier that the term role has evolved from the realm of theatre to a more general social concept of function. It has gone beyond social, so that people now talk about, say, the role of the gas methane in the atmosphere in the ecology of global warming.

    RS  They are based on social interaction with others and become part of the conserve.
 AB: I think sociologists are far too narrow. The term is useful also to speak of somato-psychic and intrapsychic dynamics, also. 

      RS  Some aspects of roles are somewhat universal, in that most of us agree on the role expectations.  For example, the role of mother, most of us expect mothers to be nurturing, to be loving, to listen, to be good role models. 
        AB: Actually, though, in a sense the opposite is true when it comes to the negotiations regarding ongoing issues: I mean that while society marks out very general boundaries: No killing your kids. (Reminding me of the sitcom Roseanne's line to her husband, "If you come home after work and the kids are still alive, I've done my job.")
          But how much should a "good" parent demand of a child? How much frustration and challenge is appropriate? At what point does good parenting slip into spoiling or pampering. So this role is very much in a state of cultural and sub-group negotiations, though most of it goes not only unspoken, but unconscious. 

     RS  And, at least in the U.S., the courts use this in their determination of penalties...  in that women are more severely punished for violating the expectations of motherhood than they are for the actual "deed" they have committed.  
      AB: However, 98.3% of role expectations have nothing to do with actual laws. Most common example: Have you lived up sufficiently to your own expectations? Those expectations are role definitions!  A successful person...    A person who lives up to her potential would...   A truly enlightened person would... 

   RS   As far as evolution...  here you are talking about genetics.  Robert Lipton, a cellular biologist has proposed the notion that although DNA is important, outcome is shaped by environment.  That is, the environment in which a cell lives determines how the DNA responds.  I have also been listening to Daniel J. Siegel's "Neurobiology of We" which focuses on attachment and relationships (this is essentially the environment) and it turns out that DNA, genetics, has no impact on attachment...  and attachment has an incredible impact on one's life narrative.  One's understanding of roles is based on one's narrative, one's story, one's understanding of roles and expectations about how one should be and how others should be.  And, significantly, one's life narrative is highly (incredibly highly) correlated with one's parent's narrative.  This suggest not evolutionary but learned social behavior.
            AB: While I substantially agree, the attribution of personality traits to degrees of attachment (a recent theme in these interchanges) is problematical. Many psychotherapists learned about theories of psychology and psychotherapy that hardly take temperament (or genetic predispositions) into account. 

Peace out, regina sewell, ph.d.   responding to Jenny's statement previously,   <<If we accept that human functioning is guided by/ arranged somehow into roles (maybe this statement will be the first point of discussion/challenge) then I would assume some evolutionary advantage to having us wired this way (I guess this statement too could be debated!) Can you comment about roles from an evolutionary  perspective ? to put the question more bluntly:  How did we end up wired this way?>>
 
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