To what extent does social role theory explain anti-social behaviour - Essay Example

Whether the interaction is going to be positive or not depends on the nature of the people interacting with each other. The increasingly diverse and complex social roles that human being plays lead to socialization and personality development (Newman 70). Social Role theory studies the development of human being through different roles that he plays. According to Briddle (1979) and Brown (1965), “a social role is any set of behaviors that has a socially agreed-upon function and accepted code of norms” (Newman 70).

However, when the social norms and functions become distorted with negative attitudes of prejudice, discrimination and racism, then people who are the victim of it become frustrated and their frustration leads to anti-social behavior. The word ‘role’ in social role theory is taken from the context of theatre where the actor behaves and acts as expected from him through the script (Newman 70). The same concept is applied to social life.

The social life works as a stage, the social identities that person assumes work as roles and the behavior expectation from each role that people play act as script (Newman 70). With every step in life, the range and the nature of role changes and people learn to adjust and accommodate the new things and behavior pattern that come with it (Newman 70). However, there are times when the this adjustment becomes difficult and people start finding it impossible to fit into the social scenarios.

Mostly, the problem begins when a person gets into an adolescence phase and begin to develop a social identity. Social identity is formed when a person interacts with people in personal relationship and in social groups(Newman 72). According to Tajfel