SOC 3750 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Role Theory, Erving Goffman

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 3750
• Professor: Patrick Parnaby

Document Summary

Lecture 3 (19/09/16) - roles, recruitment and training. Part 3 - organizational philosophies regarding recruitment and training. Adoption of behavioural patterns to meet social expectations. Quite often there is tension between multiple roles in policing. Shows up fairly early in an officer"s career. Dimensions of an officer"s role (in order of desirability ) Most desirable role (top tier of reasons for becoming an officer is to enforce the law") Order maintenance: traffic, crowd control, disputes, etc. Not as desirable - not seen as primary purpose, but understand it is expected of them: when a role isn"t desirable that elevates the level of stress and strain when it is expected of you. Expectation is to that with efficiency and accuracy. Seen as taking time away from more valuable roles. Time and energy, stress, public pressure: extremely high expectations to fill all 4 dimensions properly and effectively. Role strain undermines productivity and contributes to emotional burnout: mental & physical exhaustion.