We Are More Than Just Men and Women

       An ascribed status is a social position a person receives at birth or takes on involuntarily later in life.  Examples of these are being a son, daughter, sister, brother or a teenager. I personally am a daughter, sister, granddaughter, and I was a teenager.  There are also achieved status' which is a social position someone takes on voluntarily. I have taken on the status' of a Division one Athlete, a nursing student and a Captain on my team. Along with these status' are roles and each status can have multiple roles to them. For example being a Captain for my team I have to be a good teammate and leader on and off the field. Each of have more roles and status' than we think!
      With status' and roles sometimes come role conflict among different status'. A woman could be a teacher and also a mother so she needs to know how the keep each of those roles separate so it does not cause conflict with her children. It can also happen with a mother or father being their child's coach.  There are different boundaries that people of certain status' have to watch so they do not mix roles that will affect other people. I personally struggle with the role conflict of being a team leader and then also a friend to my teammates in certain situations. Being a student athlete we have to be careful with ever decision we make especially when we are able to go out on the weekends. We have to be smart and think of any consequences that could happen if we decide to make the decision we want. Being a team captain it is sometimes hard when I go out with my friends on the team and watch them make decisions that I know may not be the best, and then I have to decide if I should just be their friend or be the leader I am supposed to be and say something. Although having these roles and being held to certain is status' is hard it teaches us how to deal with situations in the correct way and helps us to find different ways in handling them. I know being in the position that I am, I have learned a lot this past year about how to handle different personalities and situations. There are many different roles and status' in our social structure everyone just has to figure out which ones they are and how to use them.

Sources:
http://anthro.palomar.edu/status/stat_2.htm
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07399339509516166#.UzlvSsJOXmI