ABSTRACT
The key concepts of ‘role’ and ‘role conflict’ have been formulated in varied and sometimes contradictory ways, although important attempts have been made to produce conceptual order. Theoretical analysis of role conflict has been much influenced by the application of Talcott Parsons’s ‘pattern variables’ to various role situations. In the investigation of role conflict, sociologists have concentrated their attention on determinants of conflict arising from the context in which a role is performed, while psychologists have concentrated upon the characteristics of the person occupying the role. The sociological perspective emphasises the cultural and societal setting of a role, the inter-relationships between a role and various organisational settings and the articulation of a role in a network of other roles. Exposed to role conflict in the teaching situation, one teacher can become a militant reformer, determined to change certain circumstances in the situation, another can resolve the incompatibilities by a system of priorities or compromises.
