ABSTRACT
The concept which is closely allied to that of position is the concept of role, which is perhaps the main concept which offers a potential link between the too frequently estranged disciplines of sociology and psychology. Role, then, refers to prescriptions about the behaviour of a person occupying a given position, a set of guide-lines which direct the behaviour of the role incumbent or the actor. Roles consist of sets of expectations. The fact that all positions within a social system are related to other positions has important consequences for the position-role complex. Some positions, like that of mother, are common to large numbers of the population and most of us have direct experience of interacting with a woman in the position of mother. A position-role, then, is linked to a number of other position-roles, the incumbents of which have expectations about the actor's behaviour towards all the other role partners.
