By Bradley Wright
Let me tell you a story about a college student who saved the monkeys and got to hang out with Pamela Anderson.
Justin attends the University of Connecticut. He is also into animal rights. Now, saying that Justin is “into” animal rights is like saying Paris Hilton is “into” clothes or Donald Trump is “into” money (or bad hair). Justin is an animal rights activist. It’s not uncommon to see pictures in newspaper of him leading some protest or another. Heck, he even has animal-rights themed tattoos across his body.
In the last few years, Justin has been protesting the University of Connecticut’s use of monkeys in medical research. Apparently, an on-going medical experiment would buy monkeys, drill holes in their heads, stick metal rods into their eyes, and then start destroying parts of their brains to see what would happen. When he learned about this, Justin started protesting, holding press conferences, and sending letters to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)—the government agency that overseas animal use in experiments. When Justin could document violations of government policy, the USDA would send a warning letter to the medical researcher conducting these experiments. Eventually, the medical researcher gave up, saying that he was “voluntarily” terminating his study, but it’s clear that Justin single-handedly stopped the experiment.
In recognition of Justin’s achievements, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) gave him an award as the national animal-rights activist of the year, and a Hartford Courant story about the ceremony shows Justin smiling, with his arm around noted PETA supporter, actress Pamela Anderson. Maybe they just smiled for a photo-op, maybe they danced the night away—who knows?—but there they are together in the picture.
There’s a problem, though. All this recognition has come at a price for Justin—he says that his grades have suffered. This makes sense. It’s hard to study for a midterm when you’re chained to a laboratory’s fence or to write a paper when you’re writing press releases.
Justin’s dilemma, the trade-off between getting good grades and advancing animal rights, points to the concept of role conflict. As I wrote about in my last blog entry, roles are social positions that hold expectations for what we do. Each one of us holds multiple roles, and sometimes the expectations of our roles are mutually incompatible—they can’t all be met. This often happens to college students. As a student you should study for tomorrow’s midterm but as an employee you have to work tonight. As a son/daughter you should go home for the three-day weekend but as a friend you should go to the concert with your friends. As a boyfriend/girlfriend you should go out for dinner with your partner but as a dorm resident you should go to the floor’s intramural game.
The more roles one serves, the more often this role conflict happens, and it causes various problems. Role conflict can be stressful. Trying to manage the demands of different roles takes energy and time, and it can be overwhelming. People often get sick when they have too many roles to fulfill. For example, it’s a common sight during finals to see students sniffling away with a tissue box next to their bluebook.
Another consequence of role conflict is deviance. The expectations of any given role can be thought of as norms—like the laws of our country—and violating these norms can lead to punishment. If you show up late for work because of class, you can be fired. If you neglect your boyfriend/girlfriend to play intramurals, you might be dumped. If you go home to your parents’ house instead of going out with your friends, they might not invite you next time.
Usually we think of deviance as a part of who a person is. “This person likes to break rules,” “That person is a criminal;” but from the perspective of role theory, deviance is a function of the roles we serve, not of who we are. So, put anyone into incompatible roles, and the resulting role conflict will turn them into deviants of a sort. Take a nun in a convent, give her contradictory role expectations, and you have someone violating norms—a deviant.
This is not to say that people are helpless against role conflict; in fact, we do lots of things to successfully manage role expectations. We make detailed plans for out days and write them down in little books or PDAs—as a way of fitting everything in. We change one role make it fit with another. We read books and take seminars on how to manage our lives.
Still, as Justin found out, role conflict is part of life, and sometimes there is just no way of getting around it… at least not if you are going to hang out with Pamela Anderson.
Even as a high school senior, I have begun to feel the stresses of role conflict. In our society, there is such a push for individuals to be well-rounded, that we can’t seem to find the time to do the things that we truly enjoy. Especially with college admissions, the students who have extremely high test scores and GPAs, as well have been involved in the arts, clubs and community service are richly rewarded with scholarships and prestigious college offers. However, in my experience, these students are usually so crunched for time in all of their commendable endeavors that their relationships suffer considerably.
Justin just needed to learn time management a little better, and not try to take on too many tasks at once.
I think that no matter how much you try to eliminate different roles in your life, you’ll end up with things to do. People who like to be busy will find away to be. Therefore, I think role conflict will come about in any situation. Justin has a passion, and it will help him out sometime to be as caring as he is.
WOW!!!I really enjoy reading your blog. My mind is now thinking of my many role or hats I’m wearing. I truly believe we must choose the most important roles and stick with those regardless of what society may think
Justin’s is a vert courageous person and his role conflict was the choice between his grades and being an animal rights leader. Most of my role conflicts come with my employment and school. School always comes out to be the winner.
I believe that role conflict is unavoidable. Many people have more than one priority now, like job and family. People have to choose whether or not they will work or go to their daughter’s first soccer game. As a student and having a job, I have to do school work and also work. Choosing which role I should play in this situation is hard. The strain of the conflict lead to confusion in what may be the right thing to do.
I think this is a great example of role conflict. Justin who is a Animal Activest who deeply cares for animals and their treaments. He is doing everything he can for them. Making proteset, press annoucments, and even recieving awards for them. He is doing all this and yet is still trying to be a college student. His grades have slipped but yet he is has a major impact still on the world and is having a role conflict for it.
Role conflict is definitely something that we all struggle with. I think you explained this very well, and I definitely agree with this post. As a student I often have to decide between two or even three activities. But I’ve learned that I have to get my priorities in order, and if I do this these conflicts will become easier to deal with. Still, that doesn’t seem to solve the problem. I often have a very hard time choosing between my studies or helping a friend out. It’s a tough choice, but that’s life, and we all have to make tough decisions. I really like what Justin did, but are his grades suffering worth it? Only you can decide.
I fully agree with this article, I see this struggle all the time in high school students. It can basically be broken down into to categories, the students who study a lot don’t have the best social lives, but get great grades. While, the students who hang out with friends a lot have great social lives, but not the best grades. Finding the balance between the two is one of the hardest parts of High School.
Role conflict has always been prominent, but your story about Justin shows just how extreme it can be. Even though he made such a great impact, he felt the consequences of it through his school work. It just really sucks that role conflict is even more prominent now, and more people are feeling it. As a student, education has become easier and harder at the same time which adds strain and having to choose between two roles. Either way, we always feel some sort of deviance by having to choose.
Very many people can relate to Justin’s experience. Personally, my biggest role conflict usually arises between being a friend and a son. Often times my friends have very different ideas of what is fun and socially acceptable than my parents. I’m a pretty easy going guy so it’s usually not hard to occupy both roles simultaneously. However there are times when my friends’ shenanigans are far outside of my parents’ regulations. When we talk about deviance, I think it’s especially important to evaluate the short term and long term effects. If don’t hang out with my friends that night, short term they’ll be mad, but in the long run we’ll still be friends. If I disrespect my parents, they will also be mad, however in the long run they may not trust me to hang out with those same people. I am a firm believer that this kind of thinking is critical to dealing with role conflict.
The role conflict suggested in this article seems realistic and relatable to modern life. Nowadays people are responsible for many more roles than they were in the past. Due to inability to manage time and prioritize, certain roles may suffer due to a person’s failure to attend to those duties. Justin’s role as a student suffered while his role as an animal rights activist flourished. This provides a perfect example of the consequences that can arises from an inability to balance one’s many roles.
I think the way you presented role conflict was great. I feel in today’s society, we tend to have more role conflict because we have to balance school, sports, social events, jobs, etc. I feel back then as an adult you strictly were a stay at home mom and the dad provided. People now tend to schedule as much as they can in to one day trying to accomplish everything they can’t always meet, as you mentioned. Great article.
Peronsally, I think that Justin would benefit from focusing on his role as a student. The role conflict could be avoided if he was a student first and a animal rights activist second. I say this because with a higher level of education, Justin would be more respected and better able to express his opinions. Then, all of his attention could be focusing on saving the animals instead of spliting his time between that and school /and/ it would benefit his being an acitivst to gain more schooling.
i have been given to discuss a question about role conflict.it’s fun because role conflict is evident and increasing today in the society due to the increasing demands and desires.
This situation reflects role conflict, where the expectations of different roles become incongruent, leading to stress and deviation from norms. While there are ways to manage role demands, sometimes role conflicts cannot be avoided, even if it means spending time with Pamela Anderson.