Download or read book Social Roles & Social Institutions written by Judith R. Blau and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concept of social roles highlights sociology's distinctive approach to understanding human behavior. Social roles link behavior to structural positions and social expectations. They are important connecting rods between the individual and large-scale societal analysis. Consequently, role theory is an essential tool for understanding social institutions, the nature of interpersonal influence, socialization, and the ways in which individuals define no less than are defined by structural change. Bennett M. Berger provides a rich informal context for understanding how this has come about in American social science.