R o l e D i s t a n c i n g : D i f f e r e n t i a t i n g t h e R o l e of the
Elderly from the Person Marnie L. Sayles
University of Hawaii-Hilo
ABSTRACT: Elderly participants in an " e x t e n d e d care" class a t a senior citizen's center were observed to determine if some of t h e m could continually distance themselves from the "client" role. A l t h o u g h earlier research suggests t h a t people can use role distancing techniques to disassociate themselves successfully from occasionally played roles or certain aspects of a role, it is unclear whether or how people successfully disassociate themselves continually from enacted roles. Using a symbolic interactionist's definition of role, this paper a t t e m p t s to 1) classify the circumstances which give rise to b o t h occasional and continual role distancing; 2} specify the conditions u n d e r which disassociation from continually enacted roles m a y be successful; a n d 3) s u g g e s t t h e relevance of the data to studies on low-status occupations, deviance, a n d role theory.
Everyday interactions often involve people disassociating themselves from the role they are enacting. Such role distancing behavior could occur, for example, when a young person attending college shares an apartment with working, nonstudent friends who disparage the student role. If the friends feel that students are "stuffy" or "snobbish," the individual who is engaging in the student role could give cues {e.g., looking disgusted, bored, etc.} suggesting that he or she does not take the role seriously and is not the role. Turner maintains that others generally consider the individual to be the role unless" there are cues that alert them to the possibility of a discrepancy between person and role" (1962:36). Two features about ego's behavior may alert alters to a "discrepancy" between ego's role and person. Ego will not be considered the person associated with the role either if ego demonstrates to alters a lack of identification with the played role {or attitudes and beliefs uncharacteristic of the role} or if the behavior associated with the undesired role is viewed by alters as being characteristic of ego only in specific situations {Turner, 1978). Thus, with reference to our earlier I a m especially grateful to Melvin Seeman {UCLA) for his critical c o m m e n t s and extensive editorial advice and to Ralph H. T u r n e r {UCLA) for his helpful comments on earlier d r a f t s of this paper. I also would like to t h a n k Shulamit Reinharz for editorial assistance. Reprint requests m a y be addressed to: D e p a r t m e n t of Sociology, University of Hawaii-Hito, Hi]o, Hawaii 96720. Quafitative Sociology, 7{3},Fall 1984
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example, if the young student demonstrates to friends both a lack of identification with the role and behavior that does not conform to the expected "student's" role in a variety of settings, one could surmise that alters will not consider ego to be the person associated with the student role. It is important to specify the conditions under which ego is likely both to attempt role distancing and to engage in it successfully. The purpose of this paper is to classify the cirucumstances which give rise to role distancing and to specify the conditions under which disassociation even from continually enacted roles may function successfully to disassociate ego from the enacted role. This paper is divided into four parts. First, the concepts of role and role distancing are defined and earlier studies about the conditions which give rise to successful role distancing are outlined. Second, an ethnographic study of role distancing among elderly participants in an extended care class at a senior center is presented to examine how role distancing from a continual role may be successful. Third, the sociological significance of the findings is discussed and hypotheses are proposed concerning successful role distancing. Fourth, areas for further research are suggested.
Emergent Roles and Role Distancing The concept of role aids the understanding of the interaction process. Turner (1968:552} defines roles as consistent patterns of behavior which can be recognized and played by different individuals. When interacting with others, people generally act as if they are playing a role. Moreover, people tend to interpret and to respond to others' behavior on the basis of the roles they attribute to the individual. Often people must play roles incompatible with their selfconceptions. According to Goffman, role distancing is one strategy which allows the individual to play the role but to deny "the virtual self that is implied in the role for the allocating performers" (1961:108). Role distancing may be considered successful when others recognize the cues as signifying that the individual is not the role. A variety of signals may be used to convey role distancing. First, people may explain their lack of commitment to the role in a straightforward manner. Second, while enacting the role they may behave in a way which contradicts the role. Third, their language may demon-
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strate a lack of attachment to the role. Finally, they m a y exhibit what Seeman {1966) refers to as "inauthentic" behavior. That is, they may take the stereotypical role as the model and then completely separate themselves from or conform to the stereotype. Over-conformity to a role is a form of role distancing if it involves exaggerated or studied adherence to the stereotypical role. Such signals are only successful, however, if others recognize the behavior as cues and interpret them to mean that the individaul is just playing and is not identifying with the role. Occasional role distancing Most of the literature on role distancing concerns occasional rather than continual roles or aspects of a role. It explains how people occasionally distance themselves from aspects of roles which are unpleasant. Earlier studies indicate that there are four conditions which are conducive to successful role distancing from occasionally played roles or aspects of a role.
1. Role transitions: People often perform rules which they have outgrown. If the former roles are now considered to be "beneath" them, they will not want others to think that they are the person associated with such roles. Hence, they m a y engage in role distancing. Goffman {1961} discusses how older children riding the merry-go-round act bored and stiff (over-separation from the role} or imitate jockeys (over-playing the role) while gesturing their lack of commitment to friends le.g., winking}. Although Goffman never specifies the outcome of such a strategy, one could presume that children in these situations successfully disassociate themselves from the merry-go-round rider role. 2. Unfamiliar roles: Goffman 11961) also suggests that when people occasionally play unfamiliar roles--roles they are j u s t learning or in which they are incompetent--they m a y engage in role distancing behavior, so that their peers may not evaluate their competency in that role as being indicative of the type of person they are. Incompetence leads to role distancing behavior among six lower-class girls whom Goffman {1961) observed taking horseback riding lessons. The girls could not ride well. To demonstrate to their peers that they did not value this role {and that riding the horse well was not important to their self-concept}, some of the
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girls rode the horses dressed in peddle pushers {rather than the traditional equestrian dress} and/or made gestures while on the horses indicating that they did not take the role seriously and should not be criticized for their incompetence. 3. Role-set conflict: Some individuals may engage in role distancing behavior in order to be evaluated positively by two conflicting reference groups. Although the individual does not want to be evaluated negatively by either group, playing the role well for one group means not playing the role well for the other. Role distancing allows the individual to satisfy the expectations of one group while cuing the other group that this particular aspect of the role is not valued. Stebbins {1975} studied jazz musicians who must satisfy audience requests while also impressing their colleagues by playing "high quality" music. When the audience requests musical pieces considered by the musician's colleagues to be "beneath" them, the performer could use role distancing to "more or less fulfill his role obligations while maintaining his selfrespect" (Stebbins, 1975:133). 4. I n s t i t u t i o n a l roles: People interacting within an organizational setting occasionally may wish to demonstrate to others that they are not the formalized aspect of the role. Goffman {1961) notes that surgeons may have to perform their formal role in order to complete an operation efficiently, but they may use humor, sexual innuendos, and]or other remarks uncharacteristic of a surgeon's rote in order to demonstrate that they are also persons, not just surgeons. Turner argues that people who value the "impulsive" part of their self-concept are likely to engage in this type of role distancing behavior in order to demonstrate that they are not "the uptight, false, or plastic person" their conforming to "institutional routine might suggest" {Turner, 1976:1008). Continual role distancing Researchers have noted that role distancing may also occur among people who continually enact a devalued role. Such role distancing does not involve the occasional distancing from a role but rather the continual attempt to disassociate oneself from the entire role. Such role distancing is likely to occur when people are cast into negatively evaluated roles. Despite acknowledgement that such situations are conducive to rote distancing, there is a dearth of research on this type
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of role distancing. Allport (1954) suggests that minorities distance themselves from roles they are forced to enact. For the most part, such studies do not focus on the processes minorities use to disassociate themselves from the role or the conditions under which such behavior successfully disassociates them from their devalued role. In contrast to Allport, a review of interpersonal interaction research b y Archibald {1976) suggests role distancing would be rare among people with lower status interacting with people of a higher status. Negatively evaluated roles: One rare s t u d y examining continual role distancing behavior is that b y Levitin (1964) concerning the low status occupation of "puller." A "puller" is a salesperson who stands outside a store, seeking to persuade potential customers to enter the store. In order to preserve their esteem while carrying out this negatively evaluated role, pullers engage in role distancing behavior with customers. Levitin states {1964:254}: If the puller made himself, as puller, an object of humor that both he and higher status customers found ridiculous, he aligned himself with that customer and separated himself from the ludicrous low status occupation. It is never entirely clear, however, if the puller actually engages in role distancing, or if the customers recognize the cues as distancing the puller from the role {see Stebbins, 1975}. Consequently, we still know relatively little about successful strategies for role distancing from continual, negatively evaluated roles. In sum, previous research suggests that role distancing is a viable strategy when employed occasionally, b u t it is less conclusive when discussing the strategy of distancing oneself from a continual role. Indeed, role distancing is probably less successful when employed continually. Since people have a tendency to assume consistency between persons and roles, they m a y begin to ignore role distancing cues in order to maintain a more consistent picture of ego. Rather than continuing to engage in role distancing, one would expect that ego either would terminate the interactions which tend to confirm the undesired role or would accept the devalued role. As Turner explains: "Individuals tend to merge into their persons those roles by which significant others identify t h e m " {1978:13}. Although it is more difficult to engage in continual rather than occasional role distancing, there m a y be some conditions under which continual role distancing m a y be attempted. An elderly group in an ex-
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tended care class was studied to see if it was possible to achieve role distancing from a devalued role over an extended period of time. Since the elderly in our society are generally cast into negatively evaluated roles {see, e.g., Cavan, 1962; Henry, 1963; Louis Harris and Associates, Inc., 1976; and Rosow, 1974), and people often cope with negatively evaluated roles by role distancing, it was assumed that role distancing could be observed among the elderly. Role distancing was expected to be even more pronounced among the elderly of this s t u d y since as extended care elderly they were labeled emotionally or physically handicapped by the center director and were considered marginally competent and inactive by staff and other center participants.
Role Distancing among the Elderly The setting The data were collected while I was a volunteer for an extended care class at a senior center. Based on previous experience in other centers, I judged this senior center to be typical of m a n y centers in the Southwest. It was located in a lower middle-class neighborhood that had a considerable Hispanic population and a small number of blacks. Nevertheless, primarily white middle- or lower middl~class persons attended the center. In addition, as in most centers, more women than men attended. The center director characterized the elderly in the extended care class as suffering from psychological or physical ailments and as being marginally self-sufficient. The objective of the class, according to one of the directors, was to maintain these elderly within the community. The class, however, was open to anyone who wanted to attend; therefore, some self-sufficient elderly attended. A b o u t 15-20 white elderly regularly attended the class. The class met every Monday and Wednesday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.mo and it was supervised b y one elderly staff person and generally one to three volunteers. There was no scheduled activity in the morning (the elderly sat and conversed with each other}, b u t after the group had lunch at the nearby nutrition site, there was usually a class of arts and crafts in which a few elderly in the group participated.
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Methods
I recorded fieldnotes while working as a volunteer for the extended care class from November, 1978 until the end of March, 1979. I explained my participation in the center to staff and elderly in terms of my dual roles as volunteer for the extended care class and researcher. My volunteer role was never defined, but at the beginning, staff and some group members expected me to restrain and/or watch the elders. After a month, however, I was able to minimize that role by rarely engaging in custodial type of interactions. I was then able to spend almost all of my time conversing with and observing members of the group. My research role did not seem to bother the elderly members but rather tended to facilitate my acceptance within the group by providing a rationale for a younger person to act as a volunteer. Prior to my entrance into the setting, I did not have specific hypotheses to be tested but was interested in analyzing the interaction process and the emergence of informal roles. Hence, I was interested in generating "grounded theory" {Glaser and Strauss, 1967). Such a methodology focuses on "exploration" and "inspection" (Blumer, 1969:40-47}. According to Blumer, "the aim of exploratory research is to develop and fill out as comprehensive and accurate a picture of the area of study as conditions allow" {1969:42}. Consequently, this analysis of role distancing, which is part of a larger study on role differentiation, generated rather than tested hypotheses. All dated excerpts are from my fieldnotes. Definitions I employed various criteria to determine whether or not role distancing was occurring and/or successful among the elderly in the extended care class. Role distancing from the handicapped or client {participant of the class} role was considered to be occurring when: 1) The subjects, in both their interactions and conversations with others, tried to combat or contradict the role they continually enacted. 2} Their acts formed a contradictory rather than coherent pattern: i.e., some of their acts appeared to confirm the undesired role whereas other acts tended to disconfirm it. 3 They often acted "inauthentically." Either they rejected many of the attributes commonly associated with the handicapped, elderly role or they mimicked the stereotypic role.
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4) If other group members responded as if the elderly individual were handicapped {center clients or class participants), such responses were vigorously negated or rebutted b y the subjects. Successful role distancing was judged to have occurred when others recognized the cues as signifying that the elderly individual was not the person associated with the "client" role. Role distancing was judged to be unsuccessful when others ignored the cues and continued to impute the "client" role to the person.
Findings The majority of the elderly participants did not engage in role distancing. A variety of roles such as leader and incompetent emerged among the elderly {see Sayles, 1980). The behavior associated with these roles, however, was consistent with the elderly and handicapped role. In contrast to the majority of the participants, m y observations revealed that Bea,1 a talkative, middle-class woman of 78, was one of the five individuals who displayed role distancing behavior. She first came to the group as a participant and did not like the class. She returned three weeks later, calling herself a volunteer. Ben told the researcher that she did not consider herself part of the group because she felt intellectually superior. Unlike them, she could never "sit and do nothing all day." Most of her conversations stressed how busy she was and described the different activities in which she had been engaged throughout her life. It was very important to Ben that staff and other clients see her as a busy volunteer and not an inactive client. B e d s activity was highly salient to her self-concept, and the picture of the extended care elderly "doing nothing" was incongruent with her selfimage. Bea constantly tried to play the role of teacher or benefactor. She brought cookies and presents for everyone and insisted that she did not expect anyone to reciprocate. B y stressing her desire to be active and busy, she a t t e m p t e d to differentiate herself from the group: Bea found out the arts and crafts teacher was not coming to class today, so Bea would not be assisting in teaching the class. Bea complained that since she was not going to teach she was not sure what she was doing at the center {November 29, 1978}.
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Bea informed the researcher that she should not have come to class today. She complained that she never sat and did nothing like this group. She said t h a t she only liked to come to teach the group and that she did not like to come and waste her time with them {December 4, 1978}. B e a ' s l a n g u a g e also e x h i b i t e d s e p a r a t i o n . W h e n e v e r r e f e r r i n g to t h e g r o u p s h e said " y o u " r a t h e r t h a n " w e . " F o r e x a m p l e , she t o l d s o m e p e o p l e in t h e g r o u p t h a t she b r o u g h t c h a m p a g n e b o t t l e s a n d p a p e r t o teach "you" how to make decorations. A l t h o u g h B e a t r i e d to d i s t a n c e h e r s e l f f r o m t h e client role, she w a s g e n e r a l l y u n s u c c e s s f u l . T h e elderly c o n s t a n t l y t r e a t e d B e a as if she s h a r e d t h e s a m e s t a t u s a n d role as t h e y did: Bea said that she did not know what she was supposed to do since there was not any class to teach. An elderly man responded: " J u s t do what we do--nothing." An elderly woman: "Yeah. You're no different" tDecember 4, 1978). W h e n B e a t r i e d to a s s e r t herself as an i n s t r u c t o r she w a s criticized a n d did n o t elicit a r e s p o n s e t h a t a f f i r m e d t h e role. I n s t e a d , her p e e r s defined her as a p a r t i c i p a n t : Bea told one of the others t h a t he should try to make a poodle out of the yarn and wire. One of the other women told the man that he did not have to listen to Bea. The man: "Good, I don't want to make one." Another woman: " T h a t ' s right, she's not the boss" {December 6, 1978}. G a r y , a n o t h e r c l a s s p a r t i c i p a n t , also e n g a g e d in role d i s t a n c i n g att e m p t s . H e s e e m e d to r e j e c t t h e definition of elderly m e n as old a n d incompetent: Sam, an elderly man in the class, and Gary sat at the end of the table. One of the women, Angela, commented that she thought the older men in the group were from nursing homes. Another woman said no. Angela said, " W h a t about Sam?" and the woman said, "No, he has a wife." Angela then pointed to Gary and said that he lived in a nursing home. Gary yelled "No." He said that he was not " t h a t old" and that he could take care of himself. Gary then got up from the table and took a Reader's Digest to read. He completely stopped conversing with the group. He then stood apart from the group in the back of the room for about an hour. When another woman came into the room she asked him if one of the chairs was his seat.
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Gary:"No-- I'm just visiting." Another elderly person: "What do you mean? You're a member of this class like the rest of us." Gary then left the center {January 15, 1979). Gary used physical and verbal isolation to separate himself from the role of an old, incompetent man who might have been in a nursing home. Bea and Gary engaged in behavior designed to distance themselves from what they perceived as the status of members of the group. The members of the group, however, ignored their cues and continued to treat them as if they were regular participants. Rather than continuing these discrepant interactions, both Bea and Gary stopped coming to the group. Gary attended only once, and Bea only a couple of months. When the researcher contacted Bea to determine why she stopped attending the center, Bea stated that she did not like the group. Irma (70 years old), Lenny {62), and Nate {84} also employed role distancing techniques. They had spouses in the group and indicated to the researcher that they did not consider themselves to be "really part" of the group because they did not need help. Generally, however, they participated in all the group's activities. Therefore, they worked hard to disassociate themselves from the rote of incompetent and helpless elderly which they believed the other elderly represented. Like Bea and Gary, Irma, Lenny, and Nate used three techniques to distance themselves from the group: language, physical separation and independence, and acting as helper. Language. Irma, Lenny, and Nate explained that they attended the group because of their spouses: The first time the researcher talked to Nate he explained to her that he brought his wife to the center because she was "not all there." His presence, then, was explained in terms of his wife's condition {November 27, 1978). The first time the researcher talked to Irma extensively at the center was after she had institutionalized her husband. Irma explained that she first started coming to the center because she brought her husband, George. Now, she explained, she brought others to the center because it made her feel useful. Irma: "I don't always stay. I just bring them to the center" {January 15, 1979). Similarly to Bea, the three used the pronoun "you" rather than "we" when referring to the group:
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Two young volunteers were leading the group in exercises and singing. Nate told Lenny: "It makes them happy." Lenny responded: "I'm for whatever makes them happy" (March 11, 1979}. Even though the three never used the pronoun " w e " when referring to the group, they often participated in the group's activities and interacted continually with members of the group. Physical separation and independence. Irma, Lenny, and Nate stressed their competence, hence, their difference from the group, by entering and exiting the extended care room freely. Staff and volunteers spent much of their time restraining some members of the group from freely wandering in and out of the room. It was assumed t h a t m a n y of the elderly were disoriented and would get lost if they left the room and/or premises. In contrast, Lenny and Irma often drove members to the center, left, and returned later. Lenny came into the room with his wife. He said that he was not staying but would return in the afternoon. His wife said that she did not want to stay either. He responded that she had to stay (December 4, 1978}. Irma brought her husband into the extended care class. She told her husband that she could not stay since she had shopping to do. She announced that she would return in the afternoon for the arts and crafts class (November 29, 1978}. Although Nate never left the center once he arrived, he wandered freely from room to room, visiting the staff and other center participants. Their independence was also stressed by their ability to reject activities t h a t others passively accepted. Although m a n y of the elderly {including those who assumed leadership roles within the group} indicated their disapproval of activities to the researcher and other elderly, only Lenny, Nate, or Irma ever verbalized to the staff dissatisfaction with the program. It is unusual for lower status people to show overt disapproval to upper status people (see e.g., Archibald, 1976}. Yet, these three elderly voiced their disapproval to t~he more powerful, and higher status, staff. Unfortunately, these interactions were too infrequent to determine whether or not the higher status staff recognized the role distancing cues. One woman, Angeline, told the researcher that on Monday the girls from the arts and crafts class came and bored them with a slide show and read poetry. Another woman said that she would not come on the
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days that those girls come to talk to the class. Angeline said that Nate told the center director that if the girls come again, he will stop coming to the center. Later, Nate asked the researcher if she felt that it was right for people to come and bore them with slides. He said that he was not going to put up with it (February 21, 1979). Two women in their early 60's and very well dressed came into the room where the group was working on their arts and crafts. They inquired about how one makes the poodles, and after making one, they left. Lenny asked the volunteer who the women were, and she said that she thought they had come to find out how the group made the wire and yarn poodles so they could sell them. The group became angry that the women used their materials and were going to sell the products. Lenny said that he was going to tell the director that she should not have let the women into the extended care class. He said that he did not like the women using it to make money; everyone concurred. Lenny then left to tell the center director about the incident. Later, a staff person reported that Lenny really yelled at the director for letting the women into the group (March 4, 1979). A c t i n g as a helper. Each of these three elderly played teaching and helping roles which the others confirmed. Irma helped teach the crafts class and brought m a n y of the members to the center. Nate t a u g h t some of the elderly how to play pinochle. Lenny often assisted the others in making crafts. Indeed, when someone suggested t h a t L e n n y got intrinsic satisfaction from making crafts, he denied this and stressed his " h e l p e r " role: The arts and crafts volunteer told Lenny's wife that Lenny was having fun making valentines. Lenny: "I am not. I'm just making them to help out" (February 12, 1979).
Discussion How, then, did role distancing work in this case? The data suggest t h a t it was a successful s t r a t e g y for Irma, Lenny, and Nate but an unsuccessful s t r a t e g y for Bea and Gary. Ben and G a r y could not continually separate themselves from the role of participant, since their role distancing cues were ignored by the group. Irma, Lenny, and Nate were able to disassociate themselves from the client role despite the fact t h a t t h e y used the same distancing techniques as Ben and Gary: t h e y explained their reasons for participating in the group; t h e y stressed the characteristics which t h e y perceived as differentiating
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themselves from the group; andJor they tried to separate themselves from the group through physical distance, independence, or language. None of the elderly seemed to be redefining what it meant to be a center client; rather, each was trying to demonstrate that the "handicapped" role was not applicable to him or her. One possible reason that Irma, Lenny, and Nate were successful in their role distancing while Bea and Gary were not was that the former group explained their participant role in terms of their highly valued spouse role. Since their spouses desired or needed to participate in the class, Irma, Lenny, and Nate were perceived b y the group as participating in the class because of their wives or husbands. Indeed, the extended care group criticized spouses who did not attend the center as inattentive to their spouse. Irma, Lenny, and Nate's participation in the class demonstrated that they were good spouses and in fact, they were often extolled for this role: One member began talking about how good Irma is. Two other women agreed. A fourth woman said that she has a difficult situation, but is devoted. When Irma came into the room, the women praised her for her patience and devotion to her husband {March 26, 19791. Angeline and Lenny began talking about two of the men. Angeline told Lenny that he was really good to his wife. A volunteer: "Not everyone has the patience you have with Irene {Lenny's wife}." Lenny rolled his eyes to the ceiling and commented that sometimes it is hard IFebruary 26, 1979). Irma, Lenny, and Nate differed from Bea and Gary in the respect that they had overlapping roles--i.e., they had to enact the devalued role in order to play the highly valued role. In such instances, role distancing could be used to demonstrate that they did not identify with the devalued role. Since Bea and Gary could not successfully explain their presence in the group in terms of other role obligations, it was difficult for them to demonstrate a lack of identification with the observed role. 2 Overlapping roles are also conducive to successful role distancing because they provide ego with the opportunity to interact with alter{s} in a variety of roles. Irma, Lenny, and Nate displayed behavior consistent with the client role in some settings b u t behavior associated with the spouse role in other settings. As already noted, alters generally consider ego to be the person associated with the role if that role is enacted in a variety of situations. It must be noted that the spouse role itself did not necessarily lead to role distancing. Other
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couples in the group did not engage in rote distancing behavior, probably because being a client was not inconsistent with their selfimage. Grounded hypotheses Three hypotheses about generated:
continual role distancing
have been
1) The more ego has access to positively evaluated roles which require the playing of the undesired role, the more likely it is that ego's role distancing cues will be recognized by alter{s} as disassociating ego from the undesired role. 2) The more roles available to ego in the setting and the more ego plays a variety of roles when interacting with alterts}, the more likely it is that ego's role distancing cues from the undesired role will be recognized by alter{s} as disassociating ego from the undesired role. 3) If the role distancing cues are not recognized by alter(s}, ego either wilt accept the undesired role or will cease to interact with those individuals who tend to affirm the undesired role.
Implications for Future Research One interesting feature of role distancing, then, is that some individuals m a y be able to participate in negatively evaluated roles without being considered to be the person represented by that behavior pattern and without suffering lower self-esteem. Data from earlier research suggest role distancing is a practical and successful s t r a t e g y in situations where one occasionally has to play a role or an undesirable aspect of a role. This s t u d y proposes that role distancing m a y be a successful and practical strategy even among individuals who play a role continually, if they have overlapping roles. Such research is important to two rather broad areas of sociological research: low status occupations and deviance, and role theory. With respect to the former, the data suggest that individuals in low status occupations or labeled deviant m a y enjoy high self-esteem if they employ the strategy of role distancing. People in low occupations or those who are labeled deviant could explain their behavior as necessary to fulfill obligations of another, highly evaluated role, and m a y be able to use role distancing to disassociate themselves from the stigmatized identity. The ability to do this, however, is probably
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greater in symmetrical rather than asymmetrical relationships. The need for further research in these important areas is evident. Regarding studies in role theory, the present study implies that multiple roles in some instances may be more beneficial than single roles. It has been assumed (e.g., Kahn et al., 1964} that multiple roles are debilitating and stressful since they lead to role conflict. Recently, however, Seiber (1974} noted that multiple roles may be beneficial. My study suggests that people with multiple roles may be more likely to engage successfully in continual role distancing than those with single roles. Thus Bea's and Gary's single role of participant inhibited their ability to disassociate themselves from the participant role, whereas Irma's, Lenny's, and Nate's multiple roles of spouse and participant enhanced their chances of engaging successfully in continual role distancing. In addition, we need to specify the variety of conditions which are likely to lead to successful role distancing. We need to know whether conditions other than role transitions, unfamiliar roles, role-set conflict, institutionalized roles, and casting into devalued roles regularly lead to role distancing behavior. Once role distancing occurs, we need to know if conditions other than overlapping roles relate to the success of this strategy. Moreover, we need to determine if the number of settings in which the undesired role is played affects the successfulness of the strategy. It is likely that the more settings in which alters see ego playing the role, the less likely it is for the role distancing to be successful. Finally, research needs to be conducted on who is likely to use such a strategy. Ford, Young, and Box maintain that role distancing strategies are available only to middle-class people since lower-class children's socialization teaches them to "receive rather than interpret social structure" (1967:370). Archibald (1976} also suggests that role distancing is unlikely among "unequals." This is because individuals interacting with people of higher status or power are often forced to act in ways which comply with the higher status persons' expectations or else they will suffer severe repercussions. Further, it is unlikely that higher status persons will derive much benefit from recognizing role distancing cues; thus, they will probably ignore the cues. Such questions need further study particularly since role distancing strategies may be most beneficial to lower-class people who are the most likely to be cast into negatively evaluated roles.
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Reference Notes 1. All the names used in this report are fictitious. 2. These findings can also be interpreted in terms of attribution theory. Attribution theory suggests that when observers can explain persons' behavior in terms of situational pressures, alters do not attribute the behavior as indicative of ego's disposition {Kelly"and Michela, 1980). Irma, Lenny, and Nate's status as spouse of "incompetent" elderly may discourage others from considering them to be "clients" of the center although they participate in the center's extended care class.
References Allport, Gordon W. 1954 The Nature of Prejudice. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley. Archibald, W. Peter 1976 "Face-to-face: The alienating effects of class, status, and power divisions." American Sociological Review 41:819-837. Blumer, Herbert 1969 Symbolic Interaction. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Cavan, Ruth S. 1962 "Self and role in adjustment during old age." Pp. 526-536 in A. Rose (ed.), Human Behavior and Social Processes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Ford, Julienne, Douglas Young, and Steven Box 1967 "Functional autonomy, role distance and social class." British Journal of Sociology 18:370-381. Gtaser, Barney G. and A.L. Strauss 1967 The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Chicago: Aldine. Goffman, Erring 1961 Encounters. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. Henry, Jules 1963 Culture against Man. New York: Vintage. Kahn, Robert L., D,M. Wolfe, R.P. Quinn, and J.D. Snoek 1964 Organizational Stress. New York: Wiley. Kelly, Harold H. and John L. Michela 1980 "Attribution theory and research." Pp. 457-501 in M.R. Rosenzweig and L.W. Porter (eds.1, Annual Review of Psychology Vol. 31. Palo Alto: Annual Reviews. Levitin, T.E. 1964 "Role performance and role distance in a low status occupation: The puller." Sociological Quarterly 5:251-260. Louis Harris and Associates, Inc. 1976 The Myth and Reality of Aging in America. Washington, D.C.: National Council on the Aging. Rosow, Irving 1974 Socialization to Old Age. Berkelely: University of California Press. Sayles, Marnie L. 1980 "Role differentiation in a homogeneous group: A case study of elderly in an extended care group at a multi-purpose center." Unpublished manuscript. Seeman, Melvin 1966 "Status and identity: The problem of inauthenticity." Pacific Sociological Review 9:67-73.
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