Personality and Roles: Sources of Regularities in Social Behavior For
behavioral scientists, whether they identify primarily with the science
of psychology or with that of sociology, there may be no challenge
greater than that of discovering regularities and consistencies in
social behavior. After all, it is such regularities and consistencies
that lend predictability to the behavior of individuals in social
contexts-in particular, to those events that constitute dyadic
interactions and group processes. In the search for behavioral
consistencies, two theoretical constructs have emerged as guiding
principles: personality and roles. The theoretical construct of
personality seeks to understand regularities and consistencies in social
behavior in terms of relatively stable traits, enduring dispositions,
and other propensities (for example, needs, motives, and attitudes) that
are thought to reside within individuals. Because it focuses primarily
on the features of individuals, the construct of personality is
fundamentally psychological in nature. By contrast, the theoretical
construct of roles seeks to understand regularities and consistencies in
social behavior in terms of the directive influence of coherent sets of
rules and prescriptions that are provided by the interpersonal,
occupational, and societal categories of which individuals are
continuing members. Because it focuses primarily on features of social
structures, the construct of roles is fundamentally sociological in
nature.