Exercise 1 solution

(a) A person born into a caste: ascribed status. The Social status page lists caste as an example of status fixed at birth. No role term applies yet, since the question gives a status but no set of relationships.

(b) The nurse: her degree is an achieved status (education is the page's example of effort and ability). The ward manager, doctor and patients are her role set, in Merton's sense: the complement of role-relationships that go with one status. Nothing in the description says her demands clash, so it is not strain or conflict.

(c) The student with clashing job hours and revision: role strain, because the Social role page's own example of strain is a student pulled between school, parents and a job. Note the caveat from the chapter: a job and being a pupil sound like separate roles, so you could argue for conflict instead. The page's definitions do not draw the line sharply.

(d) The governor whose own child's case is discussed: role conflict. She holds two incompatible roles at once (governor, parent), like the page's father who must choose between his son and a more experienced pitcher.

Where the pages do not settle it: (c) is the open case, as above. Also, the pages say nothing on whether a degree is "purely" achieved, since family background can help; that point is my own (check).