section_path: Characteristics/Norms and roles
section_name: Norms and roles
paragraph_text: Norms and roles
  
  Social norms are shared standards of acceptable behavior by groups. Social norms, which can both be informal understandings that govern the behavior of members of a society, as well as be codified into rules and laws, are powerful drivers of human behavior.
  
  Social roles are norms, duties, and patterns of behavior that relate to an individual's social status. In functionalist thought, individuals form the structure of society by occupying social roles. According to symbolic interactionism, individuals use symbols to navigate and communicate roles. Erving Goffman used the metaphor of a theater to develop the dramaturgical lens, which argues that roles provide scripts that govern social interactions.