Synonyms
Role Expectations; Role Performance
As Toshiko waits for her first Improv class to begin, she begins to worry. She has never acted before; how will she know what to do? before she can give it another thought, the instructor starts assigning students to act out a scene about a police investigation of a bank robbery. Toshiko gets the role of police officer. Despite her initial nerves, she easily slides into character – she stands up tall, puffs out her chest, scrunches her brow into a stern shape, and clenches her jaw. She marches confidently toward the bank teller and asks her to describe the suspect, then goes out searching for the burglar. She spots him, chases him down, and after a brief altercation, handcuffs him. The scene ends and the instructor praises Toshiko – impressed that she was so easily able to convey the stern, authoritative personality of a police officer.
Why was it so easy for Toshiko to play the role of the police officer? Perhaps because she has seen so...
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Fisher, A.N., He, T.H. (2018). Social Roles. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1914-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1914-1
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