Role theory holds that the way in which people act is a result of the awareness of roles and the duties associated with them. For Joe Henry, the role players in his life perform their duties with such neglect and ambivalence that he is forced to compensate for their shortcomings and juggle multiple roles that he is unsuited for. As a result, he finds himself in over his head and struggles to maintain a balance. He embarks on illegality (thieving) to pay his father’s debts and restore his mother’s records. In the end, he is arrested, which is actually the best thing that could have happened for him as it takes him out of the environment he is in and allows him to resume the role of just being a child. He needs time to develop and mature and grow into the role of adult, and being taken into custody by the state is a good opportunity for that to happen. Hopefully, he will obtain a counselor who is more apt than the one he is assigned through school. The strengths of role theory are that it provides an explanation for how roles are conceived, perceived and adopted by persons in a social group. In a healthy family, roles are divided among individuals, typically a father, a mother, and children. In Joe Henry’s family, the roles of the parents are negligible and confusing for Joe. He is assaulted for his father’s debts, put in the position of being comforter to his mother instead of receiving nurturing...
Role theory can help the social worker understand the behaviors of a delinquent child like Joe and give context for why he is always late for class, why he is stealing, and why he needs help growing up. Thus, the strengths of role theory are found in its basic premise, which is that social groups define roles (Koenig, Eagly, 2014).References
Bao, W. N., Haas, A., Chen, X., & Pi, Y. (2014). Repeated strains, social control, social
learning, and delinquency: Testing an integrated model of general strain theory in China. Youth & Society, 46(3): 402-424.
Koenig, A., Eagly, A. (2014). Evidence for the social role theory of stereotype content:
Observations of groups’ roles shape stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107(3), 371-392.
Miller, B., Morris, R. (2014). Virtual peer effects in social learning theory. Crime &
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Role theory and social role theory are flexible sociological frameworks that can be used to better understand clients. When applied to young clients like Joe Henry from the film Joe the King, role theory helps social workers and counselors understand the systemic and contextual variables impacting Joe’s identity development, and behavior. Incorporating role theory into social work when counseling clients like Joe will help guide the processes of assessment, intervention,
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