BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

ROLE 4)

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The specific behavioral repertory of differentiated individuals in a social system.

Roles are constructed through conditioning, training and learning within the individuals. This process is transgenerational and is needed to maintain the continuity through time of the social system (time-binding).

Any society needs a variety of different roles in order to fulfill the various functions needed for its survival. In very complex human systems, roles become evermore differentiated.

Any individual or element has generally a variety of roles in her/his/its society or system, each one related to some specific situation or circumstances. As observed by F.K. BERRIEN, "role behavior" (output), is generally "a response to the role expectations by others (their outputs serving as inputs to the behaver)"(1968, p.106).

Roles can be modified even in insect societies (see: Sociotomy). In human systems, the repertory itself, that corresponds with a specific role, can be modified in an adaptive way. Moreover, any individual adopts normally a succession of different roles during her/his/its lifetime.

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

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