Many people confuse the concepts of roles and statuses, but these ideas are distinct. Statuses are occupied positions. They are positions in the social structure--such as teacher, doctor, or father--that are filled, or occupied, by people.
Roles, on the other hand, are duties or functions that correspond to each of the statuses that people occupy. Roles are the behaviors, duties, and responsibilities expected of a particular status.
IN CONTEXT
Consider the status of a teacher. As a teacher, you would have multiple roles at the same time that flow from this status. You have to prepare for lectures in order to perform competently, so therefore preparation and lecturing are two of your roles as a teacher. In addition to these two roles, you need to have a good office demeanor with your coworkers, because there's a certain level of congeniality expected at the office, so you need to bring a positive attitude with you to the office everyday. This is another role of the status of a teacher.
As you can see, every status has roles that go with it. Mother, wife, father, son, brother, doctor, lawyer, etc.--all of these statuses have a role set that accompany them. People’s lives are organized around those roles.
Virtually all of people’s time gets filled up with the fulfilling of roles and duties in response to the statuses that they have. Anytime you're not sleeping, you're caring about these roles in response to the statuses that you have in life. Because so much time is spent doing the duties and roles of people’s statuses, this can cause a lot of conflict in their lives.
It's difficult being a mother, worker, student, daughter, wife or girlfriend, all at the same time. These are many different statuses and they each have a nested set of different roles. To balance them all the time is quite difficult, which is role conflict. It's a very familiar adult feeling.
IN CONTEXT
Suppose you are stressed out due to an upcoming exam, so you are consumed by performing your student roles, and in addition, you have to go work another job in the evening. All day long, you’re performing both of these roles, and your father calls you--probably about nothing important, but yet he calls you two or three times.
You may say to yourself, “Dad, I don't have time to deal with this right now,” because you don't have time to perform the roles of a son or daughter at that moment. In fact, you may even tell your father that you won’t be able to talk to him until the weekend. In this manner, you separate everything to avoid feeling role conflict, a familiar feeling which most people experience weekly.
Similarly, you can experience stress from one single status. This is called role strain, which is stress and tension that result from roles of a single status, like your job. That's often a very stressful status because the roles demand a lot of you.
Finally, there is the concept of role exit, which is when you go through a transition in life, or you leave something behind and start something new. It encompasses transitions that cause you to disengage from old roles and engage with something new.
EXAMPLE
Basically anytime a person becomes an "ex" in life is an example of a role exit:Source: This work is adapted from Sophia author Zach Lamb.