Basic Principles of Role Theory: The basic principles of role theory are: 

(i) Culture is the unit of culture.

(ii) Position the position and status: the units of society. and 

(iii) An individual the self: the unit of personality.

(a) Reciprocal action occurs between persons in terms of roles and there is an interaction of roles and self. Contemporary role theory regards human conduct as the product of the interaction of role and self.

(b) It is true that socialization stresses conformity to certain norms of the group, but with some flexibility and selectivity to avoid rigid uniformity. However there are failures in socialization of persons whose behaviour deviates from social norms. First, we need to note that social order is largely maintained by internalization of social norms and is transmitted from the older generation to the newer by the learning process.

(c) The child learns the values of the society and the ways of doing and thinking that are deemed to be right and proper. In this way, the process of socialization plays an effective role in personality development and character formation of an individual.

(d) The social order is maintained by socialization and not social control. The basic processes involved in socialization and social control are the same, such as praise and blame, or rewards and punishments for behaviour, which are approved or disapproved. In practice, the processes differ on emphasis and degree in two situations.