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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6414799" data-attributes="member: 177">In my understanding, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role_theory" target="_blank">role theory in sociology</a> talks about &quot;acting out a role&quot; or &quot;acting in a role&quot;, &quot;taking on a role&quot;or &quot;assuming a role&quot; more than &quot;playing&quot; roles.&nbsp; Probably because in this context, we are probably talking about the various roles a real person must fulfill, and how they come into real conflict, and it would be dismissive to talk about it as &quot;play&quot; when you're discussing the issues of being a mother and a professional, for example.In psychology, however, role playing is used for therapy or training - and here it does have the connotation of &quot;This is pretend, not the real thing&quot;.&nbsp; I don't think it is all that clear cut.&nbsp; Nor do I think the original starting definition is really relevant now.&nbsp; We've had a few decades, and even Gygax's own later offerings lean to the, &quot;pretending to be an elf&quot; thing.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 6414799, member: 177"] In my understanding, [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role_theory]role theory in sociology[/url] talks about "acting out a role" or "acting in a role", "taking on a role"or "assuming a role" more than "playing" roles. Probably because in this context, we are probably talking about the various roles a real person must fulfill, and how they come into real conflict, and it would be dismissive to talk about it as "play" when you're discussing the issues of being a mother and a professional, for example. In [i]psychology[/i], however, role playing is used for therapy or training - and here it does have the connotation of "This is pretend, not the real thing". I don't think it is all that clear cut. Nor do I think the original starting definition is really relevant now. We've had a few decades, and even Gygax's own later offerings lean to the, "pretending to be an elf" thing. [/QUOTE]

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