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All Malaysians do have and carry multiple identities; in fact, most human beings do. Role theory is a perspective in sociology and in social psychology that considers most everyday activities to be the acting out of socially defined categories (eg, mother, manager, teacher, and citizen).

Each role is a set of rights, duties, expectations, norms and behaviours that a person has to face and fulfil. That role fulfilment defines the conduct of the individual in that society or community. This model is based on the observation that people behave in predictable ways, and that an individual’s behaviour is context-specific, based on social position and other pre-defining factors related to expectations.

The theatre is one metaphor often used to describe and present such role theory. Reality TV is another. A third is live story-telling.

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