Social Status

Examples of Social Status in the following topics:

• Social Status

  • Social status refers to one's standing in the community and his position in the social hierarchy.
  • One's social status is determined in different ways.
  • One can earn his or her social status by his or her own achievements; this is known as achieved status.
  • Social status is most often understood as a melding of the two types of status, with ascribed status influencing achieved status.
  • Social status, or the social sphere in which one belongs, can be changed through a process of social mobility.

• Differences in Status

  • Among the many organizational and individual factors that can influence the effectiveness of business communication, social status is one of the most challenging to address.
  • Social status refers to the relative rank or standing that an individual has in the eyes of others.
  • There are two elements of social status—those attributes we are born with and those we achieve.
  • Employment and occupation are primary factors in social status, and one's role in an organization is especially relevant within the boundaries of that organization.
  • To many, social status is an indicator of credibility and legitimacy, and this effects how seriously others take what one communicates.

• Status Inconsistency

  • Status inconsistency occurs when an individual's social positions are varied and these variations influence his or her overall social status.
  • Status inconsistency is a situation where an individual's social positions have both positive and negative influences on his or her social status.
  • All societies have some basis for social stratification, and industrial societies are characterized by multiple dimensions to which some vertical hierarchy may be imputed.
  • Sociologists investigate issues of status inconsistency in order to better understand status systems and stratification, and because some sociologists believe that positions of status inconsistency might have strong effects on people's behavior.
  • Gerhard Lenski originally predicted that people suffering from status inconsistency would favor political actions and parties directed against higher status groups.

• Social Mobility

  • An individual who is born to poor, uneducated parents but goes on to receive a college degree and become a well-paid corporate executive demonstrates upward social mobility; they improve their social status over their lifetime.
  • Most commonly, social mobility refers to the change in wealth and social status of individuals or families.
  • In some cases, social mobility is intergenerational, as when children attain a higher or lower status than their parents held.
  • Other times, social mobility is intra-generational, meaning that a person changes status within their lifetime.
  • Countries with higher intergenerational income elasticity have lower social mobility -- in countries on the left of the graph, children are likely to attain the same social status as their parents.

• Social Mobility

  • Downward vertical social mobility occurs when a person loses status, which may occur through disgrace — Bernie Madoff was a successful, high status Wall Street executive until he was indicted and sentenced to prison time, at which point he fell from his high social position.
  • Most commonly, social mobility refers to the change in wealth and social status of individuals or families.
  • Other times, social mobility is intra-generational, meaning that a person changes status within their lifetime.
  • On the other hand, closed status systems are based on ascribed status.
  • Compare the various types of social mobiliy, the status systems they exist in, and their status between countries and over time.

• Open vs. Closed Stratification Systems

  • In an open class system, people are ranked by achieved status, whereas in a closed class system, people are ranked by ascribed status.
  • In an open class system, the hierarchical social status of a person is achieved through their effort.
  • People in such societies may be confined to their ancestral occupations, and their social status is largely prescribed by status at birth.
  • When ascribed status is used to determine social position, fixed roles develop, such as those of lord and serf in feudal Europe.
  • Social mobility is much more frequent in countries that use achievement as the basis for status.

• The Conflict Perspective

  • Conflict theory is particularly interested in the various aspects of master status in social position—the primary identifying characteristic of an individual seen in terms of race or ethnicity, sex or gender, age, religion, ability or disability, and socio-economic status.
  • When we are analyzing any element of society from this perspective, we need to look at the structures of wealth, power and status, and the ways in which those structures maintain social, economic, political and coercive power of one group at the expense of others.
  • According to conflict theorists, the family works toward the continuance of social inequality within a society by maintaining and reinforcing the status quo.
  • Because inheritance, education and social capital are transmitted through the family structure, wealthy families are able to keep their privileged social position for their members, while individuals from poor families are denied similar status.
  • According to conflict theorists, the family works toward the continuance of social inequality within a society by maintaining and reinforcing the status quo.

• Types of Social Mobility

  • The expectation that children's status would exceed parents was based on relative social mobility.
  • Most commonly, social mobility refers to the change in wealth and social status of individuals or families.
  • Social mobility can be intergenerational, such as when children attain a higher or lower status than their parents held.
  • Other times, social mobility is intra-generational, meaning that a person changes status within their lifetime.
  • An example of absolute social mobility is when a region's economic development provides education to a social group that previously did not have access to education, thus raising the group's literacy level and socioeconomic status.

• Weber's View of Stratification

  • Max Weber formed a three-component theory of stratification in which social difference is determined by class, status, and power.
  • According to Weberian theory, a member of the United States Congress is an example of someone who is high in the social hierarchy due to status and power, although they have relatively low economic status.
  • Working half a century later than Marx, Weber derived many of his key concepts on social stratification by examining the social structure of Germany.
  • Status refers to a person's prestige, social honor, or popularity in a society.
  • Congress are at the top of the social hierarchy because they have high power and status, despite having relatively little wealth on average.

• Class Structure in the U.S.

  • This model has gained traction as a tool for thinking about social classes in America, but it does not fully account for variations in status based on non-economic factors, such as education and occupational prestige.
  • This critique is somewhat mitigated by the fact that income is often closely aligned with other indicators of status; for example, those with high incomes likely have substantial education, high status occupations, and powerful social networks.
  • In the above outline of social class, status clearly depends not only on income, but also occupational prestige and educational attainment.
  • In other words, there is inequality in America, with some people attaining higher status and higher standards of living than others.
  • But there is no clear place to draw a line separating one status group from the next.