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11.4: Achieved Status vs. Ascribed Status

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Wikibooks - Cultural Anthropology

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Achieved status refers to the status level an individual in society has earned through work, education, luck, and/or social climbing. Achieved status is changeable throughout one's life. An example would be the status one earns when they become a doctor after years of studying and preparation. Having the credibility of being a doctor is a higher achieved status than the credibility of being a medical school student.

Ascribed status refers to the status that an individual acquires by virtue or by birth. The individual has no control over this status, it is simply the social position they are born into (James 2017). In many instances, this status is a social construct already pre-determined before one is born into the specific culture; it is nearly impossible to move up. One examples of ascribed status is eye color. When a baby is born, they have a certain eye color. Because the baby has no control over its eye color and can't change this feature it is considered an ascribed characteristic. Another example of an ascribed characteristic is kinship. When a baby is born, it is related by blood to a certain group of people, its kin, and nothing can change this.

Cultural Example of Achieved Status

American society possesses a number of examples of achieved status. In America, it is culturally acceptable (if you have the necessary resources) to begin life at the low end of the social ladder and to work your way up, by means of achieving a proper education, making useful social connections, and getting promoted within your career. Achieved status is not a position that a person is born into, but rather, it is attained through effort; this includes becoming an Olympic athlete, a doctor, or even a criminal. Although this struggle from the low end of the social ladder to the upper has become ingrained in the idea of America (The American Dream), the actual occurrence of someone rising from lower class to higher class is extremely rare. The number and severity of the obstacles one faces to climb the social ladder often depends on one's race, ethnicity, and beginning economic status.

Examples of Ascribed Status

Caste system.

A caste is a system of social stratification found in India (as well as other parts of the world) dividing people into categories based on moral purity and pollution (James 2017). Abiding by the Caste System ultimately allows the people in the highest caste to control the rest of society and keep social barriers from being crossed. In India, the caste system consists of five different levels. The highest caste is considered the most "pure"- ritually and morally; the castes beneath it decline in "purity" and increase in "pollution". The Castes are as follow:

Vedas(The Enlightened)
Brahmins (priests and teachers)[6]
Kshatriyas (rulers and soldiers)[7]
Vaishyas (merchants and traders)[8]
Shudras (laborers)[9]

Below these castes are the "Untouchables" or the Achuta (Dalit).

An “untouchable” or Dalit is considered outside of the caste system. They are the lowest in the Indian social stratification and treated very poorly often segregated from the rest of society. The "Untouchables" are taught early on that they are born into their caste to pay for bad behavior in their previous lives. They are limited to jobs considered ritually polluting such as taking care of human waste, metal work, street sweeping. Some insist that the Indian caste system doesn't exist anymore due to the incorporation of democracy, change in government programs and the implementation of rights for the "untouchables"; however, this is mostly only seen in the urban areas.

An ascribed status of an individual can be based on the sex that they are born. Gender typing is known as the process in which a child starts becoming aware of their gender. They slowly are socially constructed into the norm of that gender. This comes from an infant maturing and trying to focus and figure out their human behavior.Often there are certain activities that are reserved for males or females. Crossing the gender roles set forth by society is often frowned upon in communities that gender type. The vast majority of gender typing is culturally generated and not a creation of inborn biological distinctions between the sexes.[10]

An ethnographic example of gender typing can be observed in the early development of children in the United States. From birth, some U.S. parents set their children up for certain sexual categories by giving their babies gender-distinct names, clothes, and environments. The gender roles ascribed by the parents can lead to differences in intellectual and emotional development. For example, girls are provided with toys such as Barbies that encourage them to learn social rules and imitate behaviors. In contrast, boys are given more active toys and encouraged to explore. As a result of this early childhood gender typing, elementary school girls typically say they would choose lower paid, lower status careers such as nurse, teacher, or stewardess and boys are more likely to obtain higher paid, higher status careers such as pilot, architect, doctor, or lawyer, largely influence by their toys and surroundings. [11]

Political Organization

Political organization gives thorough information on the values/ideas of separate individuals. In modern human societies, people have organized in groups, usually according to their status/role in society. Some examples include:

Political parties
Non-governmental organizations
Advocacy groups
Special interest groups

Types of Political Organization

There are four types of political organization within groups and they are split between centralized or non-centralized political systems. An uncentralized political system is a political organization that requires several different parties to make a decision/law where as the centralized system is a political organization that is made up of one group that holds all authority within a government.[8]

Between the centralized and non-centralized forms of political organization, there are four groups:

Band Society - a foraging group and the smallest group of political organization ranging anywhere from 20 to 200 people but typically consisting of about 80 people. Most of the people within this group are relatives either by birth or marriage. Since a band is a foraging society they do not have a place of permanent residence because they are constantly moving around. A band is referred to as egalitarian because there is no distinction between an upper and a lower class but they have a leader. The leader doesn't exhibit typical leadership by lacking power and influence over the members.
Tribe - comprised of several bands. Leadership is based on ascribed and achieved statuses, some tribes may have a chief, and their organization is based on kinship. A tribe is more reliant on horticulture and pastoralism rather than foraging like bands and are usually a larger group than bands. A sub division of a tribe is the “Big Man” system which has a very influential leader who has no formal authority.
Bushman - traditionally a society of people that are comprised of a band and thus egalitarian, which is defined as, relating to or believing in the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities. Since they moved around a lot they had traditional gear that they wear which included a hide sling, blanket, and cloak in order to carry their food, firewood, a digging stick and even a separate smaller cloak to carry a baby. The woman gather and the men typically hunt in this society and the children do not have jobs.
Chiefdom - the people are led by one person known as a chief. The chief governs over a group of tribes which are related through blood or marriage. In many chiefdoms, the chief is looked upon as the sole decider of what goes on in the society, and holds much sway with the members of the chiefdom. This centralized style of government has a social hierarchy and economic stratification unlike bands and tribes. On the other hand, a state is much more centralized than a chiefdom and has formal laws and authority. They have power to tax, maintain law and order, and to keep track of their citizens.

Nation, Nationalities and Nation-State

In the past, nations came about when groups of people who were similar in ways such as language, appearance, religious beliefs, and history came together to form territories, nation-states, and eventually countries. Out of these nations came the sense of nationalities and nationalism. Nationalism can be defined as a sense of belonging to a particular nation that comes with birth (loyalty and devotion). An example would be patriotism in the United States.

Nation: A group of people believed to share the same history, culture, identity, and oftentimes ethnicity.

Nation-State : A political unit consisting of an autonomous state inhabited predominantly by a people sharing a common culture, history and language. [12]

Nationality ( Nation-Building ): The sense of belonging and loyalty to a particular nation that comes about through origin, birth or naturalization.[13] Often, government officials will encourage citizens to feel loyalty and devotion for their nation-states; this is called nationalism.

Nation-building: An effort to instill a sense of nationality into the citizens of a state

Achieved Status: Definition & Examples

Charlotte Nickerson

Research Assistant at Harvard University

Undergraduate at Harvard University

Charlotte Nickerson is a student at Harvard University obsessed with the intersection of mental health, productivity, and design.

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Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

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The concept of ascribed status, first defined by the anthropologist Ralph Lipton, is one that someone obtains based off their personal accomplishments and effort. Some examples of ascribed status include profession, relationships, and conditions or abilities acquired after birth.
Achieved status often exists alongside ascribed status, describes all of the statuses that someone acquires either at birth or involuntarily later in life. These, unlike achieved status, cannot be changed, preventing either upwards or downward social mobility .
There is, to some extent, ambiguity between what can be considered to be an ascribed status and what is simply an achieved one.

What is Achieved Status?

Achieved status is a position in society which individuls gain through their own efforts, rather than being born into it. In modern industrial societies, education is the main way in which individuals can achieve a particular status through acquiring qualifications.

Achieved statuses serve as a reflection of someone’s ability, choices, or personal efforts (Bell, 2013). Achieved statuses can result from any combination of work, education, luck, or social status and change throughout one’s life (Luo, 2007).

The greater the importance of the achieved status in a society, the more open that society is likely to be.

The concept of achieved status was one developed by the anthropologist Ralph Lipton, who tried to create a way to describe the properties of social systems in a way that gave sociologists insight into the nature of social structure (Foladare, 1969).

Achieved vs. Ascribed Status

Ascribed status is assigned to an individual without reference to their innate differences or abilities. It is beyond an individual’s control. People can either be born with an ascribed status, such as sex, race, and age, or be put in a situation where they have ascribed a status (such as disability).

Achieved statuses, in contrast, cannot be assigned at birth. No one can be born an engineer or a criminal.

People can hold both ascribed and achieved statuses. For example, someone can be a lawyer from a wealthy family who was born in France, or the daughter of some people, the sister of a few, the cousin of several, and the friend of many.

Furthermore, whether or not the status is achieved or ascribed is not always completely clear. This is called mixed-status (Luo, 2007).

Examples of Achieved Status

There are a number of examples of achieved status. For example, the American Dream posits that it is culturally acceptable, even desirable, to start life at the lower end of the social ladder and work one’s way up by achieving a formal education, making useful social connections or “networking,” and climbing the corporate chain. Achieved status is not something that anyone is born into but attained through effort (Luo, 2007).

Although this struggle for higher achieved status is engrained in the American ethos, it is rare for someone to climb from the lowest ascribed status to the highest achieved status.

This is because those with low ascribed statuses often face a number of severe obstacles dependent on factors such as race, ethnicity, and familial wealth.

Some sociologists even considered those who have a class status that remains stationary through their lifetime to have an ascribed class status and those that have successfully moved upward to have achieved class status (Foladare, 1969).

Someone’s achieved status can also depend on how experienced and high-ranking they are in a profession. For example, a doctor who runs their own practice may have a higher achieved status than a resident or a medical student, and an endowed university professor a higher position than an associate professor, postdoc, or graduate student.

Not all achieved statuses are positive. For example, being a criminal is in itself an achieved status; someone must go through the effort of committing crimes in order to hold it.

People can sink from a high to a low achieved status. An embezzling businessman may become a criminal and bereft of his fortune, or a man may divorce his wife (Achieved Status vs. Ascribed Status).

Frequently Asked Question

Is motherhood an achieved status.

Parenthood is one example of a status that is both achieved and ascribed.

Meanwhile, a large number of pregnancies are unplanned. Many parents did not intend to become parents. If, for any number of reasons, someone becomes a parent without choice in the matter, parenthood can be considered an ascribed status.

Even in the case where pregnancy is planned, parenthood can still be considered to be, in part, an ascribed status. One cannot choose to take on these obligations. Being a parent is not widely considered to be a status that is lost. Even in the case where their child dies or becomes estranged, parents typically retain the status of the parent.

At the same time, the process of becoming a parent is one that requires effort. To become a parent, someone must undergo a process that involves gestating and/or rearing a child. Because actions must be undertaken for someone to become a parent, parenthood can be considered to be an achieved status.

Regardless of whether it is an achieved or ascribed status, or any combination thereof, parenthood carries along itself a number of status obligations.

For example, mothers are expected to care for both themselves and their unborn children by abstaining from activities that could cause either of them harm, such as drinking alcohol or smoking. There are also a number of legal, social, and economic obligations that come with child-rearing, such as ensuring that one”s children have enough to eat or attend school.

Is being a student an achieved status?

No one is a student at birth. They must go through some process in order to be enrolled in a school and must go through some effort to maintain their student status.

It is true that not all students become students voluntarily. Many countries have requirements, for example, that children are enrolled in school until a certain age. This compulsory education can make being a student seem like an ascribed status.

However, staying a student is still something that is true about someone because of what they do. A student who poses a threat to their peers, or does extremely poorly in school, may cease to be a student, losing their status.

Most people also lose the status of a student as they graduate from the education system, and whether or not to pursue post-secondary education remains a highly individual choice.

Is religion an achieved status?

One classic example of a mixed-status is religion, which Foladare addresses in his 1969 paper. If an infant were baptized and raised in a particular religion without any choice on his part, this religion would be an ascribed status.

For example, many Catholic children are designated as Catholics on a church level from baptism on, even if they cease to hold these religious beliefs. Meanwhile, if someone converted to a different religion, their religion would be an achieved status (Foladar, 1969).

Foladare, I. S. (1969). A clarification of “ascribed status” and “achieved status”. The Sociological Quarterly, 10 (1), 53-61.

Linton, R. (1936). The study of man: An introduction .

Foladare, I. S. (1969). A clarification of “ascribed status” and “achieved status” . The Sociological Quarterly, 10 (1), 53-61.

James, A., & James, A. (2017). Constructing childhood: Theory, policy and social practice . Macmillan International Higher Education.

Johnstone, G., & Bauer, K. G. (2004). Sociology and Canadian society . Emond Montgomery Publication.

Luo, Y. (2007). Achieved Status. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology , 1-2.

Miller, B. D. (2017). Cultural anthropology . Pearson.

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Essay on Ascribed and Achieved Statuses

In my essay, I try to explain what ascribed and achieved statuses are, and I try to explain how some of them have notable similarities. I also explain how such statuses usually affect the social and industrial roles a person takes or has.

Anthropologist Ralph Linton said that achieved status is a social position. It is something that people can achieved based on merit or “perceived” merit. There is an element of the social position begin chosen or earned in some way. It may reflect a personal skills or effort. Some people consider achieved status to also coincide with social roles. For example, a person may choose to be a mother and takes the role of a mother to rear children. A person may choose to be a taxi driver and takes the role of driving people around. Other examples of an achieved status include being a gardener, soccer player, and veterinary surgeon. People may also have more than one achieved status and more than one role.

Ascribed status is a social status that is often assumed involuntarily or is assigned at birth. Sometimes, a status may be assigned at birth that issues an assumption involuntarily later in life. For example, a person may be the 3rd in line for the British throne where that person would live out his/her entire life without being king/queen, and yet a tragic accident kills the two people in line before him/her and so the 3rd in line is forced to assume the throne.

There are some ascribed statuses that appear to be unavoidable. For example, a person born without arms will never play netball. However, most other ascribed statuses are more to do with gender, ethnicity, race, and family origins or background. They are ascribed, but they are culturally ascribed. For example, in Russia, a woman is ascribed the role of lower life form that was built to make babies, but in Canada a woman is as equally productive as a man both socially and industrially.

Ascribed statuses come with their own benefits and restrictions, but similar things are true with achieved statuses. For example, a stripper may no longer be welcome at civilized dinner tables, yet the difference is that the woman/man chose to be a stripper. If a person were not allowed at the table because of a deformity, then that exclusion was not caused (or the fault of) the deformed person. One may say it was the fault of the stripper because he/she chose to be a stripper.

There are roles that go with an ascribed status, and sometimes a person may choose to follow those roles and sometimes they do not. In many cases, the roles that are taken up are done so involuntarily.

There are other times when roles are not involuntary, but the person involved feels a great amount of social pressure to fulfill those roles. These may go as far and as deep as sexuality. For example, with only 10% of human society being homosexual, a person that is born homosexual (not somebody that chooses to be homosexual) may decide to act and “be” straight because of social pressure and the lack of viable partners in the homosexual world. Sexuality is considered an ascribed and an achieved status. A straight person may choose to be homosexual, and a person may also be born homosexual, in which case it is ascribed. The ascribed status homosexual (born that way) would be attracted to and aroused by people of the same sex from ages as young as puberty. People that choose to be homosexual may “come out” at any age, and they achieve their homosexual status via their actions and newfound attraction to same-sex relations.

As you can see by my essay, ascribed and achieved statuses have numerous differences and similarities. They each affect a person’s and a group’s roles both socially and industrially, and they may even affect the characteristics of a person and the public’s perception of them.

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Sociology: Achieved Status Versus Ascribed Status

ThoughtCo / Alex Dos Diaz

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Status is a term that is used often in sociology . Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of status, achieved status and ascribed status.

Each can refer to one's position, or role, within a social system—child, parent, pupil, playmate, etc.—or to one's economic or social position within that status.

Individuals usually hold multiple statuses at any given time—lawyers, say, who happen to devote most of their time to pro bono work instead of rising through the ranks at a prestigious law firm. Status is important sociologically because we attach to one's position a certain set of presumed rights, as well as presumed obligations and expectations for certain behaviors.

Achieved Status

An achieved status is one that is acquired on the basis of merit; it is a position that is earned or chosen and reflects a person's skills, abilities, and efforts. Being a professional athlete, for example, is an achieved status, as is being a lawyer, college professor, or even a criminal.

Ascribed Status

An ascribed status, on the other hand, is beyond an individual's control. It is not earned, but rather is something people are either born with or had no control over. Examples of ascribed status include sex, race, and age. Children usually have more ascribed statuses than adults, since they do not usually have a choice in most matters.

A family's social status or socioeconomic status , for instance, would be an achieved status for adults, but an ascribed status for children. Homelessness might also be another example. For adults, homelessness often comes by way of achieving, or rather not achieving, something. For children, however, homelessness is not something they have any control over. Their economic status, or lack thereof, is entirely dependent on their parents' actions.

Mixed-Status

The line between achieved status and ascribed status is not always black and white. There are many statuses that can be considered a mixture of achievement and ascription. Parenthood, for one. According to the latest numbers gathered by the Guttmacher Institute, about 45% of pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned , which makes parenthood for those people an ascribed status.

Then there are people who achieve a certain status because of an ascribed status. Take Kim Kardashian, for example, probably the most famous reality television celebrity in the world. Many people might argue that she would never have achieved that status if she had not come from a wealthy family, which is her ascribed status.

Status Obligations

Probably the greatest set of obligations are conferred upon the status of parenthood. First, there are biological obligations: Mothers are expected to care for themselves and their unborn child (or children, in the case of twins, etc.) by abstaining for any activity that could cause either of them harm. Once a child is born, a host of legal, social, and economic obligations kick in, all with the purpose of ensuring that parents act in a responsible manner toward their children.

Then there are professional status obligations, like doctors and lawyers whose vocations bind them to certain oaths governing their client relationships. And socioeconomic status obligates those who have achieved a certain high level of economic status to contribute portions of their wealth to help the less fortunate in society.

Finer, Lawrence B. and Mia R. Zolna. " Declines in Unintended Pregnancy in the United States, 2008-2011 ." New England Journal of Medicine , vol. 374, no. 9, 2016, p. 842-852. doi:10.1056/NEJMsa1506575

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Definition of Scapegoat, Scapegoating, and Scapegoat Theory
Definition of Status Generalization
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Achieved Social Status: Characteristics Essay

In sociology, achieved social status can be termed as the position an individual chooses to take or earn. The status indicates an individual ability, efforts, and personal life choices (Samiksha). Achieved status can reflect both the good and bad side of an individual because it depends on the effort made by the person. Generally, achieved social status would make an individual happy for attaining it for example becoming a teacher, a footballer, an engineer, becoming a husband or wife.

Consequentially, bad achieved social status can make a person feel sad for instance if a person makes a choice of becoming a criminal, rapist, or drug addict. The outcome of the achieved social rank is influenced by the effort and choice an individual take (Samiksha). It is possible for a person to have as much achieved social identity in society as possible. People’s lives are influenced by the level or state of the achieved social rank in the society.

Absolute poverty is a situation where the household income is far below a certain level hence making it hard or impossible for an individual or person to meet basic needs such as shelter, food, drinking water, healthcare, and education.

Achieved status is a concept developed by Ralph Linton, an anthropologist, for a social position that an individual can acquire based on merit and is earned or chosen (Djurdjevic et al. 1124). It is a position that is earned or, in some other cases, achieved.

Ascribed status is a sociological term that refers to an individual’s social status assigned at birth or assumed later in life involuntarily (Djurdjevic et al. 1124). It is based on age, sex, relationship, family, or even the family.

Capitalism is an economic system that creates or plays a crucial role in aiding or encouraging private individuals or business entities to practice owning capital goods.

Corporate welfare is a term used to describe how the government bestows tax breaks, money grants, or other special favorable treatment for corporations.

The digital divide refers to the existing gap between the demographics and regions accessing modern information communications technology and those lacking access to these technologies.

False consciousness indicates the inability of certain people to recognize oppression, existing inequality, and exploitation in a capitalist society.

Horizontal mobility is an idiom that describes switching from one position or angle to another without changing your social status.

Intergenerational mobility is the extent to which vital features and the outcomes of an individual tend to differ from the characteristics of their parents (Cutillo et al. 20). It entails the changes of the social class of the various generations of the family members.

Life chances are regarded as a social science theory explaining each individual’s existing opportunities to improve their quality of life.

Most critics vitally use precarious work to describe or demonstrate the work perceived as non-standard or the temporary employment whereby the employees are paid poorly (Cutillo et al. 20).

Social Mobility refers to the movement of groups and, in some cases, individuals in social positions over time.

Socioeconomic status is defined as the class of an individual or group. It is measured as the total combination of income, occupation, and education.

Stratification is the process of sorting people, data, and objects into well-defined groups or layers. It is also the methodology used to combine with other data analysis tools.

Works Cited

Cutillo, Andrea, Michele Raitano, and Isabella Siciliani. “Income-Based and Consumption-Based Measurement of Absolute Poverty: Insights from Italy.” Social Indicators Research, 2020, pp. 1-22.

Djurdjevic, Emilija, et al. “Workplace Status: The Development and Validation of a Scale.” Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 102, no. 7, 2017, p. 1124.

Samiksha, S. “Social Status: The Meaning, Types, Essential Elements and Characteristics of Social Status,” 2021, Web.

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5.1 Social Structure: The Building Blocks of Social Life

Learning objectives.

Describe the difference between a status and a role.
Understand the difference between an ascribed status, an achieved status, and a master status.
List the major social institutions.

Social life is composed of many levels of building blocks, from the very micro to the very macro. These building blocks combine to form the social structure . As Chapter 1 "Sociology and the Sociological Perspective" explained, social structure The social patterns through which a society is organized; can be horizontal or vertical. refers to the social patterns through which a society is organized and can be horizontal or vertical. To recall, horizontal social structure refers to the social relationships and the social and physical characteristics of communities to which individuals belong, while vertical social structure , more commonly called social inequality The ways in which a society or group ranks people in a hierarchy. , refers to ways in which a society or group ranks people in a hierarchy. This chapter’s discussion of social structure focuses primarily on horizontal social structure, while Chapter 8 "Social Stratification" through Chapter 12 "Aging and the Elderly" , as well as much material in other chapters, examine dimensions of social inequality. The (horizontal) social structure comprises several components, to which we now turn, starting with the most micro and ending with the most macro. Our discussion of social interaction in the second half of this chapter incorporates several of these components.

Status The position that someone occupies in society. has many meanings in the dictionary and also within sociology, but for now we will define it as the position that someone occupies in society. This position is often a job title, but many other types of positions exist: student, parent, sibling, relative, friend, and so forth. It should be clear that status as used in this way conveys nothing about the prestige of the position, to use a common synonym for status. A physician’s job is a status with much prestige, but a shoeshiner’s job is a status with no prestige.

Any one individual often occupies several different statuses at the same time, and someone can simultaneously be a banker, Girl Scout troop leader, mother, school board member, volunteer at a homeless shelter, and spouse. This someone would be very busy! We call all the positions an individual occupies that person’s status set All the positions an individual occupies. (see Figure 5.1 "Example of a Status Set" ).

Figure 5.1 Example of a Status Set

Sociologists usually speak of three types of statuses. The first type is ascribed status The status that someone is born with and has no control over. , which is the status that someone is born with and has no control over. There are relatively few ascribed statuses; the most common ones are our biological sex, race, parents’ social class and religious affiliation, and biological relationships (child, grandchild, sibling, and so forth).

The second kind of status is called achieved status A status achieved at some point after birth, sometimes through one’s own efforts and sometimes because of good or bad luck. , which, as the name implies, is a status you achieve, at some point after birth, sometimes through your own efforts and sometimes because good or bad luck befalls you. The status of student is an achieved status, as is the status of restaurant server or romantic partner, to cite just two of the many achieved statuses that exist.

Two things about achieved statuses should be kept in mind. First, our ascribed statuses, and in particular our sex, race and ethnicity, and social class, often affect our ability to acquire and maintain many achieved statuses (such as college graduate). Second, achieved statuses can be viewed positively or negatively. Our society usually views achieved statuses such as physician, professor, or college student positively, but it certainly views achieved statuses such as burglar, prostitute, and pimp negatively.

The third type of status is called a master status A status that is so important that it overrides other statuses a person may hold. . This is a status that is so important that it overrides other statuses you may hold. In terms of people’s reactions, master statuses can be either positive or negative for an individual depending on the particular master status they hold. Barack Obama now holds the positive master status of president of the United States: his status as president overrides all the other statuses he holds (husband, father, and so forth), and millions of Americans respect him, whether or not they voted for him or now favor his policies, because of this status. Many other positive master statuses exist in the political and entertainment worlds and in other spheres of life.

Some master statuses have negative consequences. To recall the medical student and nursing home news story that began this chapter, a physical disability often becomes such a master status. If you are bound to a wheelchair, for example, this fact becomes more important than the other statuses you have and may prompt people to perceive and interact with you negatively. In particular, they perceive you more in terms of your master status (someone bound to a wheelchair) than as the “person beneath” the master status, to cite Matt’s words. For similar reasons, gender, race, and sexual orientation may also be considered master statuses, as these statuses often subject women, people of color, and gays and lesbians, respectively, to discrimination and other problems, no matter what other statuses they may have.

Whatever status we occupy, certain objects signify any particular status. These objects are called status symbols An object that signifies a particular status that a person holds. . In popular terms, status symbol usually means something like a Rolls-Royce or BMW that shows off someone’s wealth or success, and many status symbols of this type exist. But sociologists use the term more generally than that. For example, the wheelchair that Matt the medical student rode for 12 days was a status symbol that signified his master status of someone with a (feigned) disability. If someone is pushing a stroller, the stroller is a status symbol that signifies that the person pushing it is a parent or caretaker of a young child.

Whatever its type, every status is accompanied by a role The behavior expected of someone with a certain status. , which is the behavior expected of someone—and in fact everyone —with a certain status. You and most other people reading this book are students. Despite all the other differences among you, you have at least this one status in common. As such, there is a role expected of you as a student (at least by your professors); this role includes coming to class regularly, doing all the reading assigned from this textbook, and studying the best you can for exams. Roles for given statuses existed long before we were born, and they will continue long after we are no longer alive. A major dimension of socialization is learning the roles our society has and then behaving in the way a particular role demands.

Because roles are the behavior expected of people in various statuses, they help us interact because we are familiar with the roles in the first place, a point to which the second half of this chapter returns. Suppose you are shopping in a department store. Your status is a shopper, and the role expected of you as a shopper—and of all shoppers—involves looking quietly at various items in the store, taking the ones you want to purchase to a checkout line, and paying for them. The person who takes your money is occupying another status in the store that we often call a cashier. The role expected of that cashier—and of all cashiers not only in that store but in every other store—is to accept your payment in a businesslike way and put your items in a bag. Because shoppers and cashiers all have these mutual expectations, their social interaction is possible.

Social Networks

Modern life seems increasingly characterized by social networks. A social network The totality of relationships that link us to other people and groups and through them to still other people and groups. is the totality of relationships that link us to other people and groups and through them to still other people and groups. As Facebook and other social media show so clearly, social networks can be incredibly extensive. Social networks can be so large, of course, that an individual in a network may know little or nothing of another individual in the network (e.g., a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend). But these “friends of friends” can sometimes be an important source of practical advice and other kinds of help. They can “open doors” in the job market, they can introduce you to a potential romantic partner, they can pass through some tickets to the next big basketball game. As a key building block of social structure, social networks receive a fuller discussion in Chapter 6 "Groups and Organizations" .

Groups and Organizations

Groups and organizations are the next component of social structure. Because Chapter 6 "Groups and Organizations" discusses groups and organizations extensively, here we will simply define them and say one or two things about them.

A social group Two or more people who regularly interact on the basis of mutual expectations and who share a common identity. (hereafter just group ) consists of two or more people who regularly interact on the basis of mutual expectations and who share a common identity. To paraphrase John Donne, the 17th-century English poet, no one is an island; almost all people are members of many groups, including families, groups of friends, and groups of coworkers in a workplace. Sociology is sometimes called the study of group life, and it is difficult to imagine a modern society without many types of groups and a small, traditional society without at least some groups.

In terms of size, emotional bonding, and other characteristics, many types of groups exist, as Chapter 6 "Groups and Organizations" explains. But one of the most important types is the formal organization A large group that follows explicit rules and procedures to achieve specific goals and tasks. (also just organization ), which is a large group that follows explicit rules and procedures to achieve specific goals and tasks. For better and for worse, organizations are an essential feature of modern societies. Our banks, our hospitals, our schools, and so many other examples are all organizations, even if they differ from one another in many respects. In terms of their goals and other characteristics, several types of organizations exist, as Chapter 6 "Groups and Organizations" will again discuss.

Social Institutions

Yet another component of social structure is the social institution Patterns of beliefs and behavior that help a society meet its basic needs. , or patterns of beliefs and behavior that help a society meet its basic needs. Modern society is filled with many social institutions that all help society meet its needs and achieve other goals and thus have a profound impact not only on the society as a whole but also on virtually every individual in a society. Examples of social institutions include the family, the economy, the polity (government), education, religion, and medicine. Chapter 13 "Work and the Economy" through Chapter 18 "Health and Medicine" examine each of these social institutions separately.

As those chapters will show, these social institutions all help the United States meet its basic needs, but they also have failings that prevent the United States from meeting all its needs. A particular problem is social inequality, to recall the vertical dimension of social structure, as our social institutions often fail many people because of their social class, race, ethnicity, gender, or all four. These chapters will also indicate that American society could better fulfill its needs if it followed certain practices and policies of other democracies that often help their societies “work” better than our own.

The largest component of social structure is, of course, society A group of people who live within a defined territory and who share a culture. itself. Chapter 1 "Sociology and the Sociological Perspective" defined society as a group of people who live within a defined territory and who share a culture. Societies certainly differ in many ways; some are larger in population and some are smaller, some are modern and some are less modern. Since the origins of sociology during the 19th century, sociologists have tried to understand how and why modern, industrial society developed. Part of this understanding involves determining the differences between industrial societies and traditional ones.

One of the key differences between traditional and industrial societies is the emphasis placed on the community versus the emphasis placed on the individual. In traditional societies, community feeling and group commitment are usually the cornerstones of social life. In contrast, industrial society is more individualistic and impersonal. Whereas the people in traditional societies have close daily ties, those in industrial societies have many relationships in which one person barely knows the other person. Commitment to the group and community become less important in industrial societies, and individualism becomes more important.

Sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies (1887/1963) Tönnies, F. (1963). Community and society . New York, NY: Harper and Row. (Original work published 1887) long ago characterized these key characteristics of traditional and industrial societies with the German words Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft . Gemeinschaft A human community, particularly a small society with a strong sense of community and strong group ties. means human community, and Tönnies said that a sense of community characterizes traditional societies, where family, kin, and community ties are quite strong. As societies grew and industrialized and as people moved to cities, Tönnies said, social ties weakened and became more impersonal. Tönnies called this situation Gesellschaft A large society characterized by weak and impersonal social ties. and found it dismaying. Chapter 5 "Social Structure and Social Interaction" , Section 5.2 "The Development of Modern Society" discusses the development of societies in more detail.

Key Takeaways

The major components of social structure are statuses, roles, social networks, groups and organizations, social institutions, and society.
Specific types of statuses include the ascribed status, achieved status, and master status. Depending on the type of master status, an individual may be viewed positively or negatively because of a master status.

For Your Review

Take a moment and list every status that you now occupy. Next to each status, indicate whether it is an ascribed status, achieved status, or master status.
Take a moment and list every group to which you belong. Write a brief essay in which you comment on which of the groups are more meaningful to you and which are less meaningful to you.

Understanding Achieved Status in Social Science: Definition, Examples, and Significance

Which concept refers to a social position that is assumed voluntarily and that reflects a significant measure of personal ability and effortactive rolemaster statusascribed statusachieved status.

The concept that refers to a social position that is assumed voluntarily and reflects a significant measure of personal ability and effort is “achieved status”. Achieved status is a social position that an individual obtains through their own efforts and abilities rather than being assigned to them based on characteristics such as race, gender, family background, or other ascribed attributes. This could be through education, skills, talents, or any other kind of effort. Achieved status can change throughout an individual’s life based on their personal and professional achievements. Examples of achieved status include being a doctor, a lawyer, a musician, or an athlete.

Formula for cyclic adenosine monophosphate & Its Significance

Is the formula of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) $ce{C_{10}H_{11}N_{5}O_{6}P}$ or $ce{C_{10}H_{12}N_{5}O_{6}P}$? Does it matter? The correct formula for cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) is $ce{C_{10}H_{11}N_{5}O_{6}P}$. The

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How does a turtle develop inside its egg? The development of a turtle inside its egg is a fascinating process that involves several stages and

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Why does photosynthesis specifically produce glucose? Photosynthesis is the biological process by which plants, algae, and some bacteria convert sunlight, carbon dioxide (CO2), and water

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Source for “The human body recycles its body weight of ATP each day”? The statement that “the human body recycles its body weight of ATP

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5.1 Social Structure: The Building Blocks of Social Life

Learning objectives.

Describe the difference between a status and a role.
Understand the difference between an ascribed status, an achieved status, and a master status.
List the major social institutions.

Social life is composed of many levels of building blocks, from the very micro to the very macro. These building blocks combine to form the social structure . As Chapter 1 “Sociology and the Sociological Perspective” explained, social structure refers to the social patterns through which a society is organized and can be horizontal or vertical. To recall, horizontal social structure refers to the social relationships and the social and physical characteristics of communities to which individuals belong, while vertical social structure , more commonly called social inequality , refers to ways in which a society or group ranks people in a hierarchy. This chapter’s discussion of social structure focuses primarily on horizontal social structure, while Chapter 8 “Social Stratification” through Chapter 12 “Aging and the Elderly” , as well as much material in other chapters, examine dimensions of social inequality. The (horizontal) social structure comprises several components, to which we now turn, starting with the most micro and ending with the most macro. Our discussion of social interaction in the second half of this chapter incorporates several of these components.

Status has many meanings in the dictionary and also within sociology, but for now we will define it as the position that someone occupies in society. This position is often a job title, but many other types of positions exist: student, parent, sibling, relative, friend, and so forth. It should be clear that status as used in this way conveys nothing about the prestige of the position, to use a common synonym for status. A physician’s job is a status with much prestige, but a shoeshiner’s job is a status with no prestige.

Figure 5.1 Example of a Status Set

Example of a Status Set: Banker, Girl Scout Troop Leader, Mother, School Board Member, Volunteer at Homeless Shelter, Spouse

Sociologists usually speak of three types of statuses. The first type is ascribed status , which is the status that someone is born with and has no control over. There are relatively few ascribed statuses; the most common ones are our biological sex, race, parents’ social class and religious affiliation, and biological relationships (child, grandchild, sibling, and so forth).

A nurse checking the heart rate of an elderly man

Status refers to the position an individual occupies. Used in this way, a person’s status is not related to the prestige of that status. The jobs of physician and shoeshiner are both statuses, even though one of these jobs is much more prestigious than the other job.

Public Domain Images – CC0 public domain.

The second kind of status is called achieved status , which, as the name implies, is a status you achieve, at some point after birth, sometimes through your own efforts and sometimes because good or bad luck befalls you. The status of student is an achieved status, as is the status of restaurant server or romantic partner, to cite just two of the many achieved statuses that exist.

The third type of status is called a master status . This is a status that is so important that it overrides other statuses you may hold. In terms of people’s reactions, master statuses can be either positive or negative for an individual depending on the particular master status they hold. Barack Obama now holds the positive master status of president of the United States: his status as president overrides all the other statuses he holds (husband, father, and so forth), and millions of Americans respect him, whether or not they voted for him or now favor his policies, because of this status. Many other positive master statuses exist in the political and entertainment worlds and in other spheres of life.

Whatever status we occupy, certain objects signify any particular status. These objects are called status symbols . In popular terms, status symbol usually means something like a Rolls-Royce or BMW that shows off someone’s wealth or success, and many status symbols of this type exist. But sociologists use the term more generally than that. For example, the wheelchair that Matt the medical student rode for 12 days was a status symbol that signified his master status of someone with a (feigned) disability. If someone is pushing a stroller, the stroller is a status symbol that signifies that the person pushing it is a parent or caretaker of a young child.

Whatever its type, every status is accompanied by a role , which is the behavior expected of someone—and in fact everyone —with a certain status. You and most other people reading this book are students. Despite all the other differences among you, you have at least this one status in common. As such, there is a role expected of you as a student (at least by your professors); this role includes coming to class regularly, doing all the reading assigned from this textbook, and studying the best you can for exams. Roles for given statuses existed long before we were born, and they will continue long after we are no longer alive. A major dimension of socialization is learning the roles our society has and then behaving in the way a particular role demands.

Roles help us interact because we are familiar with the behavior associated with roles. Because shoppers and cashiers know what to expect of each other, their social interaction is possible.

David Tan – Cashier – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Social Networks

Modern life seems increasingly characterized by social networks. A social network is the totality of relationships that link us to other people and groups and through them to still other people and groups. As Facebook and other social media show so clearly, social networks can be incredibly extensive. Social networks can be so large, of course, that an individual in a network may know little or nothing of another individual in the network (e.g., a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend). But these “friends of friends” can sometimes be an important source of practical advice and other kinds of help. They can “open doors” in the job market, they can introduce you to a potential romantic partner, they can pass through some tickets to the next big basketball game. As a key building block of social structure, social networks receive a fuller discussion in Chapter 6 “Groups and Organizations” .

Groups and Organizations

Groups and organizations are the next component of social structure. Because Chapter 6 “Groups and Organizations” discusses groups and organizations extensively, here we will simply define them and say one or two things about them.

A social group (hereafter just group ) consists of two or more people who regularly interact on the basis of mutual expectations and who share a common identity. To paraphrase John Donne, the 17th-century English poet, no one is an island; almost all people are members of many groups, including families, groups of friends, and groups of coworkers in a workplace. Sociology is sometimes called the study of group life, and it is difficult to imagine a modern society without many types of groups and a small, traditional society without at least some groups.

In terms of size, emotional bonding, and other characteristics, many types of groups exist, as Chapter 6 “Groups and Organizations” explains. But one of the most important types is the formal organization (also just organization ), which is a large group that follows explicit rules and procedures to achieve specific goals and tasks. For better and for worse, organizations are an essential feature of modern societies. Our banks, our hospitals, our schools, and so many other examples are all organizations, even if they differ from one another in many respects. In terms of their goals and other characteristics, several types of organizations exist, as Chapter 6 “Groups and Organizations” will again discuss.

Social Institutions

Yet another component of social structure is the social institution , or patterns of beliefs and behavior that help a society meet its basic needs. Modern society is filled with many social institutions that all help society meet its needs and achieve other goals and thus have a profound impact not only on the society as a whole but also on virtually every individual in a society. Examples of social institutions include the family, the economy, the polity (government), education, religion, and medicine. Chapter 13 “Work and the Economy” through Chapter 18 “Health and Medicine” examine each of these social institutions separately.

The largest component of social structure is, of course, society itself. Chapter 1 “Sociology and the Sociological Perspective” defined society as a group of people who live within a defined territory and who share a culture. Societies certainly differ in many ways; some are larger in population and some are smaller, some are modern and some are less modern. Since the origins of sociology during the 19th century, sociologists have tried to understand how and why modern, industrial society developed. Part of this understanding involves determining the differences between industrial societies and traditional ones.

Sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies (1887/1963) long ago characterized these key characteristics of traditional and industrial societies with the German words Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft . Gemeinschaft means human community, and Tönnies said that a sense of community characterizes traditional societies, where family, kin, and community ties are quite strong. As societies grew and industrialized and as people moved to cities, Tönnies said, social ties weakened and became more impersonal. Tönnies called this situation Gesellschaft and found it dismaying. Chapter 5 “Social Structure and Social Interaction” , Section 5.2 “The Development of Modern Society” discusses the development of societies in more detail.

Key Takeaways

The major components of social structure are statuses, roles, social networks, groups and organizations, social institutions, and society.
Specific types of statuses include the ascribed status, achieved status, and master status. Depending on the type of master status, an individual may be viewed positively or negatively because of a master status.

For Your Review

Take a moment and list every status that you now occupy. Next to each status, indicate whether it is an ascribed status, achieved status, or master status.
Take a moment and list every group to which you belong. Write a brief essay in which you comment on which of the groups are more meaningful to you and which are less meaningful to you.

Tönnies, F. (1963). Community and society . New York, NY: Harper and Row. (Original work published 1887).

Module 4: Socialization

Roles and the presentation of self, learning outcomes.

Describe how individuals present themselves and perceive themselves in a social context

Status and Roles

Sociologists use the term status to describe the responsibilities and benefits that a person experiences according to their rank and role in society. Some statuses are ascribed —those you do not select, such as son, elderly person, or female. Others, called achieved statuses , are obtained by choice, such as high school dropout, self-made millionaire, or nurse. As a daughter or son, you occupy a different status than as a neighbor or employee.

As you can imagine, people employ many types of behaviors in day-to-day life. Roles are patterns of behavior that we recognize in each other, and that are representative of a person’s social status. Currently, while reading this text, you are playing the role of a student. However, you also play other roles in your life, such as “daughter,” “neighbor,” or “employee.” These various roles are each associated with a different status.

If too much is required of a single role, individuals can experience role strain . Consider the duties of a parent: cooking, cleaning, driving, problem-solving, acting as a source of moral guidance—the list goes on. Similarly, a person can experience role conflict when one or more roles are contradictory. A parent who also has a full-time career can experience role conflict on a daily basis. When there is a deadline at the office but a sick child needs to be picked up from school, which comes first? When you are working toward a promotion but your children want you to come to their school play, which do you choose? Being a college student can conflict with being an employee, being an athlete, or even being a friend. Our roles in life powerfully affect our decisions and help to shape our identities.

One person can be associated with a multitude of roles and statuses. Even a single status such as “student” has a complex role-set , or array of roles, attached to it (Merton 1957).

A person sits at a desk while working at a computer, while holding a baby of about six months old. A second child leans against the chair as well.

Figure 1. Parents often experience role strain or role conflict as they try to balance different and often urgent competing responsibilities. (Credit: Ran Zwigenberg/flickr)

Presentation of Self

Of course, it is impossible to look inside a person’s head and study what role they are playing. All we can observe is outward behavior, or role performance. Role performance is how a person expresses his or her role. Sociologist Erving Goffman presented the idea that a person is like an actor on a stage. Calling his theory dramaturgy , Goffman believed that we use impression management to present ourselves to others as we hope to be perceived. Each situation is a new scene, and individuals perform different roles depending on who is present (Goffman 1959). Think about the way you behave around your coworkers versus the way you behave around your grandparents or with a blind date. Even if you’re not consciously trying to alter your personality, your grandparents, coworkers, and date probably see different sides of you.

As in a play, the setting matters as well. If you have a group of friends over to your house for dinner, you are playing the role of a host. It is agreed upon that you will provide food and seating and probably be stuck with a lot of the cleanup at the end of the night. Similarly, your friends are playing the roles of guests, and they are expected to respect your property and any rules you may set forth (“Don’t leave the door open or the cat will get out.”). In any scene, there needs to be a shared reality between players. In this case, if you view yourself as a guest and others view you as a host, there are likely to be problems.

Impression management is a critical component of symbolic interactionism. For example, a judge in a courtroom has many “props” to create an impression of fairness, gravity, and control—like her robe and gavel. Those entering the courtroom are expected to adhere to the scene being set. Just imagine the “impression” that can be made by how a person dresses. This is the reason that attorneys frequently select the hairstyle and apparel for witnesses and defendants in courtroom proceedings.

A photo of a statue of Janus. The statue is of two heads facing outwards with the backs of their heads molded together.

Figure 2. Janus, another possible “prop”, depicted with two heads, exemplifies war and peace. (Photo courtesy of Fubar Obfusco/Wikimedia Commons)

Again, Goffman’s dramaturgical approach expands on the ideas of Charles Cooley and the looking-glass self . We imagine how we must appear to others, then react to this speculation. We put on certain clothes, prepare our hair in a particular manner, wear makeup, use colog ne, and the like—all with the notion that our presentation of ourselves is going to affect how others perceive us. We expect a certain reaction, and, if lucky, we get the one we desire and feel good about it. But more than that, Cooley believed that our sense of self is based upon this idea: we imagine how we look to others, draw conclusions based upon their reactions to us, and then we develop our personal sense of self. In other words, people’s reactions to us are like a mirror in which we are reflected.

Think It Over

Describe a situation in which you have tried to influence others’ perception of you? How does Goffman’s impression management apply to this situation?
Draw a large circle, and then “slice” the c ircle into pieces like a pie, labeling each piece with a role or status that you occupy. Add as many statuses, ascribed and achieved, that you have. Don’t forget things like dog owner, gardener, traveler, student, runner, employee. How many statuses do you have? In which ones are there role conflicts?
Modification, adaptation, and original content. Authored by : Sarah Hoiland for Lumen Learning. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
Social Constructions of Reality. Authored by : OpenStax CNX. Located at : . License : CC BY: Attribution . License Terms : Download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/[email protected].
Social Constructions of Reality. Provided by : OpenStax. Located at : https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-3e/pages/4-3-social-constructions-of-reality . Project : Sociology 3e. License : CC BY: Attribution . License Terms : Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-3e/pages/4-3-social-constructions-of-reality
Charles Cooley Looking Glass Self. Authored by : Brooke Miller. Provided by : Khan Academy. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/embed/XCxe9HbfJcM?enablejsapi=1 . License : Other . License Terms : Standard YouTube License
Dramaturgy (Dramaturgical Analysis). Provided by : Sociology Live!. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=5Qe5TI__ZDU . License : Other . License Terms : Standard YouTube License

Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Society — Achieved And Ascribed Status In Today’S World

Achieved and Ascribed Status in Today’s World

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23 Ascribed Status Examples – Sociology Guide

Examples of ascribed status include age, gender, race, caste, disability, inherited title, and multigenerational wealth.

An ascribed status is a social status that you didn’t choose and is usually given to you from birth.

When exploring a person’s ascribed status, you need to think of identity features that a person neither earned nor chose. No amount of effort or desire can influence our ascribed status.

(However, as I discuss in the FAQ at the bottom of this article, in some instances, ascribed status can be gained and lost later in life!)

Ascribed Status Examples

A person cannot change their age, making this an ascribed identity marker. While this is ascribed throughout our lives, it also changes. You move through phases of infancy, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age, and senior years, at a pace that you do not control.

At each age, you may face discrimination and stereotypes that will both hinder and help you. As a young person, you may be seen as cool and full of vitality but also naïve. As an elderly person, you may be seen as wise but also potentially failing cognitively or strength-wise. These are all considerations that could benefit you when going for a job, or that a potential employer might hold against you.

Your gender (male or female) is ascribed by society at birth. However, in the 21 st Century, people are increasingly seeing gender to be more fluid than in the past. Progressive societies acknowledge transgenderism where people are born feeling as if they are one gender trapped in the other gender’s body.

4. Ethnicity

Unlike race, ethnicity is about cultural expressions of people who share common ancestry. For example, people who are Caucasian might come from a range of different ethnic groups ranging from Ireland across to eastern Russia.

Similarly, in Myanmar, there are multiple different ethnic groups within the country that are in consistent and ongoing armed conflict.

Furthermore, you may have been born in the United States but enjoy an ethnic background from anywhere in the world because you continue to practice the traditions of your ethnic origins.

5. Disability

A person doesn’t choose to have a disability. Nevertheless, it is a status marker that can have a negative impact throughout your life.

For example, it could hinder your ability to access public services, jobs, or even go traveling throughout your life. While society has made good gains in ensuring access for people with disabilities, there is still some way to go.

6. Physical Appearance

While people make big efforts to alter their physical appearance (from putting on makeup to getting cosmetic surgery), it is by-and-large an attribute that you don’t have control over.

Unfortunately, physical appearance can lead to status discrimination, such as when people who are overweight are overlooked for customer service jobs because a brand wants to maintain an image of beauty and perfection.

7. Ancestry

You do not choose your ancestry and yet it can dramatically impact your position in the social stratification system.

The most stark example of this is the descendants of slaves. They continue to experience the intergenerational disadvantages that came from their disempowerment and disenfranchisement.

Other examples of ancestry impacting your social position is if you were born into minor royalty or can get a legacy position in an elite school such as Eton in England.

8. Birth Order

There is research showing that your birth order may impact your success in life. Furthermore, in some societies, the first-born son is favored and privileged while the younger children and girls are secondary. This can impact access to education and other opportunities in life.

9. Citizenship at Birth

Your birth citizenship can dramatically affect your life. For example, people born into first-world countries have greater access to public services and enhanced ability to travel unimpeded.

While this is usually an ascribed status, it is also possible to change your citizenship. However, this requires a lot of work. If you become a naturalized citizen, then your citizenship will become an achieved status. Similarly, in some circumstances, you can lose or renounce your citizenship.

10. First Language

People do not choose the first language they learn. Your first language is the language of your parents.

People who speak English tend to have a global advantage because it is the language of business. However, upper middle-class people who don’t speak English as a first language tend to be able to speak multiple languages which could also give them an upper hand.

Associated with first language is the seemingly stubborn identity marker of your accent.

Accents tend to become permanent and unchangeable from about the age of 12 . After this age, even if you move overseas and live in a culture with an entirely different accent, you tend to keep your original accent.

This can cause your status to remain fixed for life. For example, even you move from the UK to the USA at the age of 20 and stay there for 30 years, you will still be seen by people you interact with as British, not American.

12. Inherited Title

Sometimes, you might inherit a title. This is most common in old monarchies like the UK. You might inherit the title of Baroness, Duke, Dame, or Earl. These inherited titles can remain with you for your whole life thanks to your royal ancestry.

The United States doesn’t tend to have these titles, but there are less formal titles that one might inherit such as the “son of Rupert Murdoch” or “daughter of the former president” that you cannot shake.

13. Multigenerational Wealth

People can inherit wealth. We might call these people ‘trust fund babies’.

Inherited wealth, also known as old money, is destined for you from birth. This can shape how people treat you as you grow up as well as your opportunities (for example, for elite education).

14. Sexuality

The issue of whether sexuality is a choice or something you are ‘born with’ has been ongoing for decades.

Today, progressive societies increasingly leaning toward embracing the idea that people do not choose their sexuality, based upon the testimony of LGBTQI people.

Thus, we can consider sexuality to be ascribed rather than an achieved status example .

Being born into a caste is an old tradition from India . Within the Indian caste system , there are four broad caste groups:

Brahmins – Teachers and intellectuals
Kshatriyas – Warriors and rulers
Vaishyas – Traders
Shudras – Menial jobs

Your assigned profession in life used to depend on the caste you were born into. Furthermore, people from lower castes (e.g. those that destined you for menial work) were widely discriminated against to the extent that they were considered ‘untouchables’.

Movement between the castes and marriage to people from other castes was also traditionally frowned upon.

Today, discrimination between castes remains among many people.

16. Postcode at Birth

The place where you were born is not up to you but can have a big impact on your life.

For example, in many countries, your postcode influences where you can go to public school. Similarly, it may influence the sort of healthcare you have access to.

This also relates to being a ‘city kid’ or a ‘rural kid’ who might have a lot more access to outdoor play which can help with spontaneous physical development.

Thus, while your parents may be able to make a choice about where within a city or country you are born, you personally did not.

While not the most important factor that might impact your status within the social hierarchy, your hair is an example of ascribed status.

This is one ascribed status that you cannot change but also changes through life. For example, you might become a bald man at age 25 without any choice of your own. Suddenly, you find that as part of your identity that you cannot change (and something that could impact your status in social situations, such as when dating).

18. Social Class

People tend to be born into a social class. This doesn’t just mean wealth (e.g being born into poverty) but also a class-based culture.

For example, working-class people often tend to associate with other working-class people, share a common way of speaking, and live in the same neighborhoods.

By contrast, being born into the upper class will mean you have access to better schools, more learning resources, and more elite clubs.

As a child, you tend not to choose which social class you belong to. However, when you’re older, you may be able to move across class boundaries, so this one fits in the gray area between ascribed and achieved. As a student, it might be a good idea not to use this as a clear ascribed status example.

19. Genetic Predispositions

We are often predisposed to certain physical traits due to our genes. A person may be predisposed to a certain chronic illness, for example.

Similarly, you may have a certain genetic predisposition to being particularly muscular, tall, thin, short, or fat. Each of these predispositions may lead to stereotyping throughout your life or limit life chances (e.g. not being allowed into the military due to flat feet).

20. Religion

Like social class, religion is partially ascribed and partially achieved. We usually start with an ascribed religion (e.g. being baptised at birth) and raised within your family’s religious traditions.

We are introduced to and socialized with people within our family’s religious groupings and obtain that religious identity with minimal personal choice.

When we reach adulthood, we may change religions, lose faith, or continue the religion of our family. Thus, into adulthood, this one becomes a choice and is therefore closer to an attained rather than ascribed status in adulthood.

21. Culture

Like religion, we’re usually born into a culture that we cannot choose. As we get older, we can choose to reject the culture, but many dispositions of the culture stay with us for life.

That’s because a culture becomes normalized within us. For example, some cultures teach their children in unique ways (e.g. the place-based learning that occurs in Aboriginal Australian culture) that can influence how someone learns and thinks for the rest of their lives.

Related: Examples of Culture

22. Surname

In some towns, sharing a surname with people who have been disgraced can be a big problem.

While you may not personally have any reason to be seen as being a disgrace, if two of your uncles went to prison and your cousins are poorly behaved at the local school, this might work against you. People may stereotype you.

By contrast, if you’re the younger brother or sister of an intelligent person or a star athlete, people might see you as also having great potential.

23. Eye Color

Eye color very rarely impacts your destiny. It is not an identifying feature that tends to garner much discrimination. The rare exception might be people with stunning eyes. In these cases, they might be considered beautiful and gain certain advantages from this.

Nevertheless, eye color is an ascribed feature rather than an achieved feature.

Ascribed Status Definition in Sociology

Ascribed status is a concept in sociology that works in contrast to achieved status (a social status that you worked for) and master status (your dominant identity feature).

Social status research was progressed by Max Weber in his research on the three-component theory from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism . Weber argued that social status was one of three components that contributed to the social stratification system which privileges some people above others.

Following Weber’s work, Ralph Linton developed the dualistic concepts of ascribed status versus achieved status.

Ascribed Status vs Achieved Status in Sociology

According to Linton, ascribed status was one given to us at birth and neither earned nor chosen. No amount of effort or desire would influence our ascribed status.

By contrast, achieved status was something we could choose and earn through ability, merit, and choice.

The concepts of ascribed and achieved status help us to understand how prestige, privilege, and honor are either achieved or assigned by society. They show how we live in a social hierarchy that is both incredibly unfair (we’re born into a position on the hierarchy) and fluid (we can change our status in some contexts through hard work).

Gray Areas and Factors Influencing Ascription of Status

There are gray areas where it’s not clear if someone’s status is ascribed or assigned. In these instances, we can see that ascribed status isn’t as clear or fixed as we might have first thought.

Thus, social status fits more on a sliding scale than a black-and-white contrast. While most ascribed statuses are given at birth and stay with us for life, some may change, and remain unchosen and unearned .

This prompted Linton to propose several terms to describe how even ascribed status can change. These terms are outlined below.

Delayed Ascription

Delayed ascription refers to an assigned status that is assigned later in life. An example is the onset of a disability in adulthood which fundamentally changes people’s perception of you in the social hierarchy.

Fluid Ascription

Fluid ascription refers to situations where an assigned status becomes ascribed in adulthood. This occurs when you’re given a status without your choice and then you choose to keep it or lose it as an adult.

One example of fluid ascription is religion. Many people are raised within a religious tradition without their free will or choice , and then in adulthood they have to choose whether to keep or lose that ascription.

What is master status?

Master status is the status that is the dominant social status of a person. For example, Bull Clinton’s dominant status will always be remembered as a president of the United States. His other statuses as father, husband, Democrat, Caucasian, and college graduate are all secondary to his main, or master, status feature.

Sometimes, what society perceives to be your master status is different from the one you perceive for yourself. For example, Bill Clinton may think the most important status for himself personally is that of a father.

Ascribed statuses are features of a person that influence their position in the social hierarchy. They cause unfair social stratification that can advantage some people and disadvantage others despite the fact you don’t choose any of these identifying features.

Examples of ascribed status include race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, inherited title, and disability.

Best Sociology Essay Examples

Ascribed and achieved status.

618 words | 3 page(s)

People develop their personalities through a myriad of means. Then, this development is perceived socially as either ascribed or achieved. An ascribed status is born with the individual and may be prescribed by their gender, ethnicity, religion and/or cultural perspective(s). It is something that is completely engrained in their sense of being. In many ways people within society judge ascribed parts of an individuals’ personality for his/her entire life making features of this personality quite robust. However, every individual also has the innate ability to pursue his/her dreams and aspirations.

There is a constant and precise adaptive mechanism in every human being. The personality that adapts in relation to the environment and the wishes of the individual is called the achieved status. Put simply every human being has input into their achieved status. Ultimately, both the achieved and ascribed status in sum represents how people see the individual in the real world. In reality, when a person exists between some combination of the two it is likely the best way of finding an equilibrium and developing a well balanced personality.

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There are some social factors that cannot be ignored in the discussion of personality. For example, a person of the Muslim culture undergoes many racial stereotypes on a daily basis, some positive and some negative. The individual him/herself may simply be looking for a spiritual analysis of what is going on internally. Instead the world around him/her forces judgment on the process by which people analyze themselves. That judgment is an ascribed quality, i.e. it is a measured judgment with which that the individual will always be attributed (Macions, 2013).

These presuppositions are likely to follow the individual for their entire lives making them eternally conscious of the context into which they were born. Often this can even extend beyond the realm of culture. Sometimes social status also affects an individual’s ascribed status. A person who is born into a rich family may forever be rich. At times this can even result in a parent that forces their child to perpetuate his/her lifestyle. For this very reason, it is not surprising that many people choose to go into a family business. Not only is it what they know from childhood, but they also feel compelled to live up to their ascribed personality.

Achieved status on the other hand describes the ability for people to migrate in their social status. Although people may be born in one particular status that is not to say they will be forever condemned to these ideas. Some will follow them forever where other aspects have the potential to change a great deal. While some aspects of ascribed status, for example gender and race penetrate the achieved status, an individual does maintain control over this part of his/her personality. For example, a lawyer might be the first person in her family to graduate from college.

Her educational and social status would be attributed to her hard work and dedication. That is why it is considered achieved versus ascribes status. Status is more complex than gender or racial considerations although these two aspects inevitably play a part in status (Macions, 2013). Someone raised in a lower socioeconomic class who becomes a doctor has an achieved status as a high member of the medical community. That person will assuage some of the lesser stereotypes associated with growing up poor. This may be an unfair construct considering the complex environments in which people grow up and develop however, the silver lining is that an achieved status allows for a person to be as successful as he/she can imagine. Developing in this manner is what life is all about.

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Free Essay About Social Status

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Education , Sociology , Parents , Time , Students , Family , Society , Workplace

Words: 1400

Published: 02/19/2020

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Social status is one of the elements that are applied in defining people in most societies. It can be described as the rank or position that an individual or group of people in the society. Social status is described from two main perspectives: achieved status, and ascribed status. Achieved status is a status that an individual earn, whereas ascribed status is inherited, and is based on family background, ethnic group, race, or sex. In addition to ascribed and achieved statuses, individuals can also be ranked in terms of master status, which is an individual’s position that is the core with regard to how he/she runs if life. The focus of this paper is to discuss my social status, based on the above mentioned categories of social status. A number of ascribed statuses are applicable in my case. To begin with, one of my ascribed statuses can be described based race. Based on race, I can be described as belong to the white people. My status can also be described based on the economic conditions of my family, especially my parents. In this case, I belong to an economically stable middle class family because my parents. My parents earn a significant amount of income, through employment and family small family business. On the same note, I can also be described as being part of the working class family, because my parents are working under the formal employment. From the description of ascribed status, it is imperative to note that these are statuses that are given to individuals involuntarily, and they have no control over them. On the other hand, one of my achieved statuses is being an undergraduate student. It is an achieved status because I have worked hard all through from the lower levels of education up to where I am today. Without hard work I could not be an undergraduate student today. My other achieved status is being an athlete. I liked athletics ever since I was a young child, and I became interested and motivated to participate in athletics. It is important to note that achieved status is taken voluntarily because an individual takes it willing rather than being imposed on them. Besides, the achieved status is a clear indication of who we really are, because such status is earned, or that we work for. A master status is yet another status under which individual can be described. This is a social position that appears to be among the crucial positions held by an individual. It not only identifies, but also influences the behavior and roles of an individual. Especially, the master status is based on the occupation of an individual. In my case, my master status is a student. Therefore, the student status dictates how I behave as well as my roles. For instance, being a student, I must attend classes and do assignments because that is the main obligations of being a student. My status, based on the above mentioned categories are different from that of my parents or grandparents. For instance, under the achieved status category, one of their statuses is being parents or grandparents. Besides, they have been married for a long time now. Furthermore, my parents are employed as well as operate their own businesses. On the other hand, my grandparents are no longer working, having retired a number of years ago. The master status of my parents is being employed. All these are different in my scenario in various ways. For instance, whereas my parents have been married for each other and have children, I am yet to be involved in any kind of married lifestyle. Furthermore, whereas coming from a family of working parents is my ascribed status, it is an achieved status, and perhaps a master status, in the case of my parents. Undoubtedly, family, work, as well as other activities hold the same personal identification status for me in the same way they did for my parents. For instance, my grandparents were working at one given point when my parents were young; therefore, they were ranked as coming from the working families. Besides, they were also students at one given point; hence enjoyed the status of being a student, the same position I am currently enjoying. This indicates that as time goes by, our status in the society keeps on changing over time. Whereas some ascribed statuses remain intact, the achieved and master status keep on changing from time to time because they are voluntarily attained rather than being imposed on us. Perhaps, my grandparents experienced different conflicts or strain than what we are facing today. For example, during their era education had not advanced as the way it has over the past few years. Therefore, what they learnt and the way they were taught is quite different from what we learn and how we are taught. Furthermore, advancement of technology has brought about major differences in terms of achieved statuses than in the past. In the contemporary society, our achievements largely depend on how we relate and embrace modern technology. For example, the employed people had to physically be at the workplace during working hours. However, through the use of the internet and other forms of advanced technology, people can work away from their workplace in the same manner they could have worked by being present at their working places. With the help of sites such as skype, an individual can govern and control other people away from the worlplace. All these indicate how technology and modern lifestyle have come to re-define our achieved, ascribed, and master statuses in the society. The man difference that I have noticed in the social status of my parents and grandparents and my current social status is that economic conditions is a major factor in the way people are socially classified. As people’s economic status change, so is their social status within the society. In addition, economic status acts as a base of the other status that people are either assigned involuntary or attain in the course of their lifetime. It is also evident that the master statuses keep on changing, depending on the efforts of individuals towards achieving what they desire in life. I expect various statuses for my life in the future. Particularly, I hope to realize more achieved statuses, because these are the statuses that I can easily change depending on how much effort I put towards attaining my goals and objectives. It is my great desire that I would join the working class once I am through with my education. Particularly, I have a great desire of being part of the most influential sociologist, working together with other sociologists towards improving our society in every way possible. Undoubtedly, the key to this dream is working hard in my education, because competition for job opportunities is ever increasing from time to time. Furthermore, like everybody else, I have a desire of joining the upper class, or at least improve on the benchmark that my parents has set for us as their kids, through attaining economic independence. Starting a family is another status that I would like to attain in the future. It is a dream for every person to get a life partner and perhaps at some point get children and settle down as a family. In conclusion, social status can be described from two major perspectives: achieved status, and ascribed status. The achieved status is voluntary and people have control over it. It depends on the efforts and determination of realizing the various achieved statuses. Some of the achieved statuses include being married, a father or mother to somebody, and being employed. On the other hand, ascribed status is the position that an individual takes because of his/her family background. Therefore, it is a status that is taken involuntary by an individual; and this category of social status includes being part of a rich family, ethnic group, race, or sex. Furthermore, there is also a master status, which does not only identify, but also influence the behavior and roles of an individual.

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Achieved status / ascribed status essay.

Dutch anthropologist Fons Trompenaars and English business professor Charles Hampden-Turner developed seven dimensions of culture that give key insights into successful international trade negotiations. The two researchers studied how people in specific countries resolve dilemmas, and based on an examination of thousands of respondents in over 100 countries, they identified seven basic dimensions for culture. International businesspeople use these dimensions when they design business strategies for different cultures, a task that is particularly important for dealing with emerging markets. One of the dimensions is achieved status versus ascribed status, which is defined below. Applications of the dimension then follow.

The concept of achieved versus ascribed status stems from the work of Talcott Parsons in his studies of social stratification, which Parsons defined as the “differential ranking of human individuals who compose a given social system and their treatment as superior or inferior relative to one another in certain socially important respects.” Parsons defines ascribed status as that which results from birth or biological hereditary qualities, such as sex, age, or inherited socioeconomic status. At the other end of the spectrum, Parsons proposes that achieved status results from personal actions, such as that accomplished through talent and hard work.

Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner adapt Parsons’ thinking on ascribed versus achieved status to the study of cross-cultural management. Thus, Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner propose that an “achievement culture” is one in which people are accorded status based on how well they perform their functions, while an “ascription culture” is one in which status is attributed based on who or what a person is. Achievement cultures give high status to high achievers, such as the company’s top salesperson or the drug researcher who finds a new treatment for controlling blood sugar. In an achievement-oriented culture, the first question someone may ask is “What do you do?” or “What have you done?”, thus putting an emphasis on accomplishments.

In achievement cultures, social status can be changed through social mobility, the change of position within the stratification system. Changes in status can be upward or downward. Social mobility is more frequent in societies where achievement rather than ascription accounts for one’s social status. Historically, social mobility has been typical of the United States.

Ascription Cultures

Ascription cultures accord status based on age, gender, schools attended, or social connections. Perhaps the most extreme form of ascribed status was the caste system in traditional society in India. Each person’s caste group was determined at birth, as children joined their parents’ caste group. Moving out of one’s caste was virtually impossible as each caste could only perform certain jobs. Unskilled and low-paying jobs were reserved for lower castes, while highly skilled occupations were reserved for other castes.

In organizations in an ascription culture, the person who is part of the “old boys’ network” may rise faster in an organization than someone who does not interact with the network. Similarly, an organizational member who has been with the company for 25 years may be listened to more often because of the respect that others have for the person’s age and tenure with the firm. Thus, in an ascription-oriented culture, the first question someone might ask is “Where are you from?” or “Who is your family?”, focusing on inherent characteristics.

For example, though this is slowly changing, in U.S. culture, males, particularly white males, have a high ascribed status and females have a lower ascribed status. The high ascribed status of males can outweigh many other status and power factors, including high achieved status and high-dominant personality traits in a woman. To counteract the initial ascribed status differences based on sex, research on leadership demonstrates that to reduce the power disadvantage experienced by females because of their low ascribed status, women had to be made to appear more competent than men in order to attain the same level within an organization.

To illustrate the influence of achieved status versus ascribed status, Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner asked respondents from different countries whether status should be based on age (an ascribed status). Over 60 percent of American, Australian, British, Canadian, and Swedish respondents disagreed that age should be given special consideration. By contrast, over 60 percent of Japanese, Korean, and Singaporean respondents agreed that age should be given additional status.

Among the ascription cultures are Belgium, Brazil, China, France, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Singapore, and Venezuela. By contrast, achievement cultures include the United States, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Austria, Germany, Mexico, and Spain. Trompenaars further found that nations’ cultural values tend to cluster together. He identified five such clusters—an Anglo cluster, an Asian cluster, a Latin American cluster, a Latin European cluster, and a Germanic cluster. While countries within each culture do not share every dimension in common, there are far more similarities with the clusters than there are differences.

Applications

In achievement cultures, an organizational member’s title is only used when it is relevant. In addition, superiors earn respect through job performance. Organizations in achievement cultures often have a diversity of age, gender, and race/ethnicity in management positions.

In ascription cultures, the use of titles is expected as a sign of respect. Furthermore, whether or not the superior has earned his or her position through job performance, respect for the superior is integral to showing commitment to the organization. Finally, managers are often chosen based on their background (such as did they graduate from the “right schools”) and age.

Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner recommend that when individuals from achievement cultures do business in ascription cultures, they should be aware that such cultures emphasize seniority in the chain of command. Consequently, individuals from achievement cultures make sure that their group has older, senior, and formal position-holders who can impress the other side, especially by respecting the status and influence of their counterparts in the other group. On the other hand, Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner recommend that when individuals from ascription cultures do business in achievement cultures, they need to be aware that firms emphasize rewards and respect based on skills and accomplishments.

In addition, it is common that managers defer to those who possess expertise in certain technical and functional areas of the company. Thus, businesspeople going into achievement cultures should make sure that their group has the resources (such as data, technical advisers, and additional experts) to convince the other group that they respect the knowledge and information of their counterparts in the other company.

Bibliography:

Talcott Parsons, “An Analytical Approach to the Theory of Social Stratification,” American Journal of Sociology (v.45, 1940);
Larry Samovar, Richard Porter, and Edwin McDaniel, Intercultural Communication: A Reader, 11th ed. (Thomson Wadsworth, 2005);
Fons Trompenaars, Riding the Waves of Culture (Irwin, 1994);
Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner, Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business (McGraw-Hill, 1997).

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Achieved And Ascribed Status In Today’S World: [Essay Example], 1828
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Achieved Social Status: Characteristics
⛔ Example of an achieved status. Why is achieved status important
️ Examples of ascribed status and achieved status. Sociology: Achieved
Achieved Status: Definition and Examples in Simple Words

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COMMENTS

11.4: Achieved Status vs. Ascribed Status
Cultural Example of Achieved Status. American society possesses a number of examples of achieved status. In America, it is culturally acceptable (if you have the necessary resources) to begin life at the low end of the social ladder and to work your way up, by means of achieving a proper education, making useful social connections, and getting promoted within your career.
23 Achieved Status Examples (2024)
23 Achieved Status Examples. Examples of achieved status include a reward or honor, a university degree, self-made wealth, and your profession. Achieved status is defined as a status that you have earned or chosen rather than one that you were born with. This type of status give you a great deal of prestige, privilege, and honor because you ...
Achieved Status: Definition & Examples
Achieved status is a position in society which individuls gain through their own efforts, rather than being born into it. In modern industrial societies, education is the main way in which individuals can achieve a particular status through acquiring qualifications. Achieved statuses serve as a reflection of someone's ability, choices, or ...
Essay on Ascribed and Achieved Statuses
In my essay, I try to explain what ascribed and achieved statuses are, and I try to explain how some of them have notable similarities. I also explain how such statuses usually affect the social and industrial roles a person takes or has. Anthropologist Ralph Linton said that achieved status is a social position.
Achieved Status Versus Ascribed Status in Sociology
Sociology: Achieved Status Versus Ascribed Status. Status is a term that is used often in sociology. Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of status, achieved status and ascribed status. Each can refer to one's position, or role, within a social system—child, parent, pupil, playmate, etc.—or to one's economic or social position within that ...
Achieved Social Status: Characteristics
Generally, achieved social status would make an individual happy for attaining it for example becoming a teacher, a footballer, an engineer, becoming a husband or wife. Consequentially, bad achieved social status can make a person feel sad for instance if a person makes a choice of becoming a criminal, rapist, or drug addict.
Social Structure: The Building Blocks of Social Life
The status of student is an achieved status, as is the status of restaurant server or romantic partner, to cite just two of the many achieved statuses that exist. ... Write a brief essay in which you comment on which of the groups are more meaningful to you and which are less meaningful to you. Previous Section. Table of Contents.
Understanding Achieved Status in Social Science: Definition, Examples
Examples of achieved status include being a doctor, a lawyer, a musician, or an athlete. More Answers: Exploring the Dynamics of Societal Roles: Insights for Sociologists. Understanding Achieved vs Ascribed Status: The Significance of Occupation in Social Sciences Master Status: How It Shapes Your Social Identity and Life Path in Sociology
Achieved Status
Achieved and ascribed status, and the concept of social status in general is a foundational principle in sociology. Social status, including achieved status, affects many facets of life, including ...
Achieved status
Achieved status is a concept developed by the anthropologist Ralph Linton for a social position that a person can acquire on the basis of merit and is earned or chosen through one's own effort. It is the opposite of ascribed status and reflects personal skills, abilities, and efforts. Examples of achieved status are being an Olympic athlete, a ...
5.1 Social Structure: The Building Blocks of Social Life
The status of student is an achieved status, as is the status of restaurant server or romantic partner, to cite just two of the many achieved statuses that exist. ... Write a brief essay in which you comment on which of the groups are more meaningful to you and which are less meaningful to you. References. Tönnies, F. (1963).
Roles and the Presentation of Self
Others, called achieved statuses, are obtained by choice, such as high school dropout, self-made millionaire, or nurse. As a daughter or son, you occupy a different status than as a neighbor or employee. ... achieved status: the status a person chooses, such as a level of education or income ascribed status: the status outside of an individual ...
Achieved Status
Achieved status is conventionally paired with ascribed status as two ways individuals attain status, but the line between them is not distinct. There are cultural and temporal variations in the relative importance of achieved and ascribed statuses. Ascribed status can have direct impact on achieved status and can also interact with achieved ...
Ascribed Status vs. Achieved Status: The Case of Homelessness
An ascribed status is involuntary, something we cannot choose. Race, ethnicity, and the social class of our parents are examples of ascribed statuses. On the other hand, an achieved status is something we accomplish in the course of our lives. To some extent, achieved status reflects our work and effort. College student, college dropout, CEO ...
Achieved and Ascribed Status in Today's World
Ascribe status being what people might physically see another individual as, whether they know them or not. Whereas, achieve status refers to their hard work and their perseverance to getting to where they are today (Schaefer, 2009, p109). Based on this no matter where you live in the world in today's society, when a person looks at another ...
23 Ascribed Status Examples
Ascribed status is a concept in sociology that works in contrast to achieved status (a social status that you worked for) and master status ... Cite this Article in your Essay (APA Style) Drew, C. (January 16, 2022). 23 Ascribed Status Examples - Sociology Guide. Helpful Professor.
Examples Of Achieved Statuses
An achieved status is acquired on the basis of merit; it is a position that is earned or chosen and reflects a person's skills, abilities, and efforts. Examples of achieved statuses include one's profession. An ascribed status, on the other hand, is one that is beyond an individual's control. It is not earned, but rather something people are ...
Ascribed and Achieved Status
While some aspects of ascribed status, for example gender and race penetrate the achieved status, an individual does maintain control over this part of his/her personality. For example, a lawyer might be the first person in her family to graduate from college. Her educational and social status would be attributed to her hard work and dedication ...
Essay About Achievements: Top 5 Examples and 6 Prompts
This topic asks you to highlight the relationship between confidence and achievements. You can interview someone confident in themselves. Ask for tips on building confidence and relay them to your readers while explaining the opportunities they can get by believing in themselves more. 4. The Power Of Overcoming Fear.
Essays On Social Status
Published: 02/19/2020. Social status is one of the elements that are applied in defining people in most societies. It can be described as the rank or position that an individual or group of people in the society. Social status is described from two main perspectives: achieved status, and ascribed status. Achieved status is a status that an ...
Achieved Status / Ascribed Status Essay
Parsons defines ascribed status as that which results from birth or biological hereditary qualities, such as sex, age, or inherited socioeconomic status. At the other end of the spectrum, Parsons proposes that achieved status results from personal actions, such as that accomplished through talent and hard work.
Ascribed and Achieved Status
Ascribed and Achieved Status. Status is the social position a person occupies within a social group with a role that our society expects us to play in a given status. For example, a man may have the status of father in his family. Because of his given status, he is expected to fulfill a role for his children, and in most societies that would ...
Achieved Status Essay
Achieved Status Essay - Viola V. Madsen #20 in Global Rating What's the minimum time you need to complete my order? 1(888)814-4206 1(888)499-5521. If you can't write your essay, then the best solution is to hire an essay helper. Since you need a 100% original paper to hand in without a hitch, then a copy-pasted stuff from the internet won't ...
A look at some of the turmoil surrounding the Boy Scouts
IRVING, Texas (AP) — Founded in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America achieved a vaunted status in the U.S. over the decades, with pinewood derbies, the Scout Oath and Eagle Scouts becoming part of the lexicon.. Lore has it that American businessman William Boyce was inspired to start the organization after he became lost in the fog in London and was guided to his destination by a youth who turned ...
Global VC deals for May 16, 2024
Humanity Protocol, a cybersecurity company using blockchain technology, has achieved unicorn status with a $30 million round led by Kingsway Capital. Alkira, a cloud software developer based in San Jose, raised a $100 million Series C led by Tiger Global. UK-based nuclear energy startup Newcleo has raised €87 million from undisclosed investors, Sifted reported.
What We Know About Where Aid Can Enter Gaza
Here is a look at the major routes for aid into Gaza and their status. Kerem Shalom Israel shut down the Kerem Shalom crossing after a Hamas attack on Sunday killed four of its soldiers in the area.
Opinion
Ms. Stevenson-Yang is a co-founder of J Capital Research and the author of "Wild Ride: A Short History of the Opening and Closing of the Chinese Economy." On separate visits to Beijing last ...
Michael Block, who achieved cult hero status at the 2023 PGA
Block achieved cult hero status while finishing in a tie for 15th last year at Oak Hill. Club pro Michael Block is back at the PGA Championship. ... The 47-year-old understands the shelf life for the instant celebrity status he gained by tying for 15th at the 2023 PGA Championship — a weekend that included a slam-dunk hole-in-one and an epic ...
OC club pro Michael Block, who lived a dream in 2023, returns for
The 47-year-old understands the shelf life for the instant celebrity status he gained by tying for 15th at the 2023 PGA Championship — a weekend that included a slam-dunk hole-in-one and an epic ...
Opinion
Mr. Weissmann teaches at the N.Y.U. School of Law and is a co-author of "The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents With Commentary." For the final stage of the prosecutors' case ...

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5. Disability

6. Physical Appearance

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8. Birth Order

9. Citizenship at Birth

10. First Language

12. Inherited Title

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