Social status
In modern societies, occupation is usually thought of as the main dimension of status, but even in modern societies other memberships or affiliations (such as ethnic group, religion, gender, voluntary associations, fandom, hobby) can have an influence. A doctor will have higher status than a factory worker, for instance, but in some societies a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant doctor will have higher status than an immigrant doctor of minority religion.
In pre-modern societies, status differentiation can be more rigid, with the ideal type of the Indian caste being the extreme example, where one's status is determined by one's (conventionally) unchangeable membership of a group.
Status is a key idea in social stratification. Max Weber distinguishes status from social class, but some contemporary empirical sociologists fuse the two ideas into "Socio-Economic Status", usually operationalised as a simple index of income, education and occupational prestige.
Status inconsistency is a situation when an individual social positions have both positive and negative influences on his social status. For example, a teachers have a positive societal image (respect, prestige) which increases his status but may earn little money, which simoultanesly decreases his status.
Statuses that are inborn are called ascribed statuses while statuses that individuals gained their own effort are called achieved statuses. Certain behaviors carry social stigmas that can affect status.
See also
- Ascribed status
- Achieved status
- Power
- Social class
- Social hierarchy
- Social structure of the United States
- Status class
- Status group
- Status symbol
