His life exemplifies the national ideal of a "self-made man". In contrast, his daughter was accorded special treatment while he was in the White House because of her ascribed status as the child of a president.
Both achieved and ascribed statuses exist in all societies. However, some cultures choose to emphasize the importance of one or the other. In North America today, achieved statuses outside of the family are reinforced while ascribed ones are generally rejected. Children are encouraged from an early age to be independent and self-reliant.
They are told to better themselves in life. This can be seen in the admiration of "self-made people" and in the somewhat negative image in the mass media of people who are rich only because they inherited it. This strong cultural bias has led to the enactment of anti-nepotism laws for government jobs. These make it a crime to hire and promote people because they are your relatives.
In addition, the North American emphasis on achieved status has led to an acceptance and encouragement of social class mobility and a rejection of gender and ethnicity based restrictions.
Children are taught in school from an early age that, despite the fact that they may be from a poor family, male or female, they should aspire to get a good education, better themselves and their family economically, and even become a leader in society. In India, ascribed, rather than achieved, social status has been strongly reinforced for more than 3, years and permeates most areas of life even today. As a result, social mobility has been very difficult to achieve until recent generations.
Even now, it is limited for those at the bottom of society. At the heart of the Indian ascription system are castes or varnas. These are carefully ranked, rigidly hereditary social divisions of society. Lower caste woman from Ajmer, India Each of the Indian castes have sub-castes, or jatis , that in turn are ranked relative to each other.
The whole system is reinforced by the Hindu religion and historical traditions. The one sixth of all Indians who are members of the "scheduled castes" are essentially so low in status as to be outside of the formal caste system. They are the poorest people, and they mostly do the "unclean" ritually polluting jobs of sweeping streets, cleaning toilets, tanning leather, etc.
Members of the other castes are not as restricted in their occupations and aspirations today. However, caste identity largely determines who one can marry in India and it prevents socializing across caste lines. Underlying and constantly reinforcing the Indian caste system is the Hindu religion and its concept of ritual pollution. People in the higher castes must take great care not to be polluted by contact with members of the lower castes and especially the "untouchables.
As a result, Indian restaurants usually have chefs who are from the Brahman caste. Since they are at the top of this ascribed status system, they cannot pollute any customers, regardless of their caste. Likewise, a Brahman doctor would be more acceptable to all. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
As Facebook and other social media show so clearly, social networks can be incredibly extensive. Currently only available for. Class 10 Class Differentiate between ascribed and achieved status. Differentiation between Ascribed and Achieved Status : 1. Ascribed status is assigned to an individual by the social system which remain unchangeable. Example : For instance, an individual born in a royal family becomes prince or princess.
Achieved Status is a position which a person obtains through personal his or hers, efforts. Switch Flag Bookmark. What do you mean by role-strain and role-conflict? What is role-set?
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