Counseling Psychology and Pedagogy Master Program PSD 437

1. SOCIAL STATUSSOCIAL STATUS
A RECOGNIZED SOCIAL POSITION THAT ANA RECOGNIZED SOCIAL POSITION THAT AN
INDIVIDUAL OCCUPIESINDIVIDUAL OCCUPIES
• STATUS SETSTATUS SET
– ALL THEALL THE
STATUSES HELDSTATUSES HELD
AT ONE TIMEAT ONE TIME
• BOSSBOSS
• FRIENDFRIEND
• HARLEY CLUBHARLEY CLUB
MEMBERMEMBER
• SPORTSSPORTS
PARTICIPANTPARTICIPANT
• BUSINESSMANBUSINESSMAN

2. •TYPE OF STATUS
–ASCRIBED: INVOLUNTARY POSITIONS
–ACHIEVED: VOLUNTARY POSITIONS
•OFTEN THE TWO TYPES WORK
TOGETHER, WHAT WE ARE ASCRIBED
OFTEN HELPS US ACHIEVE OTHER
STATUSES

3. ASCRIBED AND ACHIEVED
 Ascribed
 Race
 Sex
 Age
 Ethnicity
 Physical Characteristics
 Caste
 Achieved
 Occupation
 Education
 Social class

4. STATUS SET

5. MASTER STATUS
 A status that has special importance for
social identity, often shaping a person’s
entire life.
 Profession, job, family name, title,
disability, applied stigma (felon)

6. ROLESROLES
......THE BEHAVIOR EXPECTED OF SOMEONE WHO FILLS ATHE BEHAVIOR EXPECTED OF SOMEONE WHO FILLS A
PARTICULAR STATUSPARTICULAR STATUS
• ROLE SETROLE SET
– A NUMBER OF
ROLES ATTACHED
TO A SINGLE
STATUS
• DISCIPLINARIAN
• SPORTS AUTHORITY
• DIETITIAN
• BUSINESSWOMAN
• CAREGIVER
• DR. MOM
• KITCHEN QUEEN
• PRETTY MOM

7. ROLES DEMAND A PERSON’S
TIME AND ENERGY
• ROLE CONFLICTROLE CONFLICT
– INVOLVES TWO OR MORE
STATUSES
• EXAMPLE: CONFLICT BETWEEN ROLE
EXPECTATIONS OF A POLICE OFFICER WHO
CATCHES HER OWN SON USING DRUGS AT
HOME – MOTHER AND COP
•ROLE STRAINROLE STRAIN
– INVOLVES A SINGLE STATUS
• EXAMPLE: MANAGER WHO TRIES TO
BALANCE CONCERN FOR WORKERS
WITH TASK REQUIREMENTS – OFFICE
MANAGER

8. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF
REALITY
 People shape reality through social interaction
 Tomas Theorem- “situations that are defined as
real are real in their consequences”
 Ethnomethodology- the study of the way people
make sense of their world
 People build reality from the surrounding
culture. Why?

9. DRAMATURGICAL ANALYSIS
THE “PRESENTATION OF
SELF”
 Presentation of self- impression management
 Performances
 Nonverbal communications
 Gender and performances
 idealization

10. THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION
OF FEELINGS
 Biological components
 Cultural components- personal space
 Language and value
 Humor- contrasting the conventional to the
unconventional
 Functions of humor
release of potentially disruptive sentiments
relieve tension in uncomfortable situations
humor and power; “put-down jokes”

11. SOCIAL CLASS AND
SOCIOECONOMIC
STRATIFICATION
Caste and Class
Socioeconomic status and Class in the U.S.
Socioeconomic Mobility
Sociological analysis of stratification and Class
Functionalist
Conflict
Integration – Distributive Systems Theory
Symbolic Interactionist

12. THE GREAT SOCIAL
TRANSFORMATION AND SOCIAL
CLASS
 Traditional hunting and gathering societies had
little stratification
 Horticultural and agrarian societies have highly
developed systems in which a small elite dominates
the masses of peasant laborers. Although there is
stratification, there is virtually no socioeconomic
mobility.
 With industrialization, the rigidity of class lessens,
and there is social mobility, especially within the
large middle class, and from the lower into the middle
classes.

14. SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
• IT IS A TRAIT OF SOCIETY
– DOES NOT REFLECT INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES, BUT
SOCIETY’S STRUCTURE
• IT PERSISTS OVER GENERATIONS
– SOCIAL MOBILITY HAPPENS SLOWLY
• IT IS UNIVERSAL
– WHILE UNIVERSAL, IT VARIES IN TYPE
• IT INVOLVES INEQUALITY IN BELIEF
SYSTEM
– IDEOLOGIES JUSTIFY EXISTENCE OF
STRATIFICATION
A SYSTEM BY WHICH A SOCIETY RANKS CATEGORIES
OF PEOPLE IN A SOCIAL HIERARCHY.

15. WHAT IS SOCIAL CLASS?
 Social class - a large group of people who
rank closely to one another in wealth,
power, and prestige.
 These elements separate people into
different lifestyles.
 Social class provides people with different
chances, and different ways of viewing the
world.

16. COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL CLASS
 Wealth - consists of
property and income.
 Wealth and income are
not the same.
 Some have wealth but
little income.
 Americans as a whole
are worth about $25
trillion.
 The top 20% of the
population receives
almost half of all
income in the U.S.
 The bottom 20%
receives only 4.2% of
the nation’s income.
 The richest 20% have
grown richer, and the
bottom 20% have grown
poorer.

17. COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL CLASS
 Power - the ability to
carry out your will
despite resistance.
 The power elite - those
who make the big
decisions in U.S. society.
 Power lies in the hands
of the few.
 Prestige - respect or
regard
 Class ranking is
persistent across
cultures and time.
 People display prestige
through status symbols.

18. STATUS
 Status - our social ranking.
 Ordinarily, a person has a similar rank in all
three dimensions of social class: wealth,
power, and prestige = status consistency.
 Status inconsistency - when a person has a
mixture of high and low ranks.
Individuals with status inconsistency are likely to
confront one frustrating situation after another.
Snoop Dogg; Jerry Seinfeld; Gangsters; ???

20. CASTE AND CLASS
 A Caste system consists of a fixed arrangement of
strata from the most to the least privileged, with a
person’s position determined unalterably at birth.
Mobility between castes is rare.
 Traditional caste systems still exist, as in India,
however social forces are at work to weaken the
rigidity of this system
 A caste system may be based upon many ethnic
and cultural factors; ethnicity, nationality, religion,
skin color, heredity, and in many ways, gender.

21. CASTE SYSTEMS
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION BASED
ON ASCRIPTION
• BIRTH DETERMINES SOCIAL
POSITION IN FOUR DISTINCT
WAYS
– OCCUPATIONS
– ENDOGAMY IS PRACTICED
– SOCIAL LIFE IS RESTRICTED
– BELIEF SYSTEMS ARE OFTEN TIED TO
RELIGIOUS DOGMA
• LACK OF MOBILITY “I am Dalit”

22. CASTE AND CLASS
 In a Class system social standing is determined by
factors over which people can exert some control,
and mobility does take place. Typically classes are
divided in to the upper class, middle class, and
lower class.
 Marx felt that a person’s position in the economic
system dictated class. Weber added party (political
power) and status (social prestige) as factors.

23. This portion of the site was created to aid in the dismantling of the oppressive political and
social category to which Black people are subject. This caste system, to which power and
privilege are organized, is an outgrowth of colonialism and slavery. The system known as
'racism' in America, was created to justify the oppression and exploitation of American
citizens of African descent.

25. CASTE AND CLASS
 Currently social scientists use several social
dimensions related to those identified by Marx and
Weber:
 Education – education can provide esteem, a
pathway to wealth, and a prestigious occupation.
Historically these benefits have not been shared
equally, demonstrating the operation of power
exercised for the benefit of those who wield it
 Occupational Prestige - some occupations are
valued by a society more than others
 Wealth – assets and income

26. CONSEQUENCES OF SOCIAL CLASS
 In family life, the capitalists place emphasis on
family tradition.
Divorce is most common among the lower social
classes.
 Education increases as one moves up the social
class ladder.
 In religion, certain classes tend to cluster in
different denominations.
 In politics, the rich tend to vote Republican while
the poor tend to vote Democratic.
 WHY?

29. CASTE AND CLASS
 Class in America
 Upper class – the elite with great wealth who own the
“means of production”, or who otherwise dominate
the economic system
 Lower upper class – recently ascended to the upper
class, but do not have the established pedigree;
nouveau riche
 Middle class – professionals with high paying jobs in
respected occupations (upper-middle class), and the
skilled who work in moderately compensated
occupations, and who own few assets (lower-middle
class).

30. CASTE AND CLASS
 Class in America
 Lower class – working class (what does this mean today?)
who do not earn enough to accumulate wealth, but
who may be able to purchase a home and vehicle
etc… The lower-lower class is made up of those who
are not educated (college and sometimes high school)
and live in the less desirable parts of the community
because of low costs of rent. They typically do not own
a home. The lowest of the poor live at subsistence
level or below, are chronically unemployed, and are
sometimes homeless.

31. CASTE AND CLASS
 Class, Race, and Gender interact in order to
produce a person’s place in society, and their self
identity. Race and gender represent ascribed status
and carry with them cultural stereotypes and values
which individuals and groups must confront and
challenge; “intersection theory” page 342. Though
an ascribed status is difficult to change, the social
meanings of a status can be modified or changed
through social action. In capitalistic democracies
class status is somewhat fluid and subject to
modification by the individual.

32. SOCIOECONOMIC MOBILITY
 Social Mobility - Movement of individuals or
groups within a stratification structure
 Intra-generational mobility – movement within
a career of an individual
 Inter-generational mobility – mobility of groups
from one generation to another
 Horizontal mobility – a change from one
occupation to another at the same general status
level
 Vertical mobility – upward or downward
movement of occupational or social class

33. SOCIOECONOMIC MOBILITY
 Determinants of mobility
 Steepness of the socioeconomic pyramid – only very few
positions at the top; how many people can be President?
 Starting position on the socioeconomic ladder – some
persons start closer to the top than others; it is easier to
become President if you are already elected to higher office
 Structural mobility – the movement of entire categories of
people due to changes in society itself; correctional officers
have moved up the occupational status ladder from security
guards to professionals in terms of both income and prestige.
Why?

34. WHY STRATIFIED?
THE DAVIS-MOORE PERSPECTIVE
• THESIS
– STRATIFICATION HAS BENEFICIAL CONSEQUENCES (IT’S
FUNCTIONAL) FOR THE OPERATION OF THE U.S..
• KEY POINTS
– MEMBERS OF SOCIETY HAVE NEEDS
– SOME STATUSES IN SOCIETY ARE MORE IMPORTANT
THAN OTHERS WHEN IT COMES TO SEEING TO NEEDS
– TO ATTRACT THE BEST QUALIFIED AND TO GIVE OF
THEIR TIME, EFFORT, AND ENERGIES, REWARDS MUST BE
SUFFICIENT IN NATURE (INCOME, PRESTIGE, POWER)
– KEY CONCEPT
– MERITOCRACY AND GETTING WHAT YOU “DESERVE”
– DOES EVERYONE IN AMERICA GET WHAT THEY
DESERVE?

35. ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE
• ONE’S PLIGHT IN LIFE IS TIED TO A
PERSON’S RELATIONSHIP TO THE
MEANS OF PRODUCTION
– A PERSON EITHER CONTROLS MONEY
AND EQUIPMENT, OR WORKS FOR THOSE
WHO DO
• THROUGH INHERITENCE LAWS, SOCIAL
CLASSES THEN REPRODUCE
THEMSELVES OVER GENERATIONS
• EVENTUALLY, YEARS OF CLASS
OPPRESSION WOULD LEAD TO
CAPITALISM’S DEMISE
– SOCIALISM REPLACES CAPTIALISM
KARL MARX BELIEVED THAT CAPITALIST SYSTEMS OF
STRATIFICATION WOULD ALWAYS BENEFIT A FEW AT THE EXPENSE OF THE MANY

36. IDEOLOGICAL SUPPORT
FOR INEQUALITY
 There exists in the beliefs of people explanations
which justify or legitimize a particular societal
structure. There will always be, in the minds of
those who are privileged in a society, the
desire to justify their good fortune as being a
result of personal qualities such as hard
work.* The social scientist, however, looks for
structural reasons for the patterns of the
distribution of wealth, for admission to and
graduation from the best universities, and the
securing of the best jobs.
* “self-serving bias”

37. IDEOLOGICAL SUPPORT FOR
INEQUALITY
 Marx argued that the class(es) in power impose
their ideology on the entire society, and that false
consciousness occurs when people without power
accept an ideology that is contrary to the interests
of that people as a class.
 Marx further suggested that this false
consciousness will exist until the exploited class
develops a sense of class consciousness, at which
time the people will unite in the pursuit of their
collective interests and challenge the power classes.
 The history of racial minorities!!!!!!!!

39. SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF
STRATIFICATION AND CLASS
 Functionalist Perspective
 The lower class provides a pool of inexpensive laborers that help
keep prices down
 The poor buffer the lower-middle class from economic changes
 People have different skills and knowledge and will always seek
different opportunities
 Conflict Perspective
 Stratification and class are the results of the inequality in the
distribution of the wealth, which is sustained by the exertion of
power
 Symbolic Interactionist Perspective
 People are socialized to accept inequality
 People in the subordinate classes often adopt the value systems
of those in power and see themselves as unworthy; Marx?

40. RELATIVE VERSUS ABSOLUTE
POVERTY
 Relative Poverty:
An uneven distribution of wealth where some
people lack resources that are taken for granted
by others
 Absolute Poverty:
A situation in which the lack of resources is life-
threatening

41. RELATIVE VERSUS ABSOLUTE
POVERTY
 Poverty and Women:
In poor countries men own 90% of the land.
70% of the world’s 1 billion people living near
absolute poverty are women

42. SLAVERY
 Chattel slavery– one owns another
 Child slavery- children used to beg, steal, or work
 Debt bondage- workers are not paid enough to pay
for their expenses
 Servile forms of marriage- women are sold off
into marriage or prostitution

43. GLOBAL POWER RELATIONSHIPS
 Colonialism – the process by which some nations
enrich themselves through political and economic
control of other nations
 Neocolonialism – a new form of power
relationship that involves economic exploitation by
multinational corporations

44. GLOBAL STRATIFICATION
 Modernization Theory – explains global inequality
in terms of technological and cultural differences
between nations stages of modernization
 Dependency Theory – explains global inequality in
terms of the historical exploitation of poor nations by
powerful ones

45. WALLERSTEIN’S CAPITALIST
WORLD ECONOMY
 Rich nations = core
 Low-income = periphery
 Middle-income = semi-periphery
resources are funneled into rich nations through
colonialism, which uses cheap labor to mine or
harvest raw materials; both the low and middle-
income countries become markets for products.
3 Factors include 1. narrow export markets;
2. lack of industrialization capacity; and, 3.
foreign debt