Chapter 7: Social Class, The Structure of Inequality

Question 1

Social Stratification

Answer 1

the division of society into groups arranged in a social hierarchy

(i.e. members may be grouped according to their gender, race, class, age, or other characteristics, depending on whatever criteria are more important to that society)

Question 2

Social Inequality

Answer 2

the unequal distribution of wealth, power, or prestige among members of a society

(i.e. being wealthy, white, heterosexual, or male typically confers a higher status on a person than does being poor, nonwhite, queer, or female)

Question 3

Slavery

Answer 3

the most extreme form of social stratification, based on the ownership of people

(i.e. sex trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery)

Question 4

Caste System

Answer 4

a form of social stratification in which status is determined by one’s family history and background and cannot be changed

(i.e. members must marry within their own group, and their caste ranking is passed on to their children)

Question 5

Social Class

Answer 5

a system of stratification based on access to such resources as wealth, property, power, and prestige

Question 6

Socioeconomic Status (SES)

Answer 6

a measure of an individual’s place within a social class system; often used interchangeably with “class”

(i.e. during the course of a lifetime generations can move up or down levels in the strata)

Question 7

Intersectionality

Answer 7

a concept that identifies how different categories of inequality intersect to shape the lives of individuals and groups

(i.e. our life chances are influenced by our class and our race and our gender and our religion and our age all together, not one at a time)

Question 8

Upper Class

Answer 8

an elite and largely self-sustaining group who possess most of the country’s wealth

(i.e. some come from “old money” like the Rockefeller and others come from “new money” like Cardi B)

Question 9

Upper-Middle Class

Answer 9

social class consisting of mostly highly educated professionals and managers who have considerable financial stability

(i.e. well educated and highly skilled professional and managerial jobs)

Question 10

Middle Class

Answer 10

social class composed primarily of white collar workers with a broad range of education and incomes

(i.e. white collar workers with most having a high school education and a two- or four-year college degree)

Question 11

White Collar

Answer 11

a description characterizing lower-level professional and management workers and some highly skilled laborers in technical jobs

(i.e. tradespeople, skilled laborers in technical and lower-management jobs, small entrepreneurs)

Question 12

Working class/Lower-middle class

Answer 12

social class consisting of mostly blue collar or service industry workers who typically do not have a college degree

(i.e. typically have a high school education and generally work in manual labor as well as in the service industry jobs that are often more routine)

Question 13

Blue Collar

Answer 13

a description characterizing skilled and semiskilled workers who perform manual labor or work in service or clerical jobs

(i.e. retail, restaurant, tourism, etc.)

Question 14

Working Poor

Answer 14

poorly educated manual and service workers who may work full-time but remain near or below the poverty line

(i.e. most have not completed high school and experience lower levels of literacy than the other classes)

Question 15

Under Class

Answer 15

the poorest group, compromising people who are experiencing homelessness or who are chronically unemployed

(i.e. may hold a few steady jobs and depend on public benefits or charity to survive)

Question 16

Prestige

Answer 16

the social honor people are given because of their membership in well-regarded social groups

(i.e. you might find physicians near the top and janitors near the bottom)

Question 17

Cultural Capital

Answer 17

the tastes, habits, expectations, skills, knowledge and other cultural assets that help us gain advantages in society

(i.e. having highly educated parents who can help with homework and enforce useful study habits makes it more likely a child will succeed in school)

Question 18

Homogamy

Answer 18

the tendency to choose romantic partners who are similar to us in terms of class, race, education, religion, and other group membership

(i.e. “like marries like”)

Question 19

Heterogamy

Answer 19

the tendency to choose romantic partners who are dissimilar to us in terms of class, race, education, religion, and other social group membership

(i.e. marrying someone who is different from us)

Question 20

Hypergamy

Answer 20

marrying “up” in the social class hierarchy

(i.e. women usually marry up)

Question 21

Hypogamy

Answer 21

marrying “down” in the social class hierarchy

(i.e. men usually marry down)

Question 22

Social Mobility

Answer 22

the movement of individuals or groups within the hierarchical system of social classes

Question 23

Closed System

Answer 23

a social system with very little opportunity to move from one class to another
(i.e. India’s caste system)

Question 24

Open System

Answer 24

a social system with ample opportunities to move from one class to another

(i.e. the United States)

Question 25

Intergenerational Mobility

Answer 25

movement between social classes that occurs from one generation to the next

(i.e. when a child eventually moves into a different social class from that of their parents)

Question 26

Intragenerational Mobility

Answer 26

movement between social classes that occurs during the course of an individual’s lifetime

(i.e. the measure between the social class a person is born into and the social status they achieve during their lifetime)

Question 27

Horizontal Social Mobility

Answer 27

the movement of individuals or groups wishing a particular social class, most often as a result of changing occupations

(i.e. a therapist who shifts careers so that they can teach college)

Question 28

Vertical Social Mobility

Answer 28

the movement between different class statuses; often called either upward mobility or downward mobility

(i.e. if a therapist marries a president of a large corporation)

Question 29

Structural Mobility

Answer 29

changes in the social status of large numbers of people as a result of structural changes in society

(i.e. during the Great Depression huge numbers of upper- and middle-class people suddenly found themselves among the poor)

Question 30

Relative Deprivation

Answer 30

a relative measure of poverty based on the standard living in a particular society

(i.e. a retail clerk who works part-time for minimum wage might be considered among the working poor)

Question 31

Absolute Deprivation

Answer 31

an objective measure of poverty, defined by the inability to meet minimal standards for food, shelter, clothing, or health care

(i.e. more than a quarter of adults are living with HIV/AIDS)

Question 32

Just-World Hypothesis

Answer 32

argument that people have a deep need to see the world as orderly, predictable, and fair, which creates a tendency to view victims of social injustice as deserving of their fates

(i.e. can result in assuming that victims have “asked for it” or deserve whatever has befallen them)