Social Stratification in the United States Flashcards
Caste System:
A system in which people are born into a social standing that they will retain for their entire lives.
Class:
A group who shares a common social status based on factors like wealth, income, education, and occupation.
Class System:
Social standing based on social factors and individual accomplishments.
Class Traits:
The typical behaviors, customs, and norms that define each class. Also called class markers.
Conspicuous Consumption:
The act of buying and using products to make a statement about social standing.
Davis-Moore Thesis:
A thesis that argues some social stratification is a social necessity.
Downward Mobility:
A lowering of one’s social class.
Endogamous Marriages:
Unions of people within the same social category.
Exogamous Unions:
Unions of spouses from different social categories.
Global Stratification:
A comparison of the wealth, economic stability, status, and power of countries as a whole.
Income:
The money a person earns from work or investments.
Intergenerational Mobility:
A difference in social classes between different generations of a family.
Intragenerational Mobility:
A difference in social classes between different members of the same generation.
Meritocracy:
An ideal system in which personal effort, or merit, determines social standing.
Primogeniture:
A law stating that all property passes to the firstborn son.
Social Mobility:
The ability to change positions within a social stratification system.
Social Stratification:
A socioeconomic system that divides society’s members into categories ranking from high to low, based on things like wealth, power, and prestige.
Standard Of Living:
The level of wealth available to acquire material goods and comforts to maintain a particular socioeconomic lifestyle.
Status Consistency:
The consistency, or lack thereof, of an individual’s rank across social categories like income, education, and occupation.
Structural Mobility:
A societal change that enables a whole group of people to move up or down the class ladder.
Upward Mobility:
An increase, or upward shift, in social class.
Wealth:
The value of money and assets a person has from, for example, inheritance.
