Sociology Ch 7: Stratification, class, and inequality

Question 1

What is social stratification?

Answer 1

.

Question 2

How is social class defined in the United States?

Answer 2

By some combination of one’s income, wealth, education, and occupation.

Question 3

What are the causes and consequences of social inequality in the United States?

Answer 3

.

Question 4

How does poverty affect individuals?

Answer 4

.

Question 5

How does social inequality affect your life?

Answer 5

.

Question 6

Social stratification

Answer 6

THe existence of structured inequalities between groups in society. Ex) class divisions

Question 7

What are the three key aspects of social stratification?

Answer 7

class, status, and power

Question 8

All socially stratified systems share what three characteristics?

Answer 8

1. Rankings apply to people who share a common characteristic.
2. People’s experiences and opportunities depend heavily on their rank.
3. Ranks of different social categories tend to change very slowly over time.

Question 9

What are the three basic systems of stratification?

Answer 9

slavery, caste, and class

Question 10

Slavery

Answer 10

A form of social stratification in which some people are owned by others as property.

Question 11

Caste system

Answer 11

A social system in which one’s social status is given for life.

Question 12

Caste society

Answer 12

A society in which all individuals must remain at the social level of their birth throughout life.

Question 13

endogamy

Answer 13

The forbidding of marriage or sexual relations outside one’s social group.

Question 14

Class

Answer 14

A large group of people who occupy a similar economic position.

Question 15

Life chances

Answer 15

The opportunities one has for achieving economic prosperity.

Question 16

Who introduced the concept of “life chances”?

Answer 16

Max Weber

Question 17

Class systems differ from slavery and castes in what four ways?

Answer 17

1. They are fluid
2. They are achieved
3. It’s economically based
4. They are large scale and impersonal

Question 18

Name the two important debates about the declining importance in class.

Answer 18

1. Will caste systems give way to class systems in leu of globalization?
2. Is inequality declining in class-based societies?

Question 19

Debate: Will caste systems give way to class systems in leu of globalization?

Answer 19

Most caste-based societies have already given way to class-based. Class-based works better in industrial societies. But elements of caste systems still exist, like little intermarriage between whites and blacks.

Question 20

Debate: Is inequality declining in class-based societies?

Answer 20

Capitalist societies have been increasingly open to movement between classes, thereby reducing the level of inequality. However, inequality has actually been increasing in the United States since the 1970s.

Question 21

What were the most influential theoretical approaches to studying stratification?

Answer 21

Those developed by Karl Marx and Max Weber.

Question 22

Means of production

Answer 22

The means by which someone gains a livelihood.

Question 23

How does Mark see class?

Answer 23

Separated into groups of people who have similar means of production.

Question 24

In modern society, what are the two main classes which own the means of production?

Answer 24

Capitalists and the working class

Question 25

Capitalist

Answer 25

People who own companies, land, or stocks and use them to make monaaay.

Question 26

Surplus value

Answer 26

New value created by workers that is in excess of their own labour-cost and which is therefore available to be appropriated by the capitalist.

Question 27

What did Marx believed that the maturing of industrial capitalism would bring about?

Answer 27

Increasing gap between the wealth of the minority and the poverty of the mass of the population.

Question 28

What are the two main differences between Weber’s theory and that of Marx?

Answer 28

1. Weber believed economic differences derive not only from control or lack of control of the means of production, but from the economic differences that has nothing directly to do with property, like skills and credentials.
2. Distinguished another aspect of stratification besides class which he called “status.”

Question 29

Status

Answer 29

Social honor or prestige.

Question 30

What is the difference between class and status?

Answer 30

Status can vary independent of class divisions. Status is subjective, class is objective.

Question 31

Pariah groups

Answer 31

Negatively privileged status groups.

Question 32

What is Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore’s explanation of stratification?

Answer 32

Functionalist explanation. Argue stratification has beneficial consequences for society. To attract the most qualified people, rewards need to be offered, such as money, power, and prestige.

Question 33

What are some criticisms of Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore’s explanation of stratification?

Answer 33

Theory suggests that a person’s social position is based solely on innate talent and effort. But those at the top to have unequal access to high-quality education and economic resources, making it easier for them to pass their status to the next generation.

Question 34

Income

Answer 34

Wages and salaries earned from paid occupations, and interest from investments.

Question 34

Wealth

Answer 34

All assets individuals own.

Question 35

Upper-class

Answer 35

Consists of the wealthiest of Americans.

Question 36

Middle-class

Answer 36

A social class composed broadly of those working in white-collar and managerial occupations.

Question 37

Working class

Answer 37

Composed of people working in manual occupations.

Question 38

Lower-class

Answer 38

Composed of those who work part-time or not at all.

Question 39

Underclass

Answer 39

A class of individuals situated at the bottom of the class system.

Question 40

Social mobility

Answer 40

Movement between different social positions.

Question 41

Intragenerational mobility

Answer 41

How far one moves up or down economically in the course of their working lives.

Question 42

Intergenerational mobility

Answer 42

Social mobility across generations.

Question 43

Downward mobility

Answer 43

Social mobility in which individuals wealth income or status is lower than they or their parents contacts.

Question 45

Short-range downward mobility

Answer 45

Social mobility that occurs when an individual moves from one position in the class structure to another of nearly equal status.

Question 46

Absolute poverty

Answer 46

Means that a person is too poor to get enough to eat.

Question 47

Relative poverty

Answer 47

Poor compared to the standard of living of the majority.

Question 48

Poverty line

Answer 48

An official government measure to define those living in poverty in the United States.

Question 48

Working poor

Answer 48

People who work but whose earnings are not high enough to lift them above poverty.

Question 49

Feminization of poverty

Answer 49

Increase in the proportion of the poor who are female.

Question 50

Social Security

Answer 50

A government program that provides economic assistance to persons faced with unemployment, disability, or age.

Question 51

Medicare

Answer 51

A program that reimburses medical care provided to qualifying people over 65 years old.

Question 52

Who was Oscar Lewis?

Answer 52

Argued that a culture of poverty exist among many poor people.

Question 53

Culture of poverty

Answer 53

Thesis that poverty is not a result of individual inadequacies but is instead the outcome of the larger social and cultural atmosphere.

Question 54

Who was Charles Murray?

Answer 54

Developed idea those poor through no fault of their own fall into a different category from those who are part of the “dependency culture”.

Question 55

Dependency culture

Answer 55

Describes individuals who rely on state welfare provision rather than entering the labor market.

Question 56

Social exclusion

Answer 56

Ways in which individuals may become cut off from involvement in the wider society.

Question 57

Homeless

Answer 57

Those without a place to sleep.

Question 58

How much is a homeless consist of families with children?

Answer 58

A third.