Ch. 8: Social Class and Social Stratification

Question 1

What is social differentiation?

Answer 1

How different statuses develop in any group, organization, or society.

Question 2

What is social stratification?

Answer 2

A relatively fixed hierarchical arrangement in society by which groups have different access to resources, power, and perceived social worth.

Question 3

What are the 3 types of stratification systems?

Answer 3

Estate, caste, and class

Question 4

Describe the estate stratification system.

Answer 4

An elite or noble class has total control over societal resources

Question 5

Describe the caste stratification system.

Answer 5

A system where status is determined by birth

Question 6

Describe the class stratification system.

Answer 6

A system based on ascribed and achieved statuses

Question 7

What stratification system is the U.S. classified as?

Answer 7

Class

Question 8

Define social class.

Answer 8

The social structural hierarchical position groups hold relative to the economic, social, political, and cultural resources of society

Question 9

What are life chances?

Answer 9

The opportunities that people have in common by virtue of belonging to a particular class.

Question 10

What is conspicuous consumption?

Answer 10

The ostentatious display of goods to mark one’s social status.

Question 11

What is economic resturcturing?

Answer 11

The decline of manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

Question 12

What is income?

Answer 12

The amount of money brought into a household from various sources during a given year

Question 13

What is wealth?

Answer 13

The monetary value of everything one actually owns.

Question 14

What is social mobility?

Answer 14

A person’s or group’s movement over time from one class to another

Question 15

What is class indicated by?

Answer 15

Levels of income, occupational standing, and educational attainment

Question 16

How does economic restructuring affect the working class?

Answer 16

They’re forced into lower-wage jobs such as fast food

Question 17

What is socioeconomic status?

Answer 17

A measure of class standing, typically indicated by income, occupational prestige, and educational attainment

Question 18

What is prestige?

Answer 18

The value with which different groups of people are judged.

Question 19

What is occupational prestige?

Answer 19

The subjective evaluation people give to jobs as better or worse than others.

Question 20

What is educational attainment?

Answer 20

The total years of formal education

Question 21

What is the main idea of Marx’s theory of class conflict?

Answer 21

Class is not simply a matter of what individuals possess; class is instead defined by the relationship of higher classes of economic production

Question 22

What is status attainment?

Answer 22

How people end up in a given stratified position

Question 23

What is the “myth of the model minority”?

Answer 23

The idea that a minority group must adopt alleged dominant group values to succeed

Question 24

What is a meritocracy?

Answer 24

A system in which one’s status is based on merit or accomplishments, not other social characteristics.

Question 25

What is class conciousness?

Answer 25

The awareness that a class structure exists and the feeling of shared identification with other in one's class with whom one perceives common life chances.

Question 26

According to Marx, what is a Bourgeoisie?

Answer 26

People that are the owners of the means of production

Question 27

According to Marx, what is a Proletariat?

Answer 27

People who are workers; those who sell their labor for wages

Question 28

Why do Americans tend not to be class concious?

Answer 28

Because of the widespread belief that mobility is possible

Question 29

According to Weber, what are the 3 dimensions to stratification?

Answer 29

Class, status, and party

Question 30

What do functionalists believe about stratification and inequality?

Answer 30

The purpose of inequality is to motivate people to fill needed positions in society.

Question 31

What do conflict theorists believe about stratification and inequality?

Answer 31

Inequality results from a system where those with the most resources exploit and control others.

Question 32

According to Congress, what determines if someone is in poverty?

Answer 32

When they reach below the poverty line, which is the amount of money needed to support the basic needs of a household.

Question 33

What tends to be the underlying cause of poverty in the U.S.?

Answer 33

The economic/social changes in the U.S.

Question 34

What is the feminization of poverty?

Answer 34

The process whereby a growing proportion of the poor are women and children

Question 35

What is the "culture of poverty"?

Answer 35

The argument that poverty is a way of life and, like other cultures, is passed on from generation to generation.