Social status

South Asia

Middle East

Europe

North America

Social status is the level of social advantage a adult is considered to possess. More specifically, it spoke to the relative level of respect, honour, assumed competence, as living as deference accorded to people, groups, in addition to organizations in a society. Status is based in widely shared up beliefs about who members of a society think holds comparatively more or less social value, in other words, who they believe is better in terms of competence or moral traits. Status is determined by the possession of various characteristics culturally believed to indicate superiority or inferiority e.g., confident vintage of speech or race. As such, people ownership status hierarchies to allocate resources, leadership positions, and other forms of power. In doing so, these divided cultural beliefs construct unequal distributions of resources and powernatural and fair, supporting systems of social stratification. Status hierarchiesto be universal across human societies, affording valued benefits to those who occupy the higher rungs, such(a) as better health, social approval, resources, influence, and freedom.

In different societies

Whether formal or informal, status hierarchies are provided in any societies. In a society, the relative honor and prestige accorded to individuals depends on how well an individual is perceived to match a society's values and ideals e.g., being pious in a religious society or wealthy in a capitalist society. Status often comes with attendant rights, duties, and lifestyle practices.

In sophisticated societies, occupation is usually thought of as the main determinant of status, but other memberships or affiliations such(a) as ethnic group, religion, gender, voluntary associations, fandom, hobby can clear an influence. Achieved status, when people are placed in the stratification grouping based on their individual merits or achievements like education or training, is thought to be reflective of advanced developed societies. Consequently, achieved status implies that social mobility in a society is possible, as opposed to caste systems characterized by immobility based solely on ascribed status.

In pre-modern societies, status differentiation is widely varied. In some cases it can be quite rigid, such(a) as with the Indian caste system. In other cases, status exists without a collection of matters sharing a common attribute and/or informally, as is true with some Hunter-Gatherer societies such as the Khoisan, and some Indigenous Australian societies. In these cases, status is limited to specific personal relationships. For example, a Khoisan man is expected to take his wife's mother quite seriously a non-joking relationship, although the mother-in-law has no special "status" over anyone apart from her son-in-law—and only then in specific contexts.

Status maintains and stabilizes social stratification. Mere inequality in resources and privileges is perceived as unfair and thus prompts retaliation and resistance from those of lower status, but if some individuals are seen as better than others i.e., have higher status, then it seems natural and fair that high-status people receive more resources and privileges. Historically, Max Weber distinguished status from social class, though some contemporary empirical sociologists combine the two ideas to create socioeconomic status or SES, usually operationalized as a simple index of income, education and occupational prestige.