Achieved and Ascribed Statuses Name Institutional Affiliation Achieved and Ascribed Statuses The general thought about a persons status entails wealth, fame, and influence. However, sociologists define status in terms that are more specific.
In the context of sociology, status entails any full range position with a social definition within the society. This point implies that status covers the social standing of people from the lowest to the highest-level positions. A person is capable of holding more than one status at the same time, depending on a number of contextual factors such as lineage, intelligence, age, and sex (Goldsmith Shuster, 2018). The two broad kinds of status include achieved status and ascribed status, depending on the means of acquisition.
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Sociopolitical and economic positions of people reflect in the statuses attached to them. The sociological definition of status is important in that it enables stakeholders to attach a certain set of presumed rights, obligations, and expectations to the people holding the subject positions. The society assigns an ascribed status to a person without regard to the unique talents and characteristics of the subject person (Schaefer Haaland, p.109). Such assignments often occur at birth, implying that ascribed status does not rely on ones effort. Instead, such a status assumes the nature of hereditary systems. On the other hand, people earn achieved status through their own efforts.
Based on the above submissions, the statement of this thesis is that both achieved and ascribed statuses are important for building a cohesive and stable society that is keen on development. The report will discuss professional athletics and law practice as the main factors underachieved status while gender and economic status will be factors in the ascribed status category. Firstly, people acquire achieved statuses based on merit (Bales, 2017). This implies that skills, efforts, and abilities of people help in earning them the positions of achieved statuses. The society gives genuine respect and regard to people holding achieved status possibilities because they understand the sacrifice that goes along with earning such positions. Subsequently, such people inspire and motivate the younger generations in the society to learn and appreciate the importance of hard work in the society. Examples of achieved statuses include the positions of professional athletes and lawyers.
Such professionals earn the respect of the society through enduring the detailed training that comes with their respective fields of expertise. Rights and obligations attached to the said positions bind the attention of the subject professionals to ensure that their actions are coherent with the expectations of the society on them. Professional athletes have an obligation to commit to objective practice to ensure that they perform in the field to the satisfaction of public expectation. Early morning workouts are essential for such athletes to lead fruitful days regarding their profession. This implies that effort is fundamental to the process of achieving status for any professional. However, it is notable that some cases of athletic potential relate to genes. Such instances would require less effort in practice for the athletes.
This point implies that not all professional athletes put an equal measure of efforts to become top professionals in their field. Besides the importance of athletic genes, training is necessary for the professionals to enable them to reach their full potential. In the same spirit as the case of professional athletes, lawyers have an obligation to embrace proper training to ensure that they uphold inspiring and motivating practice in the legal profession. Consistency in appropriate legal training helps in developing competent lawyers. However, relevant genes can boost the scale of expertise of a lawyer to inspire generations in the society.
Once again, this point implies that both training and genes are important in upholding responsible legal practice across the world. In spite of the above submission, training is central to embracing competent skills and efforts for proper legal practice. Various professionals need to put their skills into practice to enable them to gain better expertise in their respective fields.
In certain instances, a renowned lawyer can also possess athletic skills. Such a situation would enable the subject professional to qualify for holding multiple statuses at the same time. Notwithstanding the challenges that might come with such a diversity in skills, relevant authorities and other stakeholders can devise proper professional systems that would enable the multitalented professional to exploit his or her potential from all fronts. Nevertheless, such a professional would have to work harder than normal to drive his or her to achieve statuses to fruition. The phenomenon would help in improving the economy of the affected nation while its sporting standing among countries of the world also improves.
Besides, the situation would breed a nation of hardworking citizens with a commitment to achieve resounding results. Subsequently, generations to come would find motivation in the spirit of their predecessors, enabling them to fly their flag even higher in the international arena. Notwithstanding the range of skills one possesses, they have to embrace a commitment to ensure that their skills succeed in changing the society to a better state (Kaplan, 2017). The subject individuals have to deliver on their presumed obligations and expectations for certain behaviors in the society. This point owes to the fact that the public attaches certain presumed rights to the positions of the said professionals. People must do something to enable them to acquire achieved statuses in the society (Schaefer Haaland, p.
110). For example, one would need to go to school and learn a skill to develop. Establishing friendships and inventing new products are other ways of acquiring achieved statuses.
The points highlighted above represent efforts taken by people in pursuit for their professional goals. Therefore, it is imperative to encourage dedication and commitment by various professionals in different fields since this would help to breed competent professionals with achieved statuses. Although achieved statuses rely largely on practice and effort put by the beholder, it is worth noting that ascribed statuses have significant influences on the achieved statuses.
For example, chances that a male would consider pursuing a career in childcare services are slimmer compared to if he or she was a female in the same society. In view of the above statement, where ascribed status influences achieved status significantly in a positive direction, the subject persons social standing becomes higher and dominant in the society under consideration. Otherwise, the social position would be lower if the subject professional does not embrace competency in the field of service.
Most stakeholders like to identify with celebrities, who often are professionals with high social positions in the society. Subsequently, such professionals tend to inspire various calibers of people to pursue their dreams in commitment and determination to achieve. Unlike an achieved status, an ascribed status is beyond the control of the beholder. This implies that people assign ascribed statuses to people without any consideration of qualities and effort made by the described persons. Sex and age are examples of ascribed status since they come quite naturally at birth. Ascribed statuses are more rampant in children compared to adults since the former caliber have no choice in most matters that influence their status.
Worth noting is that some statuses can qualify to be achieved for adults while the same statuses become ascribed to the children of that family. For example, adults can put effort to achieve a familys socioeconomic status, which becomes an ascribed status for their children. From the foregoing, children inherit the resultant statuses of their parents actions. Such a status including but not limited to economic status or lack thereof. Characteristics of ascribed statuses in the society have social meanings in the culture under consideration. This essay discusses gender and economic status as examples of ascribed status to provide insight regarding the subject.
Such statuses reflect the membership of a person in a subordinate group within the society under study. People do not choose for themselves the gender they want to be in life. Instead, they find themselves as either males or females after birth. This point shows that human beings do not have control over their sex since it comes naturally. Cultural norms would then determine the treatment that the born child would receive from the society depending on their gender.
Some cultures give better treatment to male gender compared to their female counterpart while other societies do the opposite of the above statement. However, some part of the world gives equal treatment to both genders. Societal norms regarding humanity and gender difference influence perceptions on ascribed status in the subject society (Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, Xu, 2018). Since people do not have to do anything to earn ascribed status, it is a sign of privilege and respect accorded to the social group where the subject beholder belongs.
Based on page 111 of the textbook, both genders have an obligation to embrace their social roles for them to encourage a sense of responsibility. The society has different expectations of males from those assigned to females. This implies that every person must understand their social position and act in a manner that promotes the dignity of such social classes. Subsequently, the respect of the society attached to the ascribed status in question would increase since the people will feel appreciated for their support.
Nonetheless, if a despised gender succeeds in disapproving of the belief of the society about them then, it would be a milestone in earning the respect of the society. This would challenge the perception of an ascribed status of the affected population, which will then gain an achieved status. On the other hand, children often gain the economic status of their parents expressly. The society would accord children born in wealthy families the respect given to people in the high economic class. Although the parents might have worked to gain the high economic caliber, their children simply inherit from the achievement of the adults in such circumstances. The special treatment that the children will receive from the society is cultural and this would provide the children with an opportunity to put little effort, if any, to maintain the status quo. To the contrary, children born to poor parents would inherit the family poverty.
Subsequently, the society would have little or no regard to such children since they are seen as those having limited contribution to the growth and development thereof. Despite the difference between the statuses, people need to observe social roles to ensure stability in the society. One of the fundamental components of social structure is roles since it enables members of the society to anticipate their colleagues behaviors and their own actions appropriately. This trend would help in ensuring that people understand and appreciate the need to foster productive relationships with each other in the society. The society would then be able to establish functional social structures that promote growth and development beyond only one or two lifetimes.
The critical analysis shows that cultural norms and societal laws are fundamental determinants of status. The above point implies that peoples perception of different groups of people, coupled with attitude would either favor or injure the social standing of the various groups. The society attaches certain obligations to both the achieved and ascribed statuses. For example, the statuses of parenthood, profession, and gender have obligations besides the presumed rights accorded to them by the society. Everyone must ensure that they deliver on the obligations of their respective statuses to help in promoting cohesion and stability in the subject society (Cantle, 2018). People put effort to gain the status of parenthood, making it clear that they must be versed with the requirements of the said social status.
In view of the above submission, mothers have a biological obligation to care for themselves and their unborn children. This implies that the mothers should avoid association with anything that would cause harm to the unborn babies. In the same spirit, the fathers should support the women in protecting the children to ensure harmony and ease in parenthood. Professional status obligations require that vocations of professionals such as lawyers should bind them to certain oaths that govern their client relationships. The gestures depicted above would help in building a cohesive and responsible society. In conclusion, people acquire achieved status through effort while the society assigns ascribed status to individuals without regards to the unique talents of the people under consideration.
Despite the difference highlighted above, both achieved and ascribed statuses are important for building a cohesive and stable society that is keen on development. References Bales, R. (2017).
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