Social status in sociology describes the social position that an individual occupies within a society . Status allows, in interpersonal relationships, to know the framework or set of behaviors expected of both social actors. The status varies according to the time and the group to which it belongs. A person during his life can have several status simultaneously: For example, a woman can be a wife, engineer, daughter and mother at the same time. At the same time they can be so enveloping that it determines the social identity of a person that is detrimental to the other status that he possesses. Types of Social status
Types of Social status
The social status is divided into four types:
Assigned or assigned status
They are those that result through previous social factors such as the fact of being born in a wealthy family, and / or according to race, skin color, or social class. he has
Acquired status
They result from the assignment to the person based on merits or actions. Examples are music stars, actors, athletes or athletes, scientists, etc., but we could also include the father, mother, boss, graduate, are all those positions that the individual acquires throughout his life, they are not going linked to his birth. The statuses are determined by society, therefore they can vary from time or characteristics such as culture, values and norms determined as their own, and may be different from other societies, in addition to being useful as a way of giving merit to those people who have contributed values, knowledge, or significant advances to said society.
A degree or level of prestige is also associated with status . In societies, prestige is distributed differentially according to the social status that the person has. As an example a doctor has more prestige than a sweeper. However, an inconsistency of social status can occur when discrepancies occur between how the status is valued in one area in relation to another. A typical example is that of the teacher, although this can be highly valued as an important socializing educator and agent in the school and before the educational community in terms of the rewards that society gives him, understand salary and working conditions, they can be Very low in relation to this social assessment. Types of Social status
Target status
Status assigned by society, culture or by the particular group in which the person operates and that is acquired fulfilling one or more of the criteria that determine it (wealth, what is done in society, impact and power of knowledge, occupation or activity, physical characteristics, etc.) or other taxes for each group.
Subjective status
Status that a person believes they have without having any social or cultural approval and without fulfilling any criteria that support the status of which they flaunt.
A good status, a goal to which we all aspire
Most of the people aspire to have a good status in life because this will imply having a comfortable and uneventful life in economic matters.
Having a job that pays well and that the people around it see that and admire it for having achieved such a state, but well that situation cannot always occur and that is where situations of envy can arise for those who did achieve all those things , and on the other hand feelings of failure in those people who could not get a good status despite their efforts.
Linked to this usually happens that people who do not have a good status seek to appear through various resources , but of course, it is not a situation that reflects their reality. Types of Social status
Civil status: single, married, widowed, civilly united …
And on the other hand, the civil status is the situation of the natural persons determined especially by the family relationships that it has, coming from either marriage or kinship, and that determines certain duties and rights .
Each nation keeps a public record with the basic personal data of citizens, among which, of course, the civil status.
Meanwhile, the most common civil states, although they may differ from one state to another, are: single, married, widowed, divorced, separated, free union .
It should be noted that there are legal systems that make distinctions in civil states, for example, there are communities that do not accept divorce and there are others that admit an intermediate condition between the married and divorced, which is the de facto separated. Types of Social status