Social Status Determinants

1. Republic of the Philippines
PRESIDENT RAMON MAGSAYSAY STATE UNIVERSITY
(Formerly Ramon Magsaysay Technological University)
Iba, Zambales
GRADUATE SCHOOL
NELLY D. TRAPSI
MAED-EA
Social Status Determinants/Class
Meaning and Nature of Social Class:
Status-the basic criterion of social class. According to Ogburn and Nimkoff, a social class
is “one or two or more broad groups of individuals who are ranked by the members of
the community in socially superior and inferior positions.” Max Weber held that classes
are aggregates of individuals “who have the same opportunities of acquiring goods, the
same exhibited standard of living.”
It is a portion of the community or collection of individuals “standing to each other in
the relation of equality and marked off from other portion by accepted or sanctioned
standards of inferiority and superiority.” Each particular social class has its own particular
social behavior, its standards and occupations.
It is “a culturally defined group that is accorded a particular position or status within the
population as a whole.” According to Ginsberg, “A class is a group of individuals who
through common descent, similarity of occupation, wealth and education have come to
have a similar mode of life, a similar stock of ideas, feelings, attitudes and forms of
behavior.”
The relative position of the class in the society arises from the degree of prestige
attached to the status. Wherever, the considerations of status, lower and higher, limit
social intercourse, there social class exists. Status is the basic criterion of social class, or,
in other words, class is a status group.
MacIver and Page write: “This understanding of social class as a distinct status group
provides us with a precise concept and is generally applicable to any system of social

2. stratification, wherever found … It is the sense of status, sustained by economic, political,
or ecclesiastical power and by the distinctive modes of life and cultural expressions
corresponding to them, that draws class apart from class, gives cohesion to each class
and stratifies a whole society.”
Thus, in a social class there is, firstly, a feeling of equality, in relation to members of
one’s own class, a consciousness that one’s mode of behavior will harmonize with the
behavior of similar standards of life. Individuals belonging to the same social class are
expected to maintain similar standards of life, “and to choose their occupations within a
limited range.
There is realization of a similarity of attitude and behavior with members of one class.
Secondly, there is a feeling of inferiority in relation to those who stand above in the
social scale. Thirdly, there is the feeling of superiority to those below in the social
hierarchy.
Thus, the fundamental attribute of a social class is its social position of relative inferiority
or superiority to other social classes. It is the social position which determines for its
possessor the degree of respect, prestige, and influence. The arrangement is much like
the army with its officers commissioned and non-commissioned.
In Rome, for instance, there were the slaves, plebeian and five superior classes. In the
medieval society, there were the throw class, cottars, villeins, free tenants, and lesser
gentry, with the nobility, royalty, and ecclesiastical officers at the top. The throw class
included the slaves who could be sold at will. The cottars and villeins were serfs bound
to soil. The free tenants had land of their own. The governmental power rested in the
hands of nobles, the ecclesiastical and royal officers.
The members of each social class constitute something of an in-group. They recognize
one another as social equals and distinguish in a variety of ways between themselves
and the members of other classes. They usually associate with the members of their own
class and live together and apart from other classes. They have their own distinctive
ways of life. In a sense, each social class is a society within a society. But it is not a
complete and independent society.

3. Ascription and Achievement of Status:
There are two processes by which the status of a person in society is formed. These are
the process of ascription and the process of achievement. Every society is confronted
with the necessity of making a choice between the two.
There may be a society in which status is ascribed while in another society the status
may be achieved. However, no society makes exclusive use of either of these two
principles. Every society makes use of both. The Only question is to what extent the
status in particular case has been determined by ascription and what extent the status in
particular case has been determined by ascription and achievement.
Ascribed Status:
The status, which a child receives at the time “he is ushered into the process of
socialization is his ascribed status since he has not achieved it. This status is ascribed to
him at a time when society knows least about the potentialities of the child. Since the
capacities of the child are not known and since the process of socialization requires that
he be placed in a status, therefore, the society ascribes to him a status based on its own
rules.
Generally, currently the society considers the following four factors:
1. Sex:
All societies prescribe different attitudes and roles to men and women. These
differences are sought to be justified in terms of the physiological differences between
the two sexes. However, a comparative study of the roles, assigned to men and women,
shows that biological differences speak little for ascription of status.
2. Age:
Age is an important factor used by all the societies for role assignments. Like sex it is a
definite and highly visible physiological fact. Generally, a society recognizes at least five
age periods: infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. Some societies in
addition have two more peculiar age periods to which they attach importance, namely,
the unborn and the dead. The transition from the status of the unborn to the status of
the living is marked by ceremonies.

4. 3. Kinship:
Generally, the society ascribes status to a child on the basis of his relations to his parents
and siblings. His status is identified with that of his parents. Though such identification is
arbitrary as there is no necessary relation between the capacities of the parents and
those of the offspring yet this is the most socially convenient way to relate the child to
rest of the society and train him accordingly.
The ascription of citizenship, religious affiliation and community membership is in most
cases a matter of identification with parents. In a caste system the child takes die
parents’ status. In view of the close association between the child and the parents and in
view of the fact that the parents are given the prime responsibility for rearing up the
child it is but natural that at the start the child be given the status of his parents.
4. Social factors:
Sex, age, and kinship do not exhaust all the bases for the ascription of status.
Sometimes, purely social factors are used as a basis for ascription. All societies classify
their members into several groups or categories and ascribe to such categories differing
degrees of status. These groups may originate in many ways. They may arise out of
differences in technical skill or other abilities.
Achieved Status:
While ascription of status is necessary so that the child’s socialization may start at the
earliest moment, the determination of status cannot, however, be left entirely to
ascription. No society depends solely upon ascribed status. It provides for an orderly
and legitimate change of status according to the individual’s manifestation of talent and
effort.
If the society does not do so and allow its members to change their status according to
their talents and efforts, it will drive exceptional persons into illicit channels. To make
use of their capacities for common social ends the society must institutionalize the
achievement of status. By doing so it will encourage people to put initiative and do their
best. It would give fillip to their capacity and prevent incompetents from filling the high
positions only based on ascribed status.

5. Generally, in primitive societies greater emphasis is laid on ascribed status. In civilized
societies there is an emphasis on achieved status. The urban conditions of life, the
extreme division of labor and the rapid social change have made it possible for
individuals to achieve status based on their accomplishments.
The emphasis on ascription or achievement criteria depends very much on the whole
package of social values. Whether a society tends to stress the concept of ascription or
of achievement finally is determined within a social matrix. The emphasis upon
achievement in American society, is not isolated but is highly bound into the emphasis
upon individualism, freedom of choice political democracy and equality of opportunity.
American stratification has been an open system
DETERMINANTS OF SOCIAL STATUS OR CLASS
There are some determinants of social status. Some of which are the following
arranged from highest to lowest in scale.
A. Occupational and Income Scale
1. Owners and high officials of big business enterprises, high government
officials; professionals who have gained notable expertise and prestige;
superstars on the show business. Amounts of income are very high.
2. Lower officials of big business enterprises; owners and officials of smaller
business; professionals with moderate success; lower government officials;
movie stars with moderate success. Amounts of income are high.
3. Employees performing clerical jobs. Amounts of income and average. Also
included here are skilled workers and small store owners. Incomes are
average.
4. Unskilled workers, laborers, tenant farmers, domestic helpers, small vendors.
Incomes are below average.
5. Semi-employed, underemployed, or even jobless. Incomes are very low.
B. Education
1. Graduates from post collegiate courses such as graduate in medicines

6. and law.
2. College graduates
3. High school graduates
4. Elementary graduates
5. Primary graduates
6. Below primary schooling
C. House Type
1. Excellent houses- palatial, made of concrete and fine lumber, air-conditioned, with
garage for one or more cars, spacious and well-kept yard, landscaped and well-kept
lawn, and fully furnished. The yard is well fenced.
2. Very good houses- big but not so palatial, made of concrete and fine lumber, air-
conditioned, with garage for one or more cars, with fairly spacious yard and landscaped
lawn, fully furnished. The yard is well fenced.
3. Good houses- fairly big, made of concrete and fine lumber, either air-conditioned or
not, with a garage for one car, with a small yard but well-fenced, with substantial
furnishings.
4. Average houses- not so big, semi-concrete, not air-conditioned, no garage, a very
small yard or a big yard but not well-kept or fenced, and scantily furnished.
5. Fair houses- usually small but enough for a family, made of wood and other light
materials, with a small yard and sometimes not fenced, usually unfurnished.
6. Poor houses- usually small, made of light and flammable materials, with very little or
no privacy at all no furnishings.
7. Very poor houses- usually a one-room affair, made of cardboards and other lights
and flammable materials, no yard of its own but very close to other houses of the same
kind, easily blown down during typhoons.
D. Dwelling Area
1. Very affluent- these are first class subdivisions with well-paved streets and
sanitary, usually residences of very rich people. Lots are very costly.
2. Affluent- these are also good subdivisions but not as good as the first class
subdivisions, the residents are also rich and the lots are also costly.

7. 3. Fairly affluent- these may or may not be subdivisions but places district by
themselves and good enough for the people to go about their daily chores in
peace.
4. Not affluent – these are the dwelling places of the great majority of the
common people. Most of the residents are not well-to-do but not so poor
and they can still manage to lead an ordinary life.
5. Poor – most of the people here poor and there is a great need for
improvement, but the residents can still manage to lead a livable life.
6. Very poor – these are places where are people are very poor and can hardly
manage to live. These are the slum areas where the living quarters of the
families are so close to each other that there is hardly space to move about.