Achieved status is a concept developed by the anthropologist Ralph Linton denoting a social position that a person can acquire on the basis of merit; it is a position that is earned or chosen. It is the opposite of ascribed status. It reflects personal skills, abilities, and efforts. Examples of achieved status are being an Olympic athlete, being a criminal, or being a college professor.
Status is important sociologically because it comes with a set of rights, obligations, behaviors, and duties that people occupying a certain position are expected or encouraged to perform. These expectations are referred to as roles. For instance, the role of a "professor" includes teaching students, answering their questions, being impartial, and dressing appropriately.
Read more about Achieved Status: Achieved Status Vs. Ascribed Status, As Related To Social Mobility, Cultural Capital, Achieved Status in Stratification Systems Around The World
Famous quotes containing the words achieved and/or status:
“There is one expanding horror in American life. It is that our long odyssey toward liberty, democracy and freedom-for-all may be achieved in such a way that utopia remains forever closed, and we live in freedom and hell, debased of style, not individual from one another, void of courage, our fear rationalized away.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“As a work of art it has the same status as a long conversation between two not very bright drunks.”
—Clive James (b. 1939)