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:
“Happiness lies outside yourself, is achieved through interacting with others. Self-forgetfulness should be one’s goal, not self-absorption. The male, capable of only the latter, makes a virtue of an irremediable fault and sets up self-absorption, not only as a good but as a Philosophical Good.”
—Valerie Solanas (b. 1940)
“As a work of art it has the same status as a long conversation between two not very bright drunks.”
—Clive James (b. 1939)