Achieved Status Vs. Ascribed Status
Ascribed status is a position assigned to individuals or groups based on traits beyond their control, such as sex, race, or parental social status. This is usually associated with "closed" societies. Achieved status is distinguished from ascribed status by virtue of being earned.
Many positions are a mixture of achievement and ascription; for instance, a person who has achieved the status of being a doctor is more likely to have the ascribed status of being born into a wealthy family. This is usually associated with "open" societies or "social" class societies.
Read more about this topic: Achieved Status
Famous quotes containing the words achieved, status and/or ascribed:
“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)
“What is clear is that Christianity directed increased attention to childhood. For the first time in history it seemed important to decide what the moral status of children was. In the midst of this sometimes excessive concern, a new sympathy for children was promoted. Sometimes this meant criticizing adults. . . . So far as parents were put on the defensive in this way, the beginning of the Christian era marks a revolution in the child’s status.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“Saul was very angry, for this saying displeased him. He said, -They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands; what more can he have but the kingdom? So Saul eyed David from that day on.”
—Bible: Hebrew, 1 Samuel 18:8-9.