Ascribed Status Versus Achieved Status
Ascribed status is the social status a person is given when he or she is born into a status from birth and assumes the class role later in life. People born into families with wealth, for example, are considered to have ascribed social statuses from birth. In the U.S. specifically, race/ethnic differences and gender can create basis for ascribed statuses.
Achieved status is acquired based on merit, skills, abilities, and actions. Examples of achieved status include being a doctor or even being a criminal—the status then determines a set of behaviors and expectations for the individual.
Read more about this topic: Social Transformation
Famous quotes containing the words ascribed, status and/or achieved:
“Between married persons, the cement of friendship is by the laws supposed so strong as to abolish all division of possessions: and has often, in reality, the force ascribed to it.
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—David Hume (1711–1776)
“Knowing how beleaguered working mothers truly are—knowing because I am one of them—I am still amazed at how one need only say “I work” to be forgiven all expectation, to be assigned almost a handicapped status that no decent human being would burden further with demands. “I work” has become the universally accepted excuse, invoked as an all-purpose explanation for bowing out, not participating, letting others down, or otherwise behaving inexcusably.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“Permanent success cannot be achieved except by incessant intellectual labour, always inspired by the ideal.”
—Sarah Bernhardt (1845–1923)