Basic vocab
- A minority is defined by
- Unequal treatment
- Distinguishing physical or cultural traits
- Involuntary membership
- Main subordinate group classifications
- Race
- Ethnicity
- Gender
- Sexuality
- Class
Types of status
- Achieved status
- Assigned on the basis of some characteristic or behavior over which the
individual has some control (eg college graduate)
- Ascribed status
- Assigned on the basis of factors over which the individual has no control (eg sex,
race)
- Master status
- Status that is considered the most significant in a person's social identity
What is social stratification?
- Social stratification:
- A system where categories of people are hierarchically ranked
- Characteristics of social stratification:
- Structural rather than individual differences
- Persists over generations
- Involves inequality justified by beliefs
- e.g inheritance
Inequality and ethnicity: vocab
- Race: a group of people thought to have a common set of physical characteristics and a
common ancestry
- Ethnicity: culturally distinctive characteristics based on race, religion or national origin
Modeling society: functionalism, conflict, symbolic interactionism
Structural functionalism
- Views society as a balanced integrated system of individuals and institutions
- Individual actions are constrained by the interconnection of individuals and institutions
- Institutional actions are also shaped by interconnectivity
- Problems can be addressed by increasing or “fixing” interconnectivity
