Social stratification

CHAPTER 9
Fernando R. Pedrosa, Ph.D.
Prof.-in-charge
 Social Stratification
• Meaning and Nature
- Refers to the ranking of individuals and
groups in any given society.
- It is a basic component of social organization.
- It is found in all human groups.
- This is transmitted from one generation to
another.
• The families are ranked as a whole, so that
their positions in the hierarchy are significant
in delimiting the range of resources and
opportunities available to the members.
• It is also the hierarchical arrangement and
establishment of social categories that may
evolve into social groups as well as statuses
and their corresponding roles.
• Social stratification may be viewed as a:
1. Social structure
2. Social process
3. Social problem
• Social structure
- may be viewed as the differentiation of
statuses and social roles into ranked
orders.
- this is sometimes termed by sociologists
as “institutionalized inequality.”
• Social Process
- it may be viewed as the splitting up of
society into social categories that develop into
social groups cooperating, competing,
conflicting – for the status quo or social
change.
• Social Problem
- it involves bitter feelings of discontent
and of strong demands for equality or
“social justice.”
 Basic Concepts of Inequality
• Stratification theorists use inequality to refer
to the situation in which the economic goods
in a society are distributed unevenly among
different groups or categories of people. They
argue that economic inequality produces or
leads to other forms of inequality in society,
and that these patterns of inequality, in turn,
lead to economic inequality.
 Macro concept of Social Stratification
1. Attribution
2. Stereotype
3. Self-fulfilling prophecy
4. Social comparisons
5. A fair world
6. Just world
 Social Stratification Systems
• Differentiation
- refers to how things or people can be
distinguished from one another.
- people may be differentiated on the basis
of the colors of their skin, color of hair,
and the like.
Stratification
- refers to the ranking of things or people.
 Dimensions of Stratification
1. Wealth and income
- the income of any family depends on what
its members earn and what they own.
- what people own is called “wealth, and is
often inherited; this consists of the value of
everything a person or group owns.
- income refers to how much people get; it is
the amount of money one person or group
receives.
- economists view wages and salaries as a
return on labor; interest, dividend, and
rent as a return on property.
- both income and wealth are distributed
unevenly in our society, but to a different
degree.
2. Inequalities of power
- power is the ability to control one’s own life
(personal power) and control or influence
the actions of others (social power).
- power is a fundamental and inherent
element in all human interaction at every
social level.
- this can be used for constructive or selfish
ends.
3. Inequalities of prestige
- prestige of individuals and groups may be
defined as the social recognition that a
person or group receives from others.
- it can be influenced in a number of ways.
- it refers to the “esteem, respect, or
approval that is granted by an individual
or a collectivity for performance or
qualities they consider above the average.
- prestige provides people with a sense of
worth and respect, a feeling that somehow
they are accepted and values by others.
 Types of Stratification
• Open system
- also known as class system.
- it has few impediments to social mobility.
Close system
- also known as caste system.
- status is ascribed, and determined by
people at birth and people are locked into
their parents’ social position.
 Typical of Class System
1. Upper class
2. Upper middle class
3. Lower middle class
4. Working class
5. Lower class
• Upper class – have great wealth, often going
back for many generations.
1) Old rich – ascribed status through
inheritance.
2) Noveau rich – newly-acquired wealth.

• Recognized by others by reputation and lifestyle.

• Have high prestige, and often have an influence
on the society’s basic economic and political
structure.
• Upper-middle class – made up of successful
business and professional people and their
families.
- have college education, own property, and
have money savings.
- live in comfortable homes in more
exclusive areas of a community.
• Lower-middle class – usually high school or
vocational education graduates with modest
incomes; they are the lesser professionals,
clerical and sales workers, and upper-level
manual laborers.
- emphasize respectability and security;
- have savings, and are politically and
economically conservative.
• Working class – made up of factory workers
and other blue-collar workers.
- are people who keep the country’s
machinery going.
- are assembly –line workers, auto
mechanics, and repair personnel.
- live adequately but with little left over for
luxuries.
- many of them have not finished high
school.
Lower class – are people at the bottom of the
economic ladder.
- have little education or occupational skills and are
consequently either unemployed or underemployed.
- have many problems, including broken homes,
illegitimacy, criminal involvement, alcoholism, drug-
pushing/addiction, gambling, etc.
- have little knowledge of world events, are not involved
with their communities.
- due to a variety of personal and economic problems,
they often have no way of improving their lot in life.
- for them life is a matter of surviving from one day to
the next.
 Indicators of Social Mobility
1. Power
2. Prestige
- esteem
- honor
3. Wealth
 Social Mobility
This refers to the movement of an individual
or a group within a stratification system that
changes the individual’s or group’s status in
society.
 Types of Social Mobility
1. Upward mobility
2. Downward mobility
3. Horizontal mobility
 Geographic Migration
• Known to sociologists as physical mobility.
• It is the movement of people from one
geographical spot to another, and it is a
phenomenon of increasing frequency in
modern society.
 Types of Geographical Migration
1. Voluntary migration
2. Forced migration
 Reasons for Voluntary Migration
1. Economic factor
2. Political reason
3. Religious liberty
4. Educational opportunities
5. Natural calamities
 Effects of Migration
1. Diffusion of cultures
2. Biological mixture
3. Urbanization of the culture
 Role Mobility
• Shifting from role to role called role mobility
• Factors affecting social mobility:
1. Hard work
2. Social structure
3. Societal values and norms
4. Level of education
5. Marriage
6. Luck
 Mobility and Social Personality
• Higher social status is the result of personal
achievement.
• Since each person has a key role, this is usually
the one in which he/she does the most to
achieve status, but all the groups and roles are
possible avenues of mobility.
• For example, a woman may move upward, by
marriage, into a higher class or by competence in
her profession; a man may rise into higher social
status through his political or educational career.
But, in many instances, striving for higher status is
often accompanied by certain strains and frustrations.
This is so because in some societies, it is not always
true that mobility and efficiency are rewarded with
higher prestige.
- Another source of frustration occurs when the
individual does not simply have the competence to
achieve higher status even though he may have a
desire and drive for it and social pressure for upward
mobility may be very strong. The demands may be
very strong and the expectations of group life are
often too much for the individual.
For Fichter, “the attempt to achieve higher status in
competitive groups sometimes results in an
unbalanced social personality.” This occurs when the
key role, the main instrument of higher prestige in any
individual, is emphasized at the expense of the other
social roles.
It must be noted that downward social mobility also
carried its own social and personal costs. People who
are left behind in the competitive struggle for social
status, or who slip to lower class, suffer strains,
frustrations, and disappointments. If this happens in
adulthood, the person finds adaptation and
readjustment to his new position very difficult.
 Education and Social Mobility
• The amount of education a person has,
constitute one of the most important criteria
of social status, and this is basically in
agreement with the facts of social mobility. In
almost all societies, educational attainments
are rising.
• Those who receive higher education may also
use it as a stepping stone to higher social
status.
 Social Mobility and Success
• Success in life is always attached to upward
social mobility.
• The high value placed upon activity, success,
and quantity will enable one to understand
why success is related to social mobility.
RACE, ETHNICITY, and GENDER
 Race
• Meaning and nature
- is a socially constructed category composed
of people who share biologically transmitted
traits that members of society consider
important.
• Race likewise refers to physical characteristics
transmitted at birth to a group of people.
• This is manifested in the shape of the head
and face, the shape and color of the eyes, the
shape of the nose, lips, and ears, the texture
and color of hair, the skin color, height, blood
type and other characteristics.
 Ethnicity
• This refers to a group of people with common
cultural background.
• The theory of the “definition of the situation”
in ethnic group relations implies that, what is
important is not the physical characteristics
that identify a group but how such
relationship determine the feeling of
belonging to each other.
• Racial distinctions become meaningful
because we attach meaning to them, and the
consequences vary from prejudice and
discrimination to slavery and genocide.
• Some people believe that racial differences
are real and important, and behave
accordingly, therefore, those differences
become real and important.
 Gender
• This refers to either the masculinity or
femininity of the individual.
• This pertains more to the psycho-social-
cultural distinction/differences between the
male and the female.
• Sex is the biological distinction between a
male and a female.
Problems in Race and Ethnic Relations
1. Prejudice
2. Discrimination
Causes of Prejudice
1. Stereotyping
2. Ethnocentrism
3. Scapegoating
4. Authoritarian personality
 Minority Group
• Refers to groups subordinated in terms of power and
privilege to the majority of dominant group.
• In many countries, being superior in number does
not guarantee a group control over its destiny and
assure it of majority status. (pls. refer to Palispis,
184)
 Types of Minority Groups
• Racial groups
- refer to those minorities, and corresponding
majorities who are classified according to obvious
physical differences. The obvious physical differences
may refer to hair color, color of the skin, shape of
earlobe, etc.
• Ethnic Groups
- these are minority groups who are designated by
their ethnicity based on cultural differences such as
language, attitudes toward marriage and parenting,
food habits, and other.
- these groups are set apart from others because of
their national origin or distinctive cultural patterns.
• Religious Groups
- refer to association with a religion other than the
dominant faith. In this, religion is meant to include a
sacred literature and ritual, institutional and cultist
practices, and essential beliefs and philosophy.
 - In connection with this, the following terms have
to be understood:
1. Ecclesia – dominant church/religion in a society.
2. Sect – a breakaway group from the ecclesia, ex.
Protestantism of Martin Luther, Aglipayanism of
Gregorio Aglipay, Anglicanism of King Henry VIII,
etc. (n.b. the breaking away is known as “schism”)
3. Denomination – once the sect grows in number it
eventually becomes a denomination; this refers to
a religious group that tends to limit its
membership to a particular class, ethnic group, or
religious group, or at least to have its leadership
position dominated by members of such a group.
4. Cult – a religious group that usually introduces
totally new religious ideas and principles.
- usually have charismatic leaders who expect a
total commitment from the cult members, who are
usually motivated by an intense sense of mission.
- members must give up individual autonomy and
decision-making.
5. Occult – also known as magic and faith healing.
- although majority of the country has been
Christianized, there are still people, even in the
urban areas, who depend on the occult as a means
of obtaining inner peace or solving personal
problems.
- is derived from the Latin word “occultus” which
means mysterious things and practices related to
supernatural forces beyond the five senses.
- included under this are practices and beliefs in
astrology, magic, witchcraft, numerology, crystal ball
gazing, spiritism and fortune telling.
 Prejudice
• An emotional bias;
• An irrationally based negative or occasionally positive,
attitude toward certain groups and their members;
• Has certain functions:
1. promotes feeling of “we-ness” of being part of an
in-group;
2. helps define the boundaries of the group; i.e. the
feeling of being “special” or superior;
 Discrimination
• While prejudice is a subjective feeling, discrimination
is an overt action.
• May be defined as different treatment, usually
unequal and injurious, accorded to individuals who
are assumed to belong to a particular category or
group.
 Causes of Prejudice
• Stereotyping
- the tendency to picture all members of a
group in an oversimplified or exaggerated
manner.
- process by which all members of a particular
category as having the same qualities.
• Scapegoating
- the need to find someone or something
else to blame for our troubles.
- racial minorities have been frequently
scapegoats in our society.
 Authoritarian personality
• Some members of a majority group manifest
this by bullying inferiors.
• Is not solely confined to “fascism” but also in
political extremists of any ideology.
 Patterns of Racial and Ethnic
Integroup Relations
• Relations between racial and ethnic groups that
are part of a single group range from being
friendly to murderous.
• Pluralism
- ethnic or racial or ethnic groups maintain their
distinctiveness but treat one another with
respect.
• Assimilation
- this occurs when a minority group becomes
integrated into the dominant
society.
Cultural Assimilation
- is the adoption of the dominant group’s
culture and traditions.
Structural Assimilation
- refers to the admission to major businesses and
professions, while primary assimilation refers to
acceptance into private clubs, friendships, cliques,
and family through intermarriages.
Amalgamation
- Intermarriages among people from different
ethnic groups.
 Pluralism
• Cultural pluralism may not be always be that easy, desirable and
peaceful because there may be serious problems/issues that may
be encountered, such as:
- Ethnic struggle
- Genocide
- Slavery
- Subjugation
- Segregation
- Expulsion
- Annihilation
- Apartheid
ETHNIC STRUGGLE
- This occurs when two or more groups in a
society vie for power and privilege.
- This is mostly to develop when a society is
split into two main ethnic or racial groups.
GENOCIDE
- This is considered the “ultimate solution” to
intergroup conflict – the mass murder of an
ethnic or racial group.
- The best known example of this is Nazi
Germany’s systematic “extermination” of
more than 6 million Jews,
SLAVERY
- Refers to the treatment of a group of people
as property, rather than as persons.
- Slaves may be acquired through war,
conquest, or trade.
- This is most likely to develop where there is a
large supply of arable but unused land, and
labor is scarce.
SUBJUGATION
- This refers to the control of one group and the
assumption of a position of authority, power,
and domination by the other.
- The members of the subordinate groups may
accept their lower status for a time, and even
devise indigenous rationalizations for it.
SEGREGATION
- This is actually a form of subjugation.
- This refers to the act, process, or state of being set
apart.
- It is a situation that places limits and restrictions on
the contact, communication, and social relations
among groups.
- In a way, this is a form of ostracism imposed on a
minority by a dominant group.
- There are some groups that prefer to retain their
ethnicity like the Chinese, in which case segregation
remains voluntary.
EXPULSION
- The process of forcing a group to leave the
territory where it resides.
- Can be made indirectly by making life in the
area very miserable, forcing the people to
vacate the area.
- May done directly through forced migration.
- Is an extreme attempt to eliminate a certain
minority from an area.
- Is the most extreme action one can take
against another.
ANNIHILATION
- This refers to the deliberate practice of trying
to exterminate a racial or ethnic group.
- Has also been referred to as genocide, a word
coined to describe the crimes committed by
the Nazis during WW II.
- Is the denial of the right to live of an entire
group of people.
APARTHEID (SOUTH AFRICA)
- This has roots in slavery.
- Means “separate development” according to
the language of Afrikaners, the descendants of
Dutch settlers who emigrated to Southern
Africa in the 17th century.
- Its central focus is racial separation.
- Is a philosophy of white supremacy grounded
in Africaner history and religion.
 Minority Group Responses
1. Accomodation
2. Reform
3. Separatism or nationalism
4. Rebellion and revolution
 Other Minority Responses
1. Avoidance
2. Acceptance
3. Assimilation into the majority
4. Aggression
 Gender Stratification
• Refers to personal traits and social positions that
members of a society attach to being male or female.
• It is a dimension of social organization, shaping how
we interact with others and how we think of
ourselves.
• Involves hierarchy or ranking men and women seen
thoroughly different from each other in terms of
power, wealth, and other resources.
• Refers to the unequal distribution of wealth, power,
and prestige between men and women.
 Patriarchy
• Literally means “rule of the father.”
• Is a form of social organization in which males
dominates females.
• The opposite of this is contained in mythical
tales about societies dominated by females
known as “amazons”
 Sexism
• Is the belief that one sex is innately superior than the
other.
• Is the ideological basis of patriarchy.
• Is built into the institution of society known as
institutional sexism being a part of the economy.
• In some countries, women in general are
concentrated in low-paying jobs.
- It is the belief that women and men have biological
different capacities and that these differences are
from a legitimate basis for unequal treatment.
- This is said to be a part of the general strategy of
stratification, which compels one to exclude others
on the basis of category membership as sex and race.
- It is likewise a means of restricting access to scarce
resources.
 Sexual harassment
• This is a special form of discrimination that is
especially problematic for female workers and
students.
• This may mean unwelcome sexual advances,
requests for sexual favors, and other unwanted
verbal or physical conduct of sexual nature.
• This is different from the legal concept of act of
lasciviousness.
SOCIAL CHANGE
• Change occurs everywhere.
• This is a phenomenon that characterizes the world
in which we live.
• All of us are, therefore, a part of an ever changing
world.
• Some of these many aspects of change in our social
world are changes in our institutions, changes in
material culture, cultural diffusion, and changes in
our population.
• Social change has been defined as the alteration of
patterns of social organization, structure,
institutions, and intergroup or intragroup behaviors
over time.
• This is pervasive in all societies and affects all
individuals, in one way or another.
• It is also pervasive in culture, society, and
personality.
 Culture Change and its Elements
- Culture refers to all alterations/modifications
affecting new traits or trait complexes and to
changes in a culture content and structure.
- Culture change involves the following elements:
1. development of oral and written language and
other means of communication;
2. modification of technology;
3. shifts in economic principles;
4. historical evolution of religious thought and
political ideology.
5. variations in musical styles and in other art
forms;
6. transition in scientific theory;
7. alterations in the forms and rules of social
organization.
 Technological Change & Social Change

• These are specific parts of cultural change.

• Technological change denotes revisions that
occur in man’s application of his technical
knowledge and skills as he adopts himself to
his big environment.
• This change may be evident in the following:
1. increasing differentiation in the forms of tools
and implements used by man;
2. constant additions to and deletions from the
range of inventions;
3. gradual increase in scientific knowledge;
4. resulting ability to utilize and exploit the natural
environment for man’s needs.
• Social change refers to the variations or
modifications in the patterns of social organizations
of subgroups within a society, or of the entire society
itself.
• This may be manifested in the rise and fall of small
groups, communities, or institutional structures and
functions, or changes in the statuses, the roles of
members of the family, work setting, church,
government, school, and other subsystems of the
social organization.
 Internal Sources of Social Change
1. Innovations
- occur when people acquire new ideas and
change the way they do something. Examples:
a) new technology
b) new culture
c) new social structures (inventions)
2. Conflicts
- much change is produced by conflicts among
groups within a society that may have
resulted positive effects.
3. Growth
- in any society, population has become a
major engine driving modern social change.
- large populations present new problems
that demand new modes of social
organization.
For ex., small populations may allow direct
participation in decision-making.
4. New ideas
- people in advanced industrial societies are
experiencing a shift in values that involves a
new definition of progress.
- highly developed countries are moving into
an era of post materialism.
- our present emphasis on consumption of
goods and services is giving way to an
emphasis on the quality of human life.
5. Diffusion
- direct or indirect contact between members
of two different cultures often leads to change
in one or both cultures.
- This process by which this change comes
about is diffusion, because it entails a gradual
dissemination of cultural traits.
 Theories of Social Change
• Evolutionary theory – characterized
primarily by an assumption of smooth,
cumulative change, often in a linear
fashion, and always in the direction of
increasing complexity and adaptability.
• Equilibrium theory – characterized by
the concept of homeostasis, and focuses
on conditions tending toward stability as
a consequence.
• Conflict theory – characterized by the
assumption that change is endemic to all
social organizations, and focuses on
conditions that tend toward instability as
a consequence.
• Rise and Fall theory – characterized by
the assumption that societies, cultures,
or civilization regress as well as grow,
and that all societies do not move in the
same direction.
 Factors in Social Change
• Multiple factors underlie the broad and
complex nature of social change.
• Display:
- rate
- direction
- form
- type
- cause
- order
- stimulants
- barriers in its emergence, development, and
decline
• Rate – referred to as speed of pace.
* All cultures change but the rates of change
vary. Some societies change slowly while
others rapidly.
* Some change rapidly for a time and then
slows down, and vice versa for others.
• Forms of Social Change – this means that social
change may or may not repeated over definite
periods of time.
- The characteristics of social change are indicated by
the term “form,” which are two:
1. Cyclical – in which cultures or their parts are
repeated over a considerable period of time.
2. Linear – in which cultures or their specific
aspects change in only one direction and never
recur.
 In reality, no culture is precisely cyclical or linear.
What is possible to determine is whether the changes
in the overall culture or its elements more closely
approximate the linear or the cyclical form.
Changes in population size bring about changes in
sex ratio, courtship, and organization. Periods of
continuing population growth can enhance delayed
marriage or limited childbearing.
Scarce economic resources and keen competition
in the employment arena may render marriage
impractical, with individuals shrinking from family
responsibility and encourage single-blessedness.
• Direction of Social Change – closely associated with
rate and form is the direction of social change.
- The three are measured according to the objectives
that a person or a group wishes to achieve on a long
or short-range basis.
- The rapidity or slowness of social change can be
defined in accordance with a tentative schedule set
for the attainment of specific objectives, but which
could contribute toward the fulfillment of a general
goal.
• Tecnicways – means people develop
individual and group customs.
* People reorienting themselves to
assemble at designated places for jeep
and bus stops, or to line up to pay the
cashier or to use computers, etc.,
illustrate the formation of tecnicways.
• When the different elements of culture catch
up with one another and maintain a balance
among themselves for a certain period, then
culture lag fades out.
 Modernization
• Many societies today are involved in the
process of modernization, or change
toward the type of society found in the
urbanizing and industrialized nations.
• This affects politics, social forms, and
even individual psychology.
• Many social scientists of today are interested in the
patterns of modernization – whether there is a trend
toward:
1. Convergence – greater similarity among nations
in their institutions;
2. Divergence – greater differences among them,
and what effect the position of a nation in the
world economy has on its modernization effect.
(world’s system theory)
COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR
and
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• Collective behavior
- is spontaneous, unstructured, and temporary
action by a large number of people who
interact with one another or respond to a
common stimulus.
 Types of Collective Behavior
• Mass hysteria – involves uncontrollable
emotional reactions to anxiety within a
group.
• Panics – are actions caused by sudden
overwhelming need to escape from danger.
• Crazes – involves an intense desire to have
something that everyone else appears to be
enjoying.
• Fads – is a short-lived but widely copied
outburst of unexpected and often playful
behavior.
• Fashions – are more enduring, widespread,
and socially significant than crazes and fads.
What is “in” is defined by trendsetters. It is
the network of influence that carry the
message.
• Rumors – are unverified items of information.
- usually come from anonymous sources passed on
quickly from one person to another.
- these may or may not be correct.
- some of these may are intentionally originated.
• Urban Legends – are items of modern folklore
involving rumors that resonate to deeply held fears
and anxieties regarding aspects of modern life
beyond personal control.
Example of this is a story about certain products that
carry satanic symbols, or the missing lady sold into
white slavery or prostitution, or the rumors about
missing children killed, and whose blood is mixed
with concrete to strengthen foundation of public
construction of dams, bridges, and others.
• Publics or Mass Audience – is a large number of
people who share a common sentiment on some
issues.
- are more organized than masses.
- have a common attitude toward a particular topic,
idea or individual.
- also exercise more critical judgment than masses.
Example, the public opposing death penalty or
reproductive health bill, etc. Members of a public
adopt a specific position on a given issue.
• Public Opinion – is the actual attitude or
position on an issue that is held by the
members of a public.
- it is a collective response to an issue.
- originates from direct interaction with
others and from
information gathered from the mass media.
- is related to a specific situation; because of
this, public
opinion changes as social conditions change.
• Censorship – refers to the restriction of information;
it can manipulate public opinion.
- This happens in many societies.
- The government may deny people information that
is harmful to a position it supports thereby
reducing the possibility that public s may oppose
the government interests.
• Propaganda – refers to the deliberate and
calculated presentation of distorted, one-
sided and selective information to the public
in order to change its opinion in desired way.