UCSP- Lesson 12 Social stratification

• Social stratification

  The system of social standing
• Social stratification


  Institutionalized inequality of individuals or social injustice due to social categories
• Social stratification


  The way people are ranked and ordered in society
• Social stratification


  A system whereby people rank and evaluate each other as superior or inferior and, on the basis of such evaluation, unequally reward one another with wealth, authority, power, and prestige
• Generally, there are three classes in every society: upper, middle and lower class
• Social differentiation


  How people can be distinguished from one another
• Social stratification


  The ranking of people in a society
• Closed stratification


  People cannot change their ranks
• Open social stratification

  People can change their ranks
• Social stratification


  The separation of people into social categories and these categories are ranked as higher or lower
• Social desirables


  Factors that affect social stratification - wealth, power, and prestige
• Power


  • The ability to influence other people
• Prestige


  • A person's position in the society that enables them to have resources or opportunities
• Wealth


  • The amount of resources that a person has
• Social desirables

  • Wealth
  • Power
  • Prestige
• Functionalist theory


  Stratification exists because it serves an important purpose or function in the society
• Functionalist theory


  All members of the society perform different roles based on their ability or skill
• Functionalist theory


  Some tasks in societies are more valuable than others, and qualified people who fill those positions must be rewarded more than others
• Conflict theory


  Stratification exists because it benefits certain groups of people who dominate and exploit others
• Conflict theory


  Highlights the interests that divide the people
• Symbolic interactionism

  Understands stratification by looking at people's interaction and understandings in their daily lives
• Symbolic interactionism


  Examines how people's social standing affects their everyday interactions
• Status symbols

  Visible markers of a person's stature and economic position
• Snob effect


  Expressed preference for goods because they are different from those commonly preferred; in other words, for consumers who want to use exclusive products, price is quality
• Types of social stratification

  • Open systems
  • Closed systems
  • Ethnic systems
• Open (class) system


  Encourages people to strive and achieve something, people belonging to one social class have similar opportunities, similar lifestyles, attitudes, behavior and possibly similar socioeconomic positions
• Open (class) system


  Based on achievement, allow movement and interaction between layers and classes, one person can move up or down to class through intermarriages, opportunities, or achievement, people have equal chance to succeed
• Closed system


  Accommodates little change in social position, do not allow people to shift levels and do not permit social relationships between levels
• Caste system


  A closed stratification system in which people can do little or nothing to change their social standing, social contact is rigid and clearly defined, people are born and die in their caste, contact between and among the caste is minimal and governed by a set of rules
• Estate system


  A somewhat closed system in which the person's social standing is based on ownership of land, birth, or military strength, individuals who were born into one of the estates remained there throughout life but in extreme cases there is social mobility
• Ethnic system


  A type of social stratification based on national origin, language and religion, ethnicity sets segments of society apart and each group has a sense of identity, people interact more freely with those people belonging to the same ethnic category
• During the Spanish and American colonial systems in the Philippines, the colonizers perceived themselves to be occupying the upper social class than the Filipinos or the natives whom they called as Indios