Human beings are social beings.
A life of a person involves interaction and socializing with other people. It is through this interaction that a person acquires status by the virtue of how other people perceive their character. The status acquired is called social identity or identities that an individual has in any given social structure. This status is a crucial element that dictates and describes how an individual relates with other people. Essentially, status defines who we are and how we interact and socialize with other people. In addition, status can be interpreted as the position an individual hold in a social structure. There are two categories of social status; ascribed status and achieved status. The purpose of this paper is to differentiate between the ascribed status and achieved status and give examples of each form of status.
Ascribed status
According to Macionis, ascribed status is the social position that an individual occupy involuntarily and that which has no control over.\u00a0 Usually, it is the position that an individual receives at birth or takes them involuntarily later in life. Ralph Linton described ascribed status as the identity that a person acquires without reference to their innate differences or abilities.
In this regard, there are many types of ascribed status that are mostly ascribed. Among them, are the ascribed statuses that are acquired at birth; for example gender and disability. Being a male or a female or being born disabled is no person\u2019s choice. It is something that a person is born with and takes involuntarily and has no control over. However, there are those other ascribed statuses that are acquired later in life by the virtue of how the society perceives or categorize them; for example, the virtue of being a daughter, a son, a parent or, a widower.
Achieved status
This is a social status that and individual earns or chooses to take voluntarily. This form of status reflects a person\u2019s achievements, ability and effort. It is a form of status that is attained through a person\u2019s life choices. It is acquired as a result of a person\u2019s ability and capability. In this regard, achieved status is usually acquired through competition and merit where an individual acquires personal accomplishments. Therefore this form of status can either have an aspect good or bad reputation unlike the ascribed status. For instances, one can have social status of being a thief or an alcoholic (Macionis p24).
Examples of achieved status include professionalism, occupation or relationship status. This is a status that and individual acquires through merit. It is through an individual efforts, life choices and capabilities that a person becomes a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer, a profession athlete or a teacher.
In conclusion, every individual in any social structure has status to maintain.
The status can be ascribed, achieved or both forms of status. Since ascribed form of status no one has control over, it is important that an individual endeavor to use their efforts, capabilities and good life choices to flourish in the achieved status. This will be a great milestone for personal fulfillment and a greater good of the society.
Work Cited
Macionis, John J. Sociology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2015.
