Sociology: Social Class & Decision Making – Flashcards

wealth, power, and prestige

especially in a pluralistic society with a multitude of values mixing and melding. There are many components of social class, and its impact on society can be seen in families, education, religion, politics, and even health.

is a group of individuals who have similar social standing based on how they earn their income and what their economic value Sociologists measure these three components to determine a group's social class. These factors separate people into different Lifestyles Opportunities in life Ways of looking at themselves and the world

considered economic production the most important way in which to categorize the classes; owners of businesses (the bourgeoisie) and the workers (proletariat) It was Karl Marx's greatest preoccupation: social class. In his class conflict theory, it is the single driving force that affects social outcomes. Social class has become more complicated to define than in Marx's day, however. There are many facets of social class—from lifestyle to wealth to opportunities—and complicated equations that determine who has power and prestige, who does not, and what this means for their life outcomes.

defined social class as a group of people who have similar rank and opportunity in three areas (1) wealth; assets of all kinds, income, monetary value of possessions, investments, wages, inheritance (2) power; social authority and influence to sway others to do as they want (3) prestige; having the respect of others so that they desire to help you

Wealth is the primary aspect of social class. With wealth, a person can acquire power and prestige. Wealth is not limited to income, which is the money a person receives from employment, interest, rent, royalties, and investments. It also includes the value of a person's property (land, buildings, businesses, stocks, bonds, bank accounts, and so on). It is possible to have a high income but limited wealth, and vice versa. However, restrictions in income or wealth may limit the development of power and prestige.

Power is the ability to "get your way," despite the resistance of others. Often power is reflected by others' desire to do your bidding even when it goes against their own best interests. In this way, power can be turned into wealth and prestige.

What is sometimes called a power elite exists in American society. Certain political positions and high-level business executives have the ability to influence social decisions, such as foreign and domestic policy. This power is concentrated in the hands of an elite few. For example, the majority of American presidents were "millionaire white men" from wealthy families.

Prestige is respect, or regard. It often comes as a result of power or wealth but may be based on other considerations as well. Often the best at anything has greater prestige, so award-winning scientists and prize-winning athletes may have high prestige, no matter their social class background. Prestige may or may not bring with it power and wealth. People often flaunt status symbols and want others to acknowledge their prestige. To get a sense of payoff, people want others to be acknowledged for their prestige. Ex; nurses vs. surgeons; congressmen vs. state representatives: Prestigious occupations across cultures share these similarities: Pay higher salaries Require higher education or experience Provide greater autonomy

is when people have a combination of high and low factors of wealth, power, and prestige, such as high education but a low-paying job. In today's economy, many people suffer from status inconsistency.

(1) family life: social class can affect the choice of spouse, the number of children, and the rate of divorce. (2) education: social class can affect the choice of private or public schooling and the perceived value of higher education. (3) religion: people of similar social classes tend to cluster in religious denominations. (4) politics: social class can influence how people vote and what political issues are important to them. (5) physical health: social class affects lifestyle and access to health care.

Notes from video; serious constraints: resources that come with main-stream jobs provide higher salary and health insurance and health care, child care; having children wouldn't interfere with job since they have the money to do so low wage jobs; we have a terrible system of exploitation of people in low wage employment; far below and virtually impossible to pay for child care, health insurance. Job layoff, health problem - downward tail spin; leads eventually leads to welfare. The vast majority, on welfare, unhappy being in their situation Money for transportation, childcare, clothes; deeper in poverty starting to change perception of welfare;

Peers are those people who are considered to be social equals. You trust your peers because they seem to be very much like you. They have similar values and a comparable outlook on life. They are almost always of the same social class. Peers can sway a person's decision-making processes and daily behaviors in many ways, such as the following: (1) mingling among other social classes (2) specific behaviors, such as table manners, dress style, or alcoholic drink choices (3) political and business alliances (4) support of policies and public opinion (5) which workplaces, schools, or programs of study are acceptable (6) whom one should marry Sociologists measure social class by examining income, education, and occupational prestige. For most people, this classification works well, but it doesn't work for everyone. Sometimes peers influence people in harmful ways.

Sociologists continue to debate the components of social class. Two main models exist. One is based on Marx's ideas; the other is based on Weber's ideas. Marx identified two primary social classes: capitalists and workers. Weber viewed social class as related to a person's property, power, and prestige.

refined Marx's model. He considered that class was somewhat fluid and that a person could belong to more than one class at a time. It was because of these contradictory class locations that he enlarged on Marx's list of social classes, identifying four social classes in American society: (1) capitalists: Large business owners (2) petty Bourgeoisie: Small business owners (3) managers: Sell their labor but have power over other workers (4) workers: Sell their labor

Kahl and Gilbert (1998) refined and clarified Weber's ideas, and developed a six-class model of class structure in capitalist countries.

(1) capitalists; Investors and heirs, top executives; 1% of the population; hold one-third of the nation's wealth; divided further into "old money" (those who come from long, generational lines of wealth) and "nouveau riche" (those who earned wealth relatively recently, perhaps first-generation capitalists) (2) upper middle-class: professionals and upper managers; 15% of the population; typically college educated (3) Lower Middle Class; semiprofessionals and lower managers; 34% of the population; hopeful of moving up the ladder; frequent job insecurity (4) Working Class Factory, clerical, and retail sales; 30% of the population; seniority on the job more likely than advancement (5) Working Poor Laborers, service workers, low-paid salespeople; 15% of the population; unskilled workers with little hope of moving up; often do not vote (6) Underclass Unemployed, part-time employed, underemployed, or on welfare; 5% of the population; menial, incidental employment; sometimes hopeless

People strive to move upward on the social class ladder. Most parents hope that their children will be better educated, better employed, and better paid than they are. And most employees hope to advance in their workplace or career. When economies bust or boom, whole groups of people may move up or down the social class ladder. Sociologists have identified three types of social mobility:

Intergenerational mobility is change that occurs in social class between generations. Upward mobility: When children move up the social class ladder from where their parents are. Downward mobility: When children move down the social class ladder from where their parents are.

Structural mobility occurs when large numbers of people move up or down.

Exchange mobility occurs when large numbers of people move up and down, but proportions remain the same.

US culture promotes the notion that every american has the opportunity to achieve success, especially financial. Americans material success, american dream, opportunities to rise above the levels that you were born into, 1 in 5 people can move in social class. Decline industry in our country and information age, limited number of opportunities americans has declined

People make some career choices according to the potential income, power, and prestige associated with a particular career. More prestige is given to jobs that have the following characteristics: (1)Provide higher pay (2) Require more education (3) Require more abstract thought (4) Offer more independence (5) Professional and white-collar jobs are rated at the top. The primary entry to the upper middle class is a college education.

Sixty million working-class and underclass people earn an income that is below the poverty line in the United States. There are hardworking people going to work every day who still cannot earn enough to pay a mortgage on a small house, feed a family, or start a savings account.

(1) Most poor people are lazy and do not want to work. Fifty percent of people identified as poor are too old or too young to work. (2) People are trapped in a poverty cycle. For most people, poverty lasts less than a year. (3)Most poor people are African Americans and Latinos. Most poor people are white because the number of whites in the United States exceeds the number of any other group. (4) Most poor people are single mothers with children. Nearly as many married couples as single mothers are poor. (5) Most poor people live in the city. Forty-two percent of poor people live in cities and 36% of the poor live in suburbs. (6) Poor people live on welfare. Only about 25% of poor people's income comes from welfare. Many poor people do not receive welfare at all.

Similarities exist among poor people in the United States, including the following: Geography; rural areas and the South have larger percentages of people living in poverty than urban areas or the northern regions of the US Race-ethnicity; although the overall majority of Americans living in poverty are white (12% of the total white population lives in poverty), much larger percentages of Asian Americans (13%), Latinos (25%), African Americans (26%), and Native Americans (27%) live in poverty. Education: No matter where you live or your ethnicity, dropping out of high school increases the chances of living in poverty. Only three out of every 100 persons with a college education live in poverty.

There are three main explanations for poverty: Social Structure: Some theorists propose that a social structure is set up to create a poverty class and that poor people serve some purpose in maintaining the stability of a society. Also, some features of society restrict access to poverty-reducing resources, like education and good jobs. All of this contributes to a debilitating cycle of discrimination, making it all the more difficult for those among the underclass to improve their lives. Characteristics of Individuals: Some theorists propose that it is the individual's fault if he or she is poor, that there are specific features about some people that make them unable to get or keep a job. These factors include early childbearing, dropping out of school, and poor access to support systems. Poverty Triggers: Specific events may unexpectedly drop a person into poverty for a brief time, such as illness, accident, job loss, or pregnancy.

The families that are most likely to be poor are headed by a single mother. The phrase feminization of poverty acknowledges the association of poverty with women. Poverty among women has increased as a result of the following: Increased divorce rates, which reduce available income to the whole family. Increased birthrates among single women, which increase the financial strain on a single income. Overall, in the United States, women earn no more than 70% of what men earn, regardless of the job type. Births to Single Mothers: The figure below reveals a striking relationship between births to single women and social class. It does not, however, clarify if poverty causes more births or if more births cause greater poverty.

Welfare was restructured in 1996 by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which did the following: (1) Capped lifetime benefits (2) Compelled recipients to look for available work (3) Required single teen parents to attend school This law was highly controversial and criticized, and left many working people in even greater poverty.

Transformation is a powerful word. Many of us seek transformation, from one state to another, in a quest for fulfillment or happiness. In the sociological sense, transformation is what happens when individuals transcend the bounds of their class. Other related words you just discovered are opportunity and intergenerational mobility. When opportunity is suddenly afforded to those of a class who historically were denied it, transformation can begin.

The people in groups with whom we primarily associate, our peer groups, are composed of a complex web of family, friends, and acquaintances. Our peers generally have similar levels of wealth and education.