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Ch. 9 – Social Stratification
Section 2: The American Class System (p. 214-220)
*Inequality exists in all social class systems & ours (which is fairly open)
is no exception. Laws forbid discrimination based on ascribed status (race,
religion, ancestry, gender) & in theory all US classes have = access to the
resources needed for social advancement & mobility – but in reality – the
rate of mobility is different for some.
1) Listed below are the 3 basic techniques Sociologists rely on to rank individuals
according to social class. For each, explain how it works & list its shortcomings.
 Reputational Method:
Individuals in the community rank each other according to
what they know of each other’s characters & lifestyles.
WEAKNESS: only works in smallest communities where
everyone knows each other.
 Subjective Method:
Individuals are asked to determine their own social rank.
WEAKNESS: Most people put themselves in the middle
when asked to do this.
 Objective Method:
Uses statistics to define social class by education, income &
occupation. It is the least biased way to classify. Still it has a
WEAKNESS – selecting & measuring social factors can be
inaccurate.
2) Look at the table on page 214 in your text. It names the 6 classes in the US class
system. Which 3 classes make up the greatest % of the total population? The “middle
class” (upper, lower and the working class)
What is the relationship between education level and social class? The higher the
education level the higher the social class (usually)
3) Read about Social mobility beginning on p. 217. What does it mean?
ability to move up OR down the social scale.
It is the
How is HORIZONTAL mobility different from VERTICAL mobility?
HORIZONTAL = moving WITHIN a social class;
VERTICAL = moving BETWEEN social classes.
Give an example for horizontal and vertical mobility.
4) While it’s true that every individual has a great deal of impact on the social class they
are able to achieve in society, sociologists are very interested in STRUCTURAL causes
of social mobility. Structural causes are factors or trends in society that result in
social class movement for large numbers of people, not just individual movement.
Some structural causes lead to upward mobility…give 3 examples of those:
ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGY; CHANGES IN
MERCHANDIZING PATTERNS (credit industry);
INCREASE IN THE EDUCATION LEVEL FOR THE
GENERAL POPULATION.
Other structural causes lead to downward mobility…give 2 examples of those:
CHANGES IN THE ECONOMY (like recession or inflation);
HAVING UNMARKETABLE JOB SKILLS; GLOBAL
COMPETITION FOR HIGHLY SKILLED JOBS
The OVERCLASS is defined as those with a net worth (assets minus liabilities) of over
$1 million. There are over 5 million American families who fall into that category. Do
you aspire to that kind of wealth?
From what you’ve read in this section what
are 2 things you could do to increase your likelihood of attaining that status?