SOC 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Ascribed Status, Achieved Status, Role Theory

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 1100
• Professor: Deanna Behnke- Cook

Document Summary

Social interaction: the process by which people act and react in relation to others. Through interaction, we create the reality in which we live. Social structure: any relatively stable pattern of social behaviour. Status set: all the statuses held at one time: a teenage girl, daughter to her parents, sister to her brother, student, a goalie on her hockey team. Ascribed status: a social position a person perceives at birth of assumes involuntarily later in life: race, class, age group. Achieved status: a social position a person assumes voluntarily that reflects ability and effort: an honor student, an olympic athlete. A status that has special importance for social identity, often shaping a person"s entire life: occupation, a recognizable family name, gender for women, negative sense: disease, disability. Role: behaviour expected of someone who holds a particular status. A person holds a status and performs a role. Role set: a number of roles attached to a single status (ex.