Ascribed status
Summary
Ascribed status is a social position a person is given by birth or by others, not one chosen or earned. Examples are sex, race, age and family of origin. The testable contrast is with achieved status, which comes from effort or choice, such as being a physician.
Detail
Meaning: An ascribed status is a position in society assigned to a person regardless of effort, ability or choice. Most are present at birth or develop without the person's control, such as sex, race, ethnicity, age, and the social class or caste of one's family. A status is the position itself; a role is the set of behaviors expected of someone in that position. Ascribed statuses tend to dominate in closed stratification systems, such as caste or feudal systems, where social mobility is limited. Achieved statuses matter more in open, meritocratic class systems.
On the MCAT: A passage usually lists several statuses (daughter, teenager, college graduate, immigrant, spouse) and asks you to sort them into ascribed and achieved. Questions may also ask which kind of society relies more on ascribed status, or how ascribed status limits social mobility. It also appears with master status, the status that dominates how others see a person.
Common confusion: Students assume ascribed means permanent or biological. Age changes over time and is still ascribed, and the social meaning of race or sex is socially constructed. The deciding question is whether the person chose or earned the position. Master status is a separate idea, because a master status can be ascribed or achieved.
Sources
- Sociology: A Brief Introduction
- Introduction to Sociology
- Essentials of Sociology
Written for the MCAT and checked before it was published. For study reference only. Spotted an error? Let us know.