Status

- Status is a social position in society. And different statuses that people hold affect their interactions with others, so each individual has many different statuses. So people would interact differently when they're in the son or daughter status, as opposed to when they're in the student status with professors, or even when they're in the friend status with their peers. So statuses affect the type of interactions we have, and in some situations, people are equal. So, if we look at this situation here, and this is you, and this is your friend, this would be a situation where you are equals, and this is really where you would feel comfortable negotiating and talking things out. So if you were roommates, and you had to commute to school, you could say, "Hey, I will drive today, but you drive tommorrow." That sort of thing. So that's when this guy right here is in the friend status. Now, in other situations, people interact with others who hold superior, or inferior statuses, so now, if this is you down here, and you are interacting with a professor, the professor would be superior to you, so you would sort of be submissive. You would be open to hearing what they have to say first, and you wouldn't be so quick to negotiate with them because the student has to be respectful. And in another situation, if you're the student, maybe now you're over here, and you're the president of an organization. So when you're the president, you have sort of control and superiority over your members, and the members will sort of submit to you, and now look to you for leadership, and they will have to respect you moreso. So that's the difference here. So we see you can be an equal, or you can be superior, or you could even be inferior, just depending on the status you hold. So, some situations people have no control over the statuses they hold, and these are called ascribe statuses. And the ascribe statuses are really just given to you at birth, and they don't change during your lifetime. So an example would be if you were born into a royal family, and you were immediately given the status of a prince or a princess, that would be an ascribed status. Now, that is very different from the other type of status that we see, and that's called achieved status. An achieved status is, you can think of it as it's earned through your own effort, and it's your decision and your choice. So an example would be this guy right here, if he went and he sacrificed everything, and he was home-schooled his whole life just to try and get a shot at making the Olympic team, and he works very hard, and he makes the Olympic team, that's an achieved status, because he chose to do that, and he worked very hard, and it was earned, the keyword there being earned.