The social status of a person is an indicator of how high a position in society is occupied by a person. This is not necessarily a job description: a person's status can vary depending on his gender, age, marital status or profession. This position on the social ladder not only points to a person's place, but also empowers him with certain rights and duties. For each society, they can be different.
How to determine the social status?
It is not necessary to think that each person has a single social status. Each of us has several provisions at the same time, which depend on the system to which they relate. For example, a woman's social status can be many-sided: she, for example, has a wife, mother, daughter, sister, company employee, Christian, and an organization member. The totality of these provisions is called a status set. From the above example, we see what determines the social status: this is the marital status, and religious views, and professional activity, and personal interests, etc.
As a rule, the person himself determines his / her main socio-psychological status, but this is also affected by the group with which other people are identified, in the first place. In addition, it is possible to change the social status of the person: for example, we change our status when we get higher education, create a family, find a new job, etc.
Types of social statuses
There are two main types of human positions on the social ladder: acquired and prescribed (born) social status. The first of them is characterized by what a person gains in the course of his life: the level of education, political views, profession, etc. The prescribed social status is what is given to man by nature: nationality, language, place of birth, etc.
However, not all social statuses of women and men are equally assessed by others. Some of them are prestigious, and some - on the contrary. The hierarchy of prestige depends on such provisions as the real utility of a particular social function and the value system that operates in that particular society.
In addition, there are several types of social status: personal and group. Personal status is a status at the level of a small group of people, with which a person interacts constantly. For example, this group can be a family, workforce or a company of friends. As a rule, he is determined by personality traits and various personal qualities.
Group status characterizes a person as a member of a large social group. This includes the status of a person as
Depending on the social status, a person adjusts his behavior. For example, at home a man is a father and husband, and he behaves accordingly. And at work he is a professor and a teacher, and, accordingly, he will behave quite differently. Depending on how well a person successfully corresponds to one or another of his status, they talk about his ability to fulfill his social role. That's why there are such expressions as "good specialist", "bad father", "excellent friend" - all this characterizes this indicator. And one and the same person can differently cope with their social roles, why it can be "bad" from one point of view and "good" on the other.