Key Terms Chapter 09: Social Stratification in the US
- Page ID
- 143144
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (Eg. "Genetic, Hereditary, DNA ...") | (Eg. "Relating to genes or heredity") |  | The infamous double helix | https://bio.libretexts.org/ | CC-BY-SA; Delmar Larsen |
| Word(s) | Definition | Image | Caption | Link | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caste System | a system in which people are born into a social standing that they will retain their entire lives | ||||
| Class | a group who shares a common social status based on factors like wealth, income, education, and occupation | ||||
| Class System | social standing based on social factors and individual accomplishments | ||||
| Class Traits | the typical behaviors, customs, and norms that define each class (also called class markers) | ||||
| Conspicuous Consumption | the act of buying and using products to make a statement about social standing | ||||
| Davis-Moore Thesis | a thesis that argues some social stratification is a social necessity | ||||
| Downward Mobility | a lowering of one’s social class | ||||
| Endogamous Marriages | unions of people within the same social category | ||||
| Exogamous Unions | unions of spouses from different social categories | ||||
| Global Stratification | a comparison of the wealth, economic stability, status, and power of countries as a whole | ||||
| Income | the money a person earns from work or investments | ||||
| Intergenerational Mobility | a difference in social class between different generations of a family | ||||
| Intragenerational Mobility | a difference in social class between different members of the same generation | ||||
| Meritocracy | an ideal system in which personal effort—or merit—determines social standing | ||||
| Primogeniture | a law stating that all property passes to the firstborn son | ||||
| Social Mobility | the ability to change positions within a social stratification system | ||||
| Social Stratification | a socioeconomic system that divides society’s members into categories ranking from high to low, based on things like wealth, power, and prestige | ||||
| Standard of Living | the level of wealth available to acquire material goods and comforts to maintain a particular socioeconomic lifestyle | ||||
| Status Consistency | the consistency, or lack thereof, of an individual’s rank across social categories like income, education, and occupation | ||||
| Structural Mobility | a societal change that enables a whole group of people to move up or down the class ladder | ||||
| Upward Mobility | an increase—or upward shift—in social class | ||||
| Wealth | the value of money and assets a person has from, for example, inheritance |