Assignment Essay and Discussion Forum in Sociology Week 5

Assignment and Discussion Forum in Sociology Week 5 - Essay Exampleed status and achieved status and very often the ascribed status of an individual is conferred at birth or received involuntarily later in life, based on attributes over which the individuals have little or no control, such as race, ethnicity, age and gender (Kendall, p. 105). However, it is possible for an individual to acquire achieved statuses in ones life with hard work, individualal competence, personal choice and successful competition. There is a close link between ascribed statuses and achieved ones consequently, it should also be kept in mind that factors such as race, ethnicity and gender argon most likely to diminish ones opportunity to reach higher realms of achieved statuses. It can therefore be concluded that people who are privileged by their positive ascribed status are more likely to develop positive achieved status whereas those who are disadvantaged by ascribed status tend to acquire negative achi eved status (Kendall, p. 105).For a person who occupies different statuses, it is his master status that dominates over all opposites and determines his favorable position. According to Hughes (1945), a persons master status is the most important status a person occupies it dominates all of the individuals other statuses and is the overriding ingredient in determining a persons general social position (Kendall, p. 105). Factors such as a persons race, ethnicity and religious identity can very often constitute the master statuses for individuals. In any society or community where racial discrimination, ethnic twine and religious prejudices prevails, the dominant group members tend to single out members of other groups as inferior on the basis of real or alleged physical, ethnical or nationality characteristics (Kendall, p. 106). The social identities of ethnic minorities are most likely to be perceived based on their ethnicity or race. Factors such as a persons race, ethnicity and religious identity constitute as the