Ascribed and Achieved Statuses

All societies confront a constant stream of new babies who need to be placed in statuses. These infants cannot be ignored or left to their own devices. Moreover, society needs these new babies to fill statuses left vacant by death and other causes. Only in this manner can the business of group living be accomplished. But every society is caught in a dilemma. On the one hand, the formation of attitudes and habits begins at birth. The earlier the training for a status can begin, the more complete it is likely to be. On the other hand, people differ greatly in abilities and talents. Yet short of actual experience over the years, there is no way of telling who the gifted will be. By postponing the allocation of statuses, society could better place each person in the status for which he or she is peculiarly fitted (Linton, 1936).

Every society must decide upon some sort of compromise between the two approaches. It can do this by assigning some positions to people independent of their unique qualities or abilities. Positions conferred on people arbitrarily by a group or society are called ascribed statuses. Age and sex are common reference for ascription; race, religion and family background are others. Society allocates still other statuses to people on the basis of unique abilities and talents. The positions they secure through choice and competition are called achieved statuses. Church deacon, plumber, actor, college student, artist, county sheriff, pickpocket, fullback, choir direction, president of IBM, coach, and race car driver are illustrations of achieved statuses.

Even so, no society ignores individual differences. All societies recognize individual accomplishment and failure and apportion some statuses on the basis of individual achievement. In some cases, these statuses serve as bait for socially acceptable behavior or as escape hatches for troublemakers. “Societies often reserve certain achieved statuses as rewards for conformity. Simultaneously, they find it possible to channel it otherwise might be deviant impulses into socially acceptable channels: Individuals disposed to skeptical inquiry can become philosophers, to innovative tinkering, engineers; to aesthetic creativity, artists; and to religious inspiration, prophets.

Master Statuses

Some of our statuses overshadow others in our own minds and in those of other people. A master status is a key or core status that carries primary weight in our social interactions and relationships. Age and sex are master statuses in all societies. Race and occupation are also of central importance in American life. Master statuses lay the framework within which our goals are formulated and our training carried out.

By virtue of a master status, people hold rather specific expectations for our behavior, abilities, and traits. Consider age. It governs our entry to many other statuses and makes its own distinct imprint on them. The notion that you ought to “act your age” pervades many spheres. In the United States, for instance, a child of 6 is thought “too young” to babysit for over youngsters. A man of 80 is thought to be “too old” to dance the latest steps in a discotheque. Age operates directly as a criterion for driving a car (age 16, 17 in others), voting (age 18), becoming president (age 35), and receiving social security retirement benefits (age 62). Age also operates indirectly as a criterion for certain statuses through its links with other factors. For instance, age linked with reproductive capacity limits entry into the parental role; age linked with 12 years of elementary and secondary school usually limits entry to the college. Consequently, age serves as a reference point that allows us to orient ourselves in terms of what and where we are within various social networks – school, family, church, and workplace. It is one ingredient that provides us with the answers to the question “Who I am?”

Not surprisingly, the loss of a key master status can have devastating consequences for us. To be displaced from such a status may set us socially adrift. Our identities can become confused and imperiled.