Rohall 3e ppt ch04

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Social PsychologySociological Perspectives

THIRD EDITIONRohall, Milkie, Lucas

Chapter Four

The Social Psychology of Stratification


Defining Stratification

• Social stratification refers to ways in which individuals or groups are ranked in society

• Important statuses include: social class, race or ethnicity, gender, age, and sexuality

• Social psychologists study the effects of stratification on the individual and how individuals contribute the development and maintenance of stratification systems


SI: Basic Stratification Processes

• There are three ways that interactionists show the impacts of stratification:– Social structure shapes who we interact with– People in lower-status positions have to take the role of the

other more often than their more powerful counterparts of higher status

– Individuals with certain statuses have more power to define situations and to define themselves


SI: Othering

• Othering is a form of collective identity work in which those with higher status create definitions that make them feel superior and in the process obscure the morality of lower-status groups.

• Michael Schwalbe suggests that this process helps explain how social class and other inequalities are sustained and created.

• For example, upper- and middle-class people may define others as “different and deficit”; for example, those they employ to clean their homes may be cast as “others” having deficits such as incompetence, intellectual inferiority, etc.


SI: Doing Gender

• West and Zimmerman (1987) argued that one of the foundational guidelines for social interaction is our gender

• Gender includes the cultural definitions of masculinity and femininity associated with individuals’ biological sex

• Doing gender is a social process in which individuals are held accountable to the social rules or norms associated with being a man or a woman in society


SI: A Gendered World

• Barrie Thorne (1993) showed how gender processes occur at early ages by studying elementary school children and how boys and girls act in ways that separate themselves from each other

• Borderwork refers to the creation of social and physical boundaries between boys and girls


SI: Doing Gender in Adulthood

• Heilman and colleagues (2004) show that “doing gender” continues into adulthood

• Their research generally found that people who are disliked generally receive lower evaluations than people who are liked

• Women who achieve in work groups tend to be less liked than their male counterparts, but only when women achieve success in traditionally male work arenas


SI: “Doing Difference” and Intersectionality

• The concept of doing gender has also been applied to the study of racial and ethnic relations

• Doing difference refers to any way in which

inequality in any form (race, class, or gender) is perpetuated during our interactions

• We can combine multiple statuses (e.g., gender and race) into our identity, yielding interlocking systems of inequality, a concept called intersectionality


SSP: Structures of Inequality

• In industrialized nations, our status derives from our social class position, among other things

• Social class refers to a group of people who share the same relative status in a given society

• A more structural perspective takes hierarchy as a “given” and “seeks to understand the processes by which individuals become distributed in that hierarchy” (Kerckhoff 1995: 476)


Figure 4.1 The intersection of Race and Poverty in the United States.


SSP: Social Mobility and the Wisconsin Model of Status Attainment

• Socioeconomic status (SES) is our social and economic statuses

• Social mobility refers to upward or downward change in SES over time

• The Wisconsin Model of Status Attainment ties together the relative impact of social background characteristics and ability on long-term status attainment

• The project is based on a survey of high-school seniors in Wisconsin that began in 1957 among a group of researchers from the University of Wisconsin


Figure 4.2 The Wisconsin Model of Status Attainment.


SSP: Research Applying the Wisconsin Model

• The Wisconsin Model examines the interaction of our early cognitive ability and social background on important life outcomes like education and income

• Recent research using this model shows that effects of family social class on long-term status operate almost entirely through education and cognitive ability


SSP: Class and Genetics

• Recent sociological research has shown that genetics play a significant role in status inheritance

• Other research shows that other “unshared influences” such as social networks also have a large influence on status attainment

• The influence of genetics in status attainment has also been shown to vary over time and by social groups


SSP: Networks and Social Capital

• Social networks serve as the basis for the exchange of both fiscal and social capital, the trust and social support found in relationships with other people

• The two ways we are connected to other people:– Strong ties – people with whom we are close to, such

as friends and family– Weak ties – people we do nto hknow as well, such as

acquaintances or distant friends

• Granovetter’s research supports that weak ties are more important for dining work


Figure 4.3 Percentage of Chief Executives in the United States by Gender and Race.


SSP: Education, Occupations,and Aspirations

• Melvin Kohn and Carmi Schooler carried out another research project to study the long-term consequences of our social class position on values

• They argued that there is an ongoing feedback loop in which our class position influences the development of values that, in turn, influences the type of job we look for

• The type of job we get then influences the type of people we are - our personality


SSP: Social Backgrounds and Long-Term Work and Personality Outcomes

• Kohn and Schooler (1983) showed that the closeness of the supervision, routinization of our work, and its substantive complexity can have long-term effects on our values

• Aspects of our personality, our intellectual flexibility and self-directed orientation, can also affect our job choices

• These work and personality characteristics interact to create the feedback loop described earlier


Figure 4.4 Kohn and Schooler Model of Status Attainment.


GP: Stratification Processes in Groups

• From the group processes perspective, stratification is based on the study of exchange relationships among members of groups

• Social exchange theory is based on the premise that individuals enter into relationships that provide some benefit to them and end relationships that do not provide some sort of reward


GP: The Principles of Social Exchange Theory

• The basic principles of social exchange theory are:

– Exchange relationships develop within groups in which members have some degree of dependence

– Group members will act in groups in a way that maximizes personal benefit

– Interaction in groups will continue as long as reciprocity between individuals continues

– Groups operate on the satiation principle


GP: Types of Social Exchanges

• There are two types of exchanges possible in groups:– Direct exchanges are those that occur between two

people– Indirect or generalized exchanges occur when

people do not receive benefits directly from those to whom they give benefits

• Differences in the types of exchanges can help explain the complexities involved in our decision-making processes in groups


Figure 4.5 Direct and Indirect Exchanges.


GP: Exchange and Status in Groups

• Peter Blau argued that exchange processes lend themselves to the development of status structures simply because people bring different types and quantities of resources into the process

• Group studies have shown that leadership status was often attributed to those individuals perceived to contribute the most to group discussions


GP: Status Characteristics Theory

• Status characteristics theory links social roles from a larger society to stratification processes in groups

• The theory was developed by Joseph Berger and a group of colleagues at Stanford University

• The theory makes predictions about how members of task groups will become stratified


GP: Status Hierarchies in Task Groups

• A common finding in research on task groups is that task groups tend to organize themselves into status hierarchies

• High and low status are based, in part, on status characteristics of group members

• Social characteristics that can impact status in groups include:– Diffuse status characteristics

– Specific status characteristics


GP: Research on Status Characteristics Theory

• Research shows that status hierarchies in task groups form based on the status characteristics of group members

• Members look to the status characteristics of themselves and other group members to develop expectations for performance

• Low-status members (e.g., females) generally receive lower status in task groups, regardless of performance


GP: How to Get Status in a Group

• There are two primary ways that people with low status characteristics can effectively hold high-status positions in groups:– Giving the lower-status person legitimacy in the group– Individuals with low social status should make it clear

that they are carrying out behaviors with the interests of the group in mind


GP: Power in Networks: Centrality

• In the group processes perspective, a network emphasizes the idea that these people or groups are bound together through connections

• Traditionally, people with a central position are considered most powerful

• Modern theory and research emphasizes individuals’ ability to exclude other people in the network as the primary source of power, not just centrality in gaining power in groups


GP: Distinguishing Power and Status

• Power and status are related but distinct concepts

• Power is structural; it rests in the positions that people have in relation to others

• Status arises from the features of people; it rests in individual characteristics

• Power and status are often related: Being high in status can significantly affect access to powerful positions


Chapter 4: Bringing It All Together

• The three perspectives in social psychology provide insights into the ways that stratification develops in society

• Interactionists emphasize how individuals construct inequalities while social structure and personality scholars show how our social background influences our work and education decisions

• Group processes work emphasizes stratification processes in task groups

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