Sociology 441: Stratification

Causes of status attainment

(as of September 12, 2002)

• Age
• Connections
• "Cultural capital" (e.g., speech patterns; cultural tastes )
• Discrimination target
• Gender (male)
• Educational level (e.g., HS dropout, college grad)
• Ethnicity (e.g., Cuban, Irish, Italian, Haitian, Korean)
• Expectations of others
• Family money (income & wealth) and status
• Geography: neighborhood status
• Home resources (e.g., home computer
• Intelligence
• Marital status (e.g., married vs. single vs. divorced )
• Moral values (e.g., honesty)
• Motivations and aspirations
• Native born (vs. immigrant)
• Parental family structure (e.g., 2-parent vs. single parent)
• Race (white vs. African American, Asian American, Native American Indian)
• Religion (e.g., Protestant, Catholic, Jew, Muslim, etc.)
• School quality

• Others?

Questions we want to ask about causes