Exam 9: Social Stratification

Richard Hernnstein claims that hereditary castes based on intelligence are a feature of society.

Discuss how structural theories explain poverty and how they work to overcome the criticisms that have been aimed at the deficiency theories.

From the conflict perspective, the media, schools, religion, and other institutions are manipulated to legitimate systems of inequality and the status quo.

________ argued that blacks are less intelligent than whites, citing as evidence I.Q. tests and school performance.

Conflict theorists suggest that discord results from inequalities in the ________ because groups compete for scarce resources and because those without power resent those with power.

The latest revival of social Darwinism appears in________.

Cultural inferiority places the blame for poverty on the failure of a group's culture.

Contrast gender roles with sex roles.

Social stratification refers to the act of categorizing persons based on personal attributes (age, height, occupation).

Conflict theorists do not accept stratification as a source of societal integration but rather as a reflection of the unequal distribution of power.

According to Edward Banfield, blacks are less well endowed mentally than whites, citing as evidence results from I.Q. tests and school performance.

Criticisms of the culture-of-poverty hypothesis include the fact that while the poor do not abandon the dominant values, they simultaneously adopt an alternative set of values so that they may adapt to the conditions of poverty.

Some theorists argue that the poor have a future-time orientation while the nonpoor have a present-time.

Social stratification refers to ________ social inequality, a term used to refer to stratification being socially patterned.

The constant effort to maximize profits, which is the basic tenet of capitalism, promotes poverty in this/these way(s):

Racial and ethnic stratification refers to systems of inequality in which some fixed group membership or social category, such as race or religion, is a major criterion for ranking social positions and giving access to rewards.

There are two ways of categorizing people: ________ and ________.

The macro structures of inequality are

Marx predicted that the oppressed would never become aware of their common oppression and develop class-consciousness and become unified in a cause to advance their class interests.

Discuss how racial and ethnic stratification function as systems of inequality.