Socioeconomic Status

Social Stratification

The concept of SES comes from a broad area of research in sociology called social stratification. Scholars who conduct research in this area typically think of society as being made up of a series of layers. Stadium seating at a baseball game that situates individuals by the price of the ticket may offer an intuitive picture of how a layer in society may be constructed. Some people who cannot afford to pay a lot of money for a ballgame may purchase a lower priced ticket and sit far away from the ground, whereas others who can afford to pay for an expensive ticket may sit close to the ground, where they have a level view of the game. As in this hypothetical baseball stadium, social scientists argue that in the real world, individuals are situated in one of ordered areas depending on what they already have or can do. For example, people are unequal—positioned differently—in terms of how much money they make, the level of education they have attained, the power they can exert over others, and the prestige of their jobs.

An individual's location in this layered society may alter his or her human relationships. Belonging to the upper layer of society, for instance, can provide privileges and power to individuals compared with belonging to a lower layer of society. The location also gives or denies a person access to desirable relationships (e.g., wealthy individuals can afford to attend expensive parties where they are likely to meet other wealthy individuals). At the same time, establishing certain relationships, such as marrying into a wealthy family, affords a person entrance into particular layers of society that may be socially and economically advantageous.

However, unless placed in situations such as the seating arrangement of a baseball stadium organized by ticket price, people in everyday lives are not visibly ordered in hierarchal layers. If observing layers is difficult for individuals in most situations, how do researchers know that these layers exist in the first place and know what they look like? Their typical approach is to come up with a theory of what these layers look like, often referred to as ideal types, and see how well they fit the physical world. Sometimes ideal types apply well in some societies, but not in others. At the same time, some scholars, such as Donald Treiman and David Featherman, argue that certain aspects of the layers are common to all societies.

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