Question

What are the purposes of determining to which social class a person or occupation belongs? How does class background, or current class position influence individual actions?

Answer 1

There is no such purpose, it comes from within because of the atmosphere and our upbringing. And this is the psychology that most people think accornding to their class and background.

Class is a relative social rank in terms of income, wealth, education, status/position, and/or power.

A class consists of a large group of people who share a similar economic and/or social position in society based on their income, wealth, property ownership, job status, education, skills, or power in the economic and political sphere. Class is determined not just by “economic capital” (what you earn or own) but also by “social capital” (who you know) and “cultural capital” (what you know). Our class identity affects us on the personal and emotional level, not just in economic terms, since it influences how we feel about ourselves and others.

Classism is when someone is treated differently—better or worse—because of their class (or perceived class). Classism is similar in many ways to racism, sexism, heterosexism and other forms of oppression. Classism appears individually through attitudes and behaviors, institutionally through policies and practices, and culturally through norms and values. Like other forms of oppression and prejudice, it is the tendency to make sweeping generalizations or stereotypes about people, such as “Poor people are lazy.”

In the U.S. there is a social class structure in which people are hierarchically ranked. Elsewhere in the world, one’s social class may depend more upon race/ethnicity, position at birth, or religious affiliation. For example, in Mexico, society is stratified into classes determined by European or indigenous lineage as well as wealth. In the U.K. class position depends somewhat on family lineage, with members of the nobility traditionally belonging to the aristocracy

Sociologists studying class distinctions since the 1970s have found that social classes each have unique cultural traits. The phenomenon, referred to as class culture, has been shown to have a strong influence on the mundane lives of people, affecting everything from the manner in which they raise their children, to how they initiate and maintain romantic relationships, to the color in which they paint their houses. The overall tendency of individuals to associate mostly with those of equal standing as themselves has strengthened class differences. Because individuals’ social networks tend to be within their own class, they acculturate to, or learn the values and behaviors of, their own class. Due to class mobility, in some cases individuals may also acculturate to the culture of another class when ascending or descending in the social order. Nonetheless, the impact of class culture on delineating a social hierarchy is significant.

Most economic and political power is concentrated at the top of the class spectrum, not all power is in the hands of the wealthy. Other people have the power of community, the power to survive, the power of faith and of organizing, the power of working creatively to change systems. It is a trend and psychology that normal people follw to publics figures and high class people so that they can do whatever these high class people are doing their social life. Many individual thnks that what high class people are doing is cool and classy, and this simple thought process influence individual actions.