Study smarter with Fiveable
Get study guides, practice questions, and cheatsheets for all your subjects. Join 500,000+ students with a 96% pass rate.
Social stratification isn't random—it's produced and reproduced through specific mechanisms that sociologists have identified and studied for over a century. Understanding why inequality exists and how it perpetuates itself is central to the AP Sociology curriculum. You'll be tested on your ability to connect individual causes (like education or occupation) to broader structural patterns, and to explain how multiple factors intersect to create layered disadvantage or privilege.
The causes of stratification fall into distinct categories: ascribed characteristics (what you're born with), achieved characteristics (what you acquire), structural mechanisms (how institutions operate), and forms of capital (resources that can be converted into advantage). Don't just memorize a list of causes—know which category each belongs to and how they reinforce one another. That's what separates a 3 from a 5.
These are statuses assigned at birth that individuals don't choose but that profoundly shape life chances. Ascribed characteristics operate through both direct discrimination and accumulated historical disadvantage.
Compare: Race vs. Gender as ascribed characteristics—both are assigned at birth and trigger discrimination, but they operate through different institutional mechanisms. Race is often tied to residential segregation and criminal justice disparities, while gender operates more through occupational sorting and domestic labor expectations. FRQs may ask you to analyze how these intersect.
These are statuses individuals attain through effort and choice—though access to achievement is itself stratified. The "achieved" nature of these characteristics often masks how ascribed factors shape who can achieve them.
Compare: Education vs. Occupation—both are "achieved" statuses, but education is increasingly necessary to access high-status occupations. The key distinction: education is the pathway, occupation is the outcome. Know that sociologists debate whether education creates human capital or simply signals existing advantages.
These causes relate to how economic resources are distributed and transmitted. Economic stratification operates through both market mechanisms and intergenerational transfer.
Compare: Income vs. Wealth inequality—income is what you earn, wealth is what you own. Wealth inequality is more extreme and more persistent because wealth generates passive income and can be inherited. If an FRQ asks about persistent inequality, wealth accumulation is your strongest example.
These causes focus on how power operates through institutions and political systems. Stratification is maintained not just through individual advantage but through control over rule-making itself.
Compare: Power vs. Geography as structural causes—both operate above the individual level, but power works through political institutions while geography works through resource distribution. Rural poverty and urban poverty have different mechanisms but similar outcomes.
These causes highlight non-economic resources that can be converted into advantage. Bourdieu's capital theory explains how privilege reproduces itself even without direct economic transfer.
Compare: Cultural capital vs. Social capital—both are non-economic resources that convert to advantage, but cultural capital is embodied (in your knowledge and behavior) while social capital is relational (in your connections). Bourdieu argued cultural capital is harder to acquire because it requires early socialization.
| Concept | Best Examples |
|---|---|
| Ascribed characteristics | Race, gender, age, family of origin |
| Achieved characteristics | Education, occupation, income |
| Economic mechanisms | Wealth accumulation, inheritance, income inequality |
| Structural power | Political influence, geographic location |
| Forms of capital | Cultural capital, social networks |
| Intersectionality | Race + gender, class + geography |
| Intergenerational transmission | Inheritance, educational investment, cultural capital |
| Institutional discrimination | Housing policy, school funding, hiring practices |
Which two causes of stratification are both "ascribed" characteristics but operate through different institutional mechanisms? How do they differ?
Explain why sociologists distinguish between income inequality and wealth inequality. Which is more persistent, and why?
Compare cultural capital and social capital. How does each contribute to the reproduction of stratification across generations?
An FRQ asks you to explain how stratification persists even when explicit discrimination is illegal. Which three causes would you use, and how do they connect?
How does geographic location function as both a cause and a consequence of social stratification? Provide examples of urban and rural mechanisms.