A person has a high or low status in the group, that he is a leader or a follower. On the other hand, status also conveys the idea of the formalised behaviour of some sort. The leader makes plan, issues order and sees that they are carried out. He has certain functions to performs a definite role to play. Behaviour associated with a particular status is called by sociologists a role. A persons role in the group is the dynamic aspect of his status.
Since status is position in a group, a person has a many statuses as he has group affiliations. Even examplying the more casual groups and considering the more established and significant affiliations, a person generally has a number of different status and they may differ not a little.
The terms status is used in the singular, suggesting that status may be generalized that the status of a person is the sum of all his separate status. When we speak about a man’s status we ordinarily make not a generalization but a selection. We have in mind one status in particular this social status. We consider the clubs to which he belongs, the size of his fortune, the circles in which he moves.
Class status seems to overshadow all other kinds of status. Most people in our culture would prefer to be identified with the upper middle class because it is co-related with a high standard of living and with social acceptability. But a scientist, let us say, might cure a great deal more about his status a research worker, or a scholar about his reputation in his profession. And it is of course possible for a man to have a great reputation as a scientist as scholar, but to be excluded, for reason such as race or poverty from the social activity of the upper class.
Professor Kailashnath Sharma says, “We have to pay special attention on two factors in every state—1. Signs of respect and 2. Role. In every society there are some functions or say roles of respect of honour; somewhere physical strength; somewhere physical beauty; somewhere noble family, some where efficiency, somewhere knowledge and somewhee position are the signs of respect of honour.”
Ogburn and Nimkoff write, high in command, others are subordinate. Some are rich and others are poor. What determines success in life? Sir Francis Galton replies, “Sucess and failure are the reflection of inherited difference in capacity.” However, biology plays a relatively small direct part in determining the states of individual.
For the most part, this is a rather responsibility of culture. Culture may, nevertheless, utilise biological factors in making distinctions, as where society regulates the status of individuals according to age. Thus an individuals privilege and obligation change as he grows older. In our society, for example, a very young child enjoys certain immunities. He is held to be incapable of crime, hence cannot be punished by the law of the land. On the other hand he is subject to special restrictions he must go to school, he cannot marry, he cannot vote. The fact that he is a child helps to fix his role in the group. The specific respect in which children’s roles differ from those of adults vary from culture to culture.
It is true for sex. In India, for instnce, women took certain opportunities and privileges of man. They are more severely limited in the matter of following a career, they do not enjoy as much freedom of conduct. They have not got economical and social rights, in additional ways, their role in life is affected by the fact they are women.
Although sex and age affect the social position which individual occupies in life or enjoy the same social status.
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