COMSATS University Islamabad

Lahore Campus

Psychology Department

Anthropology

Topic: VARIATION IN DEGREE OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY

Name: Hina Shafique

Reg. No. FA19-BPY-035

Class: BS Psychology

Section: “A”

Submitted to: Prof. Aneel Waqas

Dated: 06 July 2020

Social inequality:

Social inequality is the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for

different social positions or statuses within a group or society. Let's examine some causes and
effects of poverty and test our knowledge with a quiz.

Example:

The major examples of social inequality include income gap, gender inequality, health

care, and social class. In health care, some individuals receive better and more professional care
compared to others. In most societies, an individual's social status is a combination of ascribed
and achieved factors.

Types of social inequality:

There are five systems or types of social inequality.

 Wealth inequality
 Treatment and responsibility inequality
 Political inequality
 Life inequality
 Membership inequality

Causes of social inequality:

 Social inequality refers to disparities in the distribution of economic assets and income as

well as between the overall quality and luxury of each person's existence within a society,
 While economic inequality is caused by the unequal accumulation of wealth; 
 Social inequality exists because the lack of wealth in certain areas prohibits these people
from obtaining the same housing, health care, etc. as the wealthy, in societies where
access to these social goods depends on wealth.
Effects of social inequality:

 Living in an unequal society causes stress and status anxiety, which may damage your
health. In more equal societies people live longer, are less likely to be mentally ill or
obese and there are lower rates of infant mortality.
 Inequality affects how you see those around you and your level of happiness. People in
less equal societies are less likely to trust each other, less likely to engage in social or
civic participation, and less likely to say they're happy.

Variation in the degree of social inequality:

Types of Advantages:

Wealth or Economic Resources- consists of property and income.

Power- is the ability to carry out your will despite resistance and is the result of the
convergence of like-minded individuals who share ideologies and values and can, therefore,
exert disproportionate amounts of power, far more than ordinary individuals.

Wealth- brings power and extreme power.

Prestige (respect or regard)- meaning someone or some group is accorded with particular respect
or honour.

Types of Society:

Egalitarian; contains no social groups with greater or lesser access to economic resources,
power or prestige.

Rank; does not have very unequal access to economic resources or power but they do contain
social groups with unequal access to prestige.

Class; has unequal access to all three advantages

EGALITARIAN SOCIETY:

 Egalitarian Societies contain no special groups with greater or lesser access to economic
resources, power or prestige.
  Egalitarian does not mean that all people within such societies are the same. There will
always be differences among individuals in age and gender and such abilities or traits as
hunting skill, perception, health, creativity, physical prowess, attractiveness and
intelligence.
 Egalitarian societies can be found not only among forager such as! Kung, Mbuti,
Australian aborigines, Inuit and Ache, but also among horticulturalists and pastoralists.

RANK SOCIETY:

 Is one that ranks individuals in terms of their genealogical distance from the chief.
 Closer relatives of the chief have a higher rank or social status than more distant ones.
When individuals and groups rank about equally, competition for positions of leadership
may occur.

CLASS SOCIETY :

 There is unequal access to prestige.

 Class societies are characterized by groups of people that have substantially greater or
lesser access to economic resources and power.
 Fully stratified or class societies range from somewhat open to virtually closed class or
caste systems.

Open Class Systems :

 Class- is a category of persons who all have about the same opportunity to obtain
economic resources, power and prestige.
 We call class systems open if there is some possibility of moving from one class to
another.
 The social status or prestige of a family is generally correlated with the occupation and
wealth of the head of the family.
CASTE SYSTEM:

Is a ranked group in which membership is determined at birth and marriage and is restricted
limited to members of one’s caste

References:

 Google
 Wikipedia
 Friends
 Science daily.com
 Springer.com