Social Stratification

Lesson 6
 STARTER

What do you think decides how

successful people are in life?
WALT: Understand what sociologists
mean by the term ‘life chances’
Life chances refer to people's chances of having
positive or negative outcomes throughout their lives

Sociologists believe life chances are NOT distributed equally

LIFE CHANCES: THE OUTCOMES

The main outcomes of life chances are:

● Being rich or being poor
● Being healthy or being ill
 LIFE CHANCES: WHAT FACTORS AFFECT THEM?

BIRTH ? ? ? ? ? ? OLD AGE

Throughout someone’s life, what

might make someone more likely
to be healthy/ill or rich/poor?
LIFE CHANCES: WHAT FACTORS AFFECT THEM?

SOCIAL CLASS

ETHNICITY GENDER

The factors
affecting life
RELIGION
AGE chances include:

SEXUALITY DISABILITY
 Choose three of these, and explain how they might
make you more likely to be wealthier.

SAFE CHOICES CHALLENGE CHOICES

Social Class Ethnicity

Disability Sexuality
Gender Age
Religion

E.g. “Social class may impact someone’s wealth because if

someone is middle class, they may have more money to
inherit from their parents.
As well as wealth inequality, there are considerable
differences in health in the UK.
Factors that influence health are:

Income Education

Working conditions Housing

 This time, choose two of these, and explain how
they might make you more likely to be healthier.

SAFE CHOICES CHALLENGE CHOICES

Income Education
Working conditions Housing

E.g. “Income may impact someone’s health, because if

someone has more money, they may be able to afford private
healthcare.
Does everyone deserve to be wealthy? Some people argue
that differences in wealth in society are a result of effort and
talent (meritocracy).

However all sociologists agree that everyone

deserves to be healthy.

Low income Poor education

Poor working conditions Inadequate housing

The factors in life that cause ill health are largely
avoidable. Out of these four, which do you think
the government could improve?

Write a paragraph that explains how the factor

could be improved, and why this would make
people’s health better.

Low income Poor education

Poor working conditions Inadequate housing
https://vimeo.com/115353574

What are your thoughts on this

project?
Describe what sociologists mean by the term ‘life
chances’ [3 marks]