ABSTRACT
The main focus of the differential approach is to discover how people become sorted into subgroups over the course of their development. Subgroups are formed, or differentiated, on the basis of one of two types of attributes. The first type is status attributes. Status attributes are characteristics that place people in particular demographic categories or groups, such as those based on age, sex, race, religion, and socioeconomic status (SES). A differentiation of people into subgroups on the basis of age, sex, and race is illustrated in Figure 16.1.
