ABSTRACT

Sociologists view socioeconomic status (SES) in terms of the possession of socially valued resources such as, education, occupation, and income and decry the inequality of their distribution. Jerome Barkow’s triad of social instincts—status seeking, nepotism, and reciprocal altruism is a useful guide to understanding social stratification. The mainstream sociological view of SES is that it is largely determined by the social advantages and disadvantages of childhood and transmitted from one generation to the next; that is, status is mostly ascribed. The status attainment position, on the other hand, avers that personal attributes such as intelligence and conscientiousness largely determine adult SES, and do so regardless of childhood SES. To discuss intelligence as a determinant of a person’s SES is sociological heresy. Numerous lines of evidence lead to the conclusion that in modern democratic societies SES is achieved by dint of one’s own talents and efforts.