What is the ability to move between social classes?

• A. Prestige
• B. Mobility
• C. Status
• D. Role

Answer: (B)

Movement between social classes is social mobility. It captures changes in a person’s or family’s position within the social hierarchy, upward or downward, across generations or within a lifetime. This is different from prestige, which is the respect attached to a position; status, which is one’s place in the social order; and role, which is the expected behaviors of a position. So the key idea is the capacity to shift from one class to another, such as gaining education and a higher-paying job to rise, or losing work and falling to a lower class.