Question

Describe Chapin’s Social Status Scale. How is it still relevant today? Provide an example.

Answer 1

Chapin’s Social Status Scale is a rating scale that evaluates a family’s possessions as an indicator of their social standing. It makes an assessment of the presence of certain items of furniture and accessories in the living room and the condition of the room, based on which conclusions are drawn about the family’s social class. It is still relevant today as it an objective measure of single variable indices of social class, that is, possessions. This information is used by marketers it in segmentation and target marketing strategies.