Final answer:
The movement from one social position to another based on ascribed statuses is a form of social mobility. Social stratification orders individuals based on factors like wealth and education, and structural mobility can shift an entire group's class status. Intergenerational mobility illustrates changes between family generations' social classes.
Step-by-step explanation:
Movement from one social position to another determined by ascribed statuses, such as one's sex, skin color, and family background, refers to a type of social mobility within a social stratification system. In sociology, social stratification is a system that classifies society's members into different categories ranking from high to low, based on factors like wealth, income, education, and occupation. Societal change, known as structural mobility, can allow an entire group of people to shift their class position, moving up or down the social hierarchy.
Individuals also experience intergenerational mobility, which is a difference in social class between different generations within the same family. For example, it is not uncommon for the children of a family to achieve a higher or lower social status than their parents.
Another important category is intragenational mobility, which describes the changes in a person's social status over the course of their life. Social mobility can be either upward, where an individual rises to a higher social class, or downward, where they fall to a lower social class. Social mobility examines both the opportunities for, and the limitations on, the movements between different social positions.