Social Science Resources Introduction to Social Class Social class is a very important topic to understand, as it is very important to the lives of most people in society. It is often difficult to tell which class a person is in, as this can be measured in a number of different ways. There are two major definitions of class, these are called objective and subjective definitions.
Occupation is a good example of an objective definition of class.
For example, a person with a lot of money may still consider themselves working class . They may live in a working class area and have working class friends. In other words the class that a person thinks they are in, is likely to affect the way they act. The most commonly used system for measuring social class is the Registrar General's classification . There are serious drawbacks to this system.