Flashcards · 9690 · AS Topic 2

Unit 2 – Exploring Sociology (AS Level) flashcards

32 cards on AS Topic 2, subtopics 3.1.2.1 to 3.1.3. Pick a subtopic or study them all.

Study mode needs JavaScript. Every card is listed below, so you can still cover the answers and test yourself.

All 32 cards

For a quick read-through or printing. Cover the right-hand side to test yourself.

3.1.2.1 Individuals and society

Norms vs values vs roles: Norms: specific rules of behaviour. Values: general beliefs about what is important. Roles: behaviour expected of someone in a social position.
What is the sociological imagination (Mills)?: The ability to connect personal troubles (e.g. one person losing a job) with public issues (e.g. mass unemployment caused by economic change).
What is a stereotype?: A fixed, oversimplified image of a group, applied to all its members.
What are subcultures in multicultural societies?: Groups within a society, including ethnic groups, with some norms and values of their own alongside those of the wider culture.

3.1.2.2 Socialisation

Primary vs secondary socialisation: Primary socialisation: early learning of culture, mainly in the family. Secondary socialisation: later learning through schools, peers, media, religions and the workplace.
What is re-socialisation?: Learning new norms and values to replace old ones, e.g. in a total institution such as a prison or the army, where Goffman described the stripping of a person's previous identity.
What is inadequate socialisation?: When an individual has not properly learned society's norms and values, which some functionalist and New Right writers link to deviance.
What did Mead argue about the self?: The self develops through interaction: children learn to take the role of others and eventually of the "generalised other", the attitudes of society as a whole.
Functionalist vs Marxist vs feminist views of socialisation: Functionalist: creates value consensus and social order. Marxist: passes on ruling-class ideology. Feminist: socialises people into unequal gender roles.

3.1.2.3 Social identities and social change

Individual vs collective identity: Individual identity: how a person sees themselves as unique. Collective identity: belonging to a group with shared characteristics, such as a nation, religion or ethnic group.
Name the bases of social identity in the specification: Age and generation/cohort, sex and gender, race and ethnicity, social class, religion, ability/disability and nationality.
What is a hybrid ethnic identity?: An identity mixing elements of more than one culture, often among members of diasporas.
What did Fanon argue about identity?: Colonialism shaped the identities of colonised peoples, leading some to internalise the coloniser's view of them as inferior.
How can consumption and globalisation influence identity?: People can build identities through what they buy and through global media and brands, and online identities in social media and virtual communities.

3.1.2.4 Social control

Formal vs informal social control: Formal: government and laws, police and other enforcement agencies, and the criminal justice system. Informal: families, schools, peers, media, religion and the workplace, through disapproval, gossip and ridicule.
Repressive vs ideological state apparatuses: Repressive state apparatuses (police, army, courts) control people by force. Ideological state apparatuses (education, media, religion) control them through ideas (Althusser).
What is hegemony?: Rule by consent: the ideas of the dominant class are accepted as common sense, so people consent to the existing order (Gramsci).
What is othering?: Defining a group as different from and inferior to "us", which can stigmatise them. Goffman described stigma as a spoiled identity.
Name four aims of punishment: Deterrence, retribution, rehabilitation and incapacitation (protecting the public). Others include reparation to victims.

3.1.2.5 Deviance, harm and crime

What does the social construction of crime and deviance mean?: What counts as crime or deviance differs between societies and changes over time, depending on who defines and reacts to the behaviour.
White collar vs corporate vs state crime: White collar: crime by individuals in their jobs, e.g. fraud. Corporate: crime by companies, e.g. breaking safety laws. State: crime by governments or their agencies, e.g. torture.
What are victimless crimes and social harms?: Victimless crimes have no direct victim who complains, e.g. some drug offences. Social harms are actions that cause harm but are not defined as crimes, e.g. legal pollution.
Official statistics vs self-report studies vs victim surveys: Official statistics record crimes known to the police. Self-report studies ask people about offences they committed. Victim surveys ask about crimes they suffered, revealing unreported crime.
What did Stanley Cohen show about moral panics?: Exaggerated media coverage of a group, such as the mods and rockers, turns them into "folk devils" and leads to public alarm and stronger control.

3.1.3 Research methods and theory (Section B – Research methods and theory)

What is public sociology (Burawoy)?: Sociology that engages with audiences beyond universities, taking part in public debate about social issues.
What is value freedom, and how does activism challenge it?: Value freedom is the idea that research should be free of the researcher's values. Some sociologists argue sociology should openly take sides and support activism for social change.
Structure vs agency: Structure: social institutions and patterns that shape behaviour. Agency: individuals' ability to act and make choices. Structural theories stress the first; social action theories the second.
Functionalism vs neo-functionalism: Functionalism sees society as a system of parts working together through value consensus. Neo-functionalism keeps this idea but allows more for conflict, change and agency.
Marxism vs neo-Marxism: Marxism: society is shaped by class conflict over the economy. Neo-Marxism gives more weight to culture, ideas and hegemony.
What is symbolic interactionism?: A social action theory: society is built through the meanings people give to symbols and interactions; labels and self-concepts shape behaviour.
Postmodernism vs postmodernity: Postmodernity is the type of society: fragmented, media-saturated and global. Postmodernism is the theory that grand narratives no longer explain it and identities are fluid and chosen.
Why does theoretical position affect choice of method?: Positivists favour structured questionnaires, official statistics and structured observation for quantifiable data. Interpretivists favour unstructured interviews, participant observation and personal documents for meaning.