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Sociology flashcards

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Topic 1: Paper 1 – Introducing Sociology

Vertically vs horizontally extended families: Vertically extended: three or more generations, such as grandparents, parents and children. Horizontally extended: relatives of the same generation, such as siblings and their partners.
What did Therborn show about family systems?: He identified different family systems across world regions, showing that family form is not universal.
Arranged vs love marriage: In an arranged marriage, families play the main part in choosing the partner. In a love marriage, the couple choose each other. Monogamy is marriage to one partner at a time.
How does Parsons (functionalism) see the family?: The family performs positive functions: primary socialisation of children and the stabilisation of adult personalities. The nuclear family "fits" modern industrial society.
How does Engels (Marxism) see the family?: The family serves capitalism: it reproduces labour power, passes on property and acts as a form of social control.
How does Oakley (feminism) see the family?: The family positions women unequally, especially through domestic labour and childcare.
What is the pivot (sandwich) generation?: People who care for their own children and their ageing parents at the same time, linked to rising life expectancy and later childbirth.
What did Smart and Stacey say about family diversity?: Smart: individualisation and "personal life", the relationships people themselves find meaningful. Stacey: diverse, negotiated family forms, with women as key agents of change.
Living apart together vs child-free couples vs beanpole families: Living apart together: a committed couple in separate homes. Child-free: couples who choose not to have children. Beanpole: many generations alive, with few members in each.
How has children's status in the family changed?: From economic contributors who worked, to long-term financial dependants in child-centred families. "Boomerang" adult children may return home for economic reasons.
Official vs hidden curriculum: The official (formal) curriculum is the subjects formally taught. The hidden curriculum is attitudes and behaviours taught informally through school organisation and routine, such as punctuality and respect for authority.
How do functionalists see education?: It allocates roles by ability (role allocation, Davis and Moore), passes on shared values, develops human capital, and is a bridge from the particularistic family to universalistic society.
How do Marxists see education?: It reproduces and legitimises the class structure, prepares pupils for work and promotes the myth of meritocracy. Bourdieu argued schools reward the cultural capital of better-off pupils.
What did Freire and Illich argue about schooling?: Both are critical of traditional schooling. Freire argued it can suppress critical thought rather than develop it. Illich called for de-schooling, replacing formal schools.
Labelling vs self-fulfilling prophecy (Becker): A teacher attaches a label to a pupil, e.g. "bright" or "disruptive", often on limited evidence. The pupil is treated according to the label and comes to act it out, so the expectation comes true.
What is the halo effect?: When a teacher's positive impression of a pupil in one area leads them to judge the pupil positively in other areas too.
Pro-school vs anti-school subcultures: Pro-school subcultures value education and gain status through success. Anti-school subcultures reject school values and gain status through misbehaviour.
What is credentialism?: Using qualifications as a filter for jobs even when their content is not directly job-relevant.
Material vs cultural explanations of differences in attainment: Material: lack of money for resources, study space or digital access. Cultural: differences in cultural capital, values and language that schools reward unequally.
Give three global inequalities in education: Differences in literacy rates between countries, the effects of poverty on schools, and unequal access to education for girls and to digital education.
Positivist vs interpretivist approaches: Positivist: objective, quantitative, reliable data to find patterns and causes. Interpretivist: understanding people's meanings through qualitative, valid data.
Primary vs secondary data: Primary data are collected first-hand by the researcher. Secondary data already exist, e.g. official statistics or personal documents.
Reliability vs validity vs representativeness: Reliability: repeating the study gives the same result. Validity: it gives a true picture. Representativeness: the sample reflects the wider population.
Questionnaires: strength and weakness: Strength: cheap, large samples, reliable. Weakness: low response rates and low validity.
Unstructured interviews: strength and weakness: Strength: valid and detailed. Weakness: slow, unreliable and usually small samples.
Participant observation: strength and weakness: Strength: very valid, revealing real behaviour. Weakness: the Hawthorne effect, "going native" and ethical issues, especially if covert.
Laboratory vs field experiments in sociology: Laboratory experiments control variables in an artificial setting, which may lack validity. Field experiments take place in real settings, but with less control.
What is triangulation?: Using more than one method or source so that each offsets the weaknesses of the other and findings can be checked.
Researcher bias vs social desirability: Researcher (interviewer) bias: the researcher influences the answers or interpretation. Social desirability: participants give answers that make them look good rather than true answers.

Topic 2: Paper 2 – Exploring Sociology

Name ways sociologists classify groups of people: By social class, status, caste, slavery, sex and gender, race and ethnicity, age and generation, religion, ability/disability and nationality.
What are life chances?: A person's chances of good outcomes in life, such as employment, education, health, life expectancy and social mobility.
What is intersectionality (Crenshaw)?: The way inequalities such as gender, race and class overlap and combine, so a person's experience cannot be understood through one inequality alone.
Marxist vs functionalist views of social class: Marxist: classes are in conflict; the ruling class exploits workers, who have false consciousness. Functionalist: class inequality is functionally necessary and reflects meritocracy.
What did Weber add to the study of inequality?: Inequality has three dimensions: class (economic position), status (prestige) and party (power), which can vary separately.
Upward vs downward, intragenerational vs intergenerational mobility: Upward or downward: moving to a higher or lower class. Intragenerational: within one person's lifetime. Intergenerational: compared with one's parents.
What is patriarchy, and what did Walby argue?: Patriarchy is male domination of society. Walby argued it works through several structures, such as paid work, the household, violence and the state.
What is hegemonic masculinity (Connell)?: The dominant, most valued form of masculinity in a society, against which other masculinities and femininities are ranked.
What is the glass ceiling?: An invisible barrier that stops women reaching top positions in employment.
Race vs ethnicity: Race is a socially constructed category based on supposed physical differences. Ethnicity refers to shared culture, such as language, religion, traditions and history.
Assimilation vs multiculturalism: Assimilation: minority groups are expected to adopt the majority culture. Multiculturalism: different cultures coexist and are respected within one society.
What did du Bois argue about race?: He described the "color line" dividing society and "double consciousness": Black Americans seeing themselves both through their own eyes and through the eyes of a racist society.
Give three attempts to reduce inequality in the specification: The Marxist goal of abolishing capitalism, social democratic welfare states, and development aid.
What is the sociological imagination (Mills)?: The ability to connect personal troubles (e.g. one person's unemployment) to public issues (e.g. economic change causing mass unemployment).
Primary vs secondary socialisation: Primary: early learning of norms and values, mainly within the family. Secondary: later learning through wider agencies such as school, peers, media and the workplace.
Re-socialisation vs inadequate socialisation: Re-socialisation: learning new norms and values that replace earlier ones, often after a major life change. Inadequate socialisation: socialisation that fails to instil shared norms and values.
How does the school socialise pupils?: Through the formal curriculum and the hidden curriculum, and through rewards and sanctions for behaviour.
Formal vs informal social control: Formal: government and laws, the police and other enforcement agencies, and criminal justice systems. Informal: families, schools, peers, media, religion and the workplace, through approval and disapproval.
Positive vs negative sanctions: Positive sanctions reward conformity, e.g. praise. Negative sanctions punish deviance, e.g. fines or exclusion.
What is a stigmatised identity (Goffman)?: An identity "spoiled" by a discrediting label, which leads others to treat the person as less acceptable. Othering defines a group as different from and inferior to "us".
Name the types of crime listed in the specification: Violent, property, cyber, white collar, corporate, state, green/environmental and "victimless" crimes.
Official statistics vs self-report studies vs victim surveys: Official statistics: crimes recorded by the police. Self-report studies: people describe crimes they have committed. Victim surveys: people describe crimes committed against them.
What did Stanley Cohen show about moral panics?: Media exaggeration of a group's behaviour, such as the mods and rockers, turns them into "folk devils", creating public alarm and stronger social control.
What is surveillance capitalism (Zuboff)?: Companies profit from collecting and analysing data on people's online behaviour, which also acts as a new form of surveillance and control.
What is operationalisation?: Turning an abstract concept into something that can be measured, e.g. measuring "poverty" by household income.
Population vs sampling frame: The population is the whole group being studied. The sampling frame is the list from which the sample is drawn.
Random vs systematic vs stratified random sampling: Random: everyone has an equal chance. Systematic: every nth name on the list. Stratified random: random selection within groups in proportion to the population.
Quota vs snowball vs multistage sampling: Quota: the researcher fills set numbers in each category. Snowball: participants introduce others, useful for hard-to-reach groups. Multistage: sampling in stages, e.g. areas, then households.
What is a pilot study?: A small trial run of the research to find and correct problems with questions or procedures before the main study.
Name the ethical issues in the specification: Informed consent, confidentiality, anonymity and participant wellbeing. Research with children also needs parental or guardian consent.
Causation vs correlation: Correlation: two things change together. Causation: one causes the other. A correlation does not prove cause.
How do you interpret data from qualitative sources?: Look for recurring themes and meanings in field notes or interview extracts, consider who is speaking and in what context, and avoid generalising from a few cases.

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Written for OxfordAQA International GCSE Sociology (9292), syllabus 9292 (Version 1.0).

Cards by Marlbridge Academic Team; 2 restate definitions from the 9292 revision notes. This deck has not yet been reviewed as a whole by a subject teacher. Report an error.

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