Cambridge A-Level Sociology: Socialisation, Social Control and Identity (9699)

Socialisation is the lifelong process through which people learn the culture of their society, and in Cambridge International AS & A Level Sociology (9699) it is the first half of Paper 1. The syllabus asks you to explain how culture is learned (1.1), why most people conform and some resist (1.2), and how class, gender, ethnicity and age shape identities that are now changing (1.3). Examiners reward answers that use the official concepts precisely and set structural views against interactionist ones.

This guide goes deeper into the three socialisation sub-topics than the Paper 1 overview guide. For the methods half of the paper, see the research methods, design and issues guide.

Syllabus coverage

Cambridge International AS & A Level Sociology 9699 (syllabus for 2024, 2025 and 2026), Paper 1, section 1 Socialisation and the creation of social identity:

Sub-topic	What the syllabus lists
1.1 The process of learning and socialisation	Culture, roles, norms, values, beliefs, customs, ideology, power and status as elements in the social construction of reality; the importance of socialisation, including the nature versus nurture debate; agencies of socialisation and social control (family, education, peer group, media, religion)
1.2 Social control, conformity and resistance	Structure and agency, including structuralist and interactionist views; why individuals conform (sanctions, social pressure, self-interest, social exchange); how order is maintained (power, ideology, force, consensus); explanations of deviance and non-conformity (subcultures, under-socialisation, marginalisation, cultural deprivation, social resistance)
1.3 Social identity and change	Class, gender, ethnicity and age in the construction of identity; how these identities may be changing through globalisation, increased choice and new or hybrid identities

The syllabus links this section to four of its key concepts: Socialisation, culture and identity; Power, control and resistance; Structure and human agency; and Social change and development.

What does “the social construction of reality” mean?

Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann’s The Social Construction of Reality (1966) argued that the social world feels natural and fixed only because people learn it and then take it for granted. The building blocks the syllabus names each play a part:

• Culture — the whole way of life of a group, passed between generations.
• Values — general beliefs about what is good or worth striving for.
• Norms — specific rules of behaviour that put values into practice.
• Roles — the expected behaviour attached to a social position (teacher, daughter, imam).
• Status — the social position itself; ascribed at birth or achieved through effort.
• Customs and beliefs — traditional practices and the ideas that justify them.
• Ideology — a set of ideas that serves the interests of a group, often disguising inequality.
• Power — the ability to get others to act as you want, which shapes whose norms become “normal”.

A strong answer shows the elements working together: a value (respect for elders) produces norms (standing when a grandparent enters), which attach to roles and statuses, and these feel natural because they have been learned so early.

Is human behaviour shaped by nature or nurture?

The nature side argues that behaviour is fixed by biology, instinct or genes. The nurture side, which sociology broadly defends, argues that behaviour is learned. Classic evidence for nurture includes:

• Feral and isolated children. “Genie”, discovered in California in 1970 after years of extreme isolation, never fully acquired language, which suggests that human capacities depend on social contact at the right stage.
• Cross-cultural variation. Margaret Mead’s Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935) described gender behaviour among the Arapesh, Mundugumor and Tchambuli of New Guinea that differed sharply from Western expectations. Her fieldwork has since been questioned, so use it as illustration rather than proof.
• Gender socialisation. Ann Oakley (Sex, Gender and Society, 1972, and later work) described how parents channel children into gendered behaviour through manipulation and canalisation.

For balance, note sociobiological claims and research on hormones; the strongest answers conclude that biology sets possibilities, but socialisation decides which ones become normal.

How do the agencies of socialisation and social control work?

Agency	How it socialises	How it controls
Family	Primary socialisation: language, early norms, gender roles	Praise, punishment, withdrawal of affection
Education	Formal curriculum and hidden curriculum (punctuality, obedience, competition)	Detentions, grades, exclusion
Peer group	Secondary socialisation, especially in adolescence	Teasing, ostracism, acceptance
Media	Role models, representations, news framing	Shaming, moral panics, celebrity examples
Religion	Moral codes, ritual, sense of belonging	Promise of reward or fear of sanction; community disapproval

Functionalists such as Talcott Parsons see these agencies passing on shared values that hold society together. Marxists such as Louis Althusser (1971) describe the family, school, media and religion as ideological state apparatuses that make capitalism look fair, while feminists stress that the same agencies reproduce patriarchy.

Why do most people conform?

The syllabus names four reasons, and each can be tied to a theory.

1. Sanctions — positive (rewards) and negative (punishments), formal or informal.
2. Social pressure — the wish to be accepted; Solomon Asch’s line-judgement experiments (1951) showed people agreeing with an obviously wrong group answer.
3. Self-interest — people calculate that conformity pays; Travis Hirschi’s Causes of Delinquency (1969) argued that attachment, commitment, involvement and belief bond people to society, so they have too much to lose by deviating.
4. Social exchange — George Homans (1958) described social life as an exchange of rewards and costs; conformity continues while the exchange is worthwhile.

Structure or agency: how is social order maintained?

Structuralist views (functionalism and Marxism) start from society. Durkheim and Parsons see order resting on consensus around shared values. Marxists see order resting on power: the ruling class uses ideology to win consent (Antonio Gramsci’s idea of hegemony) and force (police, courts, army) when consent fails.

Interactionist views start from individuals. George Herbert Mead argued that the self develops through interaction and taking the role of others, and Erving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) showed people actively managing impressions. Order is therefore negotiated in everyday encounters rather than imposed. Evaluation point: structuralists can be accused of treating people as puppets; interactionists of ignoring the power that limits choice.

How do sociologists explain deviance and non-conformity?

Explanation (syllabus term)	Core idea	Example of a sociologist
Under-socialisation	Inadequate socialisation, often blamed on family breakdown	Charles Murray’s underclass argument (1984, 1990)
Cultural deprivation	Groups lack the norms and skills that mainstream institutions reward	Used in debates on working-class achievement
Subcultures	Groups develop alternative values that reward deviance	Albert Cohen, Delinquent Boys (1955): status frustration
Marginalisation	Groups pushed to the edge of society have little stake in conforming	Linked to unemployment and racism
Social resistance	Deviance as a meaningful challenge to dominant power	Paul Willis, Learning to Labour (1977); Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style (1979)

Evaluate by asking who defines “deviance”: interactionists argue that labels, not acts, make deviance, while resistance theories risk romanticising behaviour that harms others.

How are class, gender, ethnicity and age identities changing?

Section 1.3 moves from how identity is learned to how it is changing.

• Social class. Jan Pakulski and Malcolm Waters (The Death of Class, 1996) argued that consumption now matters more than occupation. Against this, Mike Savage and colleagues’ Great British Class Survey (2013) still found clear class groupings based on economic, cultural and social capital.
• Gender. R.W. Connell’s idea of hegemonic masculinity (1987) and Máirtín Mac an Ghaill’s The Making of Men (1994) show masculinity as plural and contested, while Judith Butler (Gender Trouble, 1990) treats gender as performance.
• Ethnicity. Stuart Hall’s writing on diaspora identity (1990s) and Homi Bhabha’s idea of hybridity (The Location of Culture, 1994) describe new identities formed from more than one cultural source, accelerated by globalisation and migration.
• Age. Childhood, youth and old age are socially constructed; consumer markets and longer life expectancy are reshaping what each stage means.

The syllabus also names increased choice: postmodernists argue identities are now picked and mixed, while structural sociologists reply that class, gender and ethnicity still limit the menu.

Frequently asked questions

Is 9699 Paper 1 mostly about theory or methods? Both. Section A mixes short-answer and two-part questions across socialisation and methods, and Section B offers a choice of two 26-mark essays. Expect socialisation content and methods content in the same paper.

Which theories should I use for socialisation essays? Contrast structural views (functionalist, Marxist, feminist) with interactionist ones, because 1.2 explicitly asks for the difference between structuralist and interactionist views.

Do I need named studies? Named sociologists are not listed in the 9699 syllabus, but accurate, relevant evidence is how AO1 and AO3 marks are earned. One well-used study beats five name-drops.

How does 1.3 link to globalisation in Paper 4? Hybrid identity and cultural defence reappear in Paper 4 section 7.2, so learning them now saves time at A Level.

Sources

• Cambridge International, Cambridge International AS & A Level Sociology 9699 syllabus for 2024, 2025 and 2026, Paper 1 subject content 1.1–1.3 and Details of the assessment.
• Studies cited are named with their publication year in the text above.

Related pages: social identity and change revision notes | social identity and change practice questions | Paper 1 revision notes | Paper 1 practice questions