OxfordAQA International A-Level Sociology: Exploring Sociology (9690)

This guide covers Unit 2 Exploring Sociology, the second of two units forming the International AS in OxfordAQA International A-level Sociology (9690), a new qualification first teaching September 2026, with first AS exams May/June 2027 and first A-level exams May/June 2028. Where Unit 1 Introducing Sociology covers families and the first pass at research methods, Unit 2 broadens out to socialisation and social control as a topic in its own right, and examines research methods and theory again – through a single extended-response question rather than new content.

Where this fits in 9690

Completing Units 1 and 2 completes the International AS. The full International A-level then adds Units 3 to 5 (People and Development, People and the Environment, and People and Technology), which apply the sociological perspectives and methodological skills built across Units 1 and 2 to more applied, contemporary topics.

Syllabus coverage

OXFORDAQA INTERNATIONAL A-LEVEL SOCIOLOGY (9690) — UNIT 2 EXPLORING SOCIOLOGY

• 3.1.2 Socialisation and Social Control — individuals and society; socialisation; social identities and social change; social control; deviance, harm and crime
• 3.1.3 Research Methods and Theory — the same content examined in Unit 1, assessed here through a single extended-response question rather than a new content area

Unit 2 is assessed in two sections: Section A Socialisation and social control (40 of the unit’s 60 marks, short and extended-response questions) and Section B Research methods and theory (20 marks, one extended-response question).

How to approach it

Socialisation and Social Control (3.1.2) is the larger of Unit 2’s two sections and has five named sub-sections (below) – build a checklist against all five rather than revising “socialisation” and “crime” as if they were the whole topic, since deviance, harm and crime alone is a full sub-section in its own right. Research Methods and Theory (3.1.3) is examined here as a single extended-response question, so practise writing one sustained, theoretically-justified argument about method choice rather than a list of practical strengths and weaknesses.

Individuals and society, and socialisation (3.1.2.1-3.1.2.2)

Individuals and society: culture, norms and values, roles, status, stereotypes and subcultures, ethnic groups in multicultural societies, and Mills’s sociological imagination – connecting personal troubles to public issues. Socialisation: primary, secondary, re-socialisation and inadequate socialisation, through the agencies of family, school, peers, media, religion and the workplace, read through functionalist, Marxist, feminist and social action/interactionist perspectives.

Social identities and social change (3.1.2.3)

Identity is examined through age/generation, sex and gender, race and ethnicity, social class, religion, ability/disability and nationality. Social change themes include shifting gender identities (masculinity and femininity), hybrid ethnic identities and diasporas, online identities in social media and virtual communities, and the effects of consumption and globalisation on identity.

Social control (3.1.2.4)

Distinguishes formal social control (government and law, police, the criminal justice system) from informal social control (families, schools, peers, media, religion, the workplace), and positive from negative sanctions, read through consensus and conflict views. Named concepts: stigmatised identities (Goffman’s work on stigma and “spoiled” identity is a useful source here) and othering (treating a group as different from, and inferior to, “us”), the aims and types of punishment, crime prevention (types of policing, surveillance), repressive and ideological state apparatuses and interpellation (concepts from the Marxist Althusser) and hegemony (from the Marxist Gramsci: rule through the consent of the governed to ruling-class ideas). The specification asks for social control to be read through functionalist, Marxist, feminist and social action/interactionist perspectives.

Deviance, harm and crime (3.1.2.5)

The social construction of crime and deviance; named crime types – violent, property, white-collar, corporate, state, environmental, “victimless” and cyber; social harms (harmful but not criminal); measurement issues – official/police statistics, self-report studies and victim surveys; and patterns of offending and victimisation by gender, social class, age and ethnicity.

Named sociologists for Unit 2: Stanley Cohen, Fanon, Goffman, Mead, Mills, Zuboff.

Research methods and theory, revisited

The positivist tradition favours methods that produce quantifiable, comparable data – structured questionnaires, official statistics, structured observation – on the grounds that sociology should model itself on the natural sciences and identify patterns across large populations. The interpretivist tradition favours methods that capture meaning and lived experience – unstructured interviews, participant observation, personal documents – on the grounds that human behaviour cannot be reduced to countable variables without losing what makes it meaningful to the people involved. Most modern sociological research does not sit purely in one camp, and the strongest Unit 2 answers acknowledge this by discussing triangulation – combining quantitative and qualitative methods to offset the weaknesses of each.

Worked example: applying theory to method choice

Consider the research question “Why do some working-class students underachieve at school?” A positivist approach might use large-scale official statistics on exam results by social class, valued for their representativeness and ability to reveal broad patterns, but limited in explaining why the pattern exists. An interpretivist approach might use unstructured interviews or classroom observation with a small number of students, valued for revealing the lived experience of labelling, teacher expectation or subcultural pressure, but limited in how far the findings can be generalised beyond the group studied. A strong Unit 2 answer does not simply describe both methods – it explains that the choice between them reflects a genuine theoretical disagreement about what counts as valid sociological knowledge, and may propose triangulating both approaches to capture pattern and meaning together.

Common mistakes

Treating “deviance, harm and crime” as a footnote to social control rather than the full fifth sub-section it is. Describing stigmatised identities or state apparatuses without the named concepts the specification lists alongside them (othering, interpellation, hegemony). Naming no sociologists – Stanley Cohen, Fanon, Goffman, Mead, Mills and Zuboff are all directly assessable across this unit. Describing a research method’s practical strengths and weaknesses without connecting the choice back to a theoretical justification, which is what distinguishes the 3.1.3 extended-response question from a purely descriptive methods answer.

Quick revision checklist

• Work through all five 3.1.2 sub-sections in turn: individuals and society, socialisation, social identities and social change, social control, and deviance/harm/crime.
• Learn the named concepts – stigmatised identities, othering, interpellation, hegemony, repressive/ideological state apparatuses – not just the general topic headings they sit under.
• Practise justifying a research method choice theoretically for a single extended-response question, not just listing practical strengths and weaknesses.
• Use Unit 1’s Families content as a source of worked examples when answering Unit 2 methods and theory questions.
• Revise Units 1 and 2 together before the International AS assessment, since both are examined at the end of that stage.

Related resources

• Exploring Sociology revision notes
• Exploring Sociology practice questions

Official syllabus

OxfordAQA International AS and A-level Sociology (9690) specification, Version 1.1 — oxfordaqa.com, verified 2026-10-04. Unit 2 timing and marks: 1 hour 45 minutes, 60 marks (Section A Socialisation and social control 40 marks; Section B Research methods and theory 20 marks). A specimen question paper and mark scheme for Unit 1 are already published on the same qualification page.