AQA A-level Sociology (7192): Paper 2 – Beliefs in society – Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions, and they do not replicate the exam’s exact structure, question count or mark tariffs – examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers from your board or school.

These questions cover section 4.2.5 Beliefs in Society of the AQA AS and A-level Sociology (7191, 7192) specification, Version 1.2 (14 October 2021), for AQA A-level Sociology (7192). The topic is assessed in Paper 2: Topics in Sociology, Section B, where you answer on one option 2 topic. All places, movements and data below are fictional.

Revise first with the study guide and revision notes. Track your progress on the AQA A-level Sociology hub and checklist.

Questions

1. Define the term “secularisation”. [2]

2. Identify two features of a sect, as described by Troeltsch. [2]

3. Explain the difference between an open belief system and a closed belief system. [4]

4. Explain two psychological functions of religion identified by Malinowski. [4]

5. Study the table. The data are fictional. Marshbury is a fictional town with a population of 30,000 at both surveys, which were held twenty years apart.

Marshbury	First survey	Second survey
People attending a church, mosque, temple or other congregation in a typical week	2,400	1,800
People taking part in holistic activities (such as yoga, reiki or meditation groups) in a typical week	300	540

(a) Calculate the percentage change in the number of people taking part in holistic activities between the two surveys. Show your working. [2] (b) Using the data, explain how it could support the view that a “spiritual revolution” is taking place. [4] (c) Using the data, explain one reason why Bruce might reject that view. [2]

6. Read the source.

The Lantern Circle is a fictional movement founded in 2019. It runs weekend courses that promise to release members’ hidden potential so they can succeed at work and in relationships. Members keep their jobs and families, and there is no weekly worship or strict moral code. Its founder says that other faiths are also valid paths to fulfilment. Many newspapers describe it as “weird”.

Using Wallis’s ideas, classify the Lantern Circle and explain your classification. [4]

7. Explain two reasons why women may be more likely than men to take part in religious and spiritual activity. [4]

8. Read the source.

Forty years ago, several hundred families moved from abroad to the fictional city of Calder. They built a temple, which soon ran language classes, helped newcomers find housing and work, and held festivals. Today, fewer of the families’ grandchildren attend weekly. However, in a local survey most of them still said their religion was “an important part of who I am”.

Using the source and sociological ideas, analyse how religion has helped this community and how its role may have changed. [6]

9. Explain two ways in which globalisation has contributed to the spread of religions. [6]

10. Evaluate the usefulness of Weber’s ideas for understanding the relationship between religion and social change. [14]

11. To what extent do sociological theories of secularisation apply to the world as a whole, and not only to the UK? [16]

12. Discuss the claim that science, unlike religion, is an open belief system. [12]

Answers

1. The process by which religion loses its social significance [1], for example in belief, practice or the influence of religious institutions (Wilson) [1]. [2] Examiner insight: “fewer people go to church” alone earns little; name the wider loss of social significance.

2. Any two from: small and exclusive [1]; claims a monopoly of religious truth [1]; hostile to or separate from wider society; demands high commitment; recruits mainly from poorer groups; often led by a charismatic leader. [2] Examiner insight: both features must apply to a sect; “claims monopoly of truth” alone also fits a church, so pair it with a feature that separates sects.

3. An open belief system accepts that its ideas can be challenged [1] and changes them when evidence contradicts them, as Popper claims for science through falsification [1]. A closed belief system protects its core claims from challenge [1], for example by explaining away failures, as the Azande did when the poison oracle failed (Evans-Pritchard; Polanyi) [1]. [4] Examiner insight: a contrast question needs both sides explained; one example per side moves the answer from description to explanation.

4. First, religion helps people cope with situations of uncertainty or danger [1]; Trobriand Islanders performed ritual before risky ocean fishing but not safe lagoon fishing [1]. Second, religion helps people cope with life crises such as death [1]; funeral rituals comfort the bereaved and help the group reunite after a loss [1]. [4] Examiner insight: “explain two” means each point needs a reason or example, not just a label such as “comfort”.

5. (a) (540 − 300) ÷ 300 × 100 [1] = an 80% increase [1]. [2] (b) Holistic activity grew by 80%, from 300 to 540 people [1], while congregational attendance fell by 25% [1]. Holistic participants rose from 1.0% to 1.8% of the town [1], which fits Heelas and Woodhead’s idea that people are turning from external religion to self-spirituality [1]. [4] (c) Total involvement fell from 2,700 to 2,340 people, or from 9.0% to 7.8% of the town [1], so the growth in holistic activity does not make up for the decline in congregations, which Bruce sees as continued secularisation [1]. [2] Examiner insight: in data questions, quote the figures and say what they show; a correct calculation without a stated conclusion loses the application mark.

6. It is a world-affirming NRM [1], because it promises success in ordinary life rather than asking members to withdraw from the world [1], and members keep their jobs and families with no strict code [1]. In Wallis’s typology of organisations it is closest to a cult: it accepts other faiths as valid (pluralistically legitimate) and is seen as deviant (“weird”) by the press [1]. [4] Examiner insight: use the source’s details as evidence for each feature; naming the type with no link to the source scores only the knowledge mark.

7. First, socialisation: girls may be raised to be more caring, nurturing and obedient, qualities valued by many religions [1], and Miller and Hoffmann link women’s higher religiosity to this and to greater risk-aversion [1]. Second, Davie suggests women’s closer involvement with birth and death [1] brings them nearer to the ultimate questions religion addresses [1]. [4] Examiner insight: each reason needs its sociological mechanism; “women are more emotional” is a stereotype, not an explanation.

8. At first the temple acted as a cultural transition resource (Bruce) [1]: classes, housing and job help eased migrants’ adjustment to a new society [1]. Festivals strengthened solidarity, which Durkheim would see as reinforcing a shared collective conscience [1]. Now that the grandchildren are integrated, lower attendance fits Bruce’s view that transition-based religiosity declines [1]. However, most still say religion is important to who they are, which fits O’Beirne’s finding that religion is central to many minority groups’ identity, or cultural defence (Bruce) [1]. This suggests religion’s role has shifted from practice and support to belonging and identity, so attendance alone understates its significance [1]. [6] Examiner insight: “analyse” needs a reasoned link between each source detail and a concept, ending in what the change means.

9. First, migration [1]: people moving to new countries bring their faiths, so Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism are now part of UK religious life [1]; places of worship then serve as community centres, helping the faith continue [1]. Second, global media [1]: Lyon argues religious ideas are lifted out of local churches and spread through TV and the internet, as with televangelism [1]; faiths such as Pentecostalism also take root abroad because, Lehmann argues, they adapt to local cultures while keeping a common core [1]. [6] Examiner insight: show the process, not just the outcome; say how the faith spreads and why it takes root.

10. The real exam marks extended answers with levels of response, not point by point; these are indicative creditworthy points. Weber argued religion can cause social change [1]. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905), Calvinist predestination created salvation anxiety [1]. Ascetic hard work in a calling and saving helped create the spirit of capitalism [1]. He compared Hinduism and Confucianism, which lacked this mix of this-worldly work and self-denial [1]. His theodicy of disprivilege helps explain why sects attract marginal groups [1]. Bruce also shows religion driving change: Black churches helped drive the US civil rights movement [1]. Usefulness: Weber shows ideas, not only economics, shape history, a social action strength [1]. It challenges Marx’s view of religion as only conservative [1]. Limitation: Kautsky argued capitalism came before Calvinism [1]. Some Calvinist societies developed capitalism slowly, weakening the causal claim [1]. Weber himself treated Calvinism as one cause among several [1]. Functionalists stress religion’s integrating role, which Weber underplays [1]. Neo-Marxists (Maduro) agree religion can drive change, through liberation theology [1]. A possible judgement: Weber is useful for showing religion can cause change, but less so for predicting when it will [1]. [14] Examiner insight: “usefulness” needs explicit judgements of what the theory explains well and badly; describing the Protestant ethic in detail is not enough.

11. The real exam marks extended answers with levels of response, not point by point; these are indicative creditworthy points. Secularisation is religion losing social significance (Wilson) [1]. UK evidence: in England and Wales, people describing themselves as Christian fell from 59.3% in 2011 to 46.2% in 2021 [1]. Bruce links decline to the technological worldview and diversity [1]. Weber’s disenchantment and Parsons’s structural differentiation suggest modernisation brings decline everywhere [1]. Voas and Crockett show generational decline in Britain [1]. However, the USA remains highly religious; Stark and Bainbridge explain this through religious market competition [1]. Hadaway et al. (1993) found US attendance was over-reported, so America may be less religious than it seems [1]. Berger, once a secularisation theorist, later argued the world is desecularising [1]. Pentecostalism has grown rapidly in Latin America and Africa [1]. Norris and Inglehart’s existential security theory: insecure societies stay religious [1] and have higher birth rates, so the world’s religious share may grow [1]. Casanova shows religion returning to public life [1]. Fundamentalism as a response to globalisation (Giddens) shows religion’s continued power [1]. Davie argues Europe may be the exception, not the model [1]. Measurement issue: belief, belonging and practice can tell different stories [1]. A possible judgement: secularisation theories fit Britain and Western Europe well, but a global view suggests change rather than universal decline [1]. [16] Examiner insight: the question asks for scope, so organise around places, not just theorists; UK evidence alone cannot answer “to what extent”.

12. The real exam marks extended answers with levels of response, not point by point; these are indicative creditworthy points. Popper argues science is open because theories must be falsifiable [1]. Merton’s norms, especially organised scepticism, mean claims are checked by others [1]. Horton contrasts open scientific thought with closed traditional thought [1]. Religion often rests on faith and sacred authority that cannot be tested [1]. Polanyi argues closed systems use circular reasoning and subsidiary explanations, as with the Azande poison oracle [1]. But Polanyi also says science protects its own core assumptions [1]. Kuhn: in normal science, scientists work inside a paradigm and set aside anomalies [1]. Scientific training and peer review can punish challenges, so the community acts like a closed group [1]. Interpretivists argue scientific knowledge is socially constructed, not simply discovered [1]. Religions also change, for example Christian churches reinterpreting teaching on women’s ordination [1]. Yet scientific revolutions show science eventually responds to evidence in a way religions are not required to [1]. A possible judgement: science is more open than religion in the long run, but less open day to day than Popper claims [1]. [12] Examiner insight: the word “unlike” sets up a comparison, so evaluate both halves; answers about science alone cannot reach the top band.

Where marks are usually lost

• Writing every type of answer as an essay; short questions need precise, separate points.
• Ignoring the source details in application questions and writing a general answer instead.
• Using census figures with no place or date, or treating England and Wales as the whole world.
• Describing Weber’s Protestant ethic without judging its usefulness when the question asks for evaluation.
• Treating “cult” as an insult rather than a sociological type.
• Giving one-sided answers to “to what extent” and “discuss” questions.
• Using Christian examples only when the topic includes non-Christian traditions.
• Writing a judgement in the final line that contradicts the argument you have built.

Next steps

• Check gaps against the AQA A-level Sociology checklist.
• Take a diagnostic test to see which topics need more work.
• Want help with Paper 2 essays? Book a free trial class.
• See how this option fits with your other papers in the A-level Sociology course structure, and practise Paper 3 perspectives with the Crime and Deviance practice questions.

Official syllabus

These questions are based on the AQA AS and A-level Sociology (7191, 7192) specification, Version 1.2 (14 October 2021), section 4.2.5 Beliefs in Society and the Paper 2 assessment details. Your teacher will confirm anything the specification does not print, such as the question breakdown within Section B.