AQA A-level Sociology (7192): Paper 2 – Health – 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 the Health topic of AQA A-level Sociology (7192), section 4.2.3 of the A-level subject content (listed as 3.2.3 in the specification at a glance) of the AQA AS and A-level Sociology (7191, 7192) specification, Version 1.2 (14 October 2021). Health is an option 1 topic, answered in Section A of Paper 2: Topics in Sociology, a 2 hour, 80-mark written exam in which Section A is extended writing worth 40 marks. All places, people and data below are fictional.

Revise first with the Health study guide and the Health revision notes. The AQA A-level Sociology hub and the AQA A-level Sociology checklist show where this topic fits.

Questions

1. What is meant by the term “sick role”? [2]

2. Outline two differences between the biomedical model of health and the social model of health. [4]

3. What is meant by the term “inverse care law”? [2]

4. The table shows invented data for two wards of Castlebrook, a fictional town.

Ward	Healthy life expectancy (years)	Registered patients	Full-time GPs	Adults reporting a long-term limiting condition (%)
Millgate (most deprived)	56.4	18,900	9	31
Ashby Park (least deprived)	69.1	14,400	9	14

(a) Calculate the difference in healthy life expectancy between the two wards. Show your working. [2] (b) Calculate the number of registered patients per full-time GP in each ward. [2] (c) Using the data and sociological explanations, explain two reasons why health and access to care differ between Millgate and Ashby Park. [6]

5. Read the item below.

Priya, a fictional graphic designer, uses a wheelchair. Her new office is on the second floor of an old building with no lift. Meetings are held in a pub with steps at the door. Her manager calls her “brave” and says she “must find it hard to cope”. She tells a friend that the building, not her body, is the problem.

Applying material from the item, outline three ways in which disability can be seen as socially constructed. [6]

6. Women in the UK live longer than men on average, yet report more illness. Outline two sociological explanations of this pattern. [4]

7. Read the item below.

In Brookvale, a fictional city, a community mental health team reviews its records. Young Black men are more often first seen through emergency routes and more often given a diagnosis of a psychotic illness. Young South Asian women are rarely referred to the team at all, though local GPs believe many experience distress.

Applying material from the item, analyse two explanations for these ethnic differences in mental health care. [6]

8. Identify two vulnerability factors that Brown and Harris linked to depression in women. [2]

9. Analyse two ways in which globalisation has changed the health industry. [8]

10. Read the item below.

In the fictional town of Hollin Bridge, a health campaign urges residents of a large estate to “make better choices” by eating more vegetables and giving up smoking. Residents reply that the nearest supermarket is two bus rides away, most work night shifts in a distribution centre, and many flats are damp.

Applying material from the item and your knowledge, evaluate cultural/behavioural explanations of social class inequalities in health. [16]

11. Evaluate the view that the medical profession acts mainly in its own interests rather than those of patients. [16]

Answers

1. The expected behaviour of a sick person, set out by Parsons [1], with rights such as exemption from normal duties and obligations such as seeking competent help to get well [1]. [2] Examiner insight: the second mark needs at least one right or duty; “being ill” alone is not a definition.

2. The biomedical model sees illness as a physical fault in the body [1], while the social model sees it as shaped by social conditions and meanings [1]. The biomedical model focuses on cure by doctors after illness appears [1], while the social model stresses prevention through changes to living conditions [1]. [4] Examiner insight: each difference needs both sides stated; describing only the biomedical model earns half the marks at most.

3. Tudor Hart’s idea that good medical care tends to be least available [1] where the need for it is greatest [1]. [2] Examiner insight: “poor people get worse care” misses the link to need; state the inverse relationship.

4. (a) 69.1 - 56.4 [1] = 12.7 years [1]. [2] (b) Millgate: 18,900 / 9 = 2,100 patients per GP [1]. Ashby Park: 14,400 / 9 = 1,600 patients per GP [1]. [2] (c) Reason one, material/structural: Millgate is the most deprived ward, so residents are more likely to face low income, poor housing and hazardous work [1]; this helps explain why 31% report a long-term limiting condition against 14% in Ashby Park [1], and why healthy life expectancy is 12.7 years lower [1]. Reason two, the inverse care law: Millgate has the greater need [1] yet each GP serves 2,100 patients against 1,600 in Ashby Park [1], so need and provision run in opposite directions, as Tudor Hart argued [1]. [6] Examiner insight: in part (c), application marks come from quoting the table’s figures inside each explanation, not from a general account of inequality.

5. First, the physical environment disables Priya: the lack of a lift and the stepped pub entrance exclude her [1], which fits the social model’s view that disability is the barriers society builds rather than her impairment [1]. Second, the manager’s language (“brave”, “must find it hard to cope”) labels her as dependent and tragic [1], which shows how others’ reactions can spoil a person’s identity, as Goffman’s work on stigma suggests [1]. Third, Priya’s own view that “the building, not her body” is the problem [1] reflects how disabled people’s movements, such as UPIAS, have redefined disability as a social issue [1]. [6] Examiner insight: each way needs a detail from the item plus a sociological concept; three bare concepts score half marks at best.

6. Women may be more willing to seek medical help and admit illness, since masculine identities discourage this, so more female illness is recorded [1]; men’s greater risk-taking linked to masculinity may also raise their death rates [1]. Feminists argue women’s lower incomes and the double shift of paid work and care [1] cause more everyday ill health without being fatal [1]. [4] Examiner insight: explanations must account for both halves of the pattern: longer lives and more reported illness.

7. Explanation one, ethnocentric diagnosis and labelling: psychiatrists may misread the behaviour of young Black men through stereotypes of danger [1], which could explain the higher rate of psychotic diagnoses and emergency routes into care in Brookvale [1]; this links to labelling theory, where the label shapes later treatment [1]. Explanation two, cultural and access barriers: stigma within some communities, language barriers or a lack of culturally aware services may stop South Asian women seeking help [1], which fits the item’s point that they are rarely referred though GPs see distress [1]; a realist would add that this means real illness goes uncounted, so the records understate need [1]. [6] Examiner insight: “analyse” needs a chain of reasoning for each explanation; naming racism without showing how it produces the pattern limits the marks.

8. Lacking an intimate confiding relationship [1]; having no paid work outside the home [1]. Also credit loss of mother before age 11. [2] Examiner insight: one mark per factor; general terms such as “stress” or “poverty” are not the study’s vulnerability factors.

9. Way one, the power of transnational drug companies: medicines are produced by large global companies [1] whose aim is profit for shareholders [1], so research may focus on conditions common in rich markets rather than diseases of poorer countries [1]; critics such as Goldacre argue that negative trial results often go unpublished, distorting the evidence [1]. Way two, global movement of patients and staff: medical tourism lets wealthier patients buy treatment abroad, turning health care into a global market [1]; doctors and nurses migrate from poorer to richer countries [1], which can strengthen services in countries like the UK [1] while leaving source countries short of staff, widening global health inequality [1]. [8] Examiner insight: the top marks go to answers that develop each way into consequences; two lists of examples without analysis stay in the lower levels.

10. The real exam marks extended answers with levels of response, not point by point. The points below show indicative creditworthy content.

Paragraph 1, the explanation. Cultural/behavioural explanations, one of four main explanations of class inequality in health [1], argue that working-class people have worse health because of choices such as smoking, poor diet and less exercise [1]. The Hollin Bridge campaign reflects this, telling residents to “make better choices” [1]. New Right thinkers support it, stressing individual responsibility for health [1].

Paragraph 2, evidence for. Smoking and diet do differ by class and are linked to major diseases [1], so behaviour clearly contributes to some of the gap [1].

Paragraph 3, material/structural critique. Materialists argue behaviour is shaped by circumstances [1]: in the item, the supermarket is two bus rides away, so fresh food costs time and money [1], and damp flats damage health whatever residents eat [1]. The Black Report (1980) saw economic inequality as the main cause [1]. Cultural explanations therefore risk blaming the victim [1].

Paragraph 4, psychosocial critique. Night-shift work in the distribution centre suggests low control and stress [1], which psychosocial explanations, drawing on the Whitehall studies, link to higher death rates among lower grades [1]; smoking may be a way of coping with that stress rather than a free choice [1].

Paragraph 5, method and judgement. Evidence on lifestyle often comes from self-report surveys, which may under-record smoking and drinking [1]. Overall, behaviour matters, but it is best seen as one link in a chain that starts with material conditions, so cultural/behavioural explanations alone are inadequate [1]. [16] Examiner insight: the item is there to be used; quote at least two of its details (distance to the supermarket, night shifts, damp) and tie each to a theory.

11. The real exam marks extended answers with levels of response, not point by point. The points below show indicative creditworthy content.

Paragraph 1, the view. Freidson argues that medicine has professional dominance over its own work and other health occupations [1]; Weberians see this as social closure, controlling entry, training and knowledge [1] to protect status and income [1]. Feminists add that the profession long excluded women and kept nursing and midwifery subordinate [1].

Paragraph 2, Marxist support. Marxists such as Navarro argue medicine serves capitalism by treating illness as individual [1], hiding its social causes such as poor working conditions [1]; on this view doctors serve the ruling class, not only themselves [1].

Paragraph 3, Illich. Illich argues medicine creates dependence and harm through clinical, social and cultural iatrogenesis [1], which suggests professional power grows at patients’ expense [1].

Paragraph 4, functionalist challenge. Functionalists see the profession as altruistic, with expert knowledge and an ethical code [1]; strict entry rules protect patients from unsafe practice [1], and high rewards are a fair return for long training [1].

Paragraph 5, postmodern change. Haug’s idea of deprofessionalisation suggests doctors’ power is weakening [1] as patients research conditions online and use alternative therapies [1].

Paragraph 6, judgement. McKeown argued that falling death rates owed more to living standards than to medicine, so medicine’s claims can be overstated, yet modern treatments clearly save lives [1]; a reasoned conclusion is that the profession serves both its own and patients’ interests, with the balance depending on how far its power is checked [1]. [16] Examiner insight: evaluation must test the view, not just list theories; say which evidence supports it and which undermines it, then reach a judgement.

Where marks are usually lost

• Defining a term without its key feature, such as giving “sick role” with no right or duty.
• Calculations with no working shown, or with units left out.
• Using data or items as decoration instead of building each point around a quoted detail.
• Listing theories in extended answers with no evaluation linking them together.
• Describing all minority ethnic groups as one group with the same health.
• Treating Rosenhan’s study as settled proof without noting later doubts about it.
• Leaving out the global industry when a question on medicine invites it.
• Ending a 16-mark answer without a judgement that answers the question set.

Next steps

• Go back over any point you missed in the Health study guide.
• Reuse labelling ideas from the AQA Crime and Deviance practice questions.
• Sharpen method evaluation with the Methods in Context practice questions.
• For health as part of global development, try the Global Development practice questions.
• Find your weak spots with our diagnostics.
• Book a free trial class for help with extended answers.

Official syllabus

These questions are based on the AQA AS and A-level Sociology (7191, 7192) specification, Version 1.2 (14 October 2021), A-level section 4.2.3 Health, and the Paper 2 assessment information in the same document.