AQA GCSE Sociology (8192): The sociological approach – Revision Notes

For full explanations and worked paragraphs, read the study guide for this unit first.

These notes cover section 3.1, The sociological approach, of the AQA GCSE Sociology (8192) specification, Version 1.2 (June 2026), for GCSE exams 2019 onwards. The section has no sub-sections. Both Paper 1 and Paper 2 assess “relevant areas of social theory and methodology”, so this material can be used on either paper. Test yourself afterwards with the practice questions, and track the whole course on the AQA GCSE Sociology hub and the 8192 checklist.

What the specification asks for

Section 3.1 lists seven things you must know and understand:

1. Debates within sociology, including conflict versus consensus.
2. How sociological knowledge and ideas change over time.
3. The work of Durkheim, Marx and Weber in context: their view of the world and their contribution to the discipline.
4. Perspectives informed by feminism, functionalism, interactionism and Marxism, with key arguments from extracts in Appendix B.
5. The interrelationship between the core areas of sociology.
6. How to use research methods in families, education, crime and deviance and social stratification.
7. Key terms: society, socialisation, norms, values, roles, labelling, discrimination, power and authority.

Key terms

Term	Short definition	Quick example
Society	People sharing a territory and social institutions	The UK, with its laws, schools and families
Socialisation	Learning a society’s norms and values	A toddler learning to say “please”
Primary socialisation	Early socialisation in the family	Parents teaching basic manners
Secondary socialisation	Later socialisation outside the family	School, peer groups, religion, media
Norms	Unwritten rules of expected behaviour	Not talking during an assembly
Values	Shared beliefs about what is important	Respect, achievement, fairness
Roles	Behaviour expected of a social position	A referee is expected to be neutral
Labelling	Attaching a category that affects treatment and self-image	A pupil called “lazy” by staff
Discrimination	Treating a group less favourably	Turning down a job applicant because of age
Prejudice	A negative attitude, often based on stereotypes	Assuming a group is untrustworthy
Power	Getting others to act as you wish, even against their will	A boss threatening dismissal
Authority	Power accepted as legitimate	Pupils accepting a teacher’s instruction
Social control	Formal and informal ways of making people conform	Police (formal); family disapproval (informal)
Value consensus	Broad agreement on core values	Functionalist idea behind social order
Master status	A label that overrides all other identities	“Criminal” after a conviction
Anomie	Normlessness, when rules break down	Merton: “anything goes” to get rich

Perspectives at a glance

Perspective	Big idea	Consensus or conflict?	Named writers in the specification
Functionalism	Institutions perform functions that keep society stable	Consensus	Durkheim, Parsons, Merton, Albert Cohen, Davis and Moore, Willmott and Young
Marxism	Capitalism divides society into owners and workers; institutions serve the ruling class	Conflict	Marx, Bowles and Gintis, Willis, Zaretsky
Feminism	Society is patriarchal; institutions disadvantage women	Conflict	Oakley, Delphy and Leonard, Heidensohn, Carlen, Walby
Interactionism	People create meaning in small-scale interaction; labels shape identity	Neither: a micro, action approach	Becker

The New Right, linked by the specification to Murray, is a further view that criticises both Marxism and the welfare state.

Classical sociologists at a glance

Who	Time and place	View of the world	Contribution	One evaluation point
Émile Durkheim (1858-1917)	France, Third Republic, industrialising society	Shared norms and values hold society together; anomie when rules break down	Sociology as a science of “social facts”; first European department of sociology (1895); Suicide (1897)	Overstates consensus; official statistics he relied on may be socially constructed
Karl Marx (1818-1883)	Born in Prussia; in London from 1849; 19th-century industrial Britain	Class struggle drives change; ruling class ideology and false class consciousness	Founded the conflict tradition; Communist Manifesto with Engels (1848)	Predicted revolution and polarisation did not happen in Britain
Max Weber (1864-1920)	Industrialising Germany, early 20th century	Class, status and party; market situation shapes life chances	Three types of authority; meaning behind social action; The Protestant Ethic (1904-05)	Marxists argue ownership remains the key division

Must-know distinctions

• Consensus vs conflict. Consensus: society rests on shared values (functionalism). Conflict: society rests on competing interests (Marxism by class, feminism by gender).
• Structure vs agency. Structure: institutions shape behaviour. Agency: individuals interpret and choose. Interactionism stresses agency.
• Macro vs micro. Functionalism, Marxism and feminism look at society as a whole (macro). Interactionism looks at face-to-face interaction (micro).
• Norms vs values. Values are beliefs; norms are the specific rules that put them into practice.
• Power vs authority. Authority is legitimate power. Weber’s three types (the specification’s “three different sources of power”): traditional (custom), charismatic (exceptional personal qualities), rational-legal (accepted impersonal rules).
• Prejudice vs discrimination. Prejudice is an attitude; discrimination is an action.
• Primary vs secondary socialisation. Family first; school, peers, religion, media and workplace later.
• Marx vs Weber on class. Marx: two main classes defined by ownership, which polarise. Weber: market situation creates more divisions, and the middle class expands.

How ideas change over time: quick evidence bank

• Parsons (1959): later criticised for an idealised, middle-class picture of family life.
• Rapoports and Oakley (1982): written before same-sex households were widely accepted and before civil partnerships.
• Willis (1977): manual jobs were relatively easy to get in the 1970s.
• Halsey et al. (1980): males only.
• Devine (1992) revisited the affluent worker research of the 1960s and challenged its predictions.
• Walby (1990): patriarchy has shifted from private to public forms.

Use these in evaluation by explaining what has changed, not just that a study is old.

Mini essay plan

Question: Discuss how far conflict theories explain UK society better than consensus theories.

1. Introduction (two sentences). Define consensus (shared values, functionalism) and conflict (opposed interests, Marxism and feminism).
2. Consensus case. Durkheim: education transmits shared norms and values. Parsons: schools and families socialise people into a value consensus. Apply: most people obey the law most of the time.
3. Weakness of consensus. Ignores power; who decides the “shared” values? Parsons criticised for an idealised family.
4. Conflict case, Marxism. Ruling class ideology; Bowles and Gintis on schooling and work; Halsey’s class gaps in staying on at school.
5. Conflict case, feminism. Delphy and Leonard on unpaid domestic work; Walby on patriarchy in paid work.
6. Weakness of conflict. Marx’s predicted revolution did not happen; Weber shows a growing middle class; feminists disagree about the cause of inequality.
7. Interactionist angle. Both macro theories underplay agency; Becker shows labels are negotiated.
8. Judgement. Conflict theories explain inequality better; consensus theories explain everyday order better. Give a clear final view based on the evidence you used.

Quick self-test

1. What is the difference between norms and values?
2. Name two agencies of secondary socialisation.
3. Which perspective is a consensus approach?
4. Give Weber’s three types of authority.
5. What does “anomie” mean, and which classical sociologist developed the idea?
6. What term do Marxists use for workers who accept ruling class ideas?
7. In which country and century was Marx writing, according to the specification?
8. What is a master status?
9. Give one way Weber’s view of class differs from Marx’s.
10. Why is interactionism described as a micro approach?
11. Give one reason Parsons’ work has been criticised.
12. What is the difference between prejudice and discrimination?

Answers

1. Values are shared beliefs about what is important; norms are the specific rules of behaviour that follow from them.
2. Any two: school, peer group, religion, mass media, workplace.
3. Functionalism.
4. Traditional, charismatic and rational-legal.
5. A state of normlessness when rules break down; Durkheim.
6. False class consciousness.
7. Britain, in the 19th century.
8. A label, such as “criminal”, that overrides a person’s other identities and shapes how others respond.
9. Weber saw class as based on market situation, giving more divisions and an expanding middle class; Marx saw two main classes based on ownership, which would polarise.
10. It studies small-scale, face-to-face interaction and the meanings people give to it, rather than society as a whole.
11. He presented an idealised picture of family life centred on the middle-class experience.
12. Prejudice is an attitude; discrimination is an action that treats someone less favourably.

Where marks are usually lost

• Naming a perspective but not linking it to a named writer from the specification.
• Describing Durkheim, Marx or Weber with no time or place, when the specification asks for their contextualised work.
• Treating feminism as one single view rather than showing disagreement within it.
• Putting interactionism on the “conflict” or “consensus” side without explaining why it fits neither neatly.
• Confusing power with authority, or prejudice with discrimination.
• Writing “this study is old” as evaluation, without saying what has changed since.
• Giving a definition of a key term but no example, so it is unclear the idea has been understood.
• Ending a “discuss” or “evaluate” answer without a clear judgement.

Linked resources

Apply the perspectives to topic content in the families and education revision notes and the crime and stratification revision notes. For methods, see the research methods guide.

Official syllabus

AQA GCSE Sociology (8192) specification, Version 1.2 (June 2026), for GCSE exams 2019 onwards: section 3.1 The sociological approach, with Appendix A (key terms and concepts) and Appendix B (texts and summaries).