Who and when
AQA A-Level Sociology 7192
Education
Topic overviewThe role and functions of educationClass differences in educational achievementLabelling, subcultures and processes within schoolsGender and educational achievementEthnicity and educational achievementSelection and marketisationPrivatisation and vocational educationEducational policy, equality and globalisation
Methods in Context
Theory and Methods
Culture and IdentityOptional topic
Families and HouseholdsOptional topic
Topic overviewFunctionalist views of the familyMarxist and feminist views of the familyThe New Right, postmodernism and family policyMarriage, cohabitation and divorceFamily diversity and the personal life perspectiveConjugal roles and domestic labourPower relationships and domestic violenceThe social construction of childhoodBirth rates and death ratesFamily size and the ageing populationMigration and globalisation
HealthOptional topic
Work, Poverty and WelfareOptional topic
Beliefs in SocietyOptional topic
Topic overviewIdeology and science as belief systemsFunctionalist views of religionMarxist and feminist views of religionReligion as a force for social changeChurches, sects, denominations and cultsNew religious movements and New Age movementsReligion, gender, ethnicity, age and social classSecularisationBelieving without belonging and postmodern religionGlobalisation, fundamentalism and religion worldwide
Global DevelopmentOptional topic
The MediaOptional topic
Stratification and DifferentiationOptional topic
Crime and Deviance
Topic overviewFunctionalist, strain and control theories of crimeSubcultural theories of crimeInteractionism and labelling theoryMarxist and critical theories of crimeLeft and right realismGender and crimeSocial class, white-collar and corporate crimeEthnicity, policing and the criminal justice systemGlobalisation and crimeThe media, crime and fear of crimeMoral panics and the deviancy amplification spiralGreen crimeState crime and human rightsDenial, neutralisation and prosecuting state crimeSituational and environmental crime preventionRealist crime control, surveillance and the panopticonPunishment, sentencing and the criminal justice systemVictims and victimologyCrime prevention strategies and their limits
Beliefs in Society
- 10 subtopics
- 19 things to know
- Paper 2
- Paper 2, two optional topics chosen from eight
What Beliefs in Society covers
Beliefs in Society is one of the optional topics on Paper 2. It sets religion beside ideology and science as a belief system, works through the theories of religion and religious organisations, examines who is religious and why, and closes on secularisation, fundamentalism and religion worldwide.
Where it is assessed
Paper 2
One of the optional topics, of which a student answers two.
Check the AQA specification ↗The 10 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Ideology and science as belief systemsIdeology, Popper's falsificationism, Kuhn's paradigms, and why religion is described as a closed belief system.Open →
- Functionalist views of religionDurkheim on the collective conscience and the sacred, Malinowski, Parsons, and civil religion.Open →
- Marxist and feminist views of religionReligion as the opium of the people and a source of false consciousness, and the feminist case that religion is patriarchal.Open →
- Religion as a force for social changeWeber on Calvinism and the spirit of capitalism, liberation theology, and Bruce on when religion promotes change.Open →
- Churches, sects, denominations and cultsTroeltsch and Niebuhr on the four organisation types, and why sects rarely outlive their founders.Open →
- New religious movements and New Age movementsWallis's typology, New Age beliefs, theodicy, and relative deprivation as an explanation of membership.Open →
- Religion, gender, ethnicity, age and social classWhy women are more religious than men, religion as cultural defence and transition, and the generational decline thesis.Open →
- SecularisationWeber's rationalisation, structural differentiation, Berger's sacred canopy, and the evidence Bruce and Wilson use.Open →
- Believing without belonging and postmodern religionDavie on believing without belonging and vicarious religion, spiritual shopping, and religious market theory.Open →
- Globalisation, fundamentalism and religion worldwidePentecostalism, the rise of fundamentalism, Huntington's clash of civilisations, and existential security theory.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Process
How do religion's knowledge claims differ from science's?
Evaluation
How does religion reinforce the collective conscience, according to Durkheim?
Who and when
How do Gramsci and feminists analyse religion's relationship to power?
Process
What is predestination, and what anxiety did it create for Calvinists?
Who and when
How did Calvinist beliefs lead to capital accumulation?
Key term
What is a denomination, and what is a cult?
Who and when
Why did Niebuhr argue that sects are short-lived, and what do they become?
Key term
How do conversionist and introversionist sects differ, and what are new religious movements?
Who and when
What is theodicy, and what explains the growth of new religious movements?
Process
How does religion provide cultural defence and cultural transition for minority ethnic groups?
Evaluation
What is secularisation, and what evidence supports it in Britain?
Key term
How has welfare provision changed through structural differentiation?
Key term
How has law changed through structural differentiation?
Key term
What is the difference between pilgrims and converts according to Hervieu-Léger?
Who and when
What is religious market theory according to Stark and Bainbridge?
Key term
What is the difference between defensive and offensive fundamentalism according to Castells?
Who and when
What is Huntington's clash of civilisations thesis?
Who and when
What is Norris and Inglehart's existential security theory?
Take Beliefs in Society further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Secularisation vs Religious revival
Secularisation: declining social significance of religion. Religious revival: renewed growth or influence of faith and spiritual practice.
Church vs Sect
Church: a large, formal religious organisation with professional clergy that claims a monopoly on truth. Sect: a small, demanding organisation in tension with wider society, often led by a charismatic figure.
Denomination vs Cult
Denomination: an organisation midway between church and sect that accepts religious pluralism. Cult: a loosely organised movement with individualistic beliefs, tolerant of other beliefs.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is ideology in sociological terms?
Model answer
A set of ideas and beliefs that serve the interests of a particular social group, often presented as common sense or natural truths while obscuring power relations.
- 2
What four characteristics define science as a belief system?
Model answer
Empiricism, objectivity, falsifiability, and paradigm-based knowledge accumulation.
- 3
What is falsificationism according to Karl Popper?
Model answer
The principle that scientific theories must be testable and capable of being proven wrong, which distinguishes science as an open belief system.
- 4
Why did Popper consider science an open belief system?
Model answer
Because scientific knowledge claims can be tested against evidence and rejected if falsified, unlike closed systems that protect their claims from disproof.
- 5
What is a paradigm in Thomas Kuhn's theory of science?
Model answer
A shared framework of assumptions, methods, and standards that defines normal science and guides research within a scientific community.
- 6
What happens during 'normal science' according to Kuhn?
Model answer
Scientists work within the accepted paradigm, solving puzzles and conducting research guided by its assumptions without questioning its fundamental principles.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Beliefs in Society revision questions
- What does Beliefs in Society cover in AQA A-Level Sociology?
- 10 subtopics: ideology and science as belief systems, functionalist views of religion, marxist and feminist views of religion, religion as a force for social change, churches, sects, denominations and cults, new religious movements and new age movements, religion, gender, ethnicity, age and social class, secularisation, believing without belonging and postmodern religion and globalisation, fundamentalism and religion worldwide. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Beliefs in Society organised?
- By the AQA 7192 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Beliefs in Society, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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