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
Stratification and Differentiation
- 5 subtopics
- 10 things to know
- Paper 2
- Paper 2, two optional topics chosen from eight
What Stratification and Differentiation covers
Stratification and Differentiation is one of the optional topics on Paper 2. It covers the theories of why societies are unequal, how inequality falls across class, gender, ethnicity, age and disability, the problem of measuring class, and how much movement between positions actually happens.
Where it is assessed
Paper 2
One of the optional topics, of which a student answers two.
Check the AQA specification ↗The 5 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Theories of stratificationMarx on class and exploitation, Weber on class, status and party, and the functionalist case of Davis and Moore.Open →
- Life chances and dimensions of inequalityHow health, education and employment outcomes differ by class, gender, ethnicity, age and disability, and intersectionality.Open →
- Defining and measuring social classThe Registrar General's scale and NS-SEC, the problem of classifying women, subjective class, and Bourdieu on capital.Open →
- Changing structures of inequality and globalisationDeindustrialisation, the underclass thesis, and Sklair on the transnational capitalist class.Open →
- Social mobilityAbsolute and relative mobility, the Oxford Mobility Study, meritocracy, elite self-recruitment, and the barriers that persist.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Process
What are life chances, and how do they vary by social class?
Evaluation
What is intersectionality, and how does age stratification operate?
Evaluation
How does the social model distinguish impairment from disability, and what disadvantages follow?
Evaluation
What is subjective class identity, and why do wealth-based measures reveal more inequality?
Key term
What is deindustrialisation, and how has it changed the occupational structure?
Key term
According to Sklair, which four groups comprise the transnational capitalist class?
Key term
What has been the effect of growing wealth inequality on resources and wages?
Who and when
What evidence challenges claims that Britain is meritocratic?
Key term
What is downward mobility and how has it changed?
Take Stratification and Differentiation further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Bourgeoisie vs Proletariat
Bourgeoisie: owners of productive property who employ labour. Proletariat: workers who survive by selling their labour power.
Absolute mobility vs Relative mobility
Absolute mobility: the total amount of movement between class positions in a society. Relative mobility: the comparative chances of people from different origins reaching the same position.
Intragenerational mobility vs Intergenerational mobility
Intragenerational mobility: movement between class positions within a single person’s working life. Intergenerational mobility: movement between the class position of parents and that of their children.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is social stratification?
Model answer
The hierarchical arrangement of individuals and groups into layers or strata based on unequal access to resources, power and prestige.
- 2
In Marxist theory, what is the relationship of the bourgeoisie to the means of production?
Model answer
The bourgeoisie own the means of production.
- 3
According to Marx, how does the proletariat survive economically?
Model answer
The proletariat sell their labour power to the bourgeoisie.
- 4
How does exploitation occur in Marxist theory?
Model answer
Through the extraction of surplus value from workers' labour by the bourgeoisie.
- 5
What does Marxist theory identify as the driving force of social change?
Model answer
Class conflict between the bourgeoisie and proletariat.
- 6
In Weber's theory, what determines an individual's class position?
Model answer
Market position and life chances.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Stratification and Differentiation revision questions
- What does Stratification and Differentiation cover in AQA A-Level Sociology?
- 5 subtopics: theories of stratification, life chances and dimensions of inequality, defining and measuring social class, changing structures of inequality and globalisation and social mobility. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Stratification and Differentiation organised?
- By the AQA 7192 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Stratification and Differentiation, 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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