Key term
Eduqas A-Level Sociology A200QS
Culture and the Social Construction of Culture
Topic overviewCulture as a way of lifeNorms, values and beliefsRoles, status and role conflictDress, appearance and cultural identityLanguage and cultural transmissionFood, diet and cultural rulesMusic, the arts and high and popular cultureThe social construction of cultureFeral children and extreme isolationThe nature and nurture debateCulture and social changeCultural diversity, multiculturalism and hybriditySubcultures and countercultures
Socialisation and Its Agencies
Topic overviewPrimary socialisationSecondary socialisationRole models and imitationSanctions and the enforcement of normsThe family and cultural transmissionPeer groups and peer socialisationEducation as an agency of socialisationReligion as an agency of socialisationThe media as an agency of socialisationWork and occupational socialisationInformal social controlFormal social controlCultural reproduction and the limits of socialisation
Socialisation and Identity
Topic overviewPersonal identity and the selfSocial identity and collective belongingSociological theories of identityConsumption, globalisation and identityGender socialisation and gender identityChanging femininitiesChanging masculinitiesClass identity and the working classMiddle-class, upper-class and underclass identitiesThe decline of class identityEthnicity and ethnic identityHybrid identities and cultural changeNational identity and Britishness
Option: Families and HouseholdsFamilies
Topic overviewDefining families and householdsFamily forms and family diversityEthnic, religious and cultural diversity in family lifeMarriage, cohabitation and singlehoodDivorce and separationFertility, life expectancy and the ageing populationConjugal roles and the domestic division of labourPower, decision-making and domestic violenceChildhood and relationships between the generationsFunctionalist perspectives on the familyThe New Right and social policy on the familyMarxist and feminist perspectives on the familyPostmodernist perspectives, the life course and personal life
Option: Youth CulturesYouth cultures
Topic overviewYouth and the social construction of adolescenceThe media and the formation of youth cultureEconomic change, affluence and the youth marketGlobalisation and youth cultureSocial class and youth subculturesGender and youth cultureEthnicity and youth cultureNeo-tribes and the changing nature of youth cultureDelinquency, crime and youth offendingAnti-school subcultures and youth in educationMoral panics and media representations of youthFunctionalist and Marxist perspectives on youth cultureFeminist, interactionist and postmodernist perspectives on youth culture
Option: EducationEducation
Topic overviewThe role and function of education in societyFunctionalist perspectives on educationMarxist perspectives on educationInteractionist perspectives and labelling in educationFeminist perspectives on educationThe New Right and educationPostmodernist perspectives on educationPatterns and trends in attainment and participationMaterial factors and educational achievementCultural factors: deprivation, language and cultural capitalExplaining the gender and ethnicity gapsStreaming, setting and pupil subculturesEducation policy and marketisation
Option: MediaMedia
Topic overviewThe role and function of the media in societyOwnership and control of the mediaMarxist and neo-Marxist perspectives on the mediaPluralist perspectives on the mediaFeminist perspectives on the mediaPostmodernist perspectives on the mediaNews values, newsworthiness and agenda settingModels of media effects and the active audienceMoral panics and folk devilsNew media, globalisation and the digital divideRepresentations of social class and age in the mediaRepresentations of gender, ethnicity and disability in the mediaMedia regulation and social policy
Option: ReligionReligion
Topic overviewDefining religion and its role in societyFunctionalist perspectives on religionMarxist and neo-Marxist perspectives on religionFeminist perspectives on religionWeberian perspectives on religionPostmodernist perspectives on religionSecularisation: the evidence for declineSecularisation: the case againstChurches, denominations, sects and cultsNew religious movements and the new ageFundamentalism and religion in a globalising worldReligiosity by class, gender, ethnicity and ageReligion and social policy in contemporary society
Research Methods: Primary and Secondary
Topic overviewQuestionnaires: writing them and delivering themStructured interviewsUnstructured and semi-structured interviewsFocus groups and group interviewsParticipant observation, overt and covertNon-participant and structured observationSocial surveysEthnographic methodsLongitudinal studiesMethodological pluralism and triangulationExisting sociological research as secondary dataOfficial statisticsPersonal documents, public documents and newspaper reports
Sampling, Ethics and Practical Issues
Topic overviewTarget populations and sampling framesSimple random and systematic random samplingStratified random and quota samplingSnowball and volunteer samplingPurposive and opportunity samplesGatekeepers and gaining accessInformed consent and vulnerabilityDeception and covert researchConfidentiality, anonymity and privacyThe right to withdraw and protection from harmSensitivity and researching difficult subjectsOperationalisation and the choice of research topicTime, cost and the practical limits on research
Key Concepts and Theories of Research
Topic overviewValidity and what threatens itReliability, standardisation and replicationRepresentativeness and the sampleGeneralisabilityObjectivity, value freedom and biasEthics as a criterion for judging researchPositivism and the scientific study of societyInterpretivism and verstehenInteractionism, phenomenology and interpretivist research in practiceRealism and the search for underlying causesThe suicide debate as a test of the three positionsChoosing a method: theory, practicality and ethics
Social Inequality: Evidence and Patterns
Topic overviewSocial inequality and stratificationMeasuring social class in the contemporary UKClass inequality in income and wealthClass inequality in health and life expectancyClass inequality in education and employmentGender inequality in work and payGender inequality beyond the workplaceEthnic inequality in employment and incomeEthnic inequality in health, education and criminal justiceAge and inequalityThe changing distribution of income and wealthSocial mobility in the contemporary UK
Theories and Explanations of Inequality and Stratification
Topic overviewFunctionalist theories of stratificationCriticisms of functionalist stratification theoryThe New RightMarxist theories of classNeo-Marxist theoriesWeberian theories of stratificationNeo-Weberian theoriesFeminist explanations of inequalityExplaining gender inequality beyond feminismTheories of racism and ethnic inequalityExplaining age inequalityPostmodernist accounts of inequalityComparing and evaluating the theories
Option: Crime and DevianceCrime
Topic overviewDefining crime and deviance as social constructsThe media, moral panics and the social construction of crimeMeasuring crime: official government statisticsVictim studies and self-report studiesThe social distribution of crime by class and ageThe social distribution of crime by genderThe social distribution of crime by ethnicityFunctionalist explanations of crime and devianceSub-cultural explanations of crime and devianceMarxist and neo-Marxist explanations of crimeInteractionist explanations and labelling theoryRight realism, left realism and crime control policyFeminist and postmodernist explanations of crime
Option: Health and DisabilityHealth
Topic overviewDefining health and illness as social constructsThe medical and social models of disabilityOfficial statistics, patterns and trends in healthHealth and social classHealth and genderHealth and ethnicityHealth and ageArtefact and self-selection explanationsCultural and material explanationsAccess to and provision of health care in the UKThe biomedical model, medicalisation and health professionalsFunctionalist and Marxist approaches to healthInteractionist, feminist and postmodernist approaches to health
Option: PoliticsPolitics
Topic overviewPower, authority and legitimacyPluralist theories of powerElite theories of powerMarxist and neo-Marxist theories of powerFunctionalist, Weberian and postmodernist theories of powerPatterns and trends in political participationPolitical participation and social classVoting behaviour and partisan de-alignmentPolitical participation and genderPolitical participation, ethnicity and agePolitical parties and the democratic processPressure groups and policy makingNew social movements and anti-capitalist movements
Option: World SociologyWorld sociology
Topic overviewDefining and measuring developmentGlobal inequality in healthGlobal inequality in educationEmployment and the global division of labourGlobal poverty, marginalisation and exclusionPopulation, urbanisation and demographic changeAid and its criticsDebt, structural adjustment and development policyGlobalisation, transnational corporations and world tradeNon-governmental organisations and international institutionsModernisation theoryMarxist, dependency and world systems theoriesFeminist and people-centred accounts of development
Key Concepts and Theories of Research
- 12 subtopics
- 36 things to know
- Component 2
What Key Concepts and Theories of Research covers
Key Concepts and Theories of Research is examined in Component 2, Methods of Sociological Enquiry — compulsory. It covers validity and what threatens it, reliability, standardisation and replication, representativeness and the sample, generalisability, objectivity, value freedom and bias, ethics as a criterion for judging research, positivism and the scientific study of society, interpretivism and verstehen, interactionism, phenomenology and interpretivist research in practice, realism and the search for underlying causes, the suicide debate as a test of the three positions and choosing a method: theory, practicality and ethics.
The 12 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Validity and what threatens itEcological validity, hawthorne effect and face validity.Open →
- Reliability, standardisation and replicationInter-observer reliability and test-retest reliability.Open →
- Representativeness and the sampleWhy a large sample can still misrepresent: biased frames, self-selection and volunteers, what a case study can and cannot support, and when a small random sample beats a big convenient one.Open →
- GeneralisabilityTheoretical generalisation and confidence interval, in plain terms.Open →
- Objectivity, value freedom and biasValue freedom, weber's distinction between value relevance and value judgement and feminist standpoint criticism of objectivity.Open →
- Ethics as a criterion for judging researchUtilitarian defence of an ethically doubtful study and main objection to that defence.Open →
- Positivism and the scientific study of societySocial fact in Durkheim's sense, data do positivists prefer and macro approach.Open →
- Interpretivism and verstehenData do interpretivists prefer, micro approach and top-down criticism interpretivists make of positivism.Open →
- Interactionism, phenomenology and interpretivist research in practiceSymbolic interactionism, goffman's dramaturgical approach and phenomenology in sociology.Open →
- Realism and the search for underlying causesRealism in the philosophy of social research, open system and closed system.Open →
- The suicide debate as a test of the three positionsDurkheim's four types of suicide, egoistic suicide and anomic suicide.Open →
- Choosing a method: theory, practicality and ethicsThe three pressures that decide a design — what the researcher believes knowledge is, what can actually be done, and what may be done to people — and how they pull against each other.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
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How is the reliability of a research method assessed?
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What does validity mean in sociological research?
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What does generalisability mean?
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What does objectivity mean in research?
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Why is ethics treated as a criterion for judging research rather than a formality?
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What is positivism?
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What is interpretivism?
Numbers
What is symbolic interactionism?
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What is realism in the philosophy of social research?
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Why has suicide become the standard test case in methodology?
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Which three sets of considerations govern the choice of a method?
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Distinguish internal from external validity.
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What does reliability mean in sociological research?
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What does representativeness mean?
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What must be true of a sample before findings can be generalised?
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What is value freedom?
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Who regulates research ethics in British sociology?
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Who founded positivist sociology?
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Why do interpretivists reject the natural science model?
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State Blumer's three premises of symbolic interactionism.
Numbers
Who developed critical realism?
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How did Durkheim (1897) approach the study of suicide?
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Distinguish a methodology from a method.
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What is ecological validity?
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Why is reliability not the same as accuracy?
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On which characteristics should a sample be representative?
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Distinguish generalisability from representativeness.
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What did Weber argue about the place of values in research?
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What does an ethics committee do?
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What is a social fact in Durkheim's sense?
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What does verstehen mean?
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What does Mead's account of the self contribute to method?
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How does realism differ from positivism?
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What did Durkheim conclude caused variation in suicide rates?
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How does a positivist's theoretical position shape their choice of method?
Take Key Concepts and Theories of Research further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Objectivity vs Value freedom
Objectivity: the discipline of letting evidence rather than preference settle a conclusion. Value freedom: the stronger claim that a researcher's commitments can be excluded entirely.
Value relevance vs A value judgement
Value relevance: a researcher's commitments deciding what is worth investigating. A value judgement: it is a verdict on whether what was found is good or bad.
Correlation vs Causation
Correlation: a regular pattern of two things moving together. Causation: the claim that the first produces the second.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What does validity mean in sociological research?
Model answer
Validity is the extent to which a method measures what it claims to measure. A valid finding gives a true picture of the thing under study.
- 2
Distinguish internal from external validity.
Model answer
Internal validity concerns whether a study's conclusions genuinely follow from its own data. External validity concerns whether they hold beyond the setting studied.
- 3
What is ecological validity?
Model answer
Ecological validity is the extent to which findings hold in ordinary life rather than only in the research setting. Laboratory results frequently lack it.
- 4
Why is participant observation credited with high validity?
Model answer
A participant observer watches behaviour in its natural setting over a long period. What people do can be compared directly with what they say.
- 5
Why do interpretivists treat validity as the primary criterion?
Model answer
Interpretivists argue that research must capture the meanings actors give their actions. A precise measure of the wrong thing is worthless to them.
- 6
Give two threats to the validity of interview data.
Model answer
Respondents give socially acceptable answers and misremember past events. The interviewer's own manner can also steer what is said.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Key Concepts and Theories of Research revision questions
- What does Key Concepts and Theories of Research cover in Eduqas A-Level Sociology?
- 12 subtopics: validity and what threatens it, reliability, standardisation and replication, representativeness and the sample, generalisability, objectivity, value freedom and bias, ethics as a criterion for judging research, positivism and the scientific study of society, interpretivism and verstehen, interactionism, phenomenology and interpretivist research in practice, realism and the search for underlying causes, the suicide debate as a test of the three positions and choosing a method: theory, practicality and ethics. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Key Concepts and Theories of Research organised?
- By the Eduqas A200QS specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Key Concepts and Theories of Research, 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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