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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
Option: Families and Households
- 13 subtopics
- 39 things to know
- Component 1 Section B
- Families and Households, one of two Component 1 Section B options
What Option: Families and Households covers
Option: Families and Households is examined in Component 1 Section B — one option of two, with youth cultures. It covers defining families and households, family forms and family diversity, ethnic, religious and cultural diversity in family life, marriage, cohabitation and singlehood, divorce and separation, fertility, life expectancy and the ageing population, conjugal roles and the domestic division of labour, power, decision-making and domestic violence, childhood and relationships between the generations, functionalist perspectives on the family, the New Right and social policy on the family, Marxist and feminist perspectives on the family and postmodernist perspectives, the life course and personal life.
Where it is assessed
Component 1 Section B
Socialisation, Identity and Culture, one option of two.
Check the Eduqas specification ↗The 13 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Defining families and householdsTerm nuclear family, term extended family and reconstituted family.Open →
- Family forms and family diversityWhat the Rapoports meant by organisational diversity, what the Rapoports meant by cohort diversity and what Stacey meant by the divorce-extended family.Open →
- Ethnic, religious and cultural diversity in family lifeDifference between an arranged marriage and a forced marriage and term transnational family.Open →
- Marriage, cohabitation and singlehoodTerm serial monogamy, why secularisation is used to explain falling marriage rates and what is meant by creative singlehood.Open →
- Divorce and separationHow changing expectations of marriage raise the divorce rate, nicky Hart's explanation of rising divorce and feminist explanation of women's greater dissatisfaction with marriage.Open →
- Fertility, life expectancy and the ageing populationTotal fertility rate, what is meant by childlessness as a demographic trend and two effects of a lower birth rate on family life.Open →
- Conjugal roles and the domestic division of labourTerm joint conjugal roles, march of progress view of family life and term lagged adaptation.Open →
- Power, decision-making and domestic violenceAllowance system of managing money and term coercive control.Open →
- Childhood and relationships between the generationsMarch of progress view of childhood, toxic childhood and child-centred family.Open →
- Functionalist perspectives on the familyFour functions Murdock said the family performs, what Parsons meant by the stabilisation of adult personalities and warm bath image of the family.Open →
- The New Right and social policy on the familyWhat Murray meant by perverse incentives, british policy shaped by New Right thinking and term familism.Open →
- Marxist and feminist perspectives on the familyThe family as a servant of capital — Engels, Zaretsky, Benston and Ansley — set against liberal, Marxist and radical feminist readings of who does the work and who holds the power.Open →
- Postmodernist perspectives, the life course and personal lifePostmodernist view of family life, what Giddens meant by plastic sexuality and beck and Beck-Gernsheim.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
What does it mean to say that childhood is socially constructed?
Key term
How do sociologists distinguish a household from a family?
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What five types of family diversity did the Rapoports identify?
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What did Roger Ballard find about South Asian families in Britain?
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Describe the trend in marriage in England and Wales since the early 1970s.
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What did the Divorce Reform Act 1969 change?
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Define the total fertility rate.
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What did Jan Pahl's research reveal about money in families?
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What did Murdock claim about the nuclear family?
Key term
What does the New Right believe about the family?
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What did Engels argue about the origins of the monogamous family?
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What is the postmodernist view of family life?
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Define the term nuclear family.
Key term
Explain what the Rapoports meant by organisational diversity.
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What did Richard Berthoud conclude about Caribbean family patterns in Britain?
Key term
Give three reasons for the decline in marriage.
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What did the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 introduce?
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Describe the trend in fertility in England and Wales since the 1960s.
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What did Elizabeth Bott mean by segregated conjugal roles?
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What did Vogler and Pahl mean by pooling?
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What did Philippe Aries argue about childhood?
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Name the four functions Murdock said the family performs.
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How does the New Right explain social problems such as crime?
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What does it mean to say the family reproduces labour power?
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What did Giddens mean by confluent love?
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Define the term extended family.
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Explain what the Rapoports meant by cohort diversity.
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How did Berthoud contrast South Asian with Caribbean partnership patterns?
Key term
Define the term serial monogamy.
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When did divorce in England and Wales reach its peak?
Key term
Give three reasons for the fall in the birth rate.
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Define the term joint conjugal roles.
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What did Stephen Edgell find about decision-making in marriage?
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What evidence did Aries use, and why is it criticised?
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How does evidence on the Nayar challenge Murdock's claim of universality?
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What did Charles Murray argue about the underclass?
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Why did Zaretsky think the family cannot deliver what it promises?
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Explain what Giddens meant by plastic sexuality.
Take Option: Families and Households further
The same content, four other ways.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
How do sociologists distinguish a household from a family?
Model answer
A household is one person or a group of people who share an address and housekeeping. A family is a group connected by blood, marriage, civil partnership or adoption.
- 2
Define the term nuclear family.
Model answer
A nuclear family is two generations living together: a couple and their dependent children. Murdock (1949) treated this unit as the basic family form.
- 3
Define the term extended family.
Model answer
An extended family is a nuclear family with other relatives living alongside it or in close daily contact. Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins may all be included.
- 4
Distinguish a vertically extended family from a horizontally extended one.
Model answer
A vertically extended family adds generations above or below the couple, such as grandparents. A horizontally extended family adds relatives of the same generation, such as siblings.
- 5
What did Peter Willmott mean by the dispersed extended family?
Model answer
Peter Willmott (1988) argued that British kin now live apart but keep in frequent contact by telephone and visits. Emotional and financial support survives the loss of a shared address.
- 6
Define a reconstituted family.
Model answer
A reconstituted family, or stepfamily, forms when at least one partner brings a child from an earlier relationship. Divorce and repartnering create most of them.
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Six ways to work the same material.
Option: Families and Households revision questions
- What does Option: Families and Households cover in Eduqas A-Level Sociology?
- 13 subtopics: defining families and households, family forms and family diversity, ethnic, religious and cultural diversity in family life, marriage, cohabitation and singlehood, divorce and separation, fertility, life expectancy and the ageing population, conjugal roles and the domestic division of labour, power, decision-making and domestic violence, childhood and relationships between the generations, functionalist perspectives on the family, the new right and social policy on the family, marxist and feminist perspectives on the family and postmodernist perspectives, the life course and personal life. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Option: Families and Households organised?
- By the Eduqas A200QS specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Option: Families and Households, 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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