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
Social Inequality: Evidence and Patterns
- 12 subtopics
- 36 things to know
- Component 3 Section A
What Social Inequality: Evidence and Patterns covers
Social Inequality: Evidence and Patterns is examined in Component 3 Section A, Social Differentiation, Power and Stratification — compulsory. It covers social inequality and stratification, measuring social class in the contemporary UK, class inequality in income and wealth, class inequality in health and life expectancy, class inequality in education and employment, gender inequality in work and pay, gender inequality beyond the workplace, ethnic inequality in employment and income, ethnic inequality in health, education and criminal justice, age and inequality, the changing distribution of income and wealth and social mobility in the contemporary UK.
Where it is assessed
Component 3 Section A
Social Differentiation, Power and Stratification.
Check the Eduqas specification ↗The 12 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Social inequality and stratificationSocial inequality, social stratification and life chances.Open →
- Measuring social class in the contemporary UKSocial class, registrar General's classification and cultural capital.Open →
- Class inequality in income and wealthDifference between income and wealth, gini coefficient and difference between original, gross, disposable and final income.Open →
- Class inequality in health and life expectancyRelationship between social class and health in the United Kingdom, social gradient in health and black Report.Open →
- Class inequality in education and employmentAttainment gap, cultural deprivation theory and pattern of unemployment by social class.Open →
- Gender inequality in work and payGender pay gap, horizontal segregation and vertical segregation.Open →
- Gender inequality beyond the workplaceDifference between private and public patriarchy, domestic division of labour and emotion work.Open →
- Ethnic inequality in employment and incomeEthnic penalty, occupational concentration by ethnicity and institutional racism.Open →
- Ethnic inequality in health, education and criminal justiceEthnocentric curriculum, disproportionality in the criminal justice system and criminalisation of a group.Open →
- Age and inequalityIntergenerational inequality, argument that pensioners have been protected relative to other groups and counter-argument to the claim that older people have done well.Open →
- The changing distribution of income and wealthEffect of housing costs on measured inequality, squeezed middle and in-work poverty.Open →
- Social mobility in the contemporary UKSocial mobility, difference between intragenerational and intergenerational mobility and difference between absolute and relative mobility.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
Name four systems of stratification other than social class.
Key term
What is meant by intersectionality?
Numbers
What was the Registrar General's classification?
Key term
How many classes does the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification use?
Evaluation
Give one strength and one weakness of classifying by occupation.
Key term
Which is more unequally distributed in the United Kingdom, income or wealth?
Key term
What is the Gini coefficient?
Key term
What is the difference between original, gross, disposable and final income?
Key term
What is the social gradient in health?
Key term
What four explanations did the Black Report consider?
Key term
What is the social selection explanation, and what is the objection to it?
Key term
How do material factors explain class differences in attainment?
Key term
How do cultural factors explain class differences in attainment?
Key term
What did Bernstein argue about language and education?
Key term
Why is the gender pay gap for all employees larger than the gap for full-time employees?
Key term
How do liberal, Marxist and radical feminists differ in explaining pay inequality?
Key term
What evidence suggests the gender pay gap is narrowing, and what suggests it is not?
Key term
What is patriarchy?
Key term
What is the difference between private and public patriarchy?
Key term
How is gender inequality visible in political representation?
Key term
Why do sociologists treat race as a social construct?
Key term
Why is it misleading to speak of minority ethnic groups as a single category?
Key term
What patterns exist in unemployment by ethnicity?
Key term
What patterns exist in educational attainment by ethnicity?
Process
How might processes inside schools contribute to ethnic differences in attainment?
Key term
What is meant by an ethnocentric curriculum?
Key term
What is meant by ageism?
Evaluation
How is youth a period of relative disadvantage in the labour market?
Key term
How does housing affect younger generations?
Key term
What is usually held to explain the rise in inequality during the 1980s?
Key term
What happened to inequality after the 1980s?
Key term
Why can the Gini coefficient be flat while people experience rising inequality?
Key term
What is the difference between absolute and relative mobility?
Key term
What is the Social Mobility Commission?
Key term
What barriers to mobility are most often identified?
Take Social Inequality: Evidence and Patterns further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Income vs Wealth
Income: a flow of money received over a period. Wealth: a stock of assets owned at a point in time.
Absolute poverty vs Relative poverty
Absolute poverty: lacking what is needed for physical survival. Relative poverty: falling below what is regarded as acceptable in that particular society.
Intragenerational mobility vs Intergenerational mobility
Intragenerational mobility: movement within a person's own working life. Intergenerational mobility: movement between a parent's position and their child's.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is meant by social inequality?
Model answer
Social inequality is the unequal distribution of resources, opportunities and rewards between groups in a society. Sociologists are concerned with inequality that follows a social pattern rather than with differences between individuals.
- 2
What is meant by social stratification?
Model answer
Social stratification is the arrangement of a society into layers, in which groups are ranked one above another and members of each layer share broadly similar life chances. The metaphor is geological, and it implies that the arrangement is structured and enduring rather than accidental.
- 3
What are life chances?
Model answer
Life chances are a person's likely opportunities and outcomes across life — health, education, employment, housing and length of life. Weber introduced the term to describe how a person's position in the market affects what they can realistically expect.
- 4
Name four systems of stratification other than social class.
Model answer
Slavery, in which some people are legally owned by others; estate, based on legal position and landholding; caste, ascribed at birth and religiously sanctioned; and apartheid, in which race was the legal basis of position.
- 5
What is the difference between an open and a closed stratification system?
Model answer
In an open system a person's position can change through their own efforts, so movement between layers is possible. In a closed system position is ascribed at birth and cannot be altered, as under caste.
- 6
What is the difference between ascribed and achieved status?
Model answer
Ascribed status is given at birth or otherwise outside a person's control, such as sex, ethnicity, age or the family born into. Achieved status is gained through a person's own actions, such as a qualification or an occupation.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Social Inequality: Evidence and Patterns revision questions
- What does Social Inequality: Evidence and Patterns cover in Eduqas A-Level Sociology?
- 12 subtopics: social inequality and stratification, measuring social class in the contemporary uk, class inequality in income and wealth, class inequality in health and life expectancy, class inequality in education and employment, gender inequality in work and pay, gender inequality beyond the workplace, ethnic inequality in employment and income, ethnic inequality in health, education and criminal justice, age and inequality, the changing distribution of income and wealth and social mobility in the contemporary uk. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Social Inequality: Evidence and Patterns organised?
- By the Eduqas A200QS specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Social Inequality: Evidence and Patterns, 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.
Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.