Why do sociologists treat age as socially constructed?

Because the meaning attached to a chronological age varies between societies and over time. Childhood, adolescence, middle age and old age are categories with different boundaries and expectations in different places, so they are social rather than simply biological.

What did Ariès argue about childhood?

Ariès argued in 1960 that childhood as a distinct and protected stage of life is a modern invention, and that in medieval Europe children were integrated into adult life much earlier. Critics have questioned his sources, but the claim that childhood is historically variable is widely accepted.

What is meant by intergenerational inequality?

Intergenerational inequality is inequality between age cohorts rather than within them — the argument that a generation's prospects for housing, pensions and earnings differ systematically from those of the generation before it.

Eduqas A-Level Sociology A200QS

Culture and the Social Construction of Culture

Topic overview Culture as a way of life Norms, values and beliefs Roles, status and role conflict Dress, appearance and cultural identity Language and cultural transmission Food, diet and cultural rules Music, the arts and high and popular culture The social construction of culture Feral children and extreme isolation The nature and nurture debate Culture and social change Cultural diversity, multiculturalism and hybridity Subcultures and countercultures

Socialisation and Its Agencies

Topic overview Primary socialisation Secondary socialisation Role models and imitation Sanctions and the enforcement of norms The family and cultural transmission Peer groups and peer socialisation Education as an agency of socialisation Religion as an agency of socialisation The media as an agency of socialisation Work and occupational socialisation Informal social control Formal social control Cultural reproduction and the limits of socialisation

Socialisation and Identity

Topic overview Personal identity and the self Social identity and collective belonging Sociological theories of identity Consumption, globalisation and identity Gender socialisation and gender identity Changing femininities Changing masculinities Class identity and the working class Middle-class, upper-class and underclass identities The decline of class identity Ethnicity and ethnic identity Hybrid identities and cultural change National identity and Britishness

Option: Families and HouseholdsFamilies

Topic overview 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 Postmodernist perspectives, the life course and personal life

Option: Youth CulturesYouth cultures

Topic overview Youth and the social construction of adolescence The media and the formation of youth culture Economic change, affluence and the youth market Globalisation and youth culture Social class and youth subcultures Gender and youth culture Ethnicity and youth culture Neo-tribes and the changing nature of youth culture Delinquency, crime and youth offending Anti-school subcultures and youth in education Moral panics and media representations of youth Functionalist and Marxist perspectives on youth culture Feminist, interactionist and postmodernist perspectives on youth culture

Option: EducationEducation

Topic overview The role and function of education in society Functionalist perspectives on education Marxist perspectives on education Interactionist perspectives and labelling in education Feminist perspectives on education The New Right and education Postmodernist perspectives on education Patterns and trends in attainment and participation Material factors and educational achievement Cultural factors: deprivation, language and cultural capital Explaining the gender and ethnicity gaps Streaming, setting and pupil subcultures Education policy and marketisation

Option: MediaMedia

Topic overview The role and function of the media in society Ownership and control of the media Marxist and neo-Marxist perspectives on the media Pluralist perspectives on the media Feminist perspectives on the media Postmodernist perspectives on the media News values, newsworthiness and agenda setting Models of media effects and the active audience Moral panics and folk devils New media, globalisation and the digital divide Representations of social class and age in the media Representations of gender, ethnicity and disability in the media Media regulation and social policy

Option: ReligionReligion

Topic overview Defining religion and its role in society Functionalist perspectives on religion Marxist and neo-Marxist perspectives on religion Feminist perspectives on religion Weberian perspectives on religion Postmodernist perspectives on religion Secularisation: the evidence for decline Secularisation: the case against Churches, denominations, sects and cults New religious movements and the new age Fundamentalism and religion in a globalising world Religiosity by class, gender, ethnicity and age Religion and social policy in contemporary society

Research Methods: Primary and Secondary

Topic overview Questionnaires: writing them and delivering them Structured interviews Unstructured and semi-structured interviews Focus groups and group interviews Participant observation, overt and covert Non-participant and structured observation Social surveys Ethnographic methods Longitudinal studies Methodological pluralism and triangulation Existing sociological research as secondary data Official statistics Personal documents, public documents and newspaper reports

Sampling, Ethics and Practical Issues

Topic overview Target populations and sampling frames Simple random and systematic random sampling Stratified random and quota sampling Snowball and volunteer sampling Purposive and opportunity samples Gatekeepers and gaining access Informed consent and vulnerability Deception and covert research Confidentiality, anonymity and privacy The right to withdraw and protection from harm Sensitivity and researching difficult subjects Operationalisation and the choice of research topic Time, cost and the practical limits on research

Key Concepts and Theories of Research

Topic overview 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 Choosing a method: theory, practicality and ethics

Social Inequality: Evidence and Patterns

Topic overview 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 Social mobility in the contemporary UK

Theories and Explanations of Inequality and Stratification

Topic overview Functionalist theories of stratification Criticisms of functionalist stratification theory The New Right Marxist theories of class Neo-Marxist theories Weberian theories of stratification Neo-Weberian theories Feminist explanations of inequality Explaining gender inequality beyond feminism Theories of racism and ethnic inequality Explaining age inequality Postmodernist accounts of inequality Comparing and evaluating the theories

Option: Crime and DevianceCrime

Topic overview Defining crime and deviance as social constructs The media, moral panics and the social construction of crime Measuring crime: official government statistics Victim studies and self-report studies The social distribution of crime by class and age The social distribution of crime by gender The social distribution of crime by ethnicity Functionalist explanations of crime and deviance Sub-cultural explanations of crime and deviance Marxist and neo-Marxist explanations of crime Interactionist explanations and labelling theory Right realism, left realism and crime control policy Feminist and postmodernist explanations of crime

Option: Health and DisabilityHealth

Topic overview Defining health and illness as social constructs The medical and social models of disability Official statistics, patterns and trends in health Health and social class Health and gender Health and ethnicity Health and age Artefact and self-selection explanations Cultural and material explanations Access to and provision of health care in the UK The biomedical model, medicalisation and health professionals Functionalist and Marxist approaches to health Interactionist, feminist and postmodernist approaches to health

Option: PoliticsPolitics

Topic overview Power, authority and legitimacy Pluralist theories of power Elite theories of power Marxist and neo-Marxist theories of power Functionalist, Weberian and postmodernist theories of power Patterns and trends in political participation Political participation and social class Voting behaviour and partisan de-alignment Political participation and gender Political participation, ethnicity and age Political parties and the democratic process Pressure groups and policy making New social movements and anti-capitalist movements

Option: World SociologyWorld sociology

Topic overview Defining and measuring development Global inequality in health Global inequality in education Employment and the global division of labour Global poverty, marginalisation and exclusion Population, urbanisation and demographic change Aid and its critics Debt, structural adjustment and development policy Globalisation, transnational corporations and world trade Non-governmental organisations and international institutions Modernisation theory Marxist, dependency and world systems theories Feminist and people-centred accounts of development

Social Inequality: Evidence and Patterns

Age and inequality

3 things to know
Component 3 Section A

Overview

Intergenerational inequality, argument that pensioners have been protected relative to other groups and counter-argument to the claim that older people have done well.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

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?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What is meant by ageism?
Model answer
Ageism is prejudice or discrimination against people on the basis of their age. Ageism differs from other forms of discrimination in one respect. Everybody who lives long enough passes through every age group.
2
Why do sociologists treat age as socially constructed?
Model answer
Because the meaning attached to a chronological age varies between societies and over time. Childhood, adolescence, middle age and old age are categories with different boundaries and expectations in different places, so they are social rather than simply biological.
3
What did Ariès argue about childhood?
Model answer
Ariès argued in 1960 that childhood as a distinct and protected stage of life is a modern invention, and that in medieval Europe children were integrated into adult life much earlier. Critics have questioned his sources, but the claim that childhood is historically variable is widely accepted.
4
How is youth a period of relative disadvantage in the labour market?
Model answer
Younger workers have higher unemployment rates than older ones. Insecure and low-paid work, including zero-hours contracts, is concentrated among them. Younger workers are entitled to lower minimum wage rates, and were disproportionately affected in recent recessions and in the pandemic.
5
How does housing affect younger generations?
Model answer
Rising house prices relative to earnings have raised the age of first-time buying. A greater proportion of young adults now rent privately or live with parents. A route to wealth accumulation available to earlier cohorts has therefore narrowed.
6
What is meant by intergenerational inequality?
Model answer
Intergenerational inequality is inequality between age cohorts rather than within them — the argument that a generation's prospects for housing, pensions and earnings differ systematically from those of the generation before it.

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Culture and the Social Construction of Culture

Socialisation and Its Agencies

Socialisation and Identity

Option: Families and Households

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Early was often ethnocentric.

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ASecularisation has weakened religious pressure to marry.

BCohabitation is now widely accepted.

CThe cost of a wedding deters many couples.

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Mortality counts deaths in a population.

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