Key term
OCR A-Level Sociology H580
Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity
Topic overviewCulture, norms, values and cultural relativismSubculture, high culture and popular cultureGlobal and consumer culture, cultural diversity and hybridityPrimary and secondary socialisation, the family and peer groupMedia, religion, education and the workplace as agencies of socialisationLifelong socialisation and the nature/nurture debateSocial control, sanctions and formal agencies of controlInformal agencies and theories of social controlThe concept of identity, ethnicity and nationalityGender, class and sexual identityAge, disability, hybrid and intersecting identities
Families and RelationshipsComponent 01
Topic overviewFamily types and trends in marriage, divorce and cohabitationDemographic change, family diversity and newer family typesNuclear family ideology, functionalism and the New RightMarxist, feminist and postmodern views and the diversity debateConjugal roles and the domestic division of labourPower, the dark side of the family and theories of partner rolesThe child-centred family, views of childhood and its extensionParent-child power, grandparents in an ageing population and feminist views
Youth SubculturesComponent 01
Topic overviewFunctionalist and neo-Marxist views of youth cultureHebdige, feminist and postmodern views of youth subculturesClass, ethnic and hybrid subcultures and consensus versus conflictDelinquent, criminal, spectacular and anti-school subculturesGangs, newer deviant subcultures and patterns in youth offendingFunctionalist, New Right and Marxist explanations of youth devianceLabelling, identity, gender, ethnicity and moral panics in youth deviance
MediaComponent 01
Topic overviewRepresentations of ethnicity and nationality, symbolic annihilation and the male gazeRepresentations of gender, social class and young peopleRepresentations of older people and theories of media representationDirect and indirect media effects modelsActive audience models, deviance amplification and moral panics
Research Methods and Researching Social Inequalities
Topic overviewPositivism, quantitative data and interpretivismVerstehen, qualitative data and validityReliability, representativeness, generalisability and theoryResearch topics, aims, hypotheses and primary and secondary dataOperationalisation, pilot studies and respondent validationLongitudinal studies, interpreting data and social policySampling frames, sampling techniques and choosing a sampleAccess, gatekeepers and research ethicsQuestionnaires, structured interviews, statistics, content analysis and observationUnstructured interviews, ethnography and methodological pluralism
Understanding Social Inequalities
Globalisation and the Digital Social World
Crime and DevianceComponent 03
Topic overviewDefining crime and deviance, social control and relativitySocial construction of crime and police recorded crimeThe Crime Survey, victim surveys and self-report studiesCrime patterns by social class, gender and ageCrime patterns by ethnicity, crime trends and global organised crimeGlocal organised crime and green crimeFunctionalist, strain and subcultural theories of crimeMarxist, interactionist and left realist theories of crimeRight realism, New Right, feminism and explaining ethnic and age patternsLeft-wing crime reduction, social crime prevention and restorative justiceSituational crime prevention, zero tolerance and punitive justice
EducationComponent 03
Topic overviewFunctionalist, Marxist and liberal views of the role of educationSocial democratic, New Right and feminist views and vocational educationClass and ethnic patterns in educational attainmentGender patterns, global educational inequality and intersectionalityInside-school factors: labelling, setting, triage and institutional racismMaterial and cultural deprivation and cultural capitalExplaining gender and ethnic differences and theoretical views of achievementTypes of school and education policy since 1988Ideology, marketisation and equality of opportunity in education policy
Religion, Belief and FaithComponent 03
Topic overviewDefining religion, faith and belief, churches and denominationsSects, cults, new religious and new age movements and fundamentalismMeasuring religiosity and believing without belongingFunctionalist and Marxist views of the role of religionNeo-Marxist, Weberian, feminist, phenomenological and postmodern views of religionReligion, social change and whether religion is positive or negativeClass and gender patterns in religiosityWomen's changing religiosity and ethnic and age patternsAge cohorts, global religious trends and resurgenceDefining secularisation and evidence of religious declinePro- and anti-secularisation theoriesReligion and social policy, the golden age critique and global patterns
Families and Relationships
The child-centred family, views of childhood and its extension
- 3 things to know
- Component 01
Overview
Recall questions on the child-centred family and the reasons for its growth, Aries on the social construction of childhood, the march of progress view, Palmer's toxic childhood, child liberationists such as Firestone and Holt, the extension of childhood through law, policy and the labour market, and Postman's disappearance of childhood.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
Give three legal or policy developments that helped extend childhood.
Key term
How does the labour market contribute to the extension of childhood into the twenties?
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is meant by a child-centred family?
Model answer
It is a family in which children are the emotional focus of household life, their needs and wishes shape decisions, and parents invest heavily in their time, money and development.
- 2
Give three reasons for the growth of the child-centred family.
Model answer
Smaller family size means resources are concentrated on fewer children, falling infant mortality means parents can invest emotionally with confidence, and rising living standards plus state concern with child welfare have raised expectations of parenting.
- 3
What did Philippe Aries argue about childhood?
Model answer
Aries argued that childhood as we understand it did not exist in the Middle Ages: once past infancy children entered adult society, working and dressing as small adults, so childhood is a social construction that emerged historically.
- 4
What is the 'march of progress' view of childhood?
Model answer
It holds that the position of children has steadily improved: children today are better fed, better educated, legally protected and more valued than in the past, and family life is organised around them.
- 5
What is Sue Palmer's 'toxic childhood' thesis?
Model answer
Palmer argues that rapid technological and cultural change, including junk food, screen time, testing pressure and long parental working hours, is damaging children's development, so modern childhood is not simply an improvement.
- 6
What do child liberationists such as Firestone and Holt argue?
Model answer
They argue that much of what is presented as protection is actually a form of control that excludes children from adult society, and that children should have greater freedom and rights over their own lives.
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