Why do sociologists argue that age is socially constructed?

Because the behaviour, status and rights expected at each stage of life differ between societies and change over time, and Aries argued that childhood as we understand it is a relatively modern invention rather than a natural category.

What do Featherstone and Hepworth mean by the mask of ageing?

They argue that the ageing body acts as a mask concealing a self that feels unchanged inside, and that consumer culture now encourages older people to resist and disguise the identity of being old.

Contrast the medical and social models of disability.

The medical model locates the problem in the individual's impairment and treats disabled people as needing to be cured or cared for, while the social model, named and developed by Michael Oliver in 1983 on the basis of the impairment/disability distinction drawn by UPIAS in 1976, holds that disability is created by physical barriers, exclusion and negative attitudes in society.

Why is disability often described as a master status?

Because interactionists find that other people respond to the impairment before anything else, so it overrides a person's other qualities and identities in how they are treated.

Define the term hybrid identity.

A hybrid identity is one that combines elements of two or more cultures to produce a new identity distinct from either, such as the Brasian identity Johal describes among young British Asians.

Why do individuals not simply become what they are socialised to be?

Because socialisation is never total: agencies send conflicting messages, people actively interpret and resist those messages, and identity is negotiated through interaction rather than stamped on, which is why siblings raised together can turn out very differently.

OCR A-Level Sociology H580

Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity

Topic overview Culture, norms, values and cultural relativism Subculture, high culture and popular culture Global and consumer culture, cultural diversity and hybridity Primary and secondary socialisation, the family and peer group Media, religion, education and the workplace as agencies of socialisation Lifelong socialisation and the nature/nurture debate Social control, sanctions and formal agencies of control Informal agencies and theories of social control The concept of identity, ethnicity and nationality Gender, class and sexual identity Age, disability, hybrid and intersecting identities

Families and RelationshipsComponent 01

Topic overview Family types and trends in marriage, divorce and cohabitation Demographic change, family diversity and newer family types Nuclear family ideology, functionalism and the New Right Marxist, feminist and postmodern views and the diversity debate Conjugal roles and the domestic division of labour Power, the dark side of the family and theories of partner roles The child-centred family, views of childhood and its extension Parent-child power, grandparents in an ageing population and feminist views

Youth SubculturesComponent 01

Topic overview Functionalist and neo-Marxist views of youth culture Hebdige, feminist and postmodern views of youth subcultures Class, ethnic and hybrid subcultures and consensus versus conflict Delinquent, criminal, spectacular and anti-school subcultures Gangs, newer deviant subcultures and patterns in youth offending Functionalist, New Right and Marxist explanations of youth deviance Labelling, identity, gender, ethnicity and moral panics in youth deviance

MediaComponent 01

Topic overview Representations of ethnicity and nationality, symbolic annihilation and the male gaze Representations of gender, social class and young people Representations of older people and theories of media representation Direct and indirect media effects models Active audience models, deviance amplification and moral panics

Research Methods and Researching Social Inequalities

Topic overview Positivism, quantitative data and interpretivism Verstehen, qualitative data and validity Reliability, representativeness, generalisability and theory Research topics, aims, hypotheses and primary and secondary data Operationalisation, pilot studies and respondent validation Longitudinal studies, interpreting data and social policy Sampling frames, sampling techniques and choosing a sample Access, gatekeepers and research ethics Questionnaires, structured interviews, statistics, content analysis and observation Unstructured interviews, ethnography and methodological pluralism

Understanding Social Inequalities

Topic overview Stratification, class, poverty, mobility and gender inequality Ethnicity, age, work and health inequalities Functionalist and Marxist explanations of inequality Weberian, feminist and New Right explanations of inequality

Globalisation and the Digital Social World

Topic overview Globalisation, the digital revolution and media convergence Social media, social capital and theoretical views of digital communication Digital identities, the digital divide and social class Gender, age, relationships and cultural impacts of digital communication

Crime and DevianceComponent 03

Topic overview Defining crime and deviance, social control and relativity Social construction of crime and police recorded crime The Crime Survey, victim surveys and self-report studies Crime patterns by social class, gender and age Crime patterns by ethnicity, crime trends and global organised crime Glocal organised crime and green crime Functionalist, strain and subcultural theories of crime Marxist, interactionist and left realist theories of crime Right realism, New Right, feminism and explaining ethnic and age patterns Left-wing crime reduction, social crime prevention and restorative justice Situational crime prevention, zero tolerance and punitive justice

EducationComponent 03

Topic overview Functionalist, Marxist and liberal views of the role of education Social democratic, New Right and feminist views and vocational education Class and ethnic patterns in educational attainment Gender patterns, global educational inequality and intersectionality Inside-school factors: labelling, setting, triage and institutional racism Material and cultural deprivation and cultural capital Explaining gender and ethnic differences and theoretical views of achievement Types of school and education policy since 1988 Ideology, marketisation and equality of opportunity in education policy

Religion, Belief and FaithComponent 03

Topic overview Defining religion, faith and belief, churches and denominations Sects, cults, new religious and new age movements and fundamentalism Measuring religiosity and believing without belonging Functionalist and Marxist views of the role of religion Neo-Marxist, Weberian, feminist, phenomenological and postmodern views of religion Religion, social change and whether religion is positive or negative Class and gender patterns in religiosity Women's changing religiosity and ethnic and age patterns Age cohorts, global religious trends and resurgence Defining secularisation and evidence of religious decline Pro- and anti-secularisation theories Religion and social policy, the golden age critique and global patterns

Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity

Age, disability, hybrid and intersecting identities

1 thing to know
Component 01

Overview

Recall questions on age as socially constructed and Featherstone and Hepworth's mask of ageing, the medical and social models of disability and disability as a master status, hybrid identities, why socialisation is never total, Crenshaw's intersectionality, and whether identities are now fluid and chosen, as Bauman argues.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Key term

What does intersectionality add to the study of identity?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
Why do sociologists argue that age is socially constructed?
Model answer
Because the behaviour, status and rights expected at each stage of life differ between societies and change over time, and Aries argued that childhood as we understand it is a relatively modern invention rather than a natural category.
2
What do Featherstone and Hepworth mean by the mask of ageing?
Model answer
They argue that the ageing body acts as a mask concealing a self that feels unchanged inside, and that consumer culture now encourages older people to resist and disguise the identity of being old.
3
Contrast the medical and social models of disability.
Model answer
The medical model locates the problem in the individual's impairment and treats disabled people as needing to be cured or cared for, while the social model, named and developed by Michael Oliver in 1983 on the basis of the impairment/disability distinction drawn by UPIAS in 1976, holds that disability is created by physical barriers, exclusion and negative attitudes in society.
4
Why is disability often described as a master status?
Model answer
Because interactionists find that other people respond to the impairment before anything else, so it overrides a person's other qualities and identities in how they are treated.
5
Define the term hybrid identity.
Model answer
A hybrid identity is one that combines elements of two or more cultures to produce a new identity distinct from either, such as the Brasian identity Johal describes among young British Asians.
6
Why do individuals not simply become what they are socialised to be?
Model answer
Because socialisation is never total: agencies send conflicting messages, people actively interpret and resist those messages, and identity is negotiated through interaction rather than stamped on, which is why siblings raised together can turn out very differently.

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Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity

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AVictims may fear reprisal, or feel shame or economic dependence.

BAbuse in the home has historically been treated as a private matter.

CMany incidents are never reported or recorded.

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Sex refers to the biological category of male or female.

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