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
Research Methods and Researching Social Inequalities
- 10 subtopics
- 29 things to know
- Component 02
What Research Methods and Researching Social Inequalities covers
Research Methods and Researching Social Inequalities is examined on component 02 of OCR Sociology, Researching and understanding social inequalities. 120 recall questions across 10 subtopics.
Where it is assessed
Component 02
Researching and understanding social inequalities, compulsory.
Check the OCR specification ↗The 10 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Positivism, quantitative data and interpretivismRecall questions on positivism and its model of the natural sciences, patterns and trends, objectivity and value freedom, quantitative data and the methods positivists favour, and the central concern of interpretivism with meanings and experiences.Open →
- Verstehen, qualitative data and validityRecall questions on verstehen, building rapport, why interpretivists accept subjectivity, researcher imposition, reflexivity, qualitative data and the methods interpretivists prefer, and the concept of validity.Open →
- Reliability, representativeness, generalisability and theoryRecall questions on reliability, representativeness and generalisability and the difference between them, telling reliability from validity, how theory guides research, which concepts positivism and interpretivism prioritise, and the criticisms each makes of the other's research.Open →
- Research topics, aims, hypotheses and primary and secondary dataRecall questions on the factors that influence the choice of research topic, including funding, research aims and hypotheses, why interpretivists prefer an open research question, and primary and secondary data with their advantages and drawbacks.Open →
- Operationalisation, pilot studies and respondent validationRecall questions on operationalisation, including operationalising poverty and why interpretivists distrust it, pilot studies and their purposes, standardisation in data collection, and respondent validation and why interpretivists value it.Open →
- Longitudinal studies, interpreting data and social policyRecall questions on longitudinal studies, their advantages and the threat of sample attrition, the interpretation stage of the research process and its risks, social policy, and how and why sociological research does or does not influence policy.Open →
- Sampling frames, sampling techniques and choosing a sampleRecall questions on sampling frames and the sampling process, random, systematic, stratified, snowball, volunteer, opportunity, purposive and quota sampling, the advantages and disadvantages of random and non-random techniques, and the practical, theoretical and ethical factors that shape the choice of sampling technique.Open →
- Access, gatekeepers and research ethicsRecall questions on gatekeepers and how they can distort findings, problems of gaining access to groups, informed consent, confidentiality and anonymity, harm to participants, the British Sociological Association's ethical guidance, and why ethics should be followed even when breaking them would give better data.Open →
- Questionnaires, structured interviews, statistics, content analysis and observationRecall questions on questionnaires, structured interviews and the interviewer effect, official and non-official statistics and interpretivist criticism of crime statistics, content analysis, participant, non-participant, covert and overt observation, the Hawthorne effect, the ethics of covert observation, and going native.Open →
- Unstructured interviews, ethnography and methodological pluralismRecall questions on unstructured and semi-structured interviews and why interpretivists favour them, ethnography and its drawbacks, which methods produce quantitative data, triangulation and methodological pluralism, and choosing methods to measure the class achievement gap or study the experience of poverty.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
Quota and stratified sampling both divide the population into categories, so what makes quota sampling non-random?
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What is a questionnaire?
Who and when
What do positivists believe sociology should be modelled on?
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How does a trend differ from a pattern?
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Why do interpretivist researchers work at building rapport?
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What is researcher imposition?
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Define reliability.
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Name three factors that influence a sociologist's choice of research topic.
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How can funding shape what gets researched?
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What is operationalisation?
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What is a pilot study?
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What is a longitudinal study?
Process
What happens at the interpretation stage of the research process?
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What is a sampling frame?
Process
Name two practical factors that influence the choice of sampling process.
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How do theoretical factors shape the choice of sampling technique?
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What are official statistics?
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What is an unstructured interview?
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Define ethnography.
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Define objectivity as positivists use the term.
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What is qualitative data?
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What does generalisability mean?
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What is a research aim?
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What is social policy?
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What is stratified sampling?
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State two problems a researcher may face in gaining access to a group.
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What counts as non-official statistics?
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Which of the main research methods produce mainly quantitative data?
Take Research Methods and Researching Social Inequalities further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Confidentiality vs Anonymity
Confidentiality: the information a participant gives is not passed on to others. Anonymity: Anonymity means the participant cannot be identified from anything the researcher publishes.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What do positivists believe sociology should be modelled on?
Model answer
The natural sciences, studying society objectively to uncover cause-and-effect relationships between social facts.
- 2
In positivist research, what is meant by a pattern?
Model answer
A regular, repeated relationship between social factors that shows up consistently across large amounts of data, such as the link between social class and educational achievement.
- 3
How does a trend differ from a pattern?
Model answer
A trend is the direction in which a pattern moves over time, such as a steady narrowing of a gap, whereas a pattern is the relationship itself.
- 4
Define objectivity as positivists use the term.
Model answer
Objectivity means the researcher sets aside personal opinion and preference so that the findings are not distorted by their own views.
- 5
What does value freedom mean?
Model answer
Value freedom means keeping the researcher's own moral and political beliefs out of the research so that conclusions rest on the evidence alone.
- 6
What is quantitative data?
Model answer
Quantitative data is information in numerical form, such as counts, percentages and statistics, which can be measured and compared.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Research Methods and Researching Social Inequalities revision questions
- What does Research Methods and Researching Social Inequalities cover in OCR A-Level Sociology?
- 10 subtopics: 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 and unstructured interviews, ethnography and methodological pluralism. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Research Methods and Researching Social Inequalities organised?
- By the OCR H580 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Research Methods and Researching Social Inequalities, 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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