Who and when
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
Understanding Social Inequalities
- 4 subtopics
- 9 things to know
- Component 02
What Understanding Social Inequalities covers
Understanding Social Inequalities is examined on component 02 of OCR Sociology, Researching and understanding social inequalities. 68 recall questions across 4 subtopics.
Where it is assessed
Component 02
Researching and understanding social inequalities, compulsory.
Check the OCR specification ↗The 4 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Stratification, class, poverty, mobility and gender inequalityRecall questions on social difference and inequality, stratification and Weber's life chances, measuring class, income and wealth, absolute and relative poverty and Townsend, social mobility, the Great British Class Survey, the gender pay gap, horizontal and vertical segregation, the glass ceiling, the dual burden and the feminisation of the workforce.Open →
- Ethnicity, age, work and health inequalitiesRecall questions on Heath and Cheung's ethnic penalty, institutional racism and differences between minority ethnic groups, ethnic inequality beyond employment, ageism and the position of young and older people, deindustrialisation, Standing's precariat, Barron and Norris's dual labour market, the Black Report on health, and official statistics on inequality.Open →
- Functionalist and Marxist explanations of inequalityRecall questions on functionalist views of stratification, Davis and Moore's theory of unequal rewards, meritocracy, Tumin's criticisms, Marxist explanations of class, exploitation, alienation and ideology, and criticisms of Marx's predictions and of Marxist explanations of inequality.Open →
- Weberian, feminist and New Right explanations of inequalityRecall questions on Weber's class, status and party, market situation, Parkin's social closure, Weberian views of ethnic inequality, patriarchy and liberal, Marxist, radical and Black feminist explanations, Walby's structures of patriarchy, New Right views, Murray's underclass and dependency culture, and how theory shapes research methods.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
What is the difference between income and wealth, and which of the two is more unequally spread in the UK?
Key term
Girls now outperform boys at school, so why has this not produced equality at work?
Key term
Name three areas of social life beyond employment where ethnic inequality can be evidenced, and give the pattern in each.
Key term
Name the three dimensions of stratification Weber identified and explain what each refers to.
Key term
What is social closure, and what are its two forms?
Key term
What explanation and what solution does liberal feminism offer?
Numbers
Define ageism.
Key term
On what basis does Marxism divide a society into classes?
Take Understanding Social Inequalities further
The same content, four other ways.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is the difference between social difference and social inequality?
Model answer
Social difference simply means people vary — in age, gender, ethnicity or lifestyle — with no ranking implied, whereas social inequality means those differences carry an unequal share of resources, power or status.
- 2
Define social stratification.
Model answer
Social stratification is the arrangement of a society into layers ranked one above another, most commonly along the lines of social class, gender, ethnicity and age.
- 3
What did Weber mean by life chances?
Model answer
Life chances are a person's realistic prospects of obtaining the things a society values — good health, education, secure housing, a decent income and a long life — and Weber held that they follow largely from a person's position in the market.
- 4
How is social class usually measured in official UK data?
Model answer
It is measured through occupation, using the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification, which groups jobs by employment relations and conditions rather than by income alone.
- 5
What is the difference between income and wealth, and which of the two is more unequally spread in the UK?
Model answer
Income is the flow of money a household receives over time, mainly from wages, pensions and benefits, while wealth is the stock of assets it owns, such as property, savings and shares; wealth is far more unequally distributed than income.
- 6
Distinguish absolute poverty from relative poverty, and state how the relative poverty line is normally drawn in the UK.
Model answer
Absolute poverty is lacking the resources needed for physical survival, such as food, warmth and shelter, while relative poverty means falling so far below the ordinary living standards of your own society that you cannot take part in normal life; the usual UK measure counts a household as poor if its income is below 60% of the median.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Understanding Social Inequalities revision questions
- What does Understanding Social Inequalities cover in OCR A-Level Sociology?
- 4 subtopics: stratification, class, poverty, mobility and gender inequality, ethnicity, age, work and health inequalities, functionalist and marxist explanations of inequality and weberian, feminist and new right explanations of inequality. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Understanding Social Inequalities organised?
- By the OCR H580 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Understanding 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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