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
Youth Subcultures
- 7 subtopics
- 21 things to know
- Component 01
- Component 01 Section B option, one of three
What Youth Subcultures covers
Youth Subcultures is examined on component 01 of OCR Sociology, Socialisation, culture and identity. It is one of the three Section B options on that paper, of which a student sits one. 82 recall questions across 7 subtopics.
Where it is assessed
Component 01
Socialisation, culture and identity, Section B option of three.
Check the OCR specification ↗The 7 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Functionalist and neo-Marxist views of youth cultureRecall questions on the difference between youth culture and a youth subculture, Parsons's bridge and Eisenstadt's safety valve, functionalist views of subcultures and social order and their criticisms, and the neo-Marxist Birmingham CCCS account of resistance through rituals and Phil Cohen's magical solution.Open →
- Hebdige, feminist and postmodern views of youth subculturesRecall questions on Hebdige's bricolage and incorporation, McRobbie and Garber's feminist critique of subcultural research and bedroom culture, why girls were less visible in street subcultures, the postmodern supermarket of style, neo-tribes and Muggleton's post-subculturalists, and the main objection to postmodern claims of free choice.Open →
- Class, ethnic and hybrid subcultures and consensus versus conflictRecall questions on middle-class counter-cultures and working-class subcultures, youth subcultures built on minority ethnic identity including Rastafarianism and Pryce's Bristol research, hybridity with Back's South London study, Nayak's white wannabes and code-switching, and consensus, conflict and postmodern positions on youth subcultures.Open →
- Delinquent, criminal, spectacular and anti-school subculturesRecall questions on deviant subcultures, the difference between delinquent and criminal subcultures, Albert Cohen's status frustration, Cloward and Ohlin's illegitimate opportunity structure and three subcultures, spectacular youth subcultures, and anti-school subcultures in Willis's study of the lads and in Hargreaves and Lacey.Open →
- Gangs, newer deviant subcultures and patterns in youth offendingRecall questions on gangs, with Hallsworth and Young's distinctions, Pitts's reluctant gangsters and claims the gang problem is exaggerated, trends in youth offending and its patterns by class, gender and ethnicity, the chivalry thesis and Heidensohn, county lines, newer deviant subcultures, and Cicourel's criticism of juvenile justice statistics.Open →
- Functionalist, New Right and Marxist explanations of youth devianceRecall questions on functionalist explanations of youth deviance from Durkheim and Merton's strain theory, the New Right explanation and Charles Murray's underclass with its criticisms, traditional Marxist views of youth crime, Taylor, Walton and Young's critical criminology, and Hall's account of the 1970s mugging panic.Open →
- Labelling, identity, gender, ethnicity and moral panics in youth devianceRecall questions on left realist objections to neo-Marxism, labelling with Becker and Lemert's primary and secondary deviance, deviant careers and Young's Notting Hill drug users, Thornton's subcultural capital, deviance and identity, Messerschmidt on masculinity, Gilroy and Sewell on ethnicity, and Cohen's moral panics, folk devils and deviance amplification.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
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How do Hallsworth and Young distinguish a peer group, a gang and an organised crime group?
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What pattern do official statistics show between social class and youth offending, and why should it be treated with caution?
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Give two competing explanations for the over-representation of black young people in youth justice statistics.
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Parsons described youth culture as a bridge. Between what two things?
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Which research centre produced the neo-Marxist account of youth subcultures?
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What is bedroom culture?
Who and when
Explain why feminists argue girls were less visible in street subcultures.
Process
How does a middle-class counter-culture such as the hippies differ from a working-class subculture such as the skinheads?
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Give an example of a youth subculture built around minority ethnic identity, and say what it offered members.
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Distinguish a delinquent subculture from a criminal subculture.
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Explain Merton's strain theory.
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Which of Merton's adaptations describes a young person who sells drugs to get the money and status others earn through work?
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Distinguish primary from secondary deviance.
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How can labelling produce a deviant career?
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Phil Cohen argued that mods and skinheads offered a magical solution. To what problem?
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What is meant by the supermarket of style?
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Which perspectives treat youth subcultures through consensus, and which through conflict?
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What is an illegitimate opportunity structure?
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Whose account of an emerging British underclass is most closely associated with the New Right explanation?
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What is Gilroy's explanation of black youth crime, and how do left realists answer it?
Take Youth Subcultures further
The same content, four other ways.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is the difference between youth culture and a youth subculture?
Model answer
Youth culture refers to the norms, values and lifestyle shared by young people in general, whereas a youth subculture is a smaller group within it that has its own distinctive style, values and identity marking it off from the mainstream.
- 2
Parsons described youth culture as a bridge. Between what two things?
Model answer
Between the family, where a child's status is ascribed and they are treated as an individual, and adult society, where status must be achieved and people are judged by impersonal, universal standards.
- 3
Eisenstadt and other functionalists call youth culture a safety valve. What do they mean?
Model answer
They mean this period of structured irresponsibility, in which young people are freed from full adult obligations, gives a contained outlet for the frustration of being neither child nor adult, so tension is released harmlessly and social order is preserved.
- 4
Explain how functionalists think youth subcultures contribute to social order and control.
Model answer
The peer group takes over part of the socialisation role as family control weakens, teaching shared norms and drawing the young into wider society, so subcultures reinforce value consensus and informal control rather than threatening order.
- 5
What are the main criticisms of the functionalist account of youth culture?
Model answer
It assumes one shared youth culture experienced by everyone, when in practice young people's experience is sharply divided by class, gender and ethnicity, and it plays down conflict and inequality.
- 6
Which research centre produced the neo-Marxist account of youth subcultures?
Model answer
The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham, usually referred to as the Birmingham School.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Youth Subcultures revision questions
- What does Youth Subcultures cover in OCR A-Level Sociology?
- 7 subtopics: 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 and labelling, identity, gender, ethnicity and moral panics in youth deviance. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Youth Subcultures organised?
- By the OCR H580 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Youth Subcultures, 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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