A Level

A Level Sociology in more detail:

Like A/S Sociology there are integral elements:

All the following topics are brought together

• Sociological theories, perspectives and methods
• The design of the research used to obtain the data including its strengths and limitations.

Core themes

Two core themes run through all of the topics studied:

• Socialisation, culture and identity
• Social differentiation, power and stratification.

But these are not discreet topics; the themes are applied as threads running through the each major topic areas. The central focus is on UK society today, with consideration given to comparative dimensions where relevant, including the siting of UK society within its globalised context.

All the topics listed at A/S plus:

Beliefs in Society

This is not like studying RE! You will learn sociological explanations of the following content:

• Ideology, science and religion, including both Christian and non-Christian religious traditions. You will explore what religion and science have in common and what makes them different.
• You will learn about the relationship between social change and social stability, and religious beliefs, practices and organisations. You will explore what religion does for the individual and what religion does for society. To what extent is religion playing a role of keeping people in their place? Is it positive or is it negative.
• You will learn about religious organisations, including cults, sects, denominations, churches and New Age movements, and their relationship to religious and spiritual belief and practice. You will also learn about fundamentalism and how it is shaping the world.
• You will explore the relationship between different social groups and religious/spiritual organisations and movements, beliefs and practices. Are older people really more religious than young people? They are not many elderly folk joining sects and cults!
• You will also study the significance of religion and religiosity in the contemporary world; does it still matter? You will be looking at the nature and extent of secularisation in a global context, and globalisation and the spread of religions. You will study two controversial religious groups in detail: the Westboro’ Baptist Church and Scientology.

Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods

• You will learn about crime, deviance, social order and social control
• The social distribution of crime and deviance by ethnicity, gender and social class. Recent patterns and trends in crime. Is the crime rate going up or down? Is there hidden crime that doesn’t get reported?
• You will learn about globalisation and crime in contemporary society including cyber-crime, the media and crime; green crime; human rights and state crimes.
• You will also study crime control, surveillance, prevention and punishment, victims, and the role of the criminal justice system and other agencies.

Theory and Methods

You will also study the following areas:

• Quantitative and qualitative methods of research; research design looking at sources of data, including questionnaires, interviews, participant and non-participant observation, experiments, documents and official statistics.
• You will learn about the distinction between primary and secondary data, and between quantitative and qualitative data, the relationship between positivism, interpretivism and sociological methods; the nature of ‘social facts’.
• You will explore the theoretical, practical and ethical considerations influencing choice of topic, choice of method(s) and the conduct of research
• You will learn about consensus, conflict, structural and social action theories and the concepts of modernity and post-modernity in relation to sociological theory.
• You will study the nature of science and the extent to which Sociology can be regarded as scientific and the relationship between theory and methods.
• You will look at debates about subjectivity, objectivity and value freedom and the relationship between Sociology and social policy.

A LEVEL Examinations: There are three exams.

PAPER 1

EDUCATION

• Outline two.... (4 marks)
• Outline three... (6 marks)
• Applying material from Item A, analyse two.... (10 marks)
• Applying material from Item B and your knowledge, evaluate...
  (30 marks)

METHODS IN CONTEXT

• Applying material from Item C and your own knowledge of research methods, evaluate the strengths and limitations of using (*a research method*) to investigate (*and issue in education*)... ( 20 marks)
  THEORY AND METHOD
• Outline and explain two... (10 marks)

A LEVEL PAPER 2

Choose two topics. For each topic, answer the following three questions
We do

1. FAMILIES AND HOUSEHOLDS and
2. BELIEFS IN SOCIETY

• Outline and evaluate two...(10 marks)
• Applying material from Item A, analyse two.... (10 marks)
• Applying material from Item B and your own knowledge....(20 marks)

A LEVEL PAPER 3

• All questions are compulsory

CRIME AND DEVIANCE

• Outline two.... (4 marks)
• Outline three... (6 marks)
• Applying material from Item A, analyse two.... (10 marks)
• Applying material from Item B and your knowledge, evaluate...(30 marks)

THEORY AND METHOD

• Outline and explain two... (10 marks)
• Applying material from Item C and your own knowledge, evaluate...( 20 marks)