OCR A-Level Sociology Component 1: socialisation, culture and identity, a complete overview

OCR A-Level Sociology Component 1 is Socialisation, culture and identity. It is the foundation paper: a compulsory Section A introduces the concepts that run through the whole course, and an optional Section B applies them to one context. This overview ties together the Section A concepts and explains how the paper is examined. Each section has a matching dot-point page.

How Component 1 works

Component 1 lasts 1 hour 30 minutes for 90 marks, worth 30 per cent of the A-level. Section A, Introducing socialisation, culture and identity, is compulsory and uses short and medium-tariff questions, some based on a source. Section B is an optional substantive topic, one of Families and relationships, Youth subcultures or Media, with longer questions including an extended essay. The paper is relatively AO1 and AO2 heavy, with a smaller AO3 weighting than Components 2 and 3.

Culture, norms and values

The course begins with culture: the shared way of life of a group, made up of norms (rules of behaviour), values (beliefs about what is desirable), roles and status. Sociologists distinguish high culture (elite products), popular and mass culture (mass-appeal media), folk culture (the traditions of ordinary people), global culture (Ritzer's McDonaldisation), consumer culture and subcultures. Modern societies show cultural diversity and hybridity.

Socialisation and its agencies

Socialisation is the lifelong process of learning culture. Primary socialisation happens in the early years through the family; secondary socialisation continues through education, the peer group, the media, religion and the workplace. Functionalists such as Parsons see this as transmitting a value consensus, while feminists such as Oakley and Marxists argue it reproduces inequality.

Social control and the nature versus nurture debate

Social control enforces the norms that socialisation teaches, through formal agencies (police, courts, law) and informal agencies (family, peers, media), using positive and negative sanctions. The nature versus nurture debate asks whether behaviour is biological or learned; sociologists stress nurture, using cross-cultural variation and the evidence of feral children (Genie, Oxana Malaya) to argue that socialisation makes us human.

Identity

Culture and socialisation produce identity, which is socially constructed and divided into personal and social identity. Its sources include class, gender, ethnicity, age, sexuality, disability and nationality. Postmodernists such as Bauman and Giddens argue identity is now fluid and chosen, while structural sociologists insist it remains patterned by inequality, the central debate of the 20-mark essay.

How Component 1 is examined

• Short Outline questions (AO1). Define a concept or name agencies and types, with examples.
• Outline and explain questions (AO1 and AO2). Two developed points, each with a theorist and an applied example.
• Assess and Discuss essays (AO3-heavy). A two-sided argument weighing perspectives, with a supported judgement.