England · AQASyllabus
Sociology syllabus, dot point by dot point
Every dot point in the England Sociologysyllabus, with a focused answer for each one. Click any dot point for a worked explainer, past exam questions, and links to related dot points. Written by Claude Opus 4.8, Anthropic's latest AI.
The sociology of crime and deviance
Module overview →- How is crime measured and how reliable are the statistics?Data on crime, including official statistics, victim surveys and self-report studies, the dark figure of unreported crime, and patterns of crime by age, class, gender and ethnicity.9 min answer →
- What is the difference between crime and deviance?Defining crime and deviance, the difference between the two, and the idea that deviance is socially constructed and varies by time, place and culture.8 min answer →
- How does society control people's behaviour?Social control, including formal and informal agencies of social control, sanctions, and the role of agencies such as the family, education, the police and the courts.8 min answer →
- How do sociologists explain why crime happens?Theories of crime and deviance, including Durkheim's functionalist view, Merton's strain theory, Marxist explanations, and the interactionist labelling theory of Becker.10 min answer →
The sociology of education
Module overview →- Why do some groups achieve more than others in education?Factors affecting educational achievement, including social class, gender and ethnicity, and the role of material deprivation, cultural deprivation and cultural capital.9 min answer →
- What functions does education perform for society?The functions of education, including the functionalist views of Durkheim and Parsons on social solidarity, skills and meritocracy, and the role of education in the economy.9 min answer →
- How do processes inside schools affect pupils' achievement?Processes within schools, including labelling, the self-fulfilling prophecy, streaming and setting, and pupil subcultures, drawing on interactionist research such as Becker and Rosenthal and Jacobson.9 min answer →
- What do pupils learn at school beyond the formal lessons?The hidden curriculum and the Marxist view of education, including Bowles and Gintis's correspondence principle and the role of education in reproducing class inequality.9 min answer →
The sociology of families
Module overview →- How and why have patterns of marriage, divorce and family life changed?Changing family patterns, including trends in marriage, cohabitation, divorce, childbearing and the ageing population, and the reasons behind them.9 min answer →
- How are roles and power divided between partners in the family?Conjugal roles and the division of domestic labour, including segregated and joint roles, the symmetrical family, the dual burden, and decision-making and power within couples.9 min answer →
- What criticisms do sociologists make of the family?Criticisms of the family, including the Marxist and feminist views, the dark side of family life, and the conflict perspective on family roles and inequality.9 min answer →
- What different family forms exist in modern Britain?The diversity of family forms, including nuclear, extended, reconstituted, lone-parent, same-sex and single-person households, and the reasons for increasing family diversity.9 min answer →
- What functions do families perform for individuals and for society?The functions of families, including Murdock's four functions and Parsons' two basic and irreducible functions, and the functionalist view of the family as a positive institution.9 min answer →
Key sociological concepts
Module overview →- How do feminism and interactionism explain society?The feminist and interactionist perspectives, including the types of feminism, patriarchy, the work of Oakley, the interactionist focus on meanings and labelling, and the work of Becker.9 min answer →
- How do functionalism and Marxism explain how society works?The functionalist and Marxist perspectives, including the consensus and conflict views of society, the key ideas of Durkheim, Parsons, Marx and Althusser, and how each explains social institutions.10 min answer →
- How do people learn the way of life of their society?Socialisation, culture and identity, including primary and secondary socialisation, the agencies of socialisation, norms, values, roles, the nature versus nurture debate and feral children.9 min answer →
- How are the four perspectives applied across the topics?Applying the sociological perspectives across topics, showing how functionalism, Marxism, feminism and interactionism each explain the family, education, crime and stratification.10 min answer →
Social stratification
Module overview →- What is social stratification and how is society divided?Defining social stratification, the main systems of stratification, the concept of social class, and the difference between achieved and ascribed status.8 min answer →
- How does a person's position affect their life chances, and why does poverty exist?Life chances and poverty, including the definition of life chances, absolute and relative poverty, explanations of poverty, and Townsend's relative deprivation.9 min answer →
- How is power distributed, and how do gender and ethnicity shape inequality?Power and inequality, including power in everyday life and the state, social mobility, and inequalities of gender, ethnicity, age and disability.9 min answer →
- How do sociologists explain why society is unequal?Theories of stratification, including the functionalist view of Davis and Moore, the Marxist view of class conflict, and Weber's view of class, status and power.10 min answer →
Sociological research methods
Module overview →- What primary methods do sociologists use to collect data?Primary research methods, including questionnaires, structured and unstructured interviews, participant and non-participant observation, and experiments, with their strengths and weaknesses.10 min answer →
- How do sociologists choose who to study and do so ethically?Sampling and ethics, including sampling frames, random, stratified, quota and snowball sampling, and ethical issues such as consent, confidentiality, harm and deception.9 min answer →
- What existing sources can sociologists use as data?Secondary sources, including official statistics, documents, the mass media and previous sociological research, and the strengths and weaknesses of using existing data.8 min answer →
- How do sociologists plan and carry out research?The research process, including aims, hypotheses, the choice of method, the difference between primary and secondary data and quantitative and qualitative data, and the key concepts of reliability, validity and representativeness.9 min answer →