England · WJEC EduqasSyllabus
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.
Crime and deviance
Module overview →- How is crime measured, and can we trust the figures?The data on crime, including official statistics, victim surveys and self-report studies, the dark figure of crime, and the strengths and weaknesses of each source.9 min answer →
- What counts as crime and deviance, and who decides?Defining crime and deviance, the social construction of deviance, and how definitions vary by time, place and culture, including formal and informal deviance.9 min answer →
- How does society try to control behaviour and reduce crime?Social control, including formal and informal control, the agencies of social control, and the role of the media in moral panics.9 min answer →
- Who commits crime, and who is most likely to be a victim?The social distribution of crime, including the patterns by social class, age, gender and ethnicity, and sociological explanations of these patterns.10 min answer →
- How do sociologists explain why crime and deviance happen?Theories of crime and deviance, including Durkheim's functionalist view, Merton's strain theory, Albert Cohen's subcultural theory, the Marxist view, and Becker's labelling theory.11 min answer →
Education
Module overview →- Why do some groups of pupils achieve more than others?The factors affecting educational achievement, including the effects of social class, gender and ethnicity, and the difference between material and cultural explanations.10 min answer →
- What does the education system do for society?The functions of education, including socialisation, skills for work, role allocation and social control, drawing on Durkheim, Parsons and Davis and Moore.10 min answer →
- What happens inside schools that affects how pupils do?Processes within schools, including labelling, the self-fulfilling prophecy, setting and streaming, and pupil subcultures, drawing on interactionists such as Becker.10 min answer →
- What do schools teach pupils beyond the formal lessons?The hidden curriculum, the difference between the formal and hidden curriculum, and the Marxist view of Bowles and Gintis (the correspondence principle).9 min answer →
- How do the different perspectives explain the role of education?The functionalist, Marxist, feminist and interactionist perspectives on education, and how they evaluate whether education is fair and meritocratic.10 min answer →
Families
Module overview →- How have patterns of marriage, divorce and family life changed?Changing family patterns, including falling marriage rates, rising cohabitation, the rise in divorce after the 1969 Divorce Reform Act, and the ageing population, with the reasons behind the trends.9 min answer →
- How are roles and power divided between partners in the family?Conjugal roles (segregated and joint), the symmetrical family thesis of Willmott and Young, Oakley's critique and the dual burden, and power and decision-making in the family.10 min answer →
- What different forms does the family take, and why has diversity grown?The different family forms (nuclear, extended, reconstituted, lone-parent, same-sex and single-person households) and the reasons family diversity has increased.9 min answer →
- What does the family do for individuals and for society?The functions of families, including Murdock's four functions and Parsons' two basic functions (primary socialisation and the stabilisation of adult personalities), and how perspectives evaluate them.10 min answer →
- How do the different perspectives evaluate the family?The functionalist, Marxist, feminist and New Right perspectives on the family, and the criticisms of family life including its dark side.10 min answer →
Key concepts and socialisation
Module overview →- How do feminism and interactionism add to the structural view of society?The feminist perspective (patriarchy, gender inequality, liberal, Marxist and radical feminism) and the interactionist perspective (meanings, labelling and small-scale interaction).9 min answer →
- How do the consensus and conflict perspectives explain the way society works?The functionalist (consensus) and Marxist (conflict) perspectives, including socialisation, social order, shared values, capitalism, class conflict and ideology.10 min answer →
- What are the building-block concepts sociologists use to describe a way of life?The key sociological concepts of culture, norms, values, roles, status, sanctions and subculture, and how they make up the shared way of life of a society.9 min answer →
- Is our behaviour the product of our biology or of how we are raised?The nature versus nurture debate, the sociological emphasis on nurture, and the evidence from feral children and cross-cultural studies that behaviour is learned.9 min answer →
- How do people learn the way of life of their society and develop a sense of who they are?Primary and secondary socialisation, the agencies of socialisation (family, education, peer group, media, religion and workplace), and how socialisation shapes identity.10 min answer →
Research methods
Module overview →- How do you design and evaluate a piece of research for a given topic?Applied methods of sociological enquiry, including designing research for a topic, justifying the choice of method, and evaluating methods in context, as assessed on Component 2.10 min answer →
- What primary methods do sociologists use to collect data first-hand?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 judge whether research is any good?The key evaluative concepts of reliability, validity, representativeness and objectivity, and the difference between quantitative and qualitative data.9 min answer →
- Who does a sociologist study, and how must they treat them?Sampling methods (random, systematic, stratified, quota, snowball) and the ethical issues in research (informed consent, confidentiality, avoiding harm, deception and privacy).9 min answer →
- What data can sociologists use that already exists?Secondary sources, including official statistics, documents and the media, with their strengths and weaknesses, and the difference between quantitative and qualitative secondary data.9 min answer →
- How do sociologists plan and carry out a piece of research?The research process, including aims, hypotheses, the choice between positivist and interpretivist approaches, and the practical, ethical and theoretical factors that shape method choice.10 min answer →
Social differentiation and stratification
Module overview →- How do class, gender, ethnicity and age divide society and shape opportunity?The main forms of social differentiation, including social class, gender, ethnicity and age, and the inequalities of opportunity linked to each.10 min answer →
- How is society divided into layers, and what does that mean?Defining social differentiation and stratification, including the key concepts of social class, status, the strata of society, and ascribed and achieved status.9 min answer →
- Why are some people poor, and how does it affect their lives?Life chances and poverty, including the definition of life chances, absolute and relative poverty, the groups most at risk, and explanations of poverty.10 min answer →
- Who holds power in society, and how is inequality maintained?Power and inequality, including authority and coercion, power in the workplace and the home, social mobility, and how inequality is reproduced.9 min answer →
- How do the different perspectives explain why society is unequal?Theories of stratification, including the functionalist view of Davis and Moore, the Marxist view, and the Weberian view of class, status and party.10 min answer →