GCSE Sociology Revision: Paper 1
Key Words
Adolescence | Integrated conjugal roles | Principle of stratified diffusion |
Agency of socialisation | Intergenerational | Role conflict |
Arranged marriage | Kibbutz | Secondary socialisation |
Bigamy | Kinship | Secularisation |
Blended (or reconstituted) | Life chances | Segregated conjugal roles |
Census | Life expectancy | Separate spheres |
Child rearing | Lone parent | Serial monogamy |
Childhood | Marriage | Socio-economic class |
Cohabitation | Matriarch | Social cohesion |
Commune | Matriarchal family | Social construct |
Conjugal relationships | Monogamy | Social control |
Conventional family | Nuclear family | Social mobility |
Crisis of masculinity | Particularistic standards | Social stigma |
Divorce | Patriarchy | Socially defined behaviour |
Domestic division of labour | Patriarchal family | Status |
Glass ceiling | Pluralism | Step parent |
Immigration | Polyandry | Stereotype |
Income | Polygamy | Symmetrical family |
Instrumental role | Polygyny | Trend |
Traditional family roles | Primary socialisation | Universal standards |
Families 12 Mark Question Theme | |
Socialisation | Functionalist Marxist Feminist |
Trends | Divorce Marriage Child bearing |
Gender Roles | Triple shift Symmetrical family SOAP |
Changing family structure | CLOGS Cereal packet family Symmetrical family |
Social Policies | |
Divorce Reform Act 1969 | The Divorce Reform Act enabled divorce to become easier for unhappy couples to access. This was a revolutionary piece of legislation as it enabled a 'no fault' divorce to be requested. |
Contraception Act 1967 | Contraception free for all women this gave much greater control over their fertility, including whether and when to become pregnant. Also, the availability of legal abortion means that women can choose whether to continue with a pregnancy. |
Gay Marriage Act 2013 | The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act makes the marriage of same sex couples lawful in England and Wales, while protecting and promoting religious freedom. |
Key Thinker | Key Point | Strengths of Study | Criticisms of Study |
Parsons | Two key functions of the family:
| Shows how the family is an essential social structure and shows how it works in combination with other structures. | Ignores family diversity – such as same sex parenting or single parents Ignores aspects of the family that are dysfunctional such as abuse. |
Key Thinker | Key Point | Strengths of Study | Criticisms of Study |
Zaretsky | The family serves capitalism by:
| Explains how the nuclear family is a social construction. Explains the dark side of the family. | Ignores family diversity – such as same sex parenting or single parents Deterministic – too much emphasis on the role of the family supporting and maintaining capitalism |
Key Thinker | Key Point | Strengths of Study | Criticisms of Study |
Rapoport and Rapoport | Pioneers in researching diversity. 5 types include…
| Explains the impact that social attitudes, secularisation, laws and material factors have had on the family. | People still strive toward being apart of a nuclear family despite diversity. |
Key Thinker | Key Point | Strengths of Study | Criticisms of Study |
Oakley | Analyses the ‘conventional family’ finding:
| Shows the strains beneath the surface – mothers depression and dissatisfaction with housework. Women being dependent on males wages. | Ignores family diversity and the changing role of women in wider society. |
Key Thinker | Key Point | Strengths of Study | Criticisms of Study |
Delphy and Leonard | Family is patriarchal because:
Advocates of political lesbianism | Explains how women’s oppression is maintained by the family as a social structure. | Fail to see the improvements have been made. Political lesbianism is unobtainable and unrealistic due to heterosexual attraction. |
Key Thinker | Key Point | Strengths of Study | Criticisms of Study |
Willmott and Young | Found that the family is becoming more symmetrical – similar but not identical roles, equal contribution to household work and shared decision making with friends. Home centred. Principle of stratified diffusion – changes in family life will start with higher social classes and will trickle down. | Explains the rise of dual worker families and how the family has adapted to social attitudes and changes to the law. | Decision making and finances are still largely controlled by men. Men still benefit from women’s domestic work more than women benefit from a mans contribution. |
Different types of family globally | |
China’s one child policy | In an attempt by the Chinese authorities to control population growth, couples in China who lived in cities were by law allowed to have just one child. If the couple did have a second child, they could face fines, demotion or dismissal from work. |
Communes | In broad terms, a commune is a group of people who share living accommodation, possessions, wealth and property. |
Kibbutz | A kibbutz consists of a group of people who live together communally and value equality and cooperation between members. |
Contemporary issues within the family | |
Quality of parenting | Policy makers and government often see teenage motherhood as a serious problem, not only for the young mothers and their children but also for society. |
Teenage / adult relationships | Some parents cannot control their teenage children. A related view is that delinquent teenagers have not been socialised adequately by their parents into society’s norms and values. |
Care of the elderly | Older people are now generally fitter and healthier. They may themselves provide care within their families. |
Changes within the family | |
The increase in one person households | People are living longer, so there are more elderly, one-person households that typically contain older women whose partners have died. |
Friends as the new family | Roseneil and Budgeon found that, among people who did not live with a partner, friends more than biological kin offered support to those who suffered mental health problems or emotional distress. |
Looked after children | Around 75% of looked-after children are placed with foster carers, who provide them with a home. Many other looked-after children are placed in children’s homes or secure units. |
Relationships with the family | |
Life expectancy, beanpole families and the sandwich generation | In beanpole families, women have the burden of caring for family members from different generations. These women are described as part of the sandwich generation, because they are sandwiched between younger and older generations. |
Boomerang children | Boomerang children are young people who leave home and return to live at home with their parents before leaving permanently. Young adults may be more likely to leave home and then return during a global financial crisis or because affordable housing is not available. |
Falling fertility, smaller family size and having children later | In 1920, the average number of children was 2.0 per woman. This peaked at 2.42 children for women born in 1935, and contributed to the ‘baby boom’ of the 1960s. Since then, however, family size has fallen. |
Key Words
Academy | Egalitarian | Inclusion | Sanctions | Status |
Achievement | Eleven Plus Exam | Informal education | SATS | Subculture |
Anti school subculture | Ethnocentric curriculum | Institutional racism | Selective schools | Teacher expectations |
Comprehensive school | Ethos | Labelling | Selective use of data | Technological change |
Compulsory state education | Exclusion | League tables | Self-fulfilling prophecy | Theoretical perspective |
Conformity | Fee paying school | Life chances | Setting in education | Tripartite system |
Correspondence principal | Formal curriculum | Marketisation of education | Social cohesion | Universal standards |
Counter school subculture | Formal education | Master status | Social control (formal and informal) | Urban |
Cultural capital | Free school | Mixed ability | Social convention | Value consensus |
Cultural deprivation | Gendered curriculum | OFSTED | Social exclusion | Vocationalism in education |
Cultural values | Glass ceiling | Particularistic standards | Social inequality | Welfare state |
Curriculum | Hidden curriculum | Racial discrimination | Socially defined behaviour | World view |
De-schooling | Home tuition | Respondent | Specialist school | Youth culture |
Key Thinker | Key Point | Strengths of Study | Criticisms of Study |
Parsons | Education teaches the difference between particularistic and universal values. Role allocation and meritocracy. | Highlights how school prepares students for wider society where universal standards are applied to all (such as merits and sanctions). | Feminists and Marxists argue school is not meritocratic – gender and class have an impact on future success. Role allocation has been criticised on the basis that those with the best qualifications don’t always get the top jobs. |
Key Thinker | Key Point | Strengths of Study | Criticisms of Study |
Durkheim | Education teaches norms and values and promotes social solidarity. Teaches children specialised skills for work. | Shows the role, function and importance of education as a social structure and an absolute necessity for wider society. Shows school as a society in miniature. | The values being transmitted are values of the dominant groups in society (ruling class). Assumes |
Key Thinker | Key Point | Strengths of Study | Criticisms of Study |
Bowles and Gintis | Correspondence principal - there is a similarity between school and work (eg uniform, timetable, authority) Education creates an obedient work force to serve capitalism through the hidden curriculum. | Shows the dark side of the education system. Highlights how meritocracy is a myth and social class/income does play a big role in how we measure educational success | Too deterministic – assumption students don’t have free will and passively accept the values of the hidden curriculum. |
Key Thinker | Key Point | Strengths of Study | Criticisms of Study |
Willis | Studied the lads – an anti school subculture – for two years Found students were not obedient but school fulfilled its role by ensuring lads ended up in working class jobs. | Willis shows that the education system does lead working class students to working class jobs but highlights the students individual role in doing so not the wider structure of home/school factors. | Home (material deprivation and parental attitudes) and in school factors (labelling and setting and streaming) play a greater factor. |
Key Thinker | Key Point | Strengths of Study | Criticisms of Study |
Ball | Working class students more likely to end up in lower bands. Teachers had different expectations of different bands. Even in mixed ability classes labels still happened. | Backs up the idea of self fulfilling prophecy from labels and the halo effect on some students. | Puts too much emphasis on the effect teacher expectations and labelling had – some students reject their labels. |
Key Thinker | Key Point | Strengths of Study | Criticisms of Study |
Ball, Bowes and Gerwitz | Parental choice and competition between schools has increased inequalities in education – students seen as commodities as a result of league tables. Middle class parents have more choice Schools focus on image and results | Clearly demonstrates the impact of social class on the maintaining inequalities. | Competition between schools ensures that schools are constantly raising their standards. |
Key Thinker | Key Point | Strengths of Study | Criticisms of Study |
Halsey, Heath and Ridge | Survey of 8000 men Three social classes were developed: service, intermediate and working Service class boys 11 times more likely to go to university than working class boys | Highlights the impact of home life on children’s educational attitudes including parental attitudes to higher education. | Only considers boys and ignored/left out those who defied the findings. There have been lots of policies and incentives to try to encourage WC students to go to university such as careers programs, EMA. |
What are vocational education and alternative forms of provision? | |
Vocational Education | Work-related qualifications and training for students aged 14 to 18 years. This development reflects the importance of functionalist views that the education system has to provide the skills and expertise needed by industry and the economy in the modern world far more effectively than it used to. |
Alternative Provision | There are a number of examples of alternatives to mainstream, formal education. One such example is that of home education (also called home schooling or home learning). This involves teaching children at home rather than in a state or independent school. Parents or professional tutors usually carry out home education. It is a legal option for people who wish to provide a different learning environment and ethos to local schools; however, more recently, concerns have been raised about the standards of this form of education and its impact on the social development of children. |
Education 12 Mark Question Theme | |
Internal/external factors affecting educational attainment | Gender Class Ethnicity |
Functions of the education system | Functionalism Marxism |
Changes to the education system | Butler Act Comprehensivation Act Education Reform Act |
Social Policies | |
Butler Act 1944 | Children’s ability was tested at the age of 11 years by the 11-plus exam. Based on the results of this exam, children went to one of three types of school (tripartite system), each of which was designed to meet their needs. The 11-plus exam still exists in some areas of the country where grammar schools still exist, and much of the private sector uses entry tests. |
Comprhensivisation Act 1965 | In 1965, the then Labour government asked Local Education Authorities (LEAs) to reorganise secondary education so that all students, regardless of academic ability, attended the same type of school. This became known as a ‘comprehensive’ school, and still exists in this form today. |
Education Reform Act 1988 | The 1988 Act introduced the principles of choice and diversity in educational provision linked to the idea of marketisation. National testing League tables OFSTED National Curriculum |
What are academies, free schools and selection by ability? | |
Academies | All schools have been encouraged to become academies and to leave the control of their local authority, with their funding coming direct from government. They are also free from having to follow the National Curriculum, can increase their student numbers should they wish to, and have more control over teachers’ pay, term times and the length of the school day. Sponsored academies are those that had been low performing. Schools before converting to academy status. Converter academies are usually already high performing |
Free schools | These schools are funded by government, but can be set up and run by groups of parents, teachers, businesses and religious groups, rather than the local authority. They have to submit a business plan, identify a site for the school, are free from the National Curriculum, have control over teachers’ pay and can set their own term times. |
Pupil premium | This policy was designed to provide extra money for each student that a school takes who is from a poorer home. This money should then be spent on improving the school’s provision to support these students. This could include extra one-to-one support, more teaching assistants or helping to fund music lessons and school trips for these students. |
Should education be provided by the state or by the independent sector? | |
Independent schools | The independent sector refers to schools that charge fees. This sector is made up of: • private schools – all schools that charge fees • public schools – these are the older and more famous independent secondary schools, such as Eton, Harrow and Rugby. |
In favour of independent | • They generally have a lower teacher–student ratio than state schools, which means that classes are smaller and students receive more attention from the teacher. • Resources and facilities are often better than in some state comprehensive schools. • Parental input is high in terms of fees, support and expectations. • Independent boarding schools are said to benefit from the full immersion of staff and students in school life. |
Against independent | • State schools are free – they are not based on the ability of parents to pay the high fees of private schools. • State schools are more socially mixed. Independent schools are seen as elitist and socially divisive. • State schools may provide a route of upward social mobility for students from poor families. Fee-paying schools are less likely to do so, as the fees may not be affordable. • Students do not have to travel so far on a daily basis if they attend a local state school. |