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Sociology (9699)
11 sections available · 51 chapters available
Free Sociology (9699) revision notes for Cambridge International AS Level students. Each chapter covers a key topic with worked examples and practice prompts you can take straight into the thinka app.
Paper 1 – Socialisation, identity and methods of research
Social identity and change
Types of data, methods and research design
Approaches to sociological research
Research issues
Paper 2 – The Family
Gender equality and experiences of family life
Age and family life
Socialisation and the creation of social identity (Paper 1)
The process of learning and socialisation
Agencies of socialisation and social control
Social control, conformity and resistance
Structure and agency: structuralist and interactionist views
Deviance and non-conformity
Social identity: class, gender, ethnicity and age
Changing identities, globalisation and hybridity
Paper 3 – Education
Education and society
Education and social mobility
Influences on the curriculum
Intelligence and educational attainment
Social class and educational attainment
Ethnicity and educational attainment
Education and inequality
Methods of research (Paper 1)
Types of data: primary, secondary, quantitative, qualitative
Secondary sources: official statistics, documents, digital and media content
Quantitative methods: questionnaires, structured interviews, experiments, content analysis
Qualitative methods: observation, unstructured and group interviews
Stages of research design, sampling and operationalisation
Research approaches: case studies, surveys, ethnography, longitudinal and mixed methods
Positivism, interpretivism and the science debate
Research issues: theoretical, practical and ethical considerations
Paper 4 – Globalisation
Key debates, concepts and perspectives
Contemporary issues
Theories of the family and social change (Paper 2)
Functionalist and Marxist perspectives on the family
Feminist responses to functionalist and Marxist accounts
Changing patterns of marriage, cohabitation, divorce and separation
Family and household forms and dimensions of diversity
The nuclear family debate: New Right and postmodernist views
The state and social policy as influences on the family
Paper 4 – Media
Ownership and control of media
Media representation and effects
Family roles and changing relationships (Paper 2)
Gender equality and power in the family
Conjugal roles: housework, childcare and emotion work
Positive and negative experiences of family life
The social construction of childhood
Grandparents, life expectancy and the family
Changing concepts of motherhood and fatherhood
Paper 4 – Religion
Religion and social order
The influence of religion
Exam skills (Paper 1 and Paper 2)
Short-answer and 'give two explanations' questions
Evaluating a research method or a sociological theory
Explaining and arguing against a quoted sociological view
Writing the Section B essay: AO1, AO2 and AO3
Command words: describe, explain, evaluate, give
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