Sociology A-Level
Sociology A-Level glossary
49 key terms for Sociology A-Level, A to Z, each linked to the topic pages that use it.
A
- Absolute Poverty
- Lacking the basic physical necessities for survival, such as food, clean water, and shelter.AQA
- Aid, Debt, and Trade
- Investigation into the mechanisms of international financial flows, the impact of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), and the disparity between fair trade…AQA
- Anomie
- A state of normlessness where social regulations break down, leading to deviance (Durkheim/Merton).AQA
D
- De-skilling
- The process by which work is broken down into simple, repetitive tasks, reducing the need for skilled workers.AQA
- Deviancy Amplification
- The process by which the agencies of social control and the media create more deviance by labeling and marginalizing groups.AQA
E
- Ethnicity and Institutional Racism
- Investigation into the 'ethnic penalty' in the labor market and the role of institutional racism in social systems, as evidenced by the Macpherson Report and…AQA
F
- Family Diversity and Pluralism
- Analysis of the shift from the dominance of the cereal packet nuclear family to a plurality of forms, including lone-parent, reconstituted, same-sex, and…AQA
- Feminisation of Poverty
- The trend whereby women are disproportionately represented among the world's poor.AQA
- Functionalist Perspectives on Education
- Analysis of education as a bridge between the family and wider society, focusing on the transmission of universalistic values, social solidarity (Durkheim),…AQA
G
- Gatekeeper
- An individual, such as a headteacher, who has the power to grant or refuse a researcher access to a social setting.AQA
- Gender and Patriarchy
- Analysis of structural barriers such as the 'glass ceiling' and the 'dual burden', evaluating the extent to which legislative changes like the Equal Pay Act…AQA
- Globalisation and Cultural Hybridity
- Examination of how global interconnectedness leads to cultural homogenization, polarization, or the creation of 'glocal' identities, particularly in the…AQA
- Globalisation and Postmodernity
- Exploration of how the increasing interconnectedness of societies has created new opportunities for crime, including transnational organized crime,…AQA
- Globalisation and Religious Identity
- Analysis of how global interconnectedness fosters religious pluralism, cultural defence, and the rise of fundamentalist movements as a response to postmodern…AQA
- Globalisation and TNCs
- Evaluation of the role of Transnational Corporations in the global economy, focusing on their impact on national sovereignty, labor rights, and environmental…AQA
H
- Hawthorne Effect
- The tendency for research participants to alter their behavior because they are aware they are being observed.AQA
- Hegemony
- The dominance of ruling-class ideology used to define what is considered 'criminal' to maintain social order (Gramsci/Marxist criminology).AQA
I
- Identity and Power Hierarchies
- Investigation into how identity markers are socially constructed to maintain power structures, focusing on the marginalization of minority groups and the role…AQA
- Informed Consent
- The ethical requirement that participants understand the nature of the research and agree to take part without coercion.AQA
- Interpretivism
- The view that humans are meaning-makers and sociology must use qualitative methods to understand subjective experiences.AQA
M
- Marginalisation
- The process of pushing certain groups to the edges of society, reducing their access to legitimate opportunity structures and increasing the likelihood of…AQA
- Marketisation and Neoliberal Policy
- Evaluation of the shift toward a 'parentocracy' following the 1988 Education Reform Act.AQA
- Marxist Critiques of Schooling
- Examination of the education system as part of the Superstructure that reproduces class inequality.AQA
- Media Representations
- Examination of how the media constructs versions of reality concerning age, gender, ethnicity, social class, and disability.AQA
- Moral Panic
- An exaggerated social reaction to a group or behavior perceived as a threat to societal values, often fueled by media representation (Cohen).AQA
O
- Operationalisation
- The process of defining abstract sociological concepts (e.g., 'educational success') into measurable indicators.AQA
- Ownership and Control
- Analysis of the concentration of media ownership and its impact on ideological output.AQA
P
- Positivism
- The view that sociology can and should use the methods of the natural sciences to discover objective laws of human behavior.AQA
- Power and the Medical Profession
- Investigation into the 'professional dominance' of doctors, their role as gatekeepers to resources and the 'sick role', and the increasing influence of the…AQA
- Power Dynamics and Domestic Labour
- Examination of the division of labour within the household, focusing on the 'Symmetrical Family' thesis versus feminist critiques of the 'Dual Burden' and…AQA
R
- Rapport
- A relationship of trust and understanding between the researcher and the participant, essential for qualitative depth.AQA
- Relative Poverty
- Having significantly less than the average standard of living in a given society.AQA
- Reliability
- Data that can be repeated by another researcher using the same methods to get the same results.AQA
- Religion as a Conservative Force vs. Catalyst for Change
- The tension between religion maintaining the status quo (Functionalism/Marxism) and religion acting as a revolutionary force (Weber/Neo-Marxism/Liberation…AQA
- Reserve Army of Labour
- A Marxist concept describing the unemployed, who can be used by the bourgeoisie to keep wages low.AQA
S
- Secularisation and Rationalisation
- Examination of the decline in religious authority, practice, and belief in Western societies, linked to Weberian 'disenchantment' and the rise of scientific…AQA
- Social Class and Economic Inequality
- Examination of the distribution of wealth and income in the UK, focusing on the transition from traditional industrial class structures to the fragmented…AQA
- Social Construction of Deviance
- Analysis of how crime is not an inherent quality of an act but a consequence of the application of rules and sanctions by others.AQA
- Social Distribution of Health
- Analysis of the persistent inequalities in health outcomes across different social groups, focusing on the social gradient where lower socio-economic status…AQA
- Socialisation and the Construction of the Self
- Analysis of primary and secondary agencies (family, education, peer groups, media) in the transmission of culture and the formation of the 'looking-glass…AQA
- Structural Explanations of Crime
- Examination of how social institutions and the organization of society (e.g., class hierarchy, patriarchy) drive criminal behavior.AQA
T
- The Impact of New Media
- Evaluation of how digital technologies have transformed media consumption and production.AQA
- The Social Construction of Childhood
- Investigation into how the status and experience of childhood have changed over time, contrasting the 'March of Progress' view with concerns regarding 'Toxic…AQA
- The Social Construction of Medical Knowledge
- Examination of how health and illness are not merely biological facts but are defined and interpreted through cultural lenses, including the historical…AQA
- Theories of Development
- Analysis of competing frameworks including Modernisation theory's focus on internal cultural values and Dependency theory's emphasis on external exploitation…AQA
U
- Underclass
- A group at the bottom of the social hierarchy who are permanently excluded from mainstream society.AQA
V
- Validity
- Data that provides a true, genuine, and accurate picture of what is being studied.AQA
- Value Consensus
- A shared agreement in society about what is right and wrong, good and bad.AQA
- Verstehen
- A German word meaning 'empathetic understanding'; seeing the world from the viewpoint of the subject.AQA
Where these terms come from
Each definition is one we publish on a Sociology A-Level topic page or study guide. Open a term to see how each exam board words it and which topic it belongs to. For the full course, go to Sociology revision or the glossary for every subject.
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