Sociology A-Level
Sociology A-Level glossary
144 key terms for Sociology A-Level, A to Z, each linked to the topic pages that use it.
144 terms found. Open a term to try a short memory check.
A
- Absolute mobility
- Total numbers changing class, often driven by structural economic shifts like the expansion of white-collar jobs.AQA
- Absolute poverty
- Lacking basic survival needs, as distinguished from relative poverty when defining the nature of poverty.AQA
- access
- The ability to utilise services, which is limited by cultural barriers and material barriers.AQA
C
- Changing family structures and roles
- Modern families are increasingly child-centred, with parents investing heavily in fewer offspring.AQA
- Conflict and consensus
- A core debate contrasting perspectives that see society as driven by inequality and competing interests with those that emphasise shared norms and social…AQA
- Conflict theories
- Theories, including Marxism and feminism, that argue society is characterised by inequality, exploitation, and power struggles between groups such as classes…AQA
- Consensus theories
- Theories, like functionalism, that argue society is based on shared values and cooperation, maintaining social order.AQA
- Consensus versus conflict approaches to social order
- The consensus view of Functionalism is contrasted with the conflict view of Marxism on how social control serves different interests in maintaining social…AQA
- Contemporary changes in criminal activity
- Recent trends include a rise in cybercrime and fraud alongside a decline in traditional property offences, reflecting technological shifts.AQA
- Cultural defence
- Religion unites a community against an external threat, often seen in the practices of ethnic minority groups.AQA
- Cultural explanations
- Explanations for the persistence of poverty such as the 'underclass' thesis, which argues welfare dependency traps individuals in poverty across generations.AQA
- Cultural transition
- Religion eases the move into a new society, as distinct from using religion to protect identity in a hostile environment.AQA
D
- De-skilling
- Complex craft skills are replaced by simple tasks, reducing worker autonomy and bargaining power.AQA
- Demographic change
- Significant shifts in the population, such as declining birth rates and family sizes, falling death rates and rising life expectancy.AQA
- Demographic trends in childbearing and marriage
- Childbearing has shifted towards smaller families and older first-time mothers, while marriage rates have declined alongside widespread cohabitation.AQA
- Division of labour
- The separation of a work process into a number of tasks, with each task performed by a separate person or group.AQA
E
- Economic and social progress
- Development involves this, improving a population's quality of life, measured by indicators like GDP and life expectancy.AQA
- Education and economic needs
- Functionalists argue education prepares students for the economy by teaching specialist skills, while the New Right advocates marketisation to improve…AQA
- Environmental harm and zemiology
- Green crime examines harms against the environment, distinguishing between traditional legal definitions and broader zemiological approaches that focus on…AQA
- Epistemology and Methodology
- Theoretical perspectives dictate the epistemological approach, which directly influences methodological choices.AQA
- Exploitation and dependency
- Dependency theory asserts that underdevelopment is actively caused by wealthy nations exploiting poorer ones, thereby perpetuating global inequality.AQA
F
- Falsification and Verification
- Popper defines science through falsification, arguing sociology is largely unscientific because its theories cannot be proven wrong, whereas verification…AQA
- Family diversity and structure
- Migration and globalisation have led to increased cultural diversity and changes in family structures, significantly shaping contemporary UK society.AQA
- Feminism
- Argues the family remains a site of oppression.AQA
- Folk culture
- Traditional, authentic practices created by local communities rather than being mass-produced, passed down through generations.AQA
G
- Globalisation
- A process that has significantly altered these dynamics, shifting manufacturing to developing nations and reducing traditional UK working-class jobs.AQA
- Globalisation and commodification
- The globalised health industry highlights the commodification of healthcare, with transnational pharmaceutical companies often prioritising profit over…AQA
- Globalisation and migration
- Globalisation has facilitated greater movement of people, leading to increased cultural diversity and changes in family structures such as transnational…AQA
- Globalisation and trade
- External factors such as colonialism and trade imbalances may be contrasted with internal factors when discussing the causes of underdevelopment.AQA
- Globalisation and transnational crime
- Globalisation has created new transnational criminal networks, such as cybercrime and human trafficking, while increasing global inequality.AQA
- Grand narratives
- Explanations such as Marxism or Functionalism that post-modernist theory argues are no longer valid.AQA
H
- Health inequalities
- Globalisation encompasses medical tourism and the migration of health workers, exacerbating health inequalities between the Global North and South.AQA
- High culture
- Cultural products and practices associated with the elite, often requiring cultural capital to appreciate.AQA
I
- Identity
- Something individuals construct through consumer choices in a globalised market, according to a post-modernist approach.AQA
- Ideological perspectives on welfare
- Effectiveness is evaluated by contrasting New Right preferences for private solutions with social democratic arguments for robust state intervention.AQA
- Ideology
- A set of ideas that legitimate the power of a particular group, such as Marxist views on capitalist ideology or feminist views on patriarchal ideology.AQA
- Ideology and power
- Traditional Marxist views treat religion as an ideological weapon, while Neo-Marxists argue religious organisations can support liberation theology,…AQA
- Impact of state policy on family life
- Compulsory education and child labour laws have shifted children from economic assets to financial liabilities.AQA
- Income
- The flow of money received over time, such as wages or benefits over a period.AQA
- Inequality and marginalisation
- Age portrayals frequently marginalise the elderly as dependent, and sexuality has historically been marginalised, though LGBTQ+ visibility is increasing.AQA
- Inequality and market-based solutions
- Private welfare providers offer market-based solutions, such as private pensions and insurance, which often exclude the poorest.AQA
- Inequality and stratification
- Critical victimology highlights structural factors like poverty, and the criminal justice system is analysed regarding gender, ethnicity, and class…AQA
- Informed consent
- An ethical guideline ensuring participant protection, alongside confidentiality, anonymity and protection from harm.AQA
- Institutional bias and selective law enforcement
- Systemic biases such as institutional racism and selective law enforcement may explain the over-representation of Black and Asian groups in the justice system.AQA
- Interpretivism
- An approach arguing that humans possess free will, so society cannot be studied like the natural world, favouring qualitative methods to uncover subjective…AQA
- Interpretivists
- Those who favour qualitative methods like unstructured interviews and observation to achieve deep understanding and verstehen.AQA
- Intersectionality
- Considering how social class, gender, ethnicity and region intersect rather than treating them in isolation when evaluating health inequalities.AQA
- inverse care law
- The principle that the availability of good medical care tends to vary inversely with the need for it in the population served.AQA
L
- Labelling and stigma
- The interactionist argument that mental illness is socially constructed through labelling, with psychiatric hospitals enforcing a 'mentally ill' master status.AQA
- Labour process
- The way work is organised and controlled by management to extract surplus value.AQA
- Life chances
- Access to housing, health, and education, defined broadly to include health outcomes, educational attainment, housing quality, and overall well-being.AQA
M
- March of progress versus conflict theories
- One view argues that children's status has improved, while conflict theorists highlight ongoing inequalities and argue that adult control has intensified.AQA
- March of progress view
- Suggests a gradual shift towards equality in gender roles and domestic labour.AQA
- Mass culture
- Commercially produced, standardised products aimed at passive consumers, implying a critical view of profit-driven products consumed passively.AQA
- Mechanisms of formal and informal social control
- Formal control is enforced by institutions like the police and courts, while informal control operates through everyday interactions such as peer pressure and…AQA
- Media representation and moral panics
- The media shapes public perceptions of crime through news values, moral panics, and the amplification of deviance, often exaggerating the risk of victimisation.AQA
- Medicalisation
- The process by which non-medical problems have become defined and treated as medical issues.AQA
- Meritocracy and social inequality
- Functionalists argue education allocates roles based on merit, while Marxists argue education reproduces class structure.AQA
- Methodological Pluralism
- The use of triangulation in research design to cross-check findings and improve overall accuracy.AQA
- Modernity
- The industrial era characterised by a belief in scientific rationality, progress, and the ability of grand narratives to explain and improve society.AQA
N
- New Religious Movements
- Movements classified by Wallis as world-rejecting, world-accommodating or world-affirming, used when discussing the beliefs of sects and cults.AQA
- Non-participant observation
- Observation where the researcher observes from a distance without joining the group's activities.AQA
O
- Objectivity and values
- A debate evaluating whether sociology can be value-free, contrasting claims to scientific neutrality with critical approaches.AQA
- Open belief system
- A system such as science which is open to scrutiny and falsification, contrasted with closed belief systems like traditional religion.AQA
- Operationalisation and Sampling
- Operationalisation means defining concepts so they can be measured, and sampling involves choosing a sampling frame as part of research design.AQA
P
- Participant observation
- Observation where the researcher joins a group, offering high validity but risking the Hawthorne effect.AQA
- Popular culture
- Widely enjoyed, accessible cultural forms, a more neutral term than mass culture.AQA
- Positivism
- An approach arguing that sociology should emulate the natural sciences, seeking objective, quantitative data to uncover cause-and-effect laws.AQA
- Positivism and Interpretivism
- Positivists argue sociology is scientific, using quantitative methods to uncover objective laws, while Interpretivists argue humans possess consciousness,…AQA
- Positivism versus Interpretivism
- Positivists view society as an objective reality and prefer quantitative methods, whereas interpretivists argue society is constructed through human…AQA
- Positivists
- Those who prefer quantitative methods like questionnaires and official statistics for their reliability.AQA
- Post-modernity
- A fragmented, globalised, and media-saturated society where absolute truths are rejected.AQA
- postcode lottery
- The geographical inequality in the provision of specific treatments or services depending on local health authority funding and priorities.AQA
- Power and Inequality
- Macro-level inequalities through which structuralist theories illustrate how identity is socially caused.AQA
- Power and medical dominance
- Doctors hold significant power and exercise medical dominance over allied workers, acting as gatekeepers to the sick role.AQA
- Power relationships
- Analysed through decision-making and control over resources within the family.AQA
- Practical and Ethical Constraints
- Practical constraints like time and funding and ethical issues like informed consent that shape the choice of method.AQA
- Practical considerations
- Constraints including time, funding, access to participants and the researcher's skills, which dictate the feasibility of methods and the conduct of research.AQA
- Primary data
- Information gathered directly by the researcher for their specific sociological purpose, such as conducting interviews or distributing questionnaires.AQA
- provision
- The availability of services, which is poorest in areas with the greatest health needs, like deprived communities.AQA
Q
- Qualitative data
- Descriptive, non-numerical information that explores meanings, feelings, and subjective experiences.AQA
- Quantitative data
- Numerical information that can be measured, counted, and analysed statistically to find patterns.AQA
- Quantitative versus Qualitative Data
- Structured questionnaires are quantitative methods used to achieve reliability and objectivity, while unstructured interviews are qualitative methods used to…AQA
R
- Realism and Open Systems
- Realists argue sociology is a science studying open systems where variables cannot be strictly controlled, unlike closed systems such as laboratory…AQA
- Relative deprivation
- A concept applied to explain why some middle-class individuals experiencing it also join sects.AQA
- Relative poverty
- Lacking resources for normal societal participation, as distinguished from absolute poverty when defining the nature of poverty.AQA
- Relativity of norms and values
- Deviance varies by time, place, and culture, so what is deviant in one culture or era may be normal in another.AQA
- Reliability and Validity
- Reliability refers to the consistency and replicability of quantitative methods, whereas validity refers to the truthfulness and depth of qualitative methods.AQA
- Religion
- Typically seen as a closed belief system relying on sacred texts and absolute truths.AQA
- Religious organisations and movements
- Neo-Marxists argue that religious organisations can support liberation theology, empowering the oppressed to challenge the status quo.AQA
S
- Science
- Often viewed as an open belief system based on empirical evidence, falsification (Popper), and objectivity, though Kuhn argues it operates within closed…AQA
- Scientific Paradigms
- Kuhn suggests science requires a shared paradigm, making sociology pre-scientific due to competing perspectives rather than a single unifying framework.AQA
- Secondary data
- Pre-existing data, such as official statistics, that already exists rather than being collected by the researcher.AQA
- Social action theories
- Micro, bottom-up approaches, like interactionism, that focus on how individuals construct society through everyday interactions and meanings.AQA
- Social change and conflict
- Religion can act as a catalyst for social change, with Weber demonstrating how Calvinist beliefs drove the emergence of capitalism.AQA
- Social change and legal reform
- Legal reforms such as the 1969 Divorce Reform Act, alongside secularisation, reduced stigma and female financial independence, drive changing patterns of…AQA
- Social construction of age
- Childhood is a socially constructed phase, varying across time and cultures, rather than a purely biological state.AQA
- Social construction of crime and deviance
- Deviance is relative, so what is deviant in one culture or era may be normal in another.AQA
- Social construction of health and illness
- The interactionist view that mental illness is socially constructed through labelling rather than an objective pathology.AQA
- Social construction of identity
- Representations are social constructs shaped by the ideologies of media owners and professionals rather than perfectly reflecting reality.AQA
- Social constructionism
- The view that health, illness, disability and the body are shaped by societal norms and values rather than being purely biological facts.AQA
- Social control and medicalisation
- Medicine is viewed as an institution of social control, with a feminist critique of medicalisation particularly regarding childbirth and women's bodies.AQA
- Social control and power
- Surveillance involves monitoring populations, using Foucault's theories on disciplinary power alongside modern actuarial justice.AQA
- Social differentiation
- The process of categorising people based on differences such as age, gender, or ethnicity, merely recognising social differences.AQA
- Social exclusion
- A consequence of worklessness, alongside poverty and negative health outcomes, that severely restricts life chances.AQA
- Social facts
- External, measurable phenomena, such as laws or suicide rates, that constrain individual behaviour, as conceptualised by Durkheim.AQA
- Social inequality
- Structural social inequalities highlighted by the unequal distribution of poverty, wealth and income across social groups.AQA
- Social inequality and health
- The emphasis of the social model on structural factors like class, gender and ethnicity, and social determinants such as poverty and environment.AQA
- Social inequality and stratification
- Crime and deviance are distributed across ethnicity, gender and social class, with official statistics suggesting crime is disproportionately committed by…AQA
- Social mobility
- The movement of individuals or groups between positions in a stratification system.AQA
- Social policy and public health
- Improved public health, alongside medical advancements and better nutrition, has contributed to falling death rates and rising life expectancy.AQA
- Social policy and state intervention
- The state responds via social policies, such as means-tested support and minimum wage legislation, aiming to provide a safety net.AQA
- Social stability and consensus
- Functionalists, Marxists, and Feminists view religious beliefs, practices, and organisations as promoting stability by reinforcing shared values or justifying…AQA
- Social stratification
- The hierarchical ranking of individuals into divisions of power and wealth, involving unequal rewards within a society.AQA
- Socialisation and Identity Formation
- The process through which the self and identity are socially caused by structural factors and socially constructed through interaction.AQA
- Sociological perspectives
- Approaches such as Marxism, functionalism, structuralism and interpretivism that underpin core debates about how society operates.AQA
- Sociological perspectives on inequality
- These explain development, underdevelopment and global inequality differently, with modernisation theory and dependency theory offering contrasting accounts.AQA
- State power and human rights
- State crime involves illegal or deviant activities perpetrated by state agencies, including human rights abuses, raising complex questions about how to define…AQA
- Stereotyping and stigma
- Media representations often use stereotypes that reinforce dominant ideologies, and social class depictions tend to idealise the middle class while…AQA
- Structural determinants of health
- Social determinants such as income, housing and structural inequality that influence health, rather than purely biological or genetic factors.AQA
- Structural explanations
- Explanations for the persistence of poverty focusing on factors such as low-wage economies and systemic inequality.AQA
- Structural theories
- Macro, top-down approaches that view society as a system shaping individual behaviour through institutions.AQA
- Structuralism versus Interactionism
- A distinction between a structuralist view where macro-level societal forces shape the individual and an interactionist view where individuals actively create…AQA
- Structure and action
- A debate over whether human behaviour is determined by macro-level institutions or constructed through micro-level interactions and individual agency.AQA
T
- The biomedical vs social models
- A contrast between a model focusing on physical and biological causes and medical interventions and one focusing on social determinants of health.AQA
- The mixed economy of welfare
- Poverty is addressed through a mixed economy of welfare involving four main providers: state, private, voluntary and informal.AQA
- The New Age and self-spirituality
- Movements focusing on self-spirituality and detraditionalisation, and on individual spiritual growth rather than collective worship of an external deity.AQA
- The role of the medical profession
- Psychiatric diagnosis by medical professionals, which raises questions about cultural bias and institutional racism.AQA
- The role of the state and institutions
- The role of the criminal justice system and other agencies, such as the police and courts, is analysed regarding their effectiveness, biases, and role in…AQA
- The social construction of official statistics
- Official statistics are shaped by police discretion and reporting and recording practices rather than providing a completely accurate picture of crime.AQA
- The Social Construction of Reality
- The idea that the self and identity are actively created through social interactions, cultural norms, and labelling.AQA
- The sociology of personal life
- An approach that broadens analysis beyond blood or legal ties to chosen families and friendships, explaining contemporary household diversity.AQA
- Theodicy of disprivilege
- A concept explaining why working-class or marginalised groups may be attracted to the beliefs of world-rejecting sects.AQA
- Theoretical perspectives on education
- Competing theoretical lenses through which sociologists analyse the education system to understand its role and functions.AQA
- Theoretical perspectives on justice and victimhood
- Punishment serves functions including deterrence, rehabilitation, and retribution, viewed differently by functionalists and Marxists, while victimology…AQA
- Triple shift
- Paid work, domestic work and emotional work, often performed by women.AQA
- Typologies of religious organisations
- Sociological classifications that distinguish churches, denominations, sects and cults, alongside New Age movements, and their relationship to belief and…AQA
U
- Up-skilling
- New technologies can require workers to develop advanced technical skills in a post-Fordist economy.AQA
V
- Validity and Reliability
- Reliability refers to the consistency and replicability of the research, whereas validity refers to how accurately the method measures the truth.AQA
- Validity, Reliability, and Representativeness
- Positivists prioritise reliability, meaning consistency, whereas interpretivists prioritise validity, meaning truthfulness and depth.AQA
- Verstehen
- Empathetic understanding of subjective meanings, sought by interpretivists to uncover how individuals construct their social reality.AQA
W
- Wealth
- The stock of accumulated assets owned, such as property or savings, at a specific point in time.AQA
- Weberian theory
- A perspective holding that inequality spans three dimensions: class (wealth), status (prestige) and power (influence), which can diverge from one another.AQA
- Worklessness
- Unemployment or economic inactivity, which often leads to social exclusion, poverty, and negative health outcomes, severely restricting life chances.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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