Sociology Department

Facilities

Sociology is taught within the Social Sciences Department, where it is offered as a Sixth Form subject.

AS and A2 Sociology (specification AQA Sociology 2191)

Students wishing to study Sociology must have achieved at least Grade B in GCSE English Language or English Literature

Sociology offers a fascinating insight into the social world that we all inhabit. Unlike Psychology, the focus is not on the individual and what we understand about the mind, but on the social world and the structures of society. The course includes historical and political elements, involving the development of societies and social trends over time as well as considering different perspectives on current society. These include an insight into Marxism, feminism and other political philosophies and how they perceive the world around us.

Many students find Sociology intriguing for the insight that it provides into the modern family and health policy. Topics covered in Year 12, for example, include an analysis of marriage and divorce, comparing current trends with the situation in the past and examining what different theorists have to say about this, such as: Does a rising divorce rate demonstrate that we now value marriage more than we did in the past? Or does it demonstrate the beginning of the end of society as we know it?

Importantly, there are few right or wrong answers in Sociology; it is more a subject of competing theories.

AS Level

Unit 1 – Families and Households

40% of AS, 20% of A Level
Written paper, 1 hour
60 marks

Topics covered include:

• Changing patterns of marriage, cohabitation, separation, divorce, child‑bearing and the life course, the diversity of contemporary family and household structures.

• The nature and extent of changes within the family, with reference to gender roles, domestic
labour and power relationships.

• The nature of childhood, and changes in the status of children in the family and society.

• Demographic trends in the UK: reasons for changes in birth rates, death rates and family size.

Unit 2 – Health with Research Methods

60% of AS, 30% of A Level
Written paper, 2 hours
90 marks

Topics covered include:

• Inequalities in the provision of, and access to, health care in contemporary society by social class, age, gender, ethnicity and region, and internationally.

• The sociological study of the nature and social distribution of mental illness.

• The role of medicine and the health professions.

• The application of sociological research methods to the study of health.

A2 level

Unit 3 -Beliefs in Society;

20% of A level
Written paper, 1 hour 30 minutes
60 marks

Topics covered include:

• Different theories of ideology, science and religion

• The relationship between religious beliefs and social change and stability.

• Religious organisations, including cults, sects, denominations, churches and New Age
movements, and their relationship to religious and spiritual belief and practice.

• The relationship between different social groups and religious/spiritual organisations and
movements, beliefs and practices.

• The significance of religion and religiosity in the contemporary world, including the nature and
extent of secularisation in a global context.

Unit 4 – Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods;

30% of A Level
Written paper, 2 hours
90 marks

Topics covered include:

• Different theories of crime, deviance, social order and social control.

• The social distribution of crime and deviance by age, ethnicity, gender, locality and social class,
including recent patterns and trends in crime.

• Globalisation and crime in contemporary society; the mass media and crime; green crime; human
rights and state crimes.

• Crime control, prevention and punishment, victims, and the role of the criminal justice system
and other agencies.

• The sociological study of suicide and its theoretical and methodological implications.

• The connections between sociological theory and methods and the study of crime and deviance.