Sociology

Exam Board: AQA

Course content:

Year 12: Paper One: Education with Methods in Context: Subjects covered include the role and purpose of education, differential attainment by gender, ethnicity and social class, relationships and processes in school, the significance of educational policies, and research methods in education. Also covered is methods sociologists use for social research. Paper Two: Topics in Sociology: (Families and Households) This unit covers questions on areas of the family such as the relationship of the family to the social structure and social change, with particular reference to the economy and to state policies, changing patterns of marriage, cohabitation, separation, divorce, childbearing and the life course, including the sociology of personal life, and the diversity of contemporary family and household structures gender roles, domestic labour and power relationships within the family in contemporary society  the nature of childhood, and changes in the status of children in the family and society,  demographic trends in the United Kingdom since 1900: birth rates, death rates, family size, life expectancy, ageing population, and migration and globalisation.

Year 13: Paper Two: Topic in Sociology: The Mass Media: Topics covered include, the new media, the relationship between ownership and control of the media, the media, globalisation and popular culture, the processes of selection and presentation of the content of the news, media representations of age, social class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and disability, the relationship between the media, their content and presentation, and audiences. Paper Three: Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods: Topics covered include crime, deviance, social order and social control, the social distribution of crime and deviance by ethnicity, gender and social class, including recent patterns and trends in crime, globalisation and crime in contemporary society; the media and crime; green crime; human rights and state crimes, crime control, surveillance, prevention and punishment, victims, and the role of the criminal justice system and other agencies. Theory and methods examines quantitative and qualitative research and the relationship between theory and methods.

Assessment:

There are three written papers (each two hours long).

Entry Requirements:

Grade 5 in GCSE Sociology if studied or grade 5 in English.

Future progression and careers:

Likely career paths include social work, human resources, advertising, policing, marketing, journalism, law, teaching, parole officer, social researcher, family support worker and midwifery.