AQA A-Level Sociology answers, written to the spec
22 topics · specification 7192 · explanations and examiner marking in AQA’s own language
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This is the full AQA A-Level Sociology specification, code 7192, as elid holds it — 22 topics, each with the terminology AQA marks against. Every explanation and every mark elid gives you is written against this list, not a generic A-level one, because the same question answered in CAIE or OCR language loses marks it should have earned.
The AQA A-Level Sociology specification, topic by topic
Education: Role and Functions
Assessed in Paper 1
Role and functions of the education system from functionalist, Marxist, and New Right perspectives.
Surveillance, prevention, punishment, criminal justice system, and the social construction of victimisation.
Specification terms elid matches
Situational crime prevention
Environmental crime prevention
Social and community crime prevention
Surveillance
Panopticon
Sovereign power
Disciplinary power
Victimology
Synopticon
Surveillance assemblies
Actuarial justice
Retributive justice
Restorative justice
Deterrence
Named studies and theories
Clarke
Wilson and Kelling
Foucault
Mathiesen
Feeley and Simon
Christie
Family: Theories of the Family
Assessed in Paper 2
Functionalist, Marxist, Feminist, and Personal Life perspectives on the role of the family.
Specification terms elid matches
Functional fit theory
Nuclear family
Warm bath theory
Unit of consumption
Ideological conditioning
Patriarchy
Liberal Feminism
Marxist Feminism
Radical Feminism
Difference Feminism
Personal life perspective
Geographically mobile workforce
Socially mobile workforce
Inheritance of property
Named studies and theories
Parsons
Murdock
Engels
Zaretsky
Ansley
Greer
Smart
Family: Demographic Trends
Assessed in Paper 2
Demographic trends (births, deaths, migration) and changes in marriage, cohabitation, and divorce.
Specification terms elid matches
Birth rate
Death rate
Total fertility rate
Infant mortality rate
Life expectancy
Ageing population
Migration
Net migration
Demographic transition
Natural change
Emigration
Immigration
Push and pull factors
Globalisation of migration
Named studies and theories
Tranter
McKeown
Hirsch
Pilcher
Family: Family Diversity
Assessed in Paper 2
Family diversity, family types, and the life course in late modern and postmodern society.
Specification terms elid matches
Family diversity
Nuclear family
Lone-parent family
Reconstituted family
Cohabitation
Same-sex partnerships
Extended family
Life-course diversity
Cohort diversity
Postmodern family
Individualisation thesis
Pure relationship
Negotiated family
Same-sex families
Named studies and theories
Rappoport and Rappoport
Chester
Stacey
Giddens
Beck
Family: Conjugal Roles and Domestic Division of Labour
Assessed in Paper 2
Conjugal roles, the domestic division of labour, power, decision-making, and domestic abuse.
Specification terms elid matches
Conjugal roles
Symmetrical family
Joint conjugal roles
Segregated conjugal roles
Domestic division of labour
Triple shift
Dual burden
Domestic violence
March of progress view of roles
Feminist critique of symmetry
Pooling system
Allowance system
Financial control
Patriarchal terrorism
Named studies and theories
Parsons
Young and Willmott
Oakley
Duncombe and Marsden
Dobash and Dobash
Family: Childhood
Assessed in Paper 2
The social construction of childhood, child-centredness, changes in childhood status, and age patriarchy.
Specification terms elid matches
Social construction of childhood
Miniature adults
Child-centredness
Toxic childhood
Disappearance of childhood
Age patriarchy
Child liberationism
Infantilisation
Childhood globalisation
March of progress view of childhood
Conflict view of childhood
Paternalistic control
Space and time control over children
Named studies and theories
Aries
Shorter
Palmer
Postman
Gittins
Theory & Methods: Sociology as a Science
Assessed in Paper 1, 3
Debates on whether sociology can or should be a science, including positivist, interpretivist, Popperian, and Kuhnian views.
Specification terms elid matches
Positivism
Interpretivism
Falsification
Paradigms
Realism
Open systems
Closed systems
Verificationism
Verstehen
Quantitative methods
Qualitative methods
Objective social facts
Hypothetico-deductive model
Normal science
Named studies and theories
Comte
Durkheim
Popper
Kuhn
Keat and Urry
Weber
Theory & Methods: Research Methods
Assessed in Paper 1, 3
Quantitative and qualitative research methods, primary and secondary data, and the criteria of reliability, validity, and ethics.
Specification terms elid matches
Quantitative data
Qualitative data
Reliability
Validity
Representativeness
Generalisability
Questionnaires
Structured interviews
Unstructured interviews
Participant observation
Official statistics
Hawthorne effect
Interviewer bias
Gatekeepers
Named studies and theories
Durkheim
Weber
Oakley
Venkatesh
Theory & Methods: Sociological Theory
Assessed in Paper 1, 3
Major sociological theories including Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism, Interactionism, Late Modernity, and Postmodernism.
Specification terms elid matches
Functionalism
Marxism
Feminism
Interactionism
Postmodernism
Structure vs Action
Consensus vs Conflict
Value freedom
Sociology and social policy
Structuralism
Social action theory
Symbolic Interactionism
Phenomenology
Ethnomethodology
Named studies and theories
Parsons
Marx
Oakley
Mead
Baudrillard
Beliefs in Society: Religion, Secularisation and Social Change
Assessed in Paper 2
The role of religion in society, secularisation, religious vitality, and fundamentalism in a global context.
Specification terms elid matches
Secularisation
Sacred canopy
Religious market theory
New Religious Movements
New Age spirituality
Fundamentalism
Desacralisation
Believing without belonging
Calvinism
Protestant ethic
Existential security theory
Spiritual revolution
Vicarious religion
Named studies and theories
Durkheim
Weber
Marx
Bryan Wilson
Steve Bruce
Heelas
Grace Davie
Global Development
Assessed in Paper 2
Development, underdevelopment and global inequality, including modernisation, dependency and world-systems theories; globalisation's influence on the cultural, political and economic relationships between societies; the role of transnational corporations, NGOs and international agencies in development strategies; development in relation to aid and trade, industrialisation, urbanisation, the environment, and war and conflict; and employment, education, health, demographic change and gender as aspects of development.
Specification terms elid matches
Hyperglobalists
Skeptics
Transformationalists
Nation state sovereignty
Global governance
Transnational corporations
Cultural homogenisation
Glocalisation
Global risk society
Modernisation theory
Dependency theory
World-systems theory
Core, periphery and semi-periphery
Neoliberalism
Named studies and theories
Held et al.
Ohmae
Hirst and Thompson
Giddens
Castells
Beck
Rostow
Frank
Wallerstein
How the papers are weighted
elid uses these weightings when it decides which topics deserve your revision time first.
Paper
Share of the qualification
Paper 1
33.33%
Paper 2
33.33%
Paper 3
33.33%
Marked the way AQA marks it
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