Sociology

AQA

Sociology is a popular and successful AS/A-level subject at Paston, which combines particularly well with subjects such as History, Law, English and Psychology. Sociology is a fascinating subject which tries to explain how societies work, for example by looking at who has power and why, and how political ideologies have influenced social change.

It challenges everyday assumptions, asks uncomfortable questions and suggests answers that some people, especially those in authority, may feel threatened by.

It most appeals to students already interested in History, Philosophy and Politics and those who enjoy debates around moral and ethical issues in RE or Business.

At Paston, students have the opportunity to go on extremely popular trips which have included cultural visits to Germany, Poland, Russia and China. We also run a political film club and organise debates e.g. in March we ran a successful debate on university fees with national speakers.

Nationally the number of undergraduates taking Sociology degrees has risen by a third since the mid 1990s and Paston students have gone on to study Sociology, sometimes with Politics and History, at universities including York, Bristol and Southampton.

With a degree in Sociology you could go on to a range of careers and university courses including politics, criminology, history, medicine, law, government research, and teaching.

AS Sociology

At AS you will study:

Education:
• The effects of past and present government education policies in reproducing class inequalities.
• The significance of educational policies, including selection and the introduction of market forces, on the structure and impact of education.
• Relationships and processes within schools, with reference to teacher/pupil relationships, pupil subcultures, the hidden curriculum, and the organisation of teaching and learning.
• How social class, gender and ethnicity affects educational attainment in contemporary society.
• The application of research methods to the study of education.

Families and households
• The relationship of the family to the social structure and social change, with particular reference to the economy and state policies.
• Changing patterns of marriage, cohabitation, separation, divorce, child-bearing and the life course, and the diversity of contemporary family and household structures.
• How sociologists have investigated violence and abuse within the family.
• 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 since 1900: the reasons for changes in birth rates, death rates and family size.
• How the media idealises the nuclear family, making alternatives such as single parent families appear inferior.

Assessment

Two examinations, each with a short answer section and two essays.

Entry requirements

A minimum of BBCCC at GCSE including English Language, and Mathematics or Science.

A2 Sociology

In A2 Sociology you will build upon your work at AS and study:

Beliefs and Society:
• Different theories of ideology and hegemony: Marxist, neo-Marxist, pluralist and feminist accounts.
• 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 relief and practice.
• The significance of religion and religious fundamentalism in the contemporary world, including the nature and extent of secularisation in a globalised society. Crime and Deviance.
• Different theories of crime, deviance, social order and social control.
• The social distribution of crime and deviance by age, ethnicity and gender, locality and social class, including recent patterns and trends in crime.
• Globalisation and crime in contemporary society; the mass media and crime; environmental ‘green’ crime, human rights and state crimes.
• Crime control, prevention and punishment, victims and the role of the criminal justice system.
• 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.

Assessment

Two examinations consisting of a short answer section and essays.