Sociology Help Thread
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Hi I recently just started studying sociology and my first year in sixth form. I'm finding it really hard to understand functions of the family and how to write 30 marks questions on the top. Will appreciate very much if you can help. xx
Original post by Rachel_Leah
Hey everyone, I recently got awarded an A (5 marks off an A*!) in my Sociology A-level, and I know that at times it can be difficult, confusing, and people don't really know where the hell to start in their revision!
I took Families and Households, Education, Beliefs in Society and Crime and Deviance, along with the research and theory involved! If anybody has any questions, do not hesitate to ask as I really enjoyed the course and would be happy to help x
I took Families and Households, Education, Beliefs in Society and Crime and Deviance, along with the research and theory involved! If anybody has any questions, do not hesitate to ask as I really enjoyed the course and would be happy to help x
heyy, please help me on sociology
) i have to write an essay on this Question: --'EVALUATE THE VIEW THAT THE EDUCATION SYSTEM EXISTS MAINLY TO SELECT AND PREPARE YOUNG PEOPLE FOR THEIR FUTURE WORK ROLES 20 MARKs'
- Id love it if you gave me functionalist and marxist arguments for and against the statement
)))))) thankyouuuu xOriginal post by ZAINS1
heyy, please help me on sociology ) i have to write an essay on this Question: --
'EVALUATE THE VIEW THAT THE EDUCATION SYSTEM EXISTS MAINLY TO SELECT AND PREPARE YOUNG PEOPLE FOR THEIR FUTURE WORK ROLES 20 MARKs'
- Id love it if you gave me functionalist and marxist arguments for and against the statement)))))) thankyouuuu x
) i have to write an essay on this Question: --'EVALUATE THE VIEW THAT THE EDUCATION SYSTEM EXISTS MAINLY TO SELECT AND PREPARE YOUNG PEOPLE FOR THEIR FUTURE WORK ROLES 20 MARKs'
- Id love it if you gave me functionalist and marxist arguments for and against the statement
)))))) thankyouuuu xYou can find the answer to the Marxist argument on the AQA website, the question came up for unit 2 in 2014. (how do marxists believe that school mirrors the workplace)
thank you very much really appreciate it
Hi
Can anyone tell me what is meant by
Objective social characteristics
Thanks
Can anyone tell me what is meant by
Objective social characteristics
Thanks
Original post by nathaniakyra
You can find the answer to the Marxist argument on the AQA website, the question came up for unit 2 in 2014. (how do marxists believe that school mirrors the workplace)
Okay thankyouu so much for helping me
)★
Anyone got a typical essay structure for sociology? I really struggle with them
Original post by Rachel_Leah
Hey everyone, I recently got awarded an A (5 marks off an A*!) in my Sociology A-level, and I know that at times it can be difficult, confusing, and people don't really know where the hell to start in their revision!
I took Families and Households, Education, Beliefs in Society and Crime and Deviance, along with the research and theory involved! If anybody has any questions, do not hesitate to ask as I really enjoyed the course and would be happy to help x
I took Families and Households, Education, Beliefs in Society and Crime and Deviance, along with the research and theory involved! If anybody has any questions, do not hesitate to ask as I really enjoyed the course and would be happy to help x
Hi can you please share your notes or revision methods please. I really need to get an A in sociology and i have a revision guide, one of the best ones but i just can't seem to get it. Thanks
Original post by MBFP
Hi can you please share your notes or revision methods please. I really need to get an A in sociology and i have a revision guide, one of the best ones but i just can't seem to get it. Thanks
I got an A
I made notes and just made sure I knew the essay structure
A lot of sociology is remembering
TBH last years paper especially for SCLY3 was really kind
How did you revise also do you know why you got an A and not an A*(hope youre not offended by that,an honest question)
Also,how do you answer 4,6(dont even remember is this exists)8 and 12 marks?
Original post by xxvine
I got an A
I made notes and just made sure I knew the essay structure
A lot of sociology is remembering
TBH last years paper especially for SCLY3 was really kind
I made notes and just made sure I knew the essay structure
A lot of sociology is remembering
TBH last years paper especially for SCLY3 was really kind
How did you make your notes?
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Hi guys I'm a gap year student I got an A in sociology(3 marks off an a*) and I'm gonna do it next year for uni.One of my gap year fulfilments is to do something inspirational.I want to help students currently doing sociology for a-levels.So I'm planning to do some sort of online forum on tsr or whatsapp;however I heard that whatsapp gc might not be the best idea since there has been exam penalties given to students involved in study gc's over the years.However I do feel like its easier to communicate via whatsapp.Thus I would have to be very strict and give clear guidelines if a study gc was to commense.Let me know if your interested.Also it will be best if you do family,education,beliefs and crime since I did them.
Original post by dmet
Buy the Suceed at A2 sociology book. It's brilliant if you revise the book you will do great. I self taught sociology I got B at AS and after using this book I achieved an A* it was totally not expected and it's all down to this book. In fact if anybody wants the book message me and I will post it to you
Posted from TSR Mobile
Posted from TSR Mobile
hi, i wondered if anyone had messaged you for the book if so i wondered if you could still send me the official name of the book please
thanks
Original post by 2ne1Aaron
Hi guys I'm a gap year student I got an A in sociology(3 marks off an a*) and I'm gonna do it next year for uni.One of my gap year fulfilments is to do something inspirational.I want to help students currently doing sociology for a-levels.So I'm planning to do some sort of online forum on tsr or whatsapp;however I heard that whatsapp gc might not be the best idea since there has been exam penalties given to students involved in study gc's over the years.However I do feel like its easier to communicate via whatsapp.Thus I would have to be very strict and give clear guidelines if a study gc was to commense.Let me know if your interested.Also it will be best if you do family,education,beliefs and crime since I did them.
I am 100% interested in this. I'm currently going A2 with AQA and seem to be really struggling with what information to include in essays and how to structure them! I have a teacher who is terrible at teaching so the majority has been self taught so I would love a little extra support especially from a students perspective. I am also doing the units that you did just on the new spec but I'm sure it won't make that much of a difference. Hope your still willing to help!
Original post by Nataliem24
I am 100% interested in this. I'm currently going A2 with AQA and seem to be really struggling with what information to include in essays and how to structure them! I have a teacher who is terrible at teaching so the majority has been self taught so I would love a little extra support especially from a students perspective. I am also doing the units that you did just on the new spec but I'm sure it won't make that much of a difference. Hope your still willing to help!
Yeah sure
Sociology is great albeit research methods is a complete bore. The research methods portion is like learning common sense.
Any tips on how to structure a 20 mark for full marks?
Any tips on how to structure a 20 mark for full marks?
Hey, is it possible if you can look at an essay for me, I am currently do AS Level Sociology.
Which has more of an impact on student’s educational achievement, internal factors or external factors, and to what extent does sociological research prove this? (20 marks)
There are many factors that impact student’s educational achievement; these factors are then put into two categories, internal factors and external factors. It can be argued that both factors have more of an impact on educational achievement according to different sociologist. Internal factors are factors within the school, for example, what goes on in school and how it affects a pupil’s progress. This includes setting, teacher labelling and self-fulfilling prophecy. Whereas, external factors are factors outside of school, for example, family, neighbourhood or socioeconomic status which schools have little control over. This includes material and cultural explanations. Although treated separately, these two factors are inter-linked.
One way in which internal factors impact educational achievement is through the use of setting. Setting is when students are placed into different teaching groups based on their knowledge in exams, so if a student does better than another student in an exam, they will be placed in a higher set. Setting may affect educational achievement because those in the lower sets may have to sit ‘foundation’ papers which limit the grades you can get, as the highest you can achieve is a C grade, which impacts student’s in the lower sets educational achievement as they will only be taught up to grade C topics and will lack the additional knowledge that other students may have.
Functionalist sociologist may agree with setting as they believe we live in a meritocratic society. This means that we are awarded based on how hard we work, as a result can move up in a better place in society. In this case the students in the bottom set did not work hard and so are not able to be merited with moving up to higher sets and performing better in the education system. However, Marxist sociologists may not agree as they believe in social class inequality. This means that a student’s social class impacts their educational achievement, hence to why they are in a bottom set in the first place. Working class students are unable to excel in the education system as they do not have the financial support to help them do further work outside of school, therefore don’t do well in exams and end up in low sets. Whereas, middle class students can afford extra resources, for example tuition, to help them excel in the education system.
Another internal factor is labelling. Labelling is the process of attaching a meaning or definition to an individual based on stereotypes. For example, in the education system, aggressive and black (mainly Caribbean male) are labelled ‘thugs’ or ‘gangsters’. Teacher labelling affects educational achievement because if a teacher constantly calls a student by a bad name, for example ‘dumb’, eventually the child will think he/she is ‘dumb’ and may start acting this way. This is called the ‘Halo Effect’. The halo effect works both positively and negatively where the teacher views the student in a negative way. These stereotypes/labels will be based on earlier impressions and will dictate all future interaction.
The self-fulfilling prophecy also occurs when labelling. The self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when students truly believe the label they have been given, so the label then becomes a reality. However, Fuller (1980) suggested that the theory of labelling is deterministic as students may reject the label they have been given, to change how others view them. For example, evidence was found in a study, although black girls were subject to a bad label and stereotyped based in low sets, some of them rejected to the label by proving teachers wrong. Therefore this suggests theory of labelling is too deterministic, as it doesn’t take in account those who rebel and take the label positively to change how people view them.
External factors impact educational achievement with the use of material and culture to help explain this. Although schooling and further education is free up until the age of 19, material factors outside school like poverty and low wages, diet, health and housing can all have an impact on how well individuals do at school. This helps explain the pattern of working class underachievement in education. Low wages and poverty and housing all play an important part with external factors that impact educational achievement. Cooper and Stewart (2013) suggested that poorer children have bad behaviour, worse cognitive and bad health, this then had an impact on how they did in school as there was a repeat of bad behaviour which lead to them performing badly in school, as they would be sent out of class and not learn the information needed to answer exam questions. Also bad health leads to students missing time off school and learning, and making them unable to answer questions in the exam as they missed time off when learning those specific topics. Waldfogel and Washbrook (2010) pointed out that low income families have bad housing, so was difficult for them to study as their homes were more likely to be crowded or damp and spent time off school as bad housing lead to bad health. This then lead to them falling behind in class and making it difficult to catch up.
The cultural explanation of underachievement in education suggests that values, attitudes and language are deficient in various ways compared to white middle class; this is known as culture deprivation. Sodha and Margo’s (2010) study shows that cultural factors for example, parental attitudes towards the education system and interest in their child’s education, this lead to the children in the working class being less engaged in their educational achievement.
Parental attitudes to education play an important part in the education system. The results of Douglas (1964) found that parental attitude was the most important factor which best explained educational success and failure. A lack of encouragement and involvement in a child’s education lead to poor behaviour from students in the education system. This meant that if a student’s parent did not pay attention to their child’s educational achievement, they did not do well in their exams and so, according to Douglas, the student’s parent was at fault of their child’s failure. Then Feinstein and Symons (1999), Goodman and Gregg (2010) and Gorard, See and Davies (2012) all found recently that the Douglas’s study is still true till this day. It was also found that middle class parents pay more attention to their child’s progress at school by regularly visiting the school and meeting with their child’s teachers. Also middle class parents are more likely to want their children to stay at school beyond the minimum leaving age and to encourage them to do so than working-class parents.
In conclusion, research has shown that external factors have more of an impact to a student’s educational achievement than internal factors. This is because poverty, which is an external factor, leads to a student’s performance being poor in school resulting to them being in a low set, which is an internal factor. It also leads to other external factors such as bad housing, bad health etc. External factors have more of a power over a child’s educational achievement as there are many hidden costs in the education system despite the education system being free of charge, and many outside resources that are needed for a child to excel and perform well in the education system.
Thank You
Which has more of an impact on student’s educational achievement, internal factors or external factors, and to what extent does sociological research prove this? (20 marks)
There are many factors that impact student’s educational achievement; these factors are then put into two categories, internal factors and external factors. It can be argued that both factors have more of an impact on educational achievement according to different sociologist. Internal factors are factors within the school, for example, what goes on in school and how it affects a pupil’s progress. This includes setting, teacher labelling and self-fulfilling prophecy. Whereas, external factors are factors outside of school, for example, family, neighbourhood or socioeconomic status which schools have little control over. This includes material and cultural explanations. Although treated separately, these two factors are inter-linked.
One way in which internal factors impact educational achievement is through the use of setting. Setting is when students are placed into different teaching groups based on their knowledge in exams, so if a student does better than another student in an exam, they will be placed in a higher set. Setting may affect educational achievement because those in the lower sets may have to sit ‘foundation’ papers which limit the grades you can get, as the highest you can achieve is a C grade, which impacts student’s in the lower sets educational achievement as they will only be taught up to grade C topics and will lack the additional knowledge that other students may have.
Functionalist sociologist may agree with setting as they believe we live in a meritocratic society. This means that we are awarded based on how hard we work, as a result can move up in a better place in society. In this case the students in the bottom set did not work hard and so are not able to be merited with moving up to higher sets and performing better in the education system. However, Marxist sociologists may not agree as they believe in social class inequality. This means that a student’s social class impacts their educational achievement, hence to why they are in a bottom set in the first place. Working class students are unable to excel in the education system as they do not have the financial support to help them do further work outside of school, therefore don’t do well in exams and end up in low sets. Whereas, middle class students can afford extra resources, for example tuition, to help them excel in the education system.
Another internal factor is labelling. Labelling is the process of attaching a meaning or definition to an individual based on stereotypes. For example, in the education system, aggressive and black (mainly Caribbean male) are labelled ‘thugs’ or ‘gangsters’. Teacher labelling affects educational achievement because if a teacher constantly calls a student by a bad name, for example ‘dumb’, eventually the child will think he/she is ‘dumb’ and may start acting this way. This is called the ‘Halo Effect’. The halo effect works both positively and negatively where the teacher views the student in a negative way. These stereotypes/labels will be based on earlier impressions and will dictate all future interaction.
The self-fulfilling prophecy also occurs when labelling. The self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when students truly believe the label they have been given, so the label then becomes a reality. However, Fuller (1980) suggested that the theory of labelling is deterministic as students may reject the label they have been given, to change how others view them. For example, evidence was found in a study, although black girls were subject to a bad label and stereotyped based in low sets, some of them rejected to the label by proving teachers wrong. Therefore this suggests theory of labelling is too deterministic, as it doesn’t take in account those who rebel and take the label positively to change how people view them.
External factors impact educational achievement with the use of material and culture to help explain this. Although schooling and further education is free up until the age of 19, material factors outside school like poverty and low wages, diet, health and housing can all have an impact on how well individuals do at school. This helps explain the pattern of working class underachievement in education. Low wages and poverty and housing all play an important part with external factors that impact educational achievement. Cooper and Stewart (2013) suggested that poorer children have bad behaviour, worse cognitive and bad health, this then had an impact on how they did in school as there was a repeat of bad behaviour which lead to them performing badly in school, as they would be sent out of class and not learn the information needed to answer exam questions. Also bad health leads to students missing time off school and learning, and making them unable to answer questions in the exam as they missed time off when learning those specific topics. Waldfogel and Washbrook (2010) pointed out that low income families have bad housing, so was difficult for them to study as their homes were more likely to be crowded or damp and spent time off school as bad housing lead to bad health. This then lead to them falling behind in class and making it difficult to catch up.
The cultural explanation of underachievement in education suggests that values, attitudes and language are deficient in various ways compared to white middle class; this is known as culture deprivation. Sodha and Margo’s (2010) study shows that cultural factors for example, parental attitudes towards the education system and interest in their child’s education, this lead to the children in the working class being less engaged in their educational achievement.
Parental attitudes to education play an important part in the education system. The results of Douglas (1964) found that parental attitude was the most important factor which best explained educational success and failure. A lack of encouragement and involvement in a child’s education lead to poor behaviour from students in the education system. This meant that if a student’s parent did not pay attention to their child’s educational achievement, they did not do well in their exams and so, according to Douglas, the student’s parent was at fault of their child’s failure. Then Feinstein and Symons (1999), Goodman and Gregg (2010) and Gorard, See and Davies (2012) all found recently that the Douglas’s study is still true till this day. It was also found that middle class parents pay more attention to their child’s progress at school by regularly visiting the school and meeting with their child’s teachers. Also middle class parents are more likely to want their children to stay at school beyond the minimum leaving age and to encourage them to do so than working-class parents.
In conclusion, research has shown that external factors have more of an impact to a student’s educational achievement than internal factors. This is because poverty, which is an external factor, leads to a student’s performance being poor in school resulting to them being in a low set, which is an internal factor. It also leads to other external factors such as bad housing, bad health etc. External factors have more of a power over a child’s educational achievement as there are many hidden costs in the education system despite the education system being free of charge, and many outside resources that are needed for a child to excel and perform well in the education system.
Thank You
Doing AS Sociology
was wondering how much detail is needed for answers ? Whether you need to address all/most theories within a theory ? Ie. All sociologists and their theories for Marxists ect. Or if you could focus on 3 with detail ?
I'm doing Family and Households internal exam soon and i honestly don't know where to start my revision
was wondering how much detail is needed for answers ? Whether you need to address all/most theories within a theory ? Ie. All sociologists and their theories for Marxists ect. Or if you could focus on 3 with detail ?
I'm doing Family and Households internal exam soon and i honestly don't know where to start my revision
So all these people seem to have gotten good grades but I have yet to actually get a decent grade and I'm doing A2. My question is, how do you evaluate the functionalist approach to C&D. I know what it is but how what would you say are the good and bad points about it? Same with Marxism if you don't mind.
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