GCSE Sociology Key Terms & Vocabulary

Every key term and definition you need for GCSE Sociology, organised by topic. 180 definitions across 6 topics (AQA · Eduqas), free to read and practise with spaced-repetition flashcards.

Families Crime and deviance Social stratification The sociological approach Education Sociological research methods

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Families

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Beanpole family shape: driven by demographic change: falling birth rates mean fewer children per generation, while longer life expectancy means more generations are alive at once.
Beanpole family: a multi-generational extended family that is long and thin: several generations but few members in each (few aunts, uncles or siblings), linked to lower fertility.
Social-class (class) diversity: how a family's resources, income, housing and leisure opportunities shape its family life; e.g. wealthier families may pay for childcare.
Generational (cohort) diversity: differences in family experience depending on the period in which people were born; what is normal for one generation differs for the next.
Conjugal roles: the roles and tasks performed by each partner within a marriage or couple, especially regarding housework, childcare and paid work.
Cultural diversity: differences in family beliefs, values, religion and lifestyle, often linked to different ethnic groups.
Dual burden: when a woman does paid work and is still responsible for most of the housework and childcare.
Emotion work: the unseen labour of managing the family's feelings and keeping everyone happy — the third part of Duncombe and Marsden's "triple shift".
Empty-shell marriage: a marriage in name only: the couple stay legally married and share a home but live largely separate lives, often "for the children" or for religious or financial reasons.
Extended family: the nuclear family plus other relatives such as grandparents, aunts and uncles, living together or nearby.
Joint conjugal roles: shared, with partners doing housework and childcare together and spending leisure time together.
Life-stage (life-course) diversity: how family type changes across a person's lifetime, e.g. moving from a nuclear family to lone-parent then reconstituted.
Nuclear family: two parents and their dependent children living together; sometimes called the "cereal packet" family.
Organisational diversity: differences in how families divide roles and responsibilities, e.g. traditional male-breadwinner families versus more symmetrical, shared-role families.
Symmetrical family: privatised and home-centred: leisure is shared at home and the family is more isolated from wider kin.
Reconstituted (blended/step) family: formed when two separate families join, usually after divorce or separation, bringing together step-parents and step-children.
Segregated conjugal roles: clearly separated and traditional: the man as breadwinner, the woman responsible for housework and childcare, with separate leisure.
Serial monogamy: the pattern of having a series of long-term monogamous relationships or marriages one after another, often through divorce and remarriage.
Stage 1 (pre-industrial): the family as a unit of production: family members worked together, typically in agriculture or cottage industry.
Stage 3: the symmetrical family: privatised, home-centred and nuclear, with more equal, joint conjugal roles.
Stratified diffusion: the idea that new family norms start among wealthier groups and then spread down to other social classes.
Symmetrical family: one in which the roles of husband and wife are similar, with both partners sharing paid work and domestic tasks.; Willmott and Young predicted a fourth, asymmetrical stage (men's leisure moving outside the home), but conceded it had not really happened.; Elizabeth Bott (1957) distinguished two types of conjugal role relationship: segregated and joint.; Boulton (1983) argued surveys exaggerate men's childcare: fathers may "help", but mothers keep the main responsibility for children's wellbeing, restricting the mother's own life.; Edmund Leach (1967) coined the "cereal packet image of the family": the idealised picture, common in advertising, of a married couple with two children and a male breadwinner.; Edmund Leach (1967) coined the 'cereal packet image of the family' — the idealised advertising picture of a married couple with children and a male breadwinner; Ann Oakley (1982) described this conventional family. Most UK households do not match it.; Ann Oakley (1982) described the conventional "cereal packet" family as a married, heterosexual couple with the man as breadwinner and the woman caring for home and children.; Sociologists argue the "cereal packet" family is a myth: most UK households do not match it, so it ignores the reality of family diversity.; Cohabitation (an unmarried couple living together) has risen sharply and carries little stigma, where it was once condemned as "living in sin".

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Crime and deviance

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Young people: also over-represented in statistics partly because the police target and stop them more often than older people.
Labelling theory: criticised as too deterministic, implying a labelled person inevitably becomes deviant and downplaying their free will.
Labelling theory: criticised for not explaining primary deviance — why a person commits the first deviant act before any label is applied.
Crime: behaviour that breaks the formal written law of a society and is punishable by the state (e.g. police, courts).
Deviance: behaviour that breaks the norms or expectations of a society; it may be disapproved of but is not always illegal.
Deviant career: the process by which a labelled person becomes increasingly involved in deviance, often joining a deviant subculture.
Family: the agency of primary socialisation, teaching children society's norms and values from an early age.
Formal social control: based on written rules and laws enforced by official agencies that apply formal sanctions.
Formal social control: the regulation of behaviour through official agencies and written rules, such as the police, courts and prisons.
Informal social control: exercised through unwritten norms and informal sanctions by agencies of socialisation rather than the state.
Informal social control: the everyday pressure to conform through unwritten norms, applied by agents such as family, peers, education and religion.
Institutional racism: racial discrimination built into the normal working practices of an organisation, such as biased stop-and-search by the police.
Master status: when the deviant label becomes the main way a person is seen, overriding all their other identities.
Merton: a functionalist who explained crime through the structure of society rather than individual choice.
Innovation: Merton's response where a person accepts the cultural goals (such as wealth) but uses illegitimate, usually criminal, means to reach them.
Retreatism: the response where a person rejects both the goals and the legitimate means and drops out of society, e.g. drug addicts.
Ritualism: the response where a person gives up on the success goals but still follows the legitimate rules and means, e.g. a worker in a dead-end job.
Official crime statistics: collected by the police and published by the government, and are used to calculate the crime rate (offences per 1,000 people).
Sanctions: rewards or punishments used to enforce norms; positive sanctions reward conformity, negative sanctions punish deviance.
Social control: the way a society regulates members' behaviour to gain conformity to its norms, values and laws.; Young people may offend because of peer influence, status frustration, boredom and risk-taking, with offending falling as people gain work and family responsibilities.; Becker (Outsiders, 1963) argued deviance is not inherent in an act but is created when society labels behaviour as deviant: "deviant behaviour is behaviour people so label".; Labelling can trigger a self-fulfilling prophecy, leading a person into a deviant career and a deviant subculture.; Becker's labelling theory is an interactionist explanation that focuses on how society reacts to an act, not on the causes of the act itself.; A deviant label can become a master status: the deviant identity overrides all the person's other identities in how others see them.; Becker argued deviance is "not a quality of the act a person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions".; Carlen's "class deal" is the promise that women who work for a wage will be rewarded with consumer goods and a decent standard of living.; Carlen's 'class deal' is the promise that women who work for a wage will be rewarded with consumer goods and a decent standard of living.; Carlen argued working-class women turn to crime as a rational choice when the class deal and gender deal break down and offer them no rewards.; Carlen's "gender deal" is the promise that women who conform to a domestic, family role will receive love and financial support from a male partner.

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The sociological approach

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Achieved status: a social position gained through a person's own efforts, talent or choices, such as becoming a doctor or qualifying as a teacher.
Ascribed status: a social position fixed at birth and not changeable through effort, such as that based on age, sex or the family one is born into.
Authority: power that is seen as legitimate (rightful) and so is accepted and obeyed by those subject to it.
Culture: the shared way of life of a group or society, including its beliefs, customs, knowledge, language, norms and values.
Discrimination: treating a person or group unfairly, usually less favourably, because of a characteristic such as their sex, ethnicity, age or class.
Family: the primary agent of socialisation because it is where a child first learns norms and values.
Feminism: a conflict theory arguing society is patriarchal: it is organised to benefit men and to disadvantage and oppress women.
Feral children: children who have grown up isolated from human contact and so lack socialisation, leaving them unable to behave as full members of society.
Formal social control: exercised by official agencies such as the police and the courts, using formal sanctions like fines and imprisonment.
Functionalism: a consensus structural theory: society depends on shared norms and values (a value consensus) to function in a stable, orderly way.
Identity: the sense of who we are — the characteristics and qualities that define us — and sociologists see it as shaped by social factors.
Interactionism: an interpretivist micro theory focusing on the small-scale meanings and interpretations people attach to interactions, rather than large social structures.
Labelling: judging a person on superficial characteristics such as their apparent class, sex or ethnicity; the person may come to see themselves in terms of the label.
Marxism: a conflict structural theory: society is divided into two main classes whose interests are opposed, the bourgeoisie (ruling class) and the proletariat (working class).
Media: a secondary agent of socialisation, transmitting norms, values and images of social roles to large audiences.
Nature: the view that behaviour is caused by innate biological factors such as genes, instincts and hormones.
Norms: the specific, unwritten rules of expected behaviour in particular situations.
Nurture: the view that behaviour is learned through socialisation, culture and interaction with others.
Canalisation: Oakley's term for parents directing children towards sex-stereotyped toys and objects, channelling them into gendered roles.
Manipulation: Oakley's term for the way parents encourage gender-appropriate behaviour and appearance, e.g. dressing and grooming baby girls differently from boys.
Verbal appellation: Oakley's term for using language such as "brave boy" or "pretty girl" to reinforce gender identity.
Power: the ability of an individual or group to get what they want, or to make others do something, even against their wishes.
Primary socialisation: the first stage of socialisation and takes place in the family.
Primary socialisation: the first and most important stage, taking place mainly within the family, where a child learns basic norms and values.
Religion: a secondary agent of socialisation, teaching moral codes and values that guide behaviour.
Re-socialisation: learning a new set of norms and values, for example when joining the armed forces or starting a new job, often replacing previous ones.
Role: the set of behaviour expected of a person occupying a particular social position, such as the role of teacher, parent or student.
Norms: reinforced through sanctions: positive sanctions (rewards) for conforming and negative sanctions (punishments) for breaking them.
Social control: the means by which society makes its members conform to norms, through formal sanctions (e.g. the law and police) and informal sanctions (e.g. disapproval from family or peers).
Socialisation: the lifelong process of learning the norms, values and culture of one's society.

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Education

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'A-to-C economy': the pressure on schools to maximise the proportion of pupils gaining five good GCSEs (grades A*–C / 9–4), which drives educational triage.
Boys' relative underachievement: linked to poorer literacy, anti-school 'laddish' subcultures and lower classroom motivation.
Durkheim: school as a "society in miniature" where children learn to cooperate with people who are neither family nor friends, preparing them for wider society.
Ethnocentric curriculum: a curriculum that prioritises one culture (typically White British), which can disadvantage some ethnic-minority pupils.
Hidden curriculum: the set of values and behaviours pupils learn through the experience of school that are not part of the formal, taught curriculum.
Hidden curriculum: the informal teaching of norms and values (such as obedience, punctuality and competition) through school routines rather than the formal timetable.
Labelling: attaching a meaning or definition (such as "bright" or "lazy") to a pupil; interactionists argue teachers often label on appearance, behaviour and class rather than ability.
Colin Lacey's differentiation: the process by which teachers categorise and rank pupils by perceived ability and behaviour; streaming is a form of differentiation.
Lacey's polarisation: the process by which pupils respond to differentiation by moving to opposite "poles" — a pro-school or an anti-school subculture.
Lacey's polarisation: the process by which pupils respond to differentiation by moving to opposite 'poles' — a pro-school or an anti-school subculture.
Material deprivation: poverty and a lack of physical resources such as adequate housing, money for equipment, and quiet study space, which disadvantage working-class pupils.
Pro-school subculture: a group of pupils who accept the school's values and seek status through academic success and good behaviour.
Self-fulfilling prophecy: when a label (prediction) comes true simply because it was made: a pupil internalises the label and behaves to match it.
Pupil subculture: a group of pupils sharing similar norms and values; subcultures are described as pro-school or anti-school.; The "A-to-C economy" is the pressure on schools to maximise the proportion of pupils gaining five good GCSEs (grades A*–C / 9–4), which drives educational triage.; An anti-school (counter-school) subculture rejects the school's values, gaining status from rule-breaking and disruption rather than academic success.; Stephen Ball's Beachside Comprehensive (1981) found that abolishing banding reduced the influence of anti-school subcultures, though teachers still labelled pupils.; Howard Becker argued teachers judge pupils against an image of the "ideal pupil", and middle-class pupils tend to fit this image and are placed in higher streams.; Howard Becker found teachers judge pupils against an image of the 'ideal pupil' that matches middle-class characteristics, positively labelling middle-class pupils.; Basil Bernstein argued working-class pupils use a restricted speech code while schools and teachers use the elaborated code, advantaging middle-class pupils.; Bowles and Gintis directly oppose the functionalist view: where functionalists see meritocracy and value consensus, Marxists see a myth of meritocracy that hides ruling-class control.; Bowles and Gintis set out their Marxist theory of education in their 1976 book Schooling in Capitalist America.; Middle-class pupils on average achieve higher GCSE results than working-class pupils, a persistent attainment gap in the UK.; School corresponds to work because both are hierarchical: pupils obey teachers just as workers obey managers.; The correspondence principle states there is a close match between the social relationships of school and the social relationships of the workplace.; A criticism of the claim that school simply teaches obedience and fixed skills is that modern economies increasingly need active, creative and adaptable workers, not passive ones.; Mitsos and Browne link boys' underachievement to a "crisis of masculinity": the decline of heavy industry removed traditional male jobs, undermining boys' motivation to gain qualifications.; Mitsos and Browne link boys' underachievement to a 'crisis of masculinity': the decline of heavy industry removed traditional male jobs, undermining boys' motivation to gain qualifications.; Pierre Bourdieu argued the middle class possess cultural capital — knowledge, language, tastes and values valued by schools — giving their children an advantage.; Cultural deprivation theory claims some working-class children lack the values, attitudes, language and skills needed for educational success because of inadequate socialisation at home.

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Sociological research methods

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Aim: a broad statement of what the researcher intends to study or find out; it is wider and less specific than a hypothesis.
Census: a government survey of every household in the UK, carried out every ten years, and is a key source of official statistics.
Documents: a type of secondary source and include personal documents (diaries, letters, autobiographies) and public/official documents (reports, records, newspapers).
Informed consent: participants should know they are being studied and agree to take part understanding the research purpose.
Generalisation: applying the findings from a representative sample to the wider population being studied.
Hawthorne effect: when people who know they are being studied change their behaviour, which lowers the validity of the data.
Overt observation: the method most at risk of the Hawthorne effect because participants know they are being watched.
Interviewer effect: when the interviewee is influenced by the interviewer's presence and gives answers they think are wanted rather than honest ones, lowering validity.
Official statistics: quantitative secondary data collected by the government or official bodies (e.g. crime, unemployment, census figures), in the UK largely by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Operationalisation: defining an abstract concept (e.g. social class) in a way that can be measured and collected as data, such as using parents' occupation.
Overt observation: the most ethical form of observation because it needs no deception and participants can give informed consent.
Pilot study: a small-scale trial run of research carried out before the main study to check that questions, sampling and methods work and to identify problems or bias.
Primary data: information collected first-hand by the sociologist for their own research, e.g. through questionnaires, interviews or observation.
Primary data: information collected first-hand by the researcher themselves, for example through questionnaires or interviews.
Primary data: information collected first-hand by the researcher for their own specific study.
Qualitative data: typically gathered through unstructured interviews, participant observation and personal documents.
Qualitative methods: usually seen as having higher validity because they capture depth, detail and meaning.
Qualitative data: descriptive, word-based data expressing feelings, meanings and experiences (e.g. quotes from interviews or extracts from diaries).
Qualitative data: non-numerical information about meanings, feelings and experiences, usually expressed in words.
Quantitative data: typically gathered through social surveys, structured questionnaires and official statistics.
Quantitative methods: usually seen as more reliable and produce data that is easy to compare and generalise.
Quantitative data: numerical data that can be counted and presented as statistics, tables or graphs (e.g. birth rates, unemployment rates).
Quantitative data: numerical information about social patterns and trends that can be analysed statistically.
Questionnaire: a list of pre-set written questions that respondents complete themselves, by post or online, or which are read out by an interviewer.
Reliability: that repeating research with the same method would produce the same results (it can be replicated).
Reliability: a method produces consistent, repeatable results if the research is carried out again.
Reliability: whether a method would produce the same results if the study were repeated by another researcher.
Reliability: whether research would produce the same results if repeated by another researcher using the same method.
Representativeness: the sample reflects the characteristics of the wider target population, allowing generalisation.
Representativeness: the sample studied accurately reflects the wider population, so findings can be generalised.

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