IGCSE Sociology Revision Notes: Key Concepts & Theories

1. Culture, Norms, and Values

• Culture: The shared way of life of a society, including its language, beliefs, values, norms, customs, and material artifacts.
• Norms: Social rules that govern behavior in specific situations. They can be formal (laws) or informal (customs).
• Values: General principles or beliefs that guide behavior and shape what is considered good, bad, right, or wrong within a society.

2. Socialisation

• Definition: The lifelong process through which individuals learn the norms, values, behaviors, and social skills appropriate to their society.
• Primary Socialisation: Occurs in early childhood, primarily within the family, where basic norms and values are learned.
• Secondary Socialisation: Takes place outside the family, in institutions like schools, peer groups, workplaces, and through media, teaching specialized skills and social roles.

3. Social Control

• Definition: The methods used by a society to ensure that individuals conform to its norms and values.
• Formal Social Control: Exercised by official agencies (e.g., police, courts, prisons) through laws and regulations.
• Informal Social Control: Exercised by family, peers, and community through praise, criticism, disapproval, or ostracism.

4. Social Stratification and Class

• Social Stratification: The division of society into a hierarchy of layers or strata based on factors like wealth, income, status, or power.
• Social Class: A system of stratification based primarily on economic factors (e.g., occupation, income, wealth). Main classes include upper, middle, and working class.
• Social Mobility: The movement of individuals or groups between different social positions.

5. Poverty and Inequality

• Absolute Poverty: Lacking the basic necessities for survival (e.g., food, water, shelter).
• Relative Poverty: Having fewer resources than others in the same society, leading to exclusion from typical activities and living standards.
• Causes of Poverty: Unemployment, low wages, lack of education, illness, discrimination, government policies.

6. The Family

• Definition: A group of people linked by kinship, marriage, cohabitation, or adoption, typically living together and providing for each other's needs.
• Types of Family: Nuclear (parents and children), Extended (nuclear plus other relatives), Single-parent, Reconstituted.
• Functions of the Family: Socialisation, reproduction, economic support, emotional support.

7. Education

• Functions of Education: Socialisation (learning societal norms), skill development, social placement (allocating roles), social control, promoting social cohesion.
• Differential Educational Achievement: Variations in academic success among different social groups (e.g., by social class, gender, ethnicity), often linked to factors like cultural capital, material deprivation, and school factors.

8. Crime and Deviance

• Deviance: Behavior that violates social norms and expectations. Not all deviance is criminal.
• Crime: Behavior that violates formal laws and is subject to punishment by the state.
• Sociological Explanations of Crime: Poverty, subcultures, labeling theory, anomie (normlessness).

9. Mass Media

• Definition: Forms of communication (e.g., television, radio, internet, newspapers) that reach a large audience.
• Functions of Media: Information, entertainment, socialisation, surveillance (reporting events), interpretation (explaining events).
• Influence of Media: Agenda setting, moral panics, stereotyping, shaping public opinion.

10. Sociological Research Methods

Sociologists use various methods to collect and analyze data about society:

• Quantitative Methods: Focus on numerical data and statistics (e.g., surveys, questionnaires, official statistics). Aims for generalizability and objectivity.
• Qualitative Methods: Focus on in-depth understanding and rich descriptions (e.g., interviews, observations, case studies). Aims to explore meanings and experiences.
• Ethical Considerations: Informed consent, confidentiality, anonymity, protection from harm, objectivity.