A Level Sociology

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Guaranteed exam place: venues in Bristol, Harrogate, Birmingham & London.

Specification
AQA AS and A2 Sociology (1191/2191)

Course Overview
Perhaps you have recently taken our GCSE Sociology course and are seeking a more in-depth exploration of this most fascinating subject. If so, welcome back!  If not—if you have never taken a sociology course before—do not worry!  We have, indeed, designed this AS and A Level Sociology Course as a follow on from our riveting GCSE course; however, there are no prerequisites.  All that we ask is that you dedicate a few hours of your week to learning about your society in a whole new and exciting way.  We will even give you the opportunity to focus on topics that interest you most!  Ultimately, we aim to provide you with a smooth transition into higher educational and future career pursuits within the social sciences.

Each of the four units will provide you with a choice of topics; however, each unit is organised differently—some include obligatory questions regarding theory and methodology. Be sure to read this outline carefully so that you fully understand what will be required of you.

Course Content
Integral Elements and Core Themes
Throughout the entire course, we invite you to consider some basic elements and themes that you will incorporate in your investigation of each individual topic.  You should always consider the general sociological theories, perspectives and methods when examining specific topics (for example, Families and Households or Mass Media). You should be applying research methods by focussing on how sociologists obtain data that you are considering as well as the strengths and weaknesses of their approaches.

Further, you will frequently be asked to return to the following core themes:

Socialisation, culture and identity
Social differentiation, power and stratification.

These themes should not be considered as discrete topics, but rather, should be interpreted broadly as threads that run through many areas of social life.

Unit 1 - SCLY 1 (AS Level)
Culture and Identity; Families and Households; Wealth Poverty and Welfare.

In this section, we invite you to examine all three topics; however, you will be required to select one of the three topics for the assessment question, which will consist of five parts.  Throughout your exploration of Unit 1, you should consider each topic (especially your chosen topic!) in relation to the above mentioned core themes.  You should also begin the process of linking these topics to one another and with other any areas of sociology that you may have already studied.

You should examine both evidence of and sociological explanations for the content listed under each of the three topics below.

Culture and Identity
The socialization process and the role of agencies of socialization.

Different conceptions of culture, including subculture, mass culture, high and low culture, global culture and popular culture.

Sources and different conceptions of the self, identity and difference.

How identity is shaped by age, ethnicity, disability, gender, nationality, sexuality, and social class in contemporary society.

Leisure, consumption and identity.
Families and Households
The way in which social structure and social change impacts the family, with emphasis on the impact of economic trends and state policies.

The diversity of contemporary household structures and families: changes in patterns of marriage, cohabitation, separation, divorce, child-bearing, and the life-course.

How gender roles, domestic labour and power relationships may change and/or shape contemporary families, and to what extent.

The status of children in society and in the family and the nature of childhood in general.

Shifts in demographic trends: reasons for changes in birth rates, death rates and family size in the UK since 1900.

Wealth, Poverty and Welfare
How to define and measure poverty, wealth, and income.

How poverty, wealth, and income is distributed between different social groups.

The existence and persistence of poverty in society today.

Social responses to poverty—specifically, the role of social policy since the 1940s.

The role and nature of welfare provision (public, private, voluntary and informal) in contemporary society.

Unit 2—SCLY 2 (AS Level)
Education; Health; Sociological Methods

In this section, you are invited to examine all topics and must choose one topic—either Education or Health—on which you will be assessed with one, five-part question.  Additionally, you will answer one question on sociological research methods in context and one question on research methods.

Again, as in Unit 1, you should relate the following topics to the two core themes listed above (socialisation, culture and identity and social differentiation, power and stratification).  You should continue to draw links between these topics and other topics already studied.  Also, you should try to apply examples from your own experience with small-scale social research throughout the following sections.

You must also examine both evidence of and sociological explanations for the content listed in the three topic areas below.

Education
How education functions in contemporary society; the roles and purposes of education (vocational education and training).

Correlations between social classifications—class, gender and ethnicity—and differences in educational achievement.

What goes on in schools—pupil/teacher relationships, pupil subcultures, ‘hidden’ curriculum, and the organization of teaching and learning.

How educational policies (selection, marketisation, comprehensivisation) lead to an understanding of the structure, role, impact and experience of education.

Applying sociological research methods to the study of education.

Health
How health, illness, disability and the body can be assessed both as social and biological constructs.

Correlations between factors such as social class, age, gender, ethnicity and religion and the (unequal) distribution of health and illness in the UK.

Access to/provision of healthcare in the UK (and inequalities thereof).

Examination of the nature and distribution of mental illness through sociological studies.

Role of medicine/health professions in society.

Applying sociological research methods to the study of health.

Sociological Methods
Assessing qualitative and quantitative research methods (strengths, limitations and research designs of each).

Different sources of data: questionnaires, interviews, participant observation, non-participant observation, experiments, documents, and official statistics (strengths, limitations of these sources).

Distinctions between primary/secondary data and between quantitative/qualitative data.

The relationship between positivism, interpretivism and sociological methods, as well as the nature of ‘social facts’.

Selection of research topics/methods: theoretical, practical and ethical considerations.

UNIT 3—SCLY 3 (A2 Level)
Beliefs in Society; Global Development; Mass Media; Power and Politics

In this section, you should combine the knowledge and practical skills learned throughout this course when examining each topic.  You will be expected to engage in theoretical debates and to become very aware of, and involved in, sociological research processes related to each topic.

You will be examined on one of the four topics with one compulsory question, as well as one additional question, which you will select from a choice of two questions.

Again, you should be able to approach each topic using sociological theory and research methods and, as always, you will be expected to relate each topic back to the two core themes listed above (socialisation, culture and identity and social differentiation, power and stratification).

You will be expected to recognise evidence of, and sociological explanations for, the content listed below the four topic areas below.

Beliefs in Society
Theories of ideology, science and religion (including both Christian and non-Christian traditions).

Correlations between religious beliefs and social stability/social change.

Various religious organizations—sects, cults, denominations, New Age movements—and their relationships to religious/spiritual beliefs and practice.

How different social groups may engage in differing religious/spiritual organisations, movements, beliefs, and practices.

Contemporary perspectives on religion and religiosity/global perspectives on secularization.

Global Development
Theories of development, underdevelopment, and global inequality.

Globalisation—how global aid/trade impacts political, economic and cultural relationships between societies.

Local and global strategies of development through nongovernmental agencies, transnational corporations and international agencies.

Linking development studies to industrialisation, urbanisation, the environment, war and conflict.

How employment, education, health, demographic shifts and gender can be considered as aspects of development.

Mass Media
Issues of ownership and control of mass media.

Relationships between mass media, globalisation and popular culture.

How news content is selected and presented to mass audiences.

Representations (via media) of age, social class, ethnicity, gender sexuality and disability.

Relationships between mass media, media content/presentation and audiences.

How new media has become significant in contemporary society.

Power and Politics
Theories of nature and distribution of power.

The role of the contemporary state.

Forms of political participation—voting behaviour, political action, protest, membership of political organizations/movements—and how these forms have changed overtime.

Shaping roles of political parties, interest groups, new social movements and mass media in the political process.

How knowledge of globalisation contributes to an understanding of contemporary power/politics.

UNIT 4—SCLY 4 (A2 Level)
Crime and Deviance; Stratification and Differentiation; Theory and Methods.

In the final section, as in UNIT 2, you are invited to explore all topics and must choose one topic—in this case, either Crime and Deviance or Stratification and Differentiation—on which you will be assessed with one, five-part question.  Additionally, you will answer one question on sociological research methods in context and one question on research methods.

You should apply your consolidated knowledge of sociological theory and practice throughout this unit by engaging in theoretical debates and becoming actively involved in research processes related to each topic.  You are encouraged to draw on examples of your own experiences of small-scale social research.

Again, you should be able to approach each topic using sociological theory and research methods and, as always, you will be expected to relate each topic back to the two core themes listed above (socialisation, culture and identity and social differentiation, power and stratification).

Finally, you should examine the evidence of, and sociological explanations for, the content listed under the topics below.

Crime and Deviance
Theories of crime, deviance, social control and social order.

Patterns in crime distribution—how crime is socially distributed by age, ethnicity, gender, locality, and social class.

Special topics: mass media and crime, globalization and crime in contemporary society, green crime, human rights and state crime.

Crime control, victims, prevention and punishment, and the role of the criminal justice system.

Sociological study of suicide (emphasis on theoretical and methodological implications).

Connecting theory to method in studies of crime and deviance.

Stratification and Differentiation
Theories of stratification (i.e. stratification by social class, gender, ethnicity and age).

Dimensions of inequality (class, status, and power) and studies of life chances, as varied according to class, gender, ethnicity, age and disability.

The inherent problems of defining and measuring social class; studies of occupation, gender and social class.

Structures of inequality—changes and implications.

Patterns of social mobility—nature and significance.

Applying sociological theory/methods to studies of stratification and differentiation.

Theory and Methods
For the final section, you should study the following areas, which were also studied in UNIT 2 of the AS Level:

Assessing qualitative and quantitative research methods (strengths, limitations and research designs of each).

Different sources of data: questionnaires, interviews, participant observation, non-participant observation, experiments, documents, and official statistics (strengths, limitations of these sources).

Distinctions between primary/secondary data and between quantitative/qualitative data.

The relationship between positivism, interpretivism and sociological methods, as well as the nature of ‘social facts’.

Selection of research topics/methods: theoretical, practical and ethical considerations.

AS an A2 candidates, you should further:
Demonstrate a greater depth of knowledge/wider range ok knowledge than at the AS level.

Approach sociological enquiry and the nature of sociological thought in greater range/depth, while demonstrating more advanced application, analysis, interpretation and evaluation than at the AS level.

Lastly, you are required, at the A2 level, to study and understand:
Structural, social action, consensus and conflict theories.

The concepts of modernity and post-modernity in relation to sociological theory.

The nature of science/to what extent sociology can be considered ‘scientific’.

Relationships between theory and method.

Debates about objectivity, subjectivity and value freedom.

The relationship between sociology and social policy.

Recommended Text
AS Level Sociology: The Complete Course for the AQA Specification   - Rob Webb, Hal Westergaard.

Publisher: Napier Press; 2nd Revised edition edition (28 April 2008)

ISBN-10: 0954007956

ISBN-13: 978-0954007959

Sociology A2 for AQA (Collins A Level Sociology) 

by Stephen Moore, Dave Aiken, Steve Chapman

Publisher: Collins Educational; 3rd Revised edition edition (20 April 2009)

ISBN-10: 0007288441

ISBN-13: 978-0007288441

Study Time
To complete a full A level it will take in the region of 200 study hours.

Pre-requisites
To take an A Level you should have a GCSE grade C or above, or the equivalent and preferably in your chosen subject.

Support
You will have access to tutor via email who will mark your work and guide you through the course to ensure you are ready for your examinations.

Examination Centres
The examining body will provide you with a list of examination centres but it is entirely your responsibility to find a centre which will accept you as an external candidate.

In some cases you should be prepared to travel to another town or city to take your exams.

The contract for sitting exams is between you and the centre  and we will provide you with comprehensive instructions on when and how to deal with the examination centre.
 
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Do your courses meet the latest syllabus changes?
A. yes, all our course materials meet any changes and will be updated free of charge if further changes are made.

Q. Why do I have to find a centre myself?
A. We have students all over the UK and Europe and it is impossible for us to arrange dates and times for individual students.

Q. What if I cannot find an examination centre in my home town?
A. If you wish to gain the qualification then be prepared to travel it is worth it!

Q. How much are exam fees?
A. These vary from centre to centre so please check with your local centre.

Q. Are the courses paper based or on-line?
A. All our courses are paper based and come in attractive sturdy folders.

Q. How do I contact my tutor?
A. Tutors are all working Teachers or Lecturers so contact is by email only.

Q. Why can I not take my exams when I have completed the course and why do I have to wait?
A. Exams are taken at the same times as schools and colleges and are not flexible.

Q. I want to take my exams but there are only a few months to study, is this possible?
A. Depending on the time of year, it is sometimes impossible to complete your studies in a short space of time as your work has to be marked and checked. More importantly the examination boards have cut off times which are not flexible. See our web site for further information.

Q. Will I receive UCAS points on completion of this course?
A. Yes all of our A Levels carry UCAS points. The number of points awarded will depend on the grade you achieve.