Category: Social Theory (A2)
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Sociological Perspectives on Veganuary
Launched in the United Kingdom in January 2014, Veganuary is a global campaign that encourages people to try eating a vegan diet for the month of January. Veganuary is dedicated to changing public attitudes, while providing all the information and practical support required to make the transition to veganism as easy and enjoyable as possible.…
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A Sociological Christmas
Family, friends, gifting and food, these are the main things which people say makes ‘Christmas important to them’, at least according to a survey carried out by YouGov this time last year, on behalf of the British Humanist Association… And less than 25% of the population seem to think religion is an important part of…
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The Steps of Quantitative Research
There are 11 stages of quantitative research: 1. Start with a theory; 2: develop a hypothesis; 3: Research design; 4: operationalise concepts; 5: select a research site; 6: sampling 7: data collection; 8: data processing; 9: data analysis; 10: findings/ conclusion; 11: publishing results.
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An Introduction to Social Action Theory
individuals are active and social theory needs to develop an empathetic understanding of people’s actions.
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Bauman’s ‘The Individualised Society’ – A Summary of the Preface
It may sound odd doing a summary of a preface, but there is a lot of heavy stuff in here…. According to Bauman ‘Sociology can help us link our individual decisions and actions to the deeper cause of our troubles and fears – to the way we live, to the conditions under which we act,…
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Sociological Perspectives – Key Supporting Evidence
Below are a few quantitative and qualitative sources (case studies and statistics) that can be used to illustrate aspects of the main perspectives within A-level sociology – Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism, Social Action Theory and Post and Late Modernism Functionalism Bruce Parry: participant observation with ‘The Tribe’ Educating Yorkshire Official statistics show declining family Size Cross…
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Sociology and Science – Some Key Terms
Bias – where someone’s personal, subjective feelings or thoughts affect one’s judgement. Falsification – where scientists attempt to design experiments to disprove a hypothesis rather to prove a hypothesis correct. Generalisability – the extent to which research findings can be applied to other (similar) cases Hawthorne effect – where respondents alter their behaviour because…
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Outline and explain two reasons why Positivists generally prefer to use quantitative methods (10)
The theory and methods 10 mark question appears as a special treat at the end of paper 1 (Education, Methods in Context and Theory and Methods), you’ll also get a big 30 mark essay question at the end of paper 3 (Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods) too, but more about the 30 markers…
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Bourdieu’s Structuration Theory
Bourdieu didn’t like the label ‘social theorist’ because he insisted that there was a fundamentally important relationship between empirical data, research methods and ‘theory’. He was not interested in making grand theoretical claims, but rather was engaged in examining particular substantive areas (fields) of social life that existed at particular times and places, such as…
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Structuration Theory – A Summary
From a structurationist perspective, a social theory must explain both social reproduction (social order being reproduced over time by people continuing to act in ways inherited from the past) and social transformation (how social order is changed by people, intentionally or unintentionally, through their interactions. Structuration theory seeks to overcome what it sees as the…
