A model answer for a 10 mark ‘outline and explain’ question on the AQA’s A level sociology paper 2 (families and households)
A model answer to a possible 10 mark ‘outline and explain’ question, written for the A-level sociology AQA A-level paper 7192/2: topics within sociology: families and households section).
Question
Outline and explain two social changes which may explain the decline of marriage in recent decades (10)
Model Answer
The first social factor is in more depth than the second.
Economic changes such as the increasing cost of housing and the increasing cost of weddings may explain the decline of marriage:
Young adults stay living with their parents longer to save up for a mortgage, often into their 30s. Men especially might feel embarrassed to marry if they still live with their parents, because it’s not very ‘masculine’. This also reflects the importance changing gender roles: now women are taking on the ‘breadwinner role’, there’s no obvious need to marry a man. This applies especially to low income earning, working class men.
Furthermore, it’s often a choice between ‘marriage’ or ‘house deposit’: most people just co-habit because they can’t afford to get married. People would rather by a house because ‘material security’ is more important than the ‘security of marriage’. People also fail to save for weddings because of the pressure to consume in postmodern society. However, this only applies to those who want a big ‘traditional’ wedding, which costs £15K.
The significance of economic factors criticise the postmodernist view that marriage declining is simply a matter of ‘free-choice’.
A Second reason for the decline of marriage is secularisation, or the decline of religion in society.
Christianity, for example emphasises that marriage is a sacred union for life before God, and that sex should only take place within marriage. With the decline of religion, social values have shifted so that it is now acceptable to have sex before marriage, and with more than one partner, meaning that dating, serial monogamy and cohabitation have all replaced marriage to a large extent.
The decline of religion also reflects the fact that marriage today is not about ‘pleasing society’, it is simply about pleasing the two individuals within the relationship, the ‘pure relationship’ is now the norm, and people no longer feel like they need God’s approval of their relationshp, so there is less social pressure to get married.
However, this trend does vary by ethnicity, and Muslims, Hindus and Jews within Britain are all much more likely to get married in a religious ceremony.
I’m just in the process of re-examining the AQA’s ‘specification’/ vaguefication* for the sociology of education section to get a better idea of what kind of 10 mark ‘analyse’ questions might come up.
In case you don’t know (and you wouldn’t know this unless you’ve been on a course run by the AQA) a 10 mark ‘analyse’ question will take any aspect from any two of the bullet points in the AQA’s specification and ask you to make the links between them (with reference to a small item)….
Now… IF you’re already aware of this, then you probably know that there’s four main topic areas listed under the education specification/ vagueficiation, hence it’s quite easy to think up some nice combination questions taken from across these four bullet points.
HOWEVER, this might not be the limit of 10 mark question combinations – because under the education section of the A-level specification/ vagueification there is also specific reference to the ‘6 core themes’ of socialisation, power etc… so this might open up the possible of an even greater array of 10 markers.
A few possible 10 mark analyse questions:
Using material from Item A (remember there will be an item!) analyse two ways in which the functions of education have changed due to globalization.
Using material from Item A, analyse two ways in which selection policies might have influenced the process of teacher labeling.
Using material from Item A, analyse two ways in which the privatization of education has affected the way in which different ethnic groups experience school.
Using material from Item A and elsewhere , analyse two criticisms of the view that the hidden curriculum in schools helps to reproduce economic inequalities in wider society.
Using material from Item A and elsewhere, analyse two ways in which education policies might help overcome some of the disadvantages boys face as a result of gendered socialization practices.
I know some of these are just horrible, but remember, that the AQA has a burning hatred of all teenagers, and at least the above questions make sense, unlike some which have come up previously!
A reminder of the AQA’s specification for the education section of A-level paper one:
The study of the topics in this paper should engage students in theoretical debate while encouraging an active involvement with the research process.
The study should foster a critical awareness of contemporary social processes and change, and draw together the knowledge, understanding and skills learnt in different aspects of the course.
In their study of the topics, students should examine:
topic areas in relation to the two core themes (socialisation, culture and identity; and social differentiation, power and stratification)
both the evidence of and the sociological explanations for the content listed in the topic areas below.
Throughout, students should be encouraged to use examples drawn from their own experience of small-scale research.
Attention should be given to drawing out links with other topics studied in this specification
4.1.1 Education
Students are expected to be familiar with sociological explanations of the following content:
the role and functions of the education system, including its relationship to the economy and to class structure
differential educational achievement of social groups by social class, gender and ethnicity in contemporary society
relationships and processes within schools, with particular reference to teacher/pupil relationships, pupil identities and subcultures, the hidden curriculum, and the organisation of teaching and learning
the significance of educational policies, including policies of selection, marketisation and privatisation, and policies to achieve greater equality of opportunity or outcome, for an understanding of the structure, role, impact and experience of and access to education; the impact of globalisation on educational policy.
*I prefer the term vagueification because this ‘specification’ doesn’t actually give us a precise idea about what might come up in the exam – nowhere in the above specification does it explicitly state you need to know (for example) about ‘Chinese’ students or ‘compensatory education’, yet these have both come up in previous exam papers. Thus this specification gives you a vague idea of what might come up, not a specific idea. To get a more specific idea, you need to spend a few years teaching or examining A level sociology, read the four main text books and and intuit the advice circulating about the content of A-level.
Neoliberal ideas were much stronger in the Coalition government’s education policies—in a context of public sector cuts, they focused mainly on the further marketization of education, scrapping many of New Labour’s policies to tackle inequality of opportunity
Funding cuts to education
Spending on education in the UK fell by almost 15% between 2010-11 and 2014-15. The government argues it needs to do this pay of the country’s debt.
However, critics say this is an ideological commitment to keeping taxes low. The Coalition could easily find the money to fund education if it taxed the rich more.
Marketization policies
The Coalition greatly increased the number academies, by allowing any school to convert to an academy if the school and parents wanted it and by forcing ‘satisfactory’ or below schools to become academies.
Free Schools—free schools are new schools set up by parents or charitable organisations. They are free from the National Curriculum and give parents even more choice over schooling.
Policies to improve equality of opportunity
Scrapped the Educational Maintenance Allowance AND Reduced funding to Sure Start Centres
Introduced the Pupil Premium—schools to get extra funding for each student they take from a low income household (approximately £600 per poor kid)
Introduced maintenance HE grants for children from low income backgrounds.
Positive evaluations
Standards have continued to increase
The attainment gap (between FSM and non FSM pupils has decreased)
All this by spending less.
Criticisms
Free schools reduce funding for other local education authority schools, advantaging middle class parents
The scrapping of the EMA lowered the stay on rate in Further Education.
Considerable regional inequalities remain—for example up north and coastal areas.
Exam practice question –
Outline three reasons why government education policies aimed at raising educational achievement among disadvantaged groups may not always succeed. [6 marks]
Answer using the (1+1) format – give a reason and explain how… do this three times for a total of 6 MARKS!
Some examples of possible short answer question and answers for the education section of AS Sociology Paper 7191 (1)
Examples of ‘define’ questions (2 marks)
Question: Define the Term ‘meritocracy’ (2)
Answer: where an individual is rewarded on the basis of ability and effort – a fair system of reward
Question: Define the ‘the reproduction of class inequality’ (2)
Where social class based differences in income, education and wealth are carried on from one generation to the next
E.g. – Where working class children fail in education and go on to get working class jobs, and vice versa for middle class children.
Question: Define the term ‘neoliberalism’ (2)
Answer: A theory that believes in societies being run according to market principles. The idea that the government should be as small as possible and keep out of the affairs of private enterprise (businesses)
Examples of ‘using one example, explain what is meant by’
Question: Using one example identify and briefly explain what is meant by the term ‘Role Allocation’ (2)
Where individuals are sifted and sorted into appropriate jobs based on the qualifications they achieve – E.G. someone passes a law degree to get a job as a lawyer.
Question: Using one example identify and briefly explain what is meant by the term ‘correspondence principle’ (2)
Where what pupils learn at school prepares them for future exploitation at work – E.G. accepting authority of teachers at school then accepting the authority of managers at work,.
Question: Using one example identify and briefly explain one way in which neoliberal ideas have influenced education policy (2)
Answer: The idea that businesses should play more of a role in running the education system – E.G. The setting up of academies
My weekly ‘Monday teaching and learning’ post: I’ve been thinking about questioning in A-level Sociology recently,* in particular I’ve been asking myself ‘what are the best quick-fire questions to ask students about theories and concepts’ and ‘what’s the best way to present these questions’?
By ‘best’ I mean what kinds of questioning style will most effectively develop knowledge recall, understanding and the skills of application, analysis and evaluation? And how can this be done quickly!
I’m only really interested here in questioning as a review activity (not the kinds of question you ask during a regular lesson), so this is meant for recapping previous lessons work, as part of a plenary, or as part of a revision lesson.
As I see it, the most effective way to ask questions is to do so in a hierarchical order, starting with basic recall, and moving up through application, analysis, and evaluation, and you could even tag on a conclusion type question at the end.
I tend to ask eight questions to recap any theory or concept… In the example below, I used these questions on a PPT with the headings as titles and the prompts in the main body of each slide. This was a simple, verbal pair-work recap task (with the usual further development questions tagged on). There’s also nothing from stopping you dumping these questions onto Socrative.
I also use prompts to speed things up, and you could of course make these prompts as cards and for each slide get students to do ranking/ sorting exercises.
Eight Questions About Dependency Theory
(which could be asked about any other theory or concept)
(AO1) Explain why poor countries are poor according to Dependency Theory
HINT: Use the following concepts…
Marxism
Colonialism
Neocolonialism
Exploitation
Core-Satellite
Communism
(A01) Give some examples which best illustrates Dependency Theory
Try to think of one ‘developed’ and one ‘less developed’ nation
(AO2) Apply Dependency Theory to something else…
Use Dependency Theory to evaluate Modernisation Theory
What do you think the function of education in poor countries might be according to Dependency Theory?
(A03) Analyse Dependency Theory: How does the theory/ concept relate to the following concepts below:
Marxist theory more generally
Inequality
Power
Capitalism
(A03) Analyse Dependency Theory
Who developed it (where did it come from)?
If you could convince everyone it’s true, then whose interests does it serve?
(AO3) Evaluate Dependency Theory using evidence
Identify as many pieces of supporting evidence as you can
Identify as many pieces of counter-evidence as you can…
(A03) Evaluate using other theories
HINT: What would Modernization Theory say about this theory?
(AO2) Interim Conclusion – How useful is Dependency Theory?
HINT: Where ’10’ is explains everything and 0 is explains nothing, what score would you give Dependency Theory out of 10 in explaining why rich countries and rich and poor countries poor?
Asking these eight questions in relation to other theories and concepts…
Other topics I’ve used this template with recently include (with different prompts) The Functionalist View of Education, The Correspondence Principle (focusing in more deeply on just one Marxist concept of education), The Neoliberal Theory of Economic Development and the concept of Gross National Income as an indicator of development (the kind of concepts this 8 question hierarchy works well for might actually surprise you).
Of course this won’t work for everything and will need tweeking, but to my mind, this is a nice general questioning structure that ticks my 20-80 rule – spend 20 mins prepping to get 80 mins of students doing – NOT the inverse!
*I’m fairly sure this is a big contributor to mental illness among teachers, it’s exhausting.
The issue of why differences in life chances by class, gender and ethnic differences exist forms a major part of any A level sociology syllabus, and I would say the analysis of the reasons behind these social differences is fundamental to sociology’s very self-identity.
Within A level sociology, students need to be able to a very general ‘macro’ analysis the ‘general reasons’ behind differences in life-chances by class gender and ethnicity, and they need to be able to focus in and analyse more specifically the reasons why there are specific variations. For example, across the A level syllabus you might reasonably ask students to do any of the following:
Analyse the reasons for gender differences in the division of labour (families and households)
Analyse the reasons for differences in educational achievement by social class(education)
Analyse two reasons for differences in conviction rates between ethnic minorities (crime and deviance, AND this was an actual question in the AQA’s 2017 paper 3.
The point of this post is to provide a general framework to help students analyse why there are variations in class, gender and ethnicity in so many areas of social life.
A framework for analysing in A level sociology
To analyse the any social difference by class, gender or ethnicity I’d recommend simply looking at the following:
(Functionalism) Socialisation (@home) differences – material versus cultural
(Labelling Theory) Micro processes, especially labelling.
(Postmodernism) – Individual Freedom….
The picture below shows the prompts I use to get students to analyse the reasons for gender differences in child care….
The above is a ‘BIG VERSION’ so it shows up here, I actually provide my students with the following blank A3 grid (prompts are the same as on the big version)
And I Include the following instructions either on the back of the A3 ‘grid’ or on a PPT…
Developing Analysis Skills in Sociology—Instructions
Write in/ place the cards/ discuss the concepts and research evidence you could include in each bubble.
Try to be logical— demonstrate how each ’broken down’ concept forms a ’causal chain’ to answer the question.
You COULD add in evaluation outside each bubble.
If you like ‘subvert the bubbles’ by analysing differently (see below)
Alternative ways of doing it!
Analysing this question from four broad perspectives is only one way of doing it—you could adopt a purely Marxist/ Feminist analysis and analyse using Marxist. Liberal, Radical and Difference Feminism.
You could also analyse this by using different institutions… focus on the family, education, work and the media.
And you could even analyse by research methods—simply macro versus micro….
The idea is that students can develop analysis within each bubble, but also across each bubble, the bubbles on the left and right (as you go down the template) should be especially easy to link together.
Essentially, students need to be able to analyse the reasons for any difference (within education/ families/ crime/ religion/ work, depending on options chose) by any of class/gender/ ethnicity (or two or three of these). This means there are a lot of possible combinations – in other words, there is a limitless amount of fun to be had with developing analysis skills.
Analysis questions in the A level sociology exams
All three of the A level sociology exam papers will have one 10 mark ‘analyse two reasons why’ questions. For example:
Analyse two reasons for gender differences in the division of labour (families and households)
Analyse two reasons for differences in educational achievement by ethnicity (education and research methods
These questions will have an item which will fundamentally limit what reasons students can choose. I’d recommend a different template for specific exam preparation.
More of that later, personally I think it’s better to encourage ‘open analysis’ early on, as this also helps with the ‘outline and explain’ questions as well as any of the essay questions.
Ironically (not surprising for the AQA) the above template is probably better preparation for the 10 mark ‘outline and explain questions’, because good explanation also requires analysis!
Comments welcome!
As far as I see it, the above structure works for any combination of class/ gender/ ethnicity for any topic within A level sociology, although it doesn’t apply as well to Global Development.
Of course you might disagree, if so, do lemme know, and keep analysing!
Crime and deviance with theory and methods is the third and final exam paper (7192/3) in the AQA A level sociology specification – below are a few thoughts on how I would’ve answered the paper from the June 2017 exam…
Sociology paper 3: Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods, 2017
Q01 – Two reasons for ethnic differences in offending
I’m a bit concerned that the plural on differences means you need to talk about two different ethnic groups… so to be on the safe side. (Of course it’s not obvious that you need to do this from the question, and maybe you don’t, but remember the AQA’s burning hatred of teenagers… I wouldn’t put it past them!
To be on the safe side…
African-Caribbeans more likely to end up in jail due to more serious nature offences (knife/ gun convictions) compared to whites
Asians over represented due to Islamophobia – more labelling by media/ public/ police = higher conviction rate.
Both of those need to be better articulated, but they are two completely different reasons!
BUT – Have you really nailed the difference between integration (belonging/ connections) and regulation (clarity of rules/ prevention of anomie)?
Q03 – Analyse two ways in which deviant subcultures may respond to the difficulties of achieving mainstream goals
The item directs you to underachievement at school and deprived or unstable neighbourhoods. You could draw on the material from subcultural theory – so I’d go with…
Albert Cohen’s status frustration and the standard rebellious subcultures.
Then you could draw on Cloward and Ohlin’s subcultural types (there’s that burning hatred of teenagers again, this is turgid old stuff that could be relevant) – criminal or retreatist subcultures
Obviously topped and tailed with an intro and conclusion
Q05 – Outline two advantages of choosing overt observation compared to covert observation
I covered this at the bottom of this post of participant observation, but you’d need to expand on all the points!
I’d probably go for point 1 validity and point 2 on ethics to make sure the two points are very different.
One thing you NEED to do for this is to compare the two -overt and covert!
Q06 – Evaluate the view that conflict approaches are more useful than consensus approaches in our understanding of society
Straightforward – the item directs you to consensus and Marxism and labelling theory (also Weber’s social action theory, but I’d leave that aside and just settle for 16 or 17 out of 20) and talks about power.
So simply –
Point 1 – Functionalism and evaluate using contemporary evidence
Point 2 – Marxism and evaluate using contemporary evidence
Question 06: Applying material from item D, and your own knowledge, evaluate functionalist explanations of the role of the family in society (20)
This really does just appear to be a standard ‘evaluate functionalism’ essay – all you need to do is a basic intro to functionalism, then your four standard points – Murdoch, Parson’s functional fit theory, stabilisation of adult personalities and gender roles, then conclude.
The item (which I won’t reproduce here) is pretty standard – it just wants you to emphasise increasing family diversity and the fact that families may well be dysfunctional, so evaluating from mainly radical feminism, and Postmodernism and the personal life perspective…!
Not a bad half of a paper TBH.
A Level Sociology Families and Households Revision Bundle
How to answer the AQA’s A-level sociology paper 2. A guide to answering 10 mark outline and explain questions, 10 mark analyse questions and 20 mark essay questions.
Hints and tips for answering the AQA’s Sociology A Level Paper 2: Topics in Sociology (7192/2): families section only.
The AQA’s families and households specification is in bullet points, which I reproduced below.
The questions from the families and households section of paper 2 will be drawn from across the bullet points. Usually questions are drawn from a broad range and typically more than 60% of the bullet points below are covered within any one exam year:
the relationship of the family to the social structure and social change, with particular reference to the economy and to state policies
changing patterns of marriage, cohabitation, separation, divorce, childbearing and the life course, including the sociology of personal life, and the diversity of contemporary family and household structures
gender roles, domestic labour and power relationships within the family in contemporary society
the nature of childhood, and changes in the status of children in the family and society
demographic trends in the United Kingdom since 1900: birth rates, death rates, family size, life expectancy, ageing population, and migration and globalisation.
The 10 Mark ‘outline and explain’ (no item) question
Modified from the AQA’s advice on 10 mark questions sheet…
These ask about two elements from one or more bullet points within the specification topic (e.g. the nature of childhood in relation to demographic trends).
It will generally ask about the links or relationships between these two elements.
For example: ‘Outline and explain two ways in which the decline in birth rates has affected the position of children in society’ (10 marks)
Students don’t need to evaluate. Analysis is specified in the mark scheme for assessment objective 3.
Using PEEL (Point, Explanation, Evidence, Link) is useful for developing sufficient analysis.
Expressing each of the two ways in at least two separate paragraphs is useful tool.
Two examples of outline and explain families and households questions
Modified from the AQA’s advice on 10 mark questions sheet…
Outline and explain two ways in which women’s going into work has affected relationships (10)
Outline and explain two ways in which changes to gender roles have affected diversity of family structures (10)
10 Mark Analyse using the item questions
These have an item which is linked to the question. It encourages linking two elements from the same or different bullet points in the specification.
The first part of the item contains a number of points about the first of these elements.
These points provide possible hooks, designed to be developed into an explanation of the relationships between the two elements.
The second part of the item links these points back to the question.
Example of a 10 mark ‘analyse from the item’ question
Read item A then answer the question below
Item B Many commentators seem to agree that the ageing population is a problem for society – as it leads to an increasing strain on public services, and results in a greater burden being put on the younger generation to care for the elderly.
However, some claim that such problems have been exaggerated, and are based on stereotypical views about the elderly.
Applying material from Item B, analyse two consequences of the ageing population for British society (10 marks)
20 Mark Essay Questions
Allow yourself enough time – 1.5 minutes per mark = 30 minutes.
Read the Question and the item, what is it asking you to do?
Do a rough plan (5-10 mins) – initially this should be ‘arguments and evidence’ for and ‘against’ the views in the question, and a few thoughts on overall evaluations/ a conclusion. If you are being asked to look at two things, you’ll have to do this twice/
your conclusion should bring the two aspects of the essay together.
Write the essay (35 mins)– aim to make 3-5 points in total (depending on the essay, either 3 deep points, or 5 (or more) shallower points). Try to make one point at least stem from the item, ideally the first point.
evaluations – don’t repeat yourself, and don’t overdo this, but it’s useful t tag this in before a conclusion.
Conclusion (allow 2 mins minimum) – an easy way to do this is to refer to the item – do you agree with the view or not, or say which of the points you’ve made is the strongest/ weakest and on balance is the view in the question sensible or not?
General Structure
Introduction
Point (relate to question)
Explain
Expand
Criticise
(repeat 3-5 times)
Overall Evaluations
Conclusion (refer to item)
Some possible examples of 20 mark families and households essay questions…
Assess the view that the main aim of the of the family is to serve the needs of capitalism (20)
Assess the view that the family has become more child-centred (20)
Assess the reasons for changes in the birth rate and family size (20)
Answers to the AQA’s A-level sociology education with theory and methods exam, June 2017… Just a few thoughts to put students out of their misery. (Ideas my own, not endorsed by the AQA – NB – there is a certain level of subjectivity and irrationality within the AQA, and so they may interpret how you answer questions to my (rational) interpretation below… )
Sociology A-level Paper 1: Education with Theory and Methods, 2017
Q01 – Outline two cultural factors that may effect ethnic differences in educational achievement (2 marks)
Difficulty – very easy
Simply pick any two cultural factors and explain how….
language barriers
parental attitudes towards education (values)
parental educational levels
family structure
And then ideally explain how they differentially effect at least two ethnic groups.
Q02 – Outline three ways in which factors within schools may shape gender differences in education (6 marks)
Difficulty – if you’ve just wrote-learnt the ancient Anne Colley etc. stuff then easy, if you didn’t then it’s medium because it’s quite a narrow subject (NB I did anticipate this narrowness!)
Select three in-school factors then explain how…
subject counsellors/ teachers labels about typical boys and girls subjects
male and female peer groups – peer pressure
male dominance ‘physical subjects’
Gendered subject images/ resources
Then talk it through with ideally three example of different subjects, discussing both boys and girls.
Q03 – Applying material from Item A, analyse two effects of increased parental choice on pupils’ experience of education
Difficulty – it appears hard, because you think ‘WTF’ but if you think about it, and use the item, it’s easy, because you can talk about pretty much anything from across class, gender and/ or ethnicity. So I’m going to call this ‘medium’ level of difficulty, as it’s half way between the two!
NB – There are really only two hooks here – in bold below…
Point one – ‘parental choice has led to a range of school types’ this means a greater diversity of experience….. contrast different experience of school types – succeeding schools/ sink schools, you could contrast and discuss ethos/ hidden curriculum, you could bring in faith schools and ethnicity, you could bring in specialist schools, free schools, no national curriculum, link all this to postmodernism. Criticse by saying there are still general similarities – e.g. testing/ pressure/ narrowing of curriculum.
Point two parents use league tables to choose – schools want to attract pupils this means more emphasis on results, teaching to the test, the school-parent alliance, cream skimming, working class covert exclusion – selection by mortgage.. just be careful to relate all of this to ‘experience of education’.
Q04 Applying material from Item B and your knowledge, evaluate sociological explanations of the role of education in transmitting ideas and values (30)
Difficulty – medium – this is basically a perspectives question, but the item demands that you address Feminism and PM
Intro – acknowledge the item
P1 – Functionalism (recognise it’s old) and evaluate with P/M.
P2 – Marxism – the stuff about ideology (‘ideas’) – evaluate using P/M
P3 – Feminism – evaluate with ‘girls are improving’, NB – the subject choice stuff from Q2 could be lifted in here to support the view in the item. (Actually quite bad exam design here , mr AQA!)
p4 – Postmodernism – fragmentation, diversity – evaluate with maybe NC/ teaching to the test (which also overlaps with Q3)
Conclusion – something like, oh my lord yes those old perspectives are really dated and we need to recognise education is diverse and complex…
Q05 – Using material from item C and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the strengths and limitations of using field experiments to investigate the effects of teachers’ labelling of pupils
Difficulty – Medium, because it’s a fairly obscure method, but then again it’s applied to a very obvious topic – you can use R and J’s 1968 labelling experiment throughout (and the item!)
An obvious ‘easy in’ is that you have to be in the school in some way to conduct a field experiment. Lots of level 4 marks available right here.
I’d start with the Theoretical, practical and ethical strengths of the method, always applying to the topic, then do the limitations, the hooks in the item are asking you look at truancy and misbehaviour… you could also address performance… I’d pick up on the fact that truancy is easier to measure than misbehaviour…
The last point in the item is about people refusing to participate, which is just begging you discuss covert research to avoid this, then a whole load of practical and ethical problems which come from doing this IN SCHOOLS.
06 – Outline and explain two practical advantages of using documents in sociological research
Difficulty – Hard, because your average teenager just couldn’t care less about it!
The strategy I’d use here is to pick two different practical disadvantages and then discuss why they’re problematic for different types of public and private documents…
Practical factors include..
Access (the obvious one)
Time/ money
Funding
Personal skills of the researcher
Access should be easy – why you might find it difficult to access private documents – diaries/ letters, emails, link to ethics of using them, contrast to public documents.
Time/ money – there’s so many of them, such a diversity – it’s a never ending (time consuming) process to analyse (for example) newspapers, media reports in any depth – then I’d link to problems of sampling/ length of time it take to analyse and so on…
Not an easy question to discuss through – For both points I’d also bang on about interpretivism and positivism as much as possible, talking about how practical problems can undermine validity, representativness, reliability, and use as many examples as possible…
Anyway, just a few thoughts, the last question is probably the most difficult on reflection…
The issue of why differences in life chances by class, gender and ethnic differences exist forms a major part of any A level sociology syllabus, and I would say the analysis of the reasons behind these social differences is fundamental to sociology’s very self-identity.
