Entry requirementsBasic English reading and writing skills are required.
Academic titleAS +A2 = A level in Sociology. Both AS and A2 level courses and examinations must be successfully completed to gain a full A level.
Course descriptionCourse summary
This GCE Sociology course has been designed so that candidates will acquire the essential knowledge and understanding of central aspects of sociological thought and methods, together with the application of a range of skills. It has also been designed to allow the integration of sociological themes, such as socialisation, culture and identity, and social differentiation, power and stratification.
This course allows you to study at your own pace. This course is suitable to be studied by all students irrespective of age, creed, religion or gender.
Read on to find out more about our A Level Sociology distance learning course and how you can learn with our amazing materials and online support.
Course Content
An outline of what is offered in our A Level Sociology course:
AS Level
Unit 1 – SCLY1 – 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 any other 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 socialisation process and the role of agencies of socialisation.
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—SCLY2– 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 organisation 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 – Beliefs in Society; Global Development
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 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 organisations—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 secularisation.
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 non-governmental 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.
UNIT 4—SCLY 4 – 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 and 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.
Summary of Assessments
Unit 1: SCLY1 – Culture and Identity; Families and Households; Wealth, Poverty and Welfare
• 40% of AS Level
• 20% of A Level
• Written paper: 1 hour
• 60 marks
Choose one topic from three and answer one question. Each question consists of five parts.
Unit 2: SCLY2 – Education; Health; Sociological Methods
• 60% of AS Level
• 30% of A Level
• Written paper: 2 hours
• 90 marks
Choose one topic (Education or Health) and answer one question on the chosen topic, one question on sociological research methods in context and one question on research methods.
Unit 3: SCLY3 – Beliefs in Society; Global Development; Mass Media; Power and Politics
• 20% of A Level
• Written paper: 1 hour 30 minutes
• 60 raw marks
Choose one topic from four and answer one compulsory question and one question from a choice of two.
Unit 4: SCLY4 – Crime and Deviance; Stratification and Differentiation; Theory and Methods• 30 % of A Level
• Written paper: 2 hours
• 90 raw marks
Choose one topic and answer one question on the chosen topic, one question on sociological research methods in context and one question on theory and methods.