Sociology for Gcse and Beyond

2017 David Spurling. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 12/13/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5246-6666-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-6667-5 (e)

The author wishes to thank Poppy Cole, Tim Westby and Lois Wakefield for their help preparing this book.

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Contents

Chapter 1 Studying Society

Chapter 2 Research Methods

Chapter 3 Education

Chapter 4 Ethnicity

Chapter 5 Gender

Chapter 6 Family

Chapter 7 Social class and mobility

Chapter 8 Changing patterns of work

Chapter 9 Mass media

Chapter 10 Politics and voting behaviour

Chapter 11 Socialisation and culture

Chapter 12 Poverty and the welfare state

Chapter 13 Modernisation theory

Chapter 14 Religion

Chapter 15 Crime and deviance

Chapter 16 Climate Change, the environment and Global Warming

Chapter 17 Globalisation

Chapter 18 Typical exam questions

Chapter 19 Glossary of terms

Chapter 20 How to use this book to get the best possible marks in GCSE sociology or equivalent exams

Chapter 21 Bibliography

Chapter 1

Studying Society

Defining Sociology

Sociology can be defined as the study of society. A society can be defined as a group of individuals who share a culture, norms, values or a way of life. This can alternatively be known as a community. It can be described more formally as the study of the development, structure and function of human society. Sociology is unlike some other sciences, such as mathematics, where a series of propositions will usually lead to definite conclusions. It differs from biology since we can often experiment with plants to improve the yield or in some cases to try to suppress plants such as Japanese knotweed, which causes many problems in the UK. We cannot often carry out experiments in sociology without informed consent.

Sociology is often defined as a social science because it deals with the ways in which human beings interact with each other. It looks at the ways in which people make decisions about other people and why they interact in that way. In society, there is often room for disagreement, because of differences and unpredictability in the ideas and behaviour of individuals.

Introduction to social theories and institutions

Functionalism (a consensus theory), Marxism and feminism (conflict theories) are the main three structured theories within sociology. Functionalists see society as being beneficial for every institution but are often criticised by other theories for ignoring the conflict in society. Marxists see only the conflict between classes, claiming we live in a capitalist society and ignore other conflicts such as gender, while feminists only see the conflicts between gender, claiming we live in a patriarchal society and ignore other conflicts such as class and race.

A patriarchal society means a society where men make the majority of decisions, and have a much better lifestyle than women. Consensus assumes that the majority of people within a society are trying to find ways to live together harmoniously. Conflict means where one group is trying to dominate another group.

The main institutions that make up society are the family, the Education System, the Criminal Justice System and the social stratification system. Each theory explores the social processes and social issues that belong to each institution.

Self-assessment questions

Q1. In what ways is sociology different and in what ways is it similar to the physical sciences?

Q2. Why does the unpredictability of human behaviour make it more difficult to test ideas than in the study of physics or mathematics?

Q3. Some people have suggested that we can learn from animal behaviour about human behaviour. How far is this true and why it is important?

Q4. What are the main theories of human behaviour within sociology?

Q5. What is meant by the phrase, sociology is a social science?

Q6. What are the main institutions in UK society? In what ways are they similar to other societies such as the USA or India or China and in what ways are they different?

Chapter 2

Research Methods

Carrying out sociological research

Social theories often disagree with each other not only because their views are biased, but also because they have inadequate data to use in investigations. In many cases, it is important to look at both primary and secondary data. The term secondary data refers to information that has been used and collected for other purposes, for instance, information from government surveys.

Primary and secondary data

Primary data means data that organisations collect for their own purpose. While primary data would fully serve the purpose of intended research, it is expensive to obtain, unlike secondary data, which is often cheaper and more readily accessible.

Formulating hypotheses

Sociologists can carry out their research in many different ways. Before starting any study, it is important to identify and develop research aims and hypotheses. This means researchers need to know exactly what they intend to investigate and what their informed opinion of the outcome is.

Pilot studies

Once a researcher has these, they can then create a pilot study. This is like a mini trial run of the research before the main study takes place and has the purpose of identifying any problems or changes that need to be made to make the study more reliable and effective.

Pilot studies may help to eliminate any embarrassing questions if rewording led to less embarrassment. They may also discover that the range of options given to interviewees does not cover the entire range of potential answers. For example, transport questionnaires do not always mention the possibility of using ferry services even when this is an option.

Once the pilot study is complete, the researcher may then select a sample from the following categories: random sampling, stratified sampling, snowball sampling and systematic sampling. Sampling saves time, money and resources.

Often pilot studies will show that people may be embarrassed about their family, income or disclosing their age. Sometimes people do not actually know their age. (Some, particularly the elderly, will say, I am in my 77th year. rather than saying they are 76.) The NHS carries out health checks on older people to check for dementia. They also give what are called MOT tests to a selection of people over 40.

Current statistics show that the NHS knows that people waste prescriptions. There is no method of checking between the pharmacies and the medical practitioners about what is happening.

Apart from embarrassment, people often do not know how much their spouse earns; this makes it difficult to gauge the effects of different measures central or local government may take.

Pilot studies also help people to realise they know little about safe limits for alcohol. Nor do they have a real understanding of the concept of a standard unit of alcohol.

Pilot studies may also show that the effects of drugs are little understood whether these are prescribed drugs, bought over-the-counter drugs, or illegal drugs.

Lack of knowledge by people filling in questionnaires

In education, students completing year 11 have not always been informed about the possibility of taking an apprenticeship even though the government wishes more people to take up apprenticeships, particularly in engineering.

People may be reluctant to admit that they have not heard of particular books or watched particular TV programmes, and may try to impress the interviewer, particularly if they are attracted to the interviewer.

People may also want to boast about, or understate, the number of people they have had sex with, so figures are unreliable.

Sometimes travel firms will ask about the number of journeys they have made in the past year, and, unless those journeys were particularly memorable, it seems unlikely the figures will be accurate.

The number of times that people will have been to a particular shopping centre, or even a particular shop, is likely to be an inaccurate estimate.

It would be difficult for to give estimates about what would be for them completely new goods or services. For example, before the Channel Tunnel opened in 1994, the original estimate was for 20 million passengers a year, whereas the actual usage was around 7 to 8 million a year.

Similarly, asking businesses about what happens after Brexit.

Obtaining information about illegal immigration is, by definition, difficult, as we have no way of knowing how many illegal immigrants there are in any country. Comments from the right-wing media about the lack of infrastructure and problems of the NHS seem odd, as one estimate is that around 70% of doctors below the rank of consultant are from overseas.

Random sampling

This is when every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected for the research.

We can often obtain our sampling frame from the electoral register in the UK, which should list all the people over 18 years eligible to vote. This will include all British citizens, European Union citizens for some elections, as well as Irish citizens. However, not all people, especially the young, are on the election register, so we cannot be sure that we will get a random sample. This could be important for some items such as the number of people going to clubs, but might be less important for the number of people requiring hearing aids.

When looking at the number of people watching the Eurovision song contest, it might be difficult to have a random sample, since there is no obvious method of getting a sample across the UK.

On the other hand, if we wanted to have a survey of junior doctors in 2016 this would be easier to obtain from the relevant authorities and could be vital if we wanted to gauge their reactions to the latest pay and conditions offer from the government.

Stratified sampling

Stratified sampling occurs where the researcher separates the population into sub groups according to certain characteristics such as gender, age, income, ethnicity and religion. The researcher will then randomly select a sample from each of these groups, keeping the numbers in proportion with the population.

If we were to investigate borrowing from college or school libraries, then we might want to use stratified sampling. We might wish to see how many people borrowed sociology books, how many borrowed mathematics books, how many borrowed books on English literature or drama, etc. This would be particularly important if there are likely to be budget cuts in the library system.

Currently, many local authorities are cutting down on public library expenditure.

Snowball sampling

This is when a sample occurs through contacts when one member of the population introduces the researcher to another member, and so on.

Realistically, this may be the only way to get in touch with people where there is not an association or other data from which to interview people. This could apply, for example, to people who like a particular type of music, such as garage, grunge, or Gregorian chant, where there is no reason why there should be a central register of such people. This will be in contrast to the people attending BBC promenade concerts at the Albert Hall.

Snowball sampling is also used by organisations wanting to persuade people to invest in social ventures where profit is not the main aim.

Similarly, firms selling solar panels or heat extractors will often ask their customers if they can provide names of other people who might be interested in having these installed. There is virtually no other way for the organisation to this.

Business organisations might also use this to sell the latest telephone and broadband packages.

Schools and colleges might use similar techniques to sell tickets for dramatic productions, concerts, or other events.

Systematic sampling

This is when the researcher decides on a number (n) and takes every nth item from the sampling frame.

Once the sample has been selected, the research can then be carried out in order for the researcher to collect their data. The researcher might like to use primary methods such as surveys, observation or interviews. However, they may also like the aid of secondary data to back up their primary findings, such as the use of official statistics.

Once the data has been collected, it must be analysed in order to interpret and make sense of the findings.

The last step in any research study is to evaluate the study’s aims, methods and findings. This can be done by identifying and evaluating the practicality, ethical issues, reliability, validity, effectiveness, representation and the theory.

Practical issues

Before carrying out a study the researcher should be aware of how long their study will take, and what effect that will have on the cost. In longitudinal studies, we look at the same group of people over a long period. By definition, this will take a lot longer than most other methods and will therefore be costly. The researcher must also consider how they are going to gain access to the group they are studying, as it is not always easy to be accepted into a new group, whether the experiment is overt or covert. Overt means we are open about what we are doing, and covert means we hide the objectives of our research.

Ethical issues

Ethical issues are very likely to occur in sociological experiments. First of all, the researcher must gain consent from the participants and, in the cases of working with minors, they must gain parental consent. It can take a long time to gain such consent, therefore costing the researcher more. The consent the participants give must be informed so that the participants can decide how much information they want to share with the researcher.

Another issue to consider is confidentiality. The information the researcher receives must be confidential and anonymous. This can sometimes hinder the effectiveness of the research, as some findings may be unusable. As well as this, the researcher is at risk of being exposed to guilty knowledge, especially when investigating a sensitive subject. Alongside this, the researcher could be put at risk of physical and psychological harm, especially when undercover. With covert operations, there is always the danger of being found out, and especially when investigating a group such as a gang, the consequences could be life threatening. Similarly, the actions the researcher may witness could cause psychological harm if they are exposed to violent or immoral acts. Again, there is also the risk of the researcher going native, as to fit in with a group and disguising their true intentions could cause them to participate with the behaviour of that group, therefore hindering the validity and reliability of the research.

Participants must always be offered the right to withdraw and their decision should be respected. This can put a gap in the findings, as well as decreasing the sample size, causing an unrepresentative sample.

Many concerns are raised by ordinary people about the confidentiality of the information they give. In particular, there have been concerns about the Investigatory Powers Bill, referred to as the Snoopers’ Charter by people worrying that the government can listen in to any phone conversations, read everybody’s emails, scrutinise all online activity, and even hack into any computer or electronic device.

There have also been concerns that confidential information is sold on to commercial organisations when it clearly should not be.

The electoral register which local authorities have to produce, are not meant to be used for commercial purposes, but organisations often use them.

The media often suggest that they have a right to look for information even if the government does not want them to do so, and there have been discussions about what constitutes public interest. It is difficult to see how hacking into a murdered schoolgirl’s phone messages (Millie Dowler) could be regarded as in the public interest.

Reliability issues

Many studies are hard to replicate, as the findings would be different in different places and with different individuals. This is particularly true for observational studies, as people are not always put into the exact same situation and circumstance and external factors can influence behaviour. When questionnaires and interviews are unstructured, the study is then hard to replicate: the method is made individual to each participant because of qualitative data.

Validity issues

Many factors can affect the validity of an experiment, especially its location. This is because the information obtained from participants is likely to be truer and of higher validity if the experiment is carried out in their natural setting. This is because the participants will seem more relaxed and at ease compared to being in a lab, therefore they are likely to display their usual behaviour. Unstructured methods and observations are likely to be more valid as the information obtained would be more detailed and in depth in comparison to a method such as official statistics. If an overt study is, being carried out the participants may not act as naturally as they would if they did not know they were being observed. Because of this the Halo Effect and Hawthorne Effect could occur, therefore causing the validity of the experiment to decrease.

The Halo effect is where if people [A] expect someone else [B] to behave well then they [A? B?] will probably do so [too?] whereas if we [A?] expect someone [B?] to do badly then they [B?] will probably behave in a bad way.

The Hawthorne experiment indicated that management taking an interest in workers and their conditions improved productivity almost irrespective of what the managers did.

Representativeness issues

Sociologists will wish to apply results from an experiment. However, these findings cannot be applied to the whole of society if the experiment was carried out on a much smaller scale. It would be wise to increase the sample size in order to increase the representativeness of a study and include people from different social groups and locations. If all the participants are of the same age group, the same sex and the same location, the results would not necessarily apply to the whole of society as such a group would not be representative of the whole population.

Qualitative and Quantitative Methods

When choosing a research method, it is important to know whether the data that will be obtained will be qualitative or quantitative. Qualitative data is more in depth, and is presented in a verbal or visual form. Examples of secondary qualitative data include written documents, such as newspaper clippings and diary entries, while primary qualitative methods include unstructured interviews and observations.

Quantitative data is presented in a statistical or numerical form and is often favoured by scientists. An example of quantitative data is official statistics. In the United Kingdom, a good deal of information can be obtained free of charge from the Office for National Statistics. The document Measuring National Well-being, formerly called Social Trends, is particularly helpful to the Sociologist.

Example of research methods

A report from three British universities, reported in the Guardian 20th April 2016,¹ concluded that the number of new cases of dementia in the UK was around 210,000 whereas it had been expected to be around 250,000.

It was important because it suggests that preventative action, which includes stopping smoking or reducing cholesterol, can reduce the risks of getting dementia. The research from the universities of Cambridge, East Anglia, and Newcastle had originally looked at 10,000 adults over 65 in the period between 1990 and 1995 and had subsequently carried out a second study between 2008 in 2013. Dementia rates have fallen by around 20% in that period in the period in the 1990s, 12.9% men out of every thousand went on to develop dementia, whereas this is now just 8.7 per thousand. However, perhaps surprisingly, women between 80 and 84 showed an increase in rates of dementia, which was reported in the same article.

An article by Ben Quinn² suggested that loneliness increased the risks of both strokes and heart attacks. The research was carried out by people from universities of York, Liverpool and Newcastle. It is suggested that loneliness and isolation increased the risk by around 30%. However, there may be other factors involved, according to the British Heart Foundation, since it is suggested that loneliness and having few social contacts can lead to more smoking, which in itself will lead to higher numbers of deaths.

A report by Alan Travis³ suggested that that the response from 91 accident and emergency departments, minor injury units and walk-in centres showed that 210,000 people needed treatment, having been violently attacked in the 12 months up to September 2015. The research from Cardiff University suggested that the first time in seven years, there was a slight increase in the