Eduqas GCSE Sociology key terms

A family in which children’s needs, welfare and wishes are central to family priorities and decisions.

The ways parents or carers bring up children, including providing care, setting boundaries, teaching behaviour and offering emotional support.

The view that male criminal justice officials treat female suspects and offenders more leniently because they see women as less dangerous and in need of protection.

A grouping of people who share a similar market situation and therefore similar economic opportunities.

A struggle between social classes whose economic interests oppose one another.

Carlen’s idea that working-class women are encouraged to conform by the promise of material rewards from legitimate work.

A society without divisions between an owning class and a working class, in which productive resources are owned collectively.

A sense of shared interests and mutual support among members of the same social class.

A question that requires the respondent to choose from a set of answers supplied by the researcher.

Assigning labels or categories to data so that responses can be organised and compared.

A pattern of behaviour that restricts another person's independence through intimidation, isolation, monitoring or other forms of domination.

Living together as a couple without being married or in a civil partnership.

A family in which a couple live together as partners without being married.

The average number of live-born children that women born in the same year have had by the end of their childbearing years.

A secondary school that admits pupils across the ability range rather than selecting them through an academic entrance test.

Protecting information provided by participants so that it is not disclosed in ways that identify them.

A sociological approach that emphasises unequal power and competing interests between social groups.

An approach that sees society as involving unequal power and competing interests between social groups.

An approach which sees society as containing groups with unequal power and competing interests, rather than being based mainly on agreement.

Behaviour that follows accepted social norms and rules.

The domestic roles and responsibilities of married or cohabiting partners, including housework, childcare and household decisions.

Broad agreement within a society about its important values and expected behaviour.

A sociological approach that explains social order through shared values, cooperation and agreement.

A sociological approach which emphasises shared values and cooperation as the basis of social order.

A group that purchases and uses goods and services. Marxists argue that families act as consumer units that generate profits for capitalist businesses.

A method used to prevent pregnancy, allowing greater control over whether and when to have children.

In Oakley’s account, a nuclear family consisting of a legally married couple who voluntarily choose to have children, commonly associated with traditional expectations of a male breadwinner and female homemaker.