Sociology key terms

Social disapproval attached to a characteristic, behaviour or status, such as being divorced.

Pressure arising from a gap between socially valued goals and a person’s opportunities to achieve them through legitimate means.

Merton’s explanation that pressure towards deviance arises when culturally encouraged goals are not matched by access to socially approved ways of achieving them.

Willmott and Young’s principle that changes in family norms and behaviour begin among higher social classes and spread to other classes.

Dividing a population into relevant subgroups and randomly selecting from each in proportion to its size in the population.

A sample selected by dividing the population into groups and randomly selecting people from each group in proportion to its size in the population.

Grouping pupils by assessed attainment or ability into groups that remain together across most or all subjects.

A sociological approach that explains behaviour through the organisation of society and its institutions.

An explanation of social outcomes that focuses on the organisation of society, including economic inequalities and access to employment.

Conditions in society, such as the availability of secure jobs and affordable housing, that shape people's opportunities and choices.

Disadvantage arising from the organisation of society, including its labour market, institutions and distribution of resources.

An explanation that connects behaviour to the organisation of society, such as its class structure and inequalities.

An interview using the same prepared questions, normally in the same order, for each respondent.

A group within a wider society that has distinctive norms and values.

How a person sees or identifies their own social class, which may differ from a classification based on occupation, income or wealth.

Poverty defined according to whether people consider themselves to be living in poverty.

In Marx’s analysis, the difference between the value workers create and the wages they receive, which capitalists appropriate as the basis of profit.

Monitoring people and gathering information to help prevent crime, for example through CCTV.

Research using standardised questionnaires or structured interviews, with respondents answering the same questions in the same order.

A family in which partners make more balanced contributions to domestic life and increasingly share leisure and decision-making; their tasks need not be identical.

A sample selected by taking every nth member of a sampling frame after a random starting point.

Selecting every nth member of a sampling frame after a randomly chosen starting point.

The whole group of people or institutions that a researcher intends to investigate.

A teacher’s belief about how a pupil is likely to behave or perform academically.

Beliefs teachers hold about how pupils are likely to behave or achieve.

Developments in technology, such as the internet and mobile phones, that can change how people live.

The use of violence and intimidation to achieve political goals.

A recurring idea or issue identified in qualitative data.

A framework of ideas used to explain society and its institutions.

A limit on the time available to plan, carry out, analyse and complete a research project.