Cambridge IGCSE Sociology
View Course TimetableTheme 1: Research Methods
Approaches to Research (4 lessons)
Explore approaches to research in Sociology.
Positivism: Studying Society Like a Scientist
Learn how positivists study society like scientists, using numbers, patterns and social facts.
Start LessonInterpretivism: Understanding People's Meanings
Learn how interpretivists study people's meanings and motivations through in-depth, qualitative research.
Start LessonMixing Methods: Triangulation and Longitudinal Studies
Learn how triangulation and longitudinal studies combine methods and follow people over time.
Start LessonJudging Research: Bias, Researcher Effects and Representativeness
Learn how bias, interviewer and observer effects, and sampling affect how far research can be trusted.
Unlock Full CourseData and Evidence (3 lessons)
Explore data and evidence in Sociology.
Primary, Secondary, Qualitative and Quantitative Data
Learn how primary, secondary, qualitative and quantitative data differ, with their strengths and limitations.
Unlock Full CourseSecondary Evidence: Statistics, Documents, Digital and Media Sources
Learn four types of secondary evidence and the strengths and limitations of each for sociologists.
Unlock Full CourseReading Sources, Tables, Charts and Graphs
Learn to read tables, charts and graphs, work out percentages and spot problems with evidence.
Unlock Full CourseInvestigating Society (8 lessons)
Explore investigating society in Sociology.
Research Design: From Topic to Pilot Study
Follow one research project through every design stage, from topic and hypothesis to pilot study.
Unlock Full CourseSampling Frames and Sampling Techniques
How researchers choose samples: random, systematic, stratified, snowball and quota sampling, with strengths and limitations.
Unlock Full CourseSurveys, Questionnaires and Types of Question
How surveys and questionnaires work, and when to use each type of question.
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How structured, semi-structured, unstructured and group interviews work, with their strengths and limitations.
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How participant, non-participant, overt and covert observation work, with their strengths and limitations.
Unlock Full CourseTheoretical and Practical Issues in Research
How researcher perspective, access, response rate, funding and time shape the topic and method chosen.
Unlock Full CourseEthics in Sociological Research
Learn the five ethical issues in research and how researchers protect participants, especially young people.
Unlock Full CoursePlanning Your Own Research Investigation
Learn a five-step method for planning and justifying your own research for Question 1(e).
Unlock Full CourseTheme 2: Identity: Self and Society
Learning Our Identity (6 lessons)
Explore learning our identity in Sociology.
Culture, Norms, Values and Customs
Learn what culture, norms, values and customs are and how they shape behaviour and identity.
Unlock Full CourseRoles, Status and Stereotypes
Learn what roles, status and stereotypes are and how they shape behaviour and identity.
Unlock Full CourseNature or Nurture? How Identity Is Socially Constructed
Explore the nature-nurture debate, the relativity of culture and how socialisation teaches norms and values.
Unlock Full CoursePrimary and Secondary Socialisation: The Key Agencies
Learn primary and secondary socialisation, the six key agencies and how effective each one is.
Unlock Full CourseHow Agencies Socialise Us
Learn the seven processes agencies use to socialise us, with an example of each.
Unlock Full CourseSocialisation Theories: Functionalism, Marxism and Feminism
Compare functionalist, Marxist and feminist views of socialisation, with strengths and limitations of each.
Unlock Full CourseSocial Control (4 lessons)
Explore social control in Sociology.
Social Control and Sanctions: Consensus and Conflict Views
Learn formal and informal social control, positive and negative sanctions, and three sociological views of control.
Unlock Full CourseFormal Social Control: Agencies and Methods
Learn the five agencies of formal social control, the six methods they use, and effectiveness.
Unlock Full CourseInformal Social Control: Agencies and Sanctions
Six informal agencies of social control, their sanctions and how effective they are.
Unlock Full CourseResisting Control: Protest Groups and Sub-cultures
Protest groups and sub-cultures: deviance, non-conformity, why people join, and well-known examples.
Unlock Full CourseSocial Identity (5 lessons)
Explore social identity in Sociology.
Age and Gender Identity
Age and gender as social identity: how each is constructed and its impact on people.
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Ethnicity and social class as social identity: what each means and its impact on people.
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How social networks, social media and virtual communities can help and harm a person's identity.
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How globalisation shapes identity: cultural defence, hybrid identities, homogenisation, diversity, multiculturalism and global culture.
Unlock Full CoursePostmodernism: Is Identity Chosen?
Is identity chosen? Digital identities, consumption, lifestyle, and why class and money limit choice.
Unlock Full CourseTheme 3: Social Stratification and Inequality
What Is Social Stratification? (7 lessons)
Explore what is social stratification? in Sociology.
Open and Closed Societies: Status, Wealth and Power
Layers in society: open and closed societies, status, poverty, wealth, income and power.
Unlock Full CourseSocial Mobility, Meritocracy, Caste and Modern Slavery
Social mobility, meritocracy, the caste system and modern slavery in open and closed societies.
Unlock Full CourseLife Chances and Social Class
What life chances are and how social class affects education, employment, health, housing and life expectancy.
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How age and gender affect life chances in education, employment, health, housing and life expectancy.
Unlock Full CourseLife Chances, Ethnicity and Intersectionality
How ethnicity affects life chances, plus institutional racism and intersectionality of age, gender, ethnicity and class.
Unlock Full CourseLabelling Theory and Inequality
How labels, master status and self-fulfilling prophecies create and keep inequality, with strengths and limitations.
Unlock Full CourseMarxism and Inequality
How Marxists explain inequality: exploitation, ideological control, poverty trap, reserve army of labour, evaluation.
Unlock Full CourseReducing Inequality (5 lessons)
Explore reducing inequality in Sociology.
Using Laws and Taxes to Reduce Inequality
How governments use taxes, benefits, minimum wages, equality laws, quotas and affirmative action to reduce inequality.
Unlock Full CourseWelfare States and Life Chances
How welfare states, from free schooling to basic income, affect people's life chances.
Unlock Full CourseNGOs and Global Inequality
How NGOs reduce global inequality through poverty relief, medical help, microfinance and education
Unlock Full CourseHas It Worked? New Right Views and the Culture of Poverty
How the New Right, Murray and Lewis explain poverty, dependency and the failure of welfare.
Unlock Full CourseHas It Worked? Marxist, Feminist and NGO Criticisms
Marxist, NGO and feminist criticisms of efforts to reduce inequality, and how to judge success.
Unlock Full CourseGlobalisation and Inequality (3 lessons)
Explore globalisation and inequality in Sociology.
Migration and Its Impact on Societies
What migration is, why people move, and how it affects sending and receiving societies.
Unlock Full CourseGlobal Ecological Issues and Inequality
Learn how climate change, pollution, urbanisation and transnational companies affect richer and poorer societies unequally.
Unlock Full CourseExplaining Global Inequality
Learn Marxist, colonialism and feminist explanations of global inequality, with strengths and limitations of each.
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Types of Family (3 lessons)
Explore types of family in Sociology.
Family Structures
Learn the main family structures, from nuclear to beanpole, with strengths and limitations of each.
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Learn how family life varies by culture, class and ethnicity, and how sociologists view diversity.
Unlock Full CourseAlternatives to the Family and Types of Marriage
Learn alternatives to the family and types of marriage, from arranged to serial monogamy.
Unlock Full CourseThe Role of the Family (4 lessons)
Explore the role of the family in Sociology.
Functionalist Views of the Family
Learn how functionalists explain the family: Murdock, Parsons, warm bath theory and the nuclear family.
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Learn how Marxists say the family benefits capitalism through workers, inheritance, consumption and ideological control.
Unlock Full CourseFeminist Views of the Family
Learn how feminists say the family benefits men through housework, decisions, violence and gendered socialisation.
Unlock Full CourseEvaluating Family Theories: Is Family Life Good for Us?
Weigh up the strengths and limitations of family theories and whether family life helps or harms.
Unlock Full CourseChanging Family Life (5 lessons)
Explore changing family life in Sociology.
Demographic Change, Industrialisation and the Family
How birth rates, longer lives and industrialisation have changed family size, structure and roles.
Unlock Full CourseWhy Marriage and Divorce Patterns Are Changing
Why people marry later and divorce more: law, attitudes, the internet, secularisation and women's power.
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How cohabitation, singlehood, lone parents and civil partnerships have grown as alternatives to marriage.
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How conjugal roles have moved from segregated to joint, and how far that change is real.
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How children and grandparents changed family roles: cost, child-centredness, boomerang children, care and support.
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Education and Schooling (3 lessons)
Explore education and schooling in Sociology.
Formal and Informal Education: The Official and Hidden Curriculum
Formal and informal education, the official curriculum, and the lessons of the hidden curriculum in school.
Unlock Full CourseDifferent Types of Schools
Strengths and limitations of state, private, selective, single-sex, co-educational, faith and international schools.
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Online learning, homeschooling, unschooling, vocational learning and progressive schooling: what each is, strengths and limitations.
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Explore theories of education in Sociology.
The Functionalist View of Education
How education helps society: four roles, role allocation, testing, setting, vocationalism, plus strengths and limitations.
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How Marxists say schools reproduce class inequality: correspondence principle, cultural capital, myth of meritocracy.
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How feminists say education keeps gender inequality going, with strengths and limitations of the view.
Unlock Full CourseDifferences in Achievement (7 lessons)
Explore differences in achievement in Sociology.
Patterns in Educational Achievement
Learn the broad patterns in educational achievement by social class, ethnicity, gender and country.
Unlock Full CourseSocial Class and Achievement: Home and Material Factors
Learn how home, money, culture, language and community help explain class differences in achievement.
Unlock Full CourseSocial Class and Achievement: School Factors and Theories
Learn how sub-cultures, school type, teacher labelling and Marxist ideas help explain class differences in achievement.
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Learn how school, language, home and community factors help explain differences in achievement between ethnic groups.
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Explore why girls and boys achieve differently, from socialisation and teacher expectations to sub-cultures and patriarchy.
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Why education differs between countries: schools, poverty, girls' access, class sizes, culture and internet access.
Unlock Full CourseEvaluating Explanations of Achievement
Weigh the strengths and limitations of explanations for differences in educational achievement and experience.
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Crime, Deviance and Control (4 lessons)
Explore crime, deviance and control in Sociology.
Crime, Deviance and Their Relativity
Learn the exact definitions of crime and deviance and why both vary between places and times.
Unlock Full CourseSocial Control and Crime Prevention
How formal and informal agencies deter crime, Hirschi's control theory, and how effective social control is.
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Learn eleven types of crime, from violent and white-collar to green and cyber, with examples.
Unlock Full CourseMeasuring Crime
Learn how crime is measured, the strengths and limitations of each method, and the dark figure.
Unlock Full CourseExplaining Crime (9 lessons)
Explore explaining crime in Sociology.
Patterns of Crime and Victimisation
Learn the broad patterns of crime and victimisation by age, class, gender and ethnicity.
Unlock Full CourseExplaining Crime: Age
Learn how police targeting, gangs, lack of opportunity and status frustration explain crime by age.
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Learn how racism, police targeting, deprivation and gangs help explain ethnic patterns in crime figures.
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Learn how masculinity, social control and the chivalry thesis help explain gender patterns in crime
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Learn how exclusion, deprivation, lack of opportunity and unequal policing help explain class patterns in crime
Unlock Full CourseFunctionalist, New Right and Subcultural Theories of Crime
Learn how Durkheim, Merton, Cohen and the New Right explain crime, with strengths and limitations
Unlock Full CourseInteractionism: Labelling and Moral Panics
Learn how labelling theory and moral panic theory explain crime, with strengths and limitations
Unlock Full CourseMarxist, Feminist and Postmodernist Theories of Crime
Learn how Marxist, feminist and postmodernist theories explain crime, with strengths and limitations
Unlock Full CourseEvaluating Explanations of Crime
Weigh strengths and limitations of explanations of crime and write a 14-mark evaluate answer.
Unlock Full CourseDealing with Crime (3 lessons)
Explore dealing with crime in Sociology.
Aims of Punishment, Prison and Rehabilitation
Learn the five aims of punishment and judge prison, rehabilitation, capital and corporal punishment against them.
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Judge how effective community sentences, fines, probation, cautions, exile, ostracism and vigilantes are as punishments.
Unlock Full CoursePolicing and Law Enforcement
Judge how effective targeting, stop and search, surveillance, crime prevention and community or military policing are.
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Exam Skills (2 lessons)
Explore exam skills in Sociology.
How the Exams Work and What Examiners Reward
Learn how Paper 1 and Paper 2 work, how questions are built and what examiners reward.
Unlock Full CourseCommand Words and Essay Technique
What each command word asks for, plus how to answer discuss and evaluate questions
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