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Sociology Revision
Theory, concepts & sociologists
What do these mean?
Birth rate
 Conjugal roles
 Dual burden
 Emotion work
 Empty shell marriage
 Expressive role
 Privatised family

Birth Rate

The number of live births per 1000 of the
population
Conjugal roles
The roles played by the husband and wife
in the family
 Segregated – husband is the breadwinner
and woman is the homemaker with leisure
spent separately.
 Joint – each perform both roles and spend
leisure time together

Dual Burden

When someone is responsible for two
jobs. Usually applied to women who do
paid work and the housework.
Emotion work
The work involved in meeting the
emotional needs of other people, looing
after a child involves the emotional and
physical needs.
 Some sociologists claim women have a
triple shift/ burden. This is paid,
housework and emotion work

Empty shell marriage

Couple live under same roof but live
separate lives. May occur when divorce is
difficult or illegal, or they stay together for
the sake of the children.
Expressive role

The caring, nurturing homemaker in the
family. Usually done by women. Some
claim, this is because women are
biologically suited to is. Other see it as
exploiting women.
Privatised family

A nuclear family whose lifestyle and
leisure patterns centre on the home rather
than the extended family, workmates or
wider community
Think of more concepts for module
1.
childhood
Nuclear family
Extended family
Domestic labour
Reconstituted family
Household
Symmetrical family
Instrumental
role
Family structure
Functional fit
THEORY: summarise the following
Functionalism
 Feminism
 Neo/Marxism
 Interpretivism/Interactionism/Symbolic
Interactionism
 Post modernism
 Positivism

Functionalism
A consensus perspective that sees society
as based on shared norms and values into
which its members are socialised.
 Society is like an organism with each part
performing functions to maintain the
system as a whole.

Feminism
Sociological and political perspective that
focuses on women’s oppression and the struggle
to end it.
 They are argue that sociology has been
‘malestream’ and has been ignoring women.
 They examine women’s experiences and study
society from a female perspective
 There are different strands – Marxist, Radical,
Liberal and Black.

Marxism/ Neo-Marxism

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
Conflict perspective based on the ideas of Karl
marx.
It sees society as divided into two oppsed
classes, one which exploits the other.
In a capitalist society the Bourgeoisie exploit the
proletariat.
Marx predicted the proletariat will unite and
overthrow capitalism and create a classless
society.
Institutions maintain the class division.
Interpretivism
These sociologists focus on how we
construct our social worlds through the
meanings we create and attach to events,
actions and situations.
 Favour qualitative methods, and see
humans as different from what is studied
by scientists as we have free will,
consciousness and choice.

Post modernism
Reject modernists idea of progress abd their
view that that we have certain true knowledge
of society that will enable us to improve it.
 Society has now become so diverse and unstable
it is impossible to produce absolute
explanations.
 No one theory is any truer than any other- they
are just viewpoints.
 Sociology should concentrate and reflect sociasl
diversity.

Positivism
The belief that society is made up of social
facts that can be studied scientifically. And
discover laws of cause and effect.
 With this knowledge we can find solutions
to the problems.

Match a concept to a theory

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Dual burden
Expressive role
Emotion work
Functional fit
Primary Socialisation
Unit of consumption
Domestic labour
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Feminism
Functionalism
Feminism
Functionalism
Functionalism
Marxism
Marxism/ Feminist
What would they say?
About teenage pregnancy?
 Home births?
 Domestic violence perpetrated by women?
 Househusbands?

Item A
As family size has become smaller and the family has seemed to lose
functions, some have argued that the family is dying out. As evidence they
put forward the rising divorce rate. It is the increase in single parent
families that has caused most of the concern about the stability of the
family. Single parent families have a great social cost to the individuals and
financial cost to the state.
Item B
Increased opportunities for divorce have provided an escape route for many wives.
It is not marriage that women resent, as many women re-marry. Rather it is a
certain type of marriage they seek to leave. Despite all the so called advances of
recent years, women still work a triple shift.
Exam Question
(a) What is meant by the divorce rate? (2)
 (b) Explain what is meant by the triple
shift. (4)
 (c ) Identify three effects of the rise of the
divorce rate. (6)
 (d) Identify and explain one individual
social cost and one financial cost to the
state caused by single parent families (8)

(a)
The legal termination of a marriage
 The number per thousand of the married
population per year.

(b)
Identify each aspect of the 3 jobs
 Consider why it is called Shift

(c )
Think of the impact on society.
 Low educational achievement of children
becomes a social issue under education.
 Ensure you describe what happens after
divorce not what causes it.
 Should be three distinct points

(d)
Some individual costs can be twisted to be
a financial one.
 Must have one of each.
 Notice the focus of the question is not
divorce.
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