A-Level Sociology: science, values and social policy

Theory and methods is examined twice in A-level Sociology: on AQA A-level Sociology 7192, for example, it carries 10 marks on Paper 1 and 30 marks on Paper 3, where extended questions ask whether sociology can be a science, whether it can or should be value-free, or how it relates to social policy. This material covers those debates, which the perspectives and research-methods material in this category does not.

The quiz opens with the nature of science. You apply Popper's idea of falsification to a theory that treats every outcome as confirmation, use Kuhn's idea of a paradigm to see why sociology has been called pre-paradigmatic, and follow the realist argument that sociology, like meteorology, studies open systems and underlying structures. Durkheim's social facts are set against Atkinson's argument that suicide statistics reflect coroners' commonsense ideas.

Values come next: Weber's position that values guide the choice of topic but must be kept out of data collection, Becker's committed sociology on the side of the underdog, and Gouldner's warning about sociologists who become hired hands for whoever pays. Two questions deal with social policy: Worsley's distinction between social problems and sociological problems, and the factors, such as cost, electoral popularity and ideology, that limit research's influence on government. The bank ends with structure and action (Weber's four types of action, Giddens's structuration) and with the strengths and limits of content analysis as a use of secondary sources.

Each quiz question is built on an invented case: a theorist, a coroner, a research team, a government, a children's book sample. Every answer comes with an explanation that sets the right view against the others in the debate, which is what longer answers need.

The material offers four formats. The 12-question quiz explains each answer. The 16-card flashcard deck covers the key terms, from falsification and paradigms to value relevance and structuration. The printable written work sets eight open questions, from 'outline and explain two' questions to full evaluations of the value-freedom and science debates, with ruled space for handwritten answers that are then checked. The oral exam puts you in front of an examiner who asks one question at a time, follows up on your reasoning and gives brief feedback at the end.

Use it alongside your perspectives revision, when you are ready to build arguments for and against sociology as a science and to take a position on values and policy.

• Apply Popper's falsification, Kuhn's paradigms and the realist view of open and closed systems to the question of whether sociology is a science
• Contrast Durkheim's treatment of suicide rates as social facts with interpretivist critiques by Atkinson and Douglas
• Compare the views of positivists, Weber, Becker and Gouldner on values in research
• Distinguish social from sociological problems and explain the factors that limit sociology's influence on social policy
• Explain structure and action through Weber's types of action and Giddens's structuration
• Evaluate content analysis and other secondary sources

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the Theory and Methods content of A-level Sociology specifications (for example AQA A-level Sociology 7192, specification version 1.2, sections 4.1.3 and 4.3.2: the nature of science, subjectivity, objectivity and value freedom, sociology and social policy, structural and social action theories, sources of data).