GCSE SOCIOLOGY Crime and Deviance; Mass Media; Power; Social Inequality Report on the Examination. (4190 Specification) June 2015

Transcription

1 GCSE SOCIOLOGY Crime and Deviance; Mass Media; Power; Social Inequality Report on the Examination (4190 Specification) June 2015 Version: v1.0.

2 Further copies of this Report are available from aqa.org.uk Copyright 2015 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. AQA retains the copyright on all its publications. However, registered schools/colleges for AQA are permitted to copy material from this booklet for their own internal use, with the following important exception: AQA cannot give permission to schools/colleges to photocopy any material that is acknowledged to a third party even for internal use within the centre.

3 General As in previous years, the key variable in the overall marks achieved by students was their ability to deliver across the five mark questions (which cumulatively make up thirty of the ninety marks available on this paper), rather than on the twelve mark mini-essays. As in previous series, Topic 3 (Power) was the least popular. The overall quality of responses reflected the fact that some students disregarded the rubric and did all four topics. Such students almost invariably run out of time, with a concomitant effect on overall marks. A noticeable and unwelcome feature this summer was the increased number of students whose handwriting and/or poor English syntax seriously impaired the ability of examiners to understand what they had written. A failure to address the issue (for example, by seeking permission for an amanuensis) seriously disadvantages such individuals. This year saw the move to online marking and an integrated question and answer booklet. Students need to be aware that they do not need to fill the space especially if this means repeating points or including irrelevant material. The five mark questions were a particular victim of this approach, with many students also resorting to the use of the Additional Pages Booklets. Centres should ensure students understand that there is ample room in the answer booklet for a maximum mark response in all questions, and that more words almost invariably do not mean more marks; rather they lead to lack of focus, repetition, and ultimately to the loss of time for subsequent questions. A further organisational issue was that many students disregarded the instructions to confine their answers to the designated spaces in the booklet, and wrote in margins, at the bottom of pages and in the spaces for other questions. A failure to follow instructions about where to answer can conceivably lead to parts of questions being missed if they are not picked up when scanning takes place. Familiarisation with rubric and administrative instructions is as important as content revision in preparation for the examination, and centres would be advised to ensure that students are completely familiar with the booklet layout. One and two mark questions The vast majority of students find the one mark questions unproblematic, though those that do not have the multi-choice format perhaps present a little more challenge. The quality of response in two mark questions is more variable, in part because some students answer in generalities. Whilst there is no need to answer in long and complex sentences in such questions, there is still a need for precision and focus on exactly what is being asked. Four mark questions These questions require understanding of a sociological concept. Five mark questions As noted above, these questions are the key to examination success. Students should understand that the wording of such questions is very precise and therefore misreading or rewriting the question is usually a recipe for poor or zero marks. Most students write far too much on these questions, usually losing focus as result. There is ample room in the booklet for anyone with usualsized handwriting to score five marks without resorting to the additional booklet space, as many did 3 of 13

4 without any benefit to their final score. Centres should also note that it is not necessary to define one s terms in five mark questions, as a large number of students do in any question containing the word deviance, nor is it helpful if answers lack a logical sequence in response to questions, an issue of particular note in any question involving gender or poverty. Crucially, students need to understand that Describe one way means one way, not several, and that way is not the same as reason. Failure to grasp this almost invariably leads to badlyorganised or incomplete answers which rely on mental cutting-and-pasting by examiners to get the best outcome for students. Twelve mark questions Very few students fail to achieve some marks on these, and most can produce enough relevant sociological material to reach the 4 6 band. Thereafter, the degree to which students are able to apply sociological material in a focused and evaluative fashion is the key variable in the final mark they achieve. Many students suffer from a failure to address the whole of the question, or from attempts to rewrite it into one they have done previously. There is also a tendency to use material unselectively for example, many students see any question on the mass media as an opportunity to apply generic theory (usually conflict approaches and pluralism), and/or run through a list of media effects models. Some students think the incorporation of references to Marxists, functionalists, feminists et al is essential, irrespective of the question; such responses thus become at best a series of list-like generalities about what Marxists, etc, allegedly say, or at worst, a series of poorly-made and inaccurate assertions. Students also lose time writing quite long introductions setting out what they intend to cover (usually including copying the question), and equally long concluding paragraphs that essentially just summarise what they have already written. A few students simply recycle the linked Item without any real attempt to apply it; such students rarely move out of the 1-3 band. Conversely, a feature of better responses is the ability to engage with the entirety of the question in both range and depth, and to do this in a structured, succinct and conceptually-rich fashion. It was notable that such responses almost invariably did not need to resort to the Additional Pages booklet, again confirming the fact that more words does not automatically equate to more marks. 4 of 13

5 Topic One Crime and Deviance Questions 1 and 2 These presented very few problems for students. Question 3 The majority of students were able to give two distinct examples of legal punishments used in the UK today. Some lost marks by incorrectly identifying an aspect of the criminal justice system as a punishment (eg, being arrested, being tried), or by citing punishments that are not used in the UK (eg, cutting off hands). Question 4 Overall, responses to this question fell into two distinct categories those showing understanding of what anomie is, and those from students who had obviously not encountered the term. The latter often confused the concept with anonymity (eg, when giving evidence), or rewrote it into anomaly. Better responses were able to discuss the notion of breakdown in the value consensus leading to normlessness, often tying this in with references to functionalism. A few students had some inkling as to what anomie was, but then wandered into discussion of eg, sub-cultures or Merton s typology. Question 5 Almost all students could identify a measure to reduce crime in general, but a sizeable minority failed to tie this into property crime explicitly enough for both of the marks available in Describe one. This issue is not unique to this series, and previous reports have highlighted the need in such questions to move beyond mere repetition of the appropriate phrase in the question. Therefore, answers which specified, for example, CCTV but which did not show explicitly how this reduced theft, burglary, etc, achieved less than those which, for example, described initiatives such as giving advice on home security. In the and explain part of the question, a minority of students either did not recognise the term locality (even though it is in the specification), or chose to ignore it, usually via an account of a vulnerable group such as the elderly. Such responses usually failed to achieve any of the three marks available in the latter part of the question. Better responses normally focused on the relative security of urban and rural areas, or compared better-off neighbourhoods with more deprived ones. A minority of students either misread or translated the question into one on poverty and crime, usually achieving little or no marks as a result. Question 6 This question was looking for a comparison between age groups, but, as noted earlier, a large number of students interpreted way as meaning reason (centres may wish to use the mark scheme for this, and similar questions, to reinforce this issue to students, as it is a common cause of losing marks). Thus, many responses became a discussion of the cause of youth crime/deviance with little or no coverage of a comparison between age groups. Such responses usually failed to score more than one or two of the five marks available. Many students also felt the need to spend about a third of the space available on generic definitions of deviance and/or crime; again, these usually added no value. Better responses had two distinct sections, in which they 5 of 13

6 firstly identified an appropriate way in which deviance differed (usually via reference to levels of crime or types of deviance), and then offered an explanation that referenced both of the age groups previously mentioned. Question 7 Most students were able to offer some detail on the problematic aspects of using official statistics, usually citing issues such as the dark figure, reluctance of victims to report certain crimes and so forth. More detailed responses also discussed issues such as the impact of police targeting, the chivalry thesis and white collar crime, or compared the relative merits of eg, self-report studies and victim surveys. Consideration of the positive aspects of crime statistics tended to be much less detailed, and, as a result, most answers were somewhat one-sided, with a minority not discussing statistics at all. The notion of whether statistics could be representative (as opposed to unrepresentative and lacking validity) was not really explored by most answers, but, overall, most students were clearly aware there was a debate here. Question 8 This was the more popular of the two twelve mark questions in this section. Most students were able to offer accounts of the impact of gender socialisation, usually comparing this to factors such as the opportunity structure. A small minority saw the question as an invitation to discuss the causes of male crime with little or no mention of women. Such responses were unable to progress beyond the 1 3 band. Fuller responses also examined the impact of, for example, stereotypes of women in the mass media and the possible links between women s educational achievement and levels of crime, or used the chivalry thesis in an evaluative fashion. Some responses drifted into more general discussions of variables such as class and ethnicity, or into list-like accounts of the causes of crime, and were usually unable to progress beyond the 4 6 band as a result of losing focus on the question. 6 of 13

7 Topic Two - Mass Media Questions 9 and 10 Once again, these presented very few problems, though a small number of students misread Item C, with consequent errors in their responses to Question 9. Question 11 A few students were clearly not familiar with the term folk devils (even though there was a strong hint as to what it meant in Item D). Some students saw the question as a request to identify stereotyped social groups (eg black people, young people), which was usually done in such broad terms that it was not possible to credit these responses. Others, whilst showing more understanding of the term, made reference to groups excluded by the apart from those mentioned in Item D aspect of the question. Typically, better answers made reference to groups such as asylum seekers, hoodies, Muslims as terrorists and so forth. Question 12 As with other four mark questions in this and previous series, the key discriminator is whether students are familiar with the term. Those that were, generally referred to the notion of studying a piece of media output with a view to identifying patterns, bias, hidden meanings, etc, sometimes with an example of how this might be done. Surprisingly few students took Item D (which was drawn from a Glasgow University Media Group study) as a starting point, although there was a clear indication of what the process was in the text. Those who had not encountered the term often thought it meant proofreading or censorship. Some students (even those with some understanding) presented the usual tautologies found in such questions ( content analysis means analysing the content ) which cannot be credited. Question 13 This question often engendered the unfocused or misdirected application that seems to be typical of anything in which there is a reference to the internet. Consequently many students spent much of the space available in the booklet describing what the internet was and / or discussing its speed, accessibility, lack of control and so forth, with little or no reference to news, and (usually) just a vague point about choice or diversity in the and explain part of the question. Another substantial group rewrote the question into one about spreading opinions rather than access to news. More focused responses usually covered issues such as citizen journalism, the immediacy of news on the internet and the relative decline in the use of traditional print / TV / radio news media, the choice presented by access to global news media and so on, usually coupling these with a discussion of the difficulty in controlling the content compared to old media. Question 14 This question suffered from a failure to read it sufficiently thoroughly to understand what was being asked, coupled with a desire to include every example of sexist media presentation that had been encountered. At least half of the responses jumped straight into routine women and media stereotypes territory and wrote about image rather than under-representation, often scoring zero marks as a result. A smaller number identified an area of social life (eg politics) in which women were under-represented, but then failed to connect this to the mass media, with a similar impact on marks. Better responses were distinguished by their focus on under-representation, often via 7 of 13

8 discussion of the presentation of women s sport, and consideration of eg the power of advertisers, enduring sexist attitudes and so forth. Question 15 As noted previously, twelve mark questions on the mass media are seen by many students as an opportunity to parade their (often quite detailed) knowledge of media effects models and/or theoretical approaches. The degree to which this is then explicitly linked to the actual question is the usual determinant of the final mark. In this particular instance many students took public opinion as a given, and just ran though contrasting views on whether or not audiences are active or passive consumers. Many such responses also wandered into lengthy discussion of the media and violence as part of the coverage of the hypodermic syringe model. Other responses compared the media to other agencies of socialisation such as the family and peers, but once again did not really unpick opinion. Better responses were distinguished by their ability to relate the media issues to that of, for example, shaping political opinions, the establishment of cultural norms and values and so forth. Question 16 The majority of students who attempted this question promptly rewrote it into one on the media and minority ethnic groups. Whilst this was an acceptable approach, it tended to limit responses to a fairly narrow template, in which a reasonably detailed series of examples of negative media stereotypes (blacks as criminals, Muslims as terrorists, etc) was countered with a much briefer however, it s getting better now section, occasionally referring to examples such as the Cosby Show. Better responses usually looked at the representation of other minority groups, though relatively few took advantage of the fairly obvious hint in the linked Item D and, for example, contrasted the negative images of disability in the Item with the lauding of Paralympic athletes as fighters against adversity. 8 of 13

9 Topic Three Power Question 17 and 18 These presented very few problems, though there were some answers to Question 17 that suggested the Item was misread. Question 19 Students had few issues with this question, though on occasions they offered reasons that were too similar to achieve two marks. Most responses cited issues such as voter apathy, feeling votes did not count/were wasted, general disillusion with all political parties and so forth. Question 20 Most students offered something of value in this question, although some got bogged down in listing the various facets of the Welfare State without saying much about its role as an institution. Many students were able to offer some historical background around the five evils, though there was the occasional misattribution (for example, suggesting the creation of the Welfare State immediately after WW2 was the work of Margaret Thatcher). Question 21 Many students were obviously well-prepared for this subject area, and produced interesting and thoughtful responses, usually citing increased democracy in family decision-making, the development of student voice or the increased access to child protection support. Typical problems included the potential decline of parental discipline, loss of teacher authority and the impact of malicious allegations of child abuse. Some less successful responses made generalised references to access to digital media, or described powers that children have had for some time (eg choosing options, pathways at 16+, etc), thereby not addressing the more power today aspect. Question 22 Many students drew on the 2015 election campaign and cited the appeal of specific policies to various social groups (eg, reducing tuition fees for young people). Other focused responses mentioned leafleting, canvassing, leader debates on the television and so forth. Less effective answers tended to make generalised statements about saying what people want to hear or similar. The how successful aspect often discussed the impact of alleged broken promises, voter confusion and disillusion on turnout, as well as the relative attraction of particular parties or leaders to different social groups. The oft-quoted lack of interest of young people in politics was belied by the quality and depth of some responses. Question 23 Most answers to this question were able to show some sociological understanding, which, at a basic level usually focused on the social origins of the powerful and the tendency to self-recruit new members of the elite. Fuller responses incorporated theoretical links (usually by contrasting Marxism and pluralism), or examined evidence (eg, about the class system) in more detail. The former sometimes tended to become a descriptive list of a series of theoretical positions on power, usually via the incorporation of feminism or the New Right, which lost sight of the remains the most 9 of 13

10 important factor aspect. As a result, such responses remained at best in the 7 9 band. Some students were slightly side-tracked into discussions of the causes of poverty without really linking issues such as the poverty trap explicitly to the question. A few weaker responses simply recycled Item E, occasionally making passing references to pressure groups. Question 24 The great majority of answers to this question presented an account of links between social class and voting, and then ran through a descriptive list of one or more other possible factors (usually gender, ethnicity and age). If done in reasonable depth, this approach could achieve a mark in the 7 9 band. Answers which reached the top band often incorporated consideration of wider factors such as media influence or instrumental voting, or examined the partisan dealignment debate, and crucially then made a judgement as to the continued importance or otherwise of class-based voting. Given the proximity of the examination to the 2015 general election, it was surprising how few students were able to quote examples of the appeal of factors such as nationalism or support for the environment. 10 of 13

11 Topic Four Social Inequality Questions 25 and 26 The comments made about one mark questions elsewhere also pertain here. Again, a few students misread the text-based Item and therefore answered one question incorrectly. Question 27 This question presented issues as a result of students misreading the question. Students were asked to identify an advantage and a disadvantage of using absolute definitions of poverty, not an advantage and a disadvantage of being in absolute poverty. Those students who achieved both marks usually referred to clarity for users about exactly who was in poverty and to the fact that absolute definitions usually disregarded social and cultural expectations about minimum standards of living. Question 28 This question was answered reasonably accurately, although a sizeable minority of students interspersed points about the underclass with more generalised material about people experiencing poverty. Better responses highlighted the alleged dependency on benefits and the existence of a set of cultural values that prolonged this dependency, often quoting New Right authors such as Murray. Other successful answers examined the make-up of the underclass and commented on issues such as the alleged links between crime and single parenthood. A small number of responses mistakenly thought the underclass was synonymous with the unskilled working class, and usually failed to score more than one mark or so as a result. Question 29 The question required students to identify a reason why people were trapped in poverty (as opposed to just stating a cause of poverty), and then explain how this was repeated through the generations. Many responses failed to address the trapped aspect despite spending up to half a page on this part of the question. Others simply offered the same material in response to the second part of the question as had been used in the first part. The best answers almost invariably were distinguished by a clear structure and a logical progression through issues such as the impact of the poverty trap, cultural values and the cycle of deprivation etc. However, the majority only achieved a reasonable score because examiners spent the time necessary to unpick what was there and pursue a route through an answer that maximised marks for students. Question 30 Much of what was said about the poor organisation of responses to Question 29 also applies to Question 30. The great majority of students took gender to mean women (although the question did not require this), and continued with an account of why they were discriminated against. In most cases the actual life chance that was affected did not make an appearance until quite late in the response which meant examiners had to cut-and-paste answers to maximise student marks. Almost all responses were located in the world of work, so there was also considerable conflation, with issues such as getting a job, getting paid the same as men, getting promotion, only being parttime, etc, treated as interchangeable. The and explain section, which almost invariably discussed issues such as maternity leave and social attitudes to women in high-status roles, was therefore often rather disconnected from the life chances discussed in the describe one section. 11 of 13

12 Question 31 This question was frequently addressed via a comparison of Marxist views on social class with the notion of meritocracy, the latter occasionally accompanied by anecdotal examples of successful celebrities (though thankfully these were far less common than in previous series). Almost everyone took social mobility as being about upward mobility, although consideration of both upward and downward mobility was acceptable within the context of the question. Other responses considered whether social class was still a factor in the nature of British society today via discussion of issues such as embourgeoisement and perceptions of class. Some rather timeless responses simply set out a series of descriptive paragraphs on Marxism and other theoretical positions without really addressing the 'still limited social mobility today aspect. These responses at best could go no higher than the 7-9 band. Question 32 This was the more popular of the two twelve mark questions in this Topic area, and almost invariably was addressed via an examination of the impact of ethnicity on inequality and consideration of one or more of gender, age, class and occasionally religion (though this latter often simply repeated points already made about minority ethnic groups). Weaker students tended to confine themselves to one or two basic points about alleged police discrimination, or just recycled information in Item H. Fuller, but routine responses still tended to see inequality as being about discrimination, but did look at a wider array of variables, so usually achieved around half the marks available. More sophisticated responses considered inequality in a number of areas of social life (eg education, the workplace, access to power), and came to a conclusion, often comparing the impact of legislation on gender, age and ethnicity inequality as compared to the enduring nature of social class inequality. 12 of 13

13 Mark Ranges and Award of Grades Grade boundaries and cumulative percentage grades are available on the Results Statistics page of the AQA Website. Converting Marks into UMS marks Convert raw marks into Uniform Mark Scale (UMS) marks by using the link below. UMS conversion calculator 13 of 13