Understanding Social Inequalities | OCR A-Level Sociology (H580)
Understanding Social Inequalities
- 56 questions
- 4 subtopics
- Component 02: Researching and understanding social inequalities
- Component 02
Understanding Social Inequalities is examined on component 02 of OCR Sociology, Researching and understanding social inequalities.
56 recall questions across 4 subtopics.
Sample questions from Understanding Social Inequalities
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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Stratification, class, poverty, mobility and gender inequality
What did Townsend add to the way poverty is measured?
Show the answer
Townsend argued poverty should be measured as relative deprivation, using an index of the everyday activities and possessions most people take for granted, so that anyone unable to afford them counts as poor even though they are not physically destitute. -
Stratification, class, poverty, mobility and gender inequality
Distinguish horizontal from vertical segregation in the labour market.
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Horizontal segregation means men and women are concentrated in different kinds of work, with women clustered in caring, clerical and retail jobs; vertical segregation means that within the same occupation men hold a disproportionate share of the senior, better-paid grades. -
Ethnicity, age, work and health inequalities
Name three areas of social life beyond employment where ethnic inequality can be evidenced, and give the pattern in each.
Show the answer
Housing, where minority ethnic households are more likely to live in overcrowded or poor-quality accommodation; health, where several groups have worse outcomes and poorer experiences of services; and the criminal justice system, where Black people are stopped, searched and imprisoned at disproportionate rates. -
Ethnicity, age, work and health inequalities
Why is it wrong to treat older people as a uniformly poor group?
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Old age magnifies earlier inequalities rather than levelling them: people with occupational pensions, savings and a mortgage-free home can be comfortably off, while those who relied on low-paid or interrupted work face pensioner poverty, so the spread of income and wealth within the older population is very wide. -
Functionalist and Marxist explanations of inequality
What were Tumin's main criticisms of the functionalist theory of stratification?
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Tumin argued there is no objective way to measure the functional importance of a job, that inequality blocks talent by denying opportunity to the poor rather than releasing it, that power rather than merit determines pay, and that stratification divides a society instead of integrating it. -
Functionalist and Marxist explanations of inequality
What did Marx mean by alienation?
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Alienation is the estrangement workers feel when they control neither what they make nor how they make it, so that labour becomes a meaningless means to a wage and separates them from the product, from the act of working, from their own creative nature and from each other. -
Weberian, feminist and New Right explanations of inequality
What is social closure, and what are its two forms?
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Social closure, developed by Parkin from Weber, is the way a group protects its advantages by restricting access to them; exclusion operates downwards, as when a profession uses qualifications and licensing to keep others out, while usurpation operates upwards, as when an excluded group organises to claim a larger share. -
Weberian, feminist and New Right explanations of inequality
What explanation and what solution does liberal feminism offer?
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Liberal feminists trace gender inequality to outdated attitudes and gender-role socialisation — Oakley described how girls are steered towards femininity through manipulation and canalisation — and conclude that it can be dismantled gradually by changing attitudes, reforming education and enforcing equal opportunities law.
The 4 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Stratification, class, poverty, mobility and gender inequality | Recall questions on social difference and inequality, stratification and Weber's life chances, measuring class, income and wealth, absolute and relative poverty and Townsend, social mobility, the Great British Class Survey, the gender pay gap, horizontal and vertical segregation, the glass ceiling, the dual burden and the feminisation of the workforce. | 16 |
| Ethnicity, age, work and health inequalities | Recall questions on Heath and Cheung's ethnic penalty, institutional racism and differences between minority ethnic groups, ethnic inequality beyond employment, ageism and the position of young and older people, deindustrialisation, Standing's precariat, Barron and Norris's dual labour market, the Black Report on health, and official statistics on inequality. | 12 |
| Functionalist and Marxist explanations of inequality | Recall questions on functionalist views of stratification, Davis and Moore's theory of unequal rewards, meritocracy, Tumin's criticisms, Marxist explanations of class, exploitation, alienation and ideology, and criticisms of Marx's predictions and of Marxist explanations of inequality. | 11 |
| Weberian, feminist and New Right explanations of inequality | Recall questions on Weber's class, status and party, market situation, Parkin's social closure, Weberian views of ethnic inequality, patriarchy and liberal, Marxist, radical and Black feminist explanations, Walby's structures of patriarchy, New Right views, Murray's underclass and dependency culture, and how theory shapes research methods. | 17 |
How the guide is worked
Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.
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Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
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Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
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Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.
Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.
Nearby topics
OCR A-Level Sociology Active Recall Guide
Every topic, not just this one. 859 questions with their answers.