Memory Hooks for use with AQA

GCSE and AS / A2 Sociology

The “Memory Hooks” used in this presentation have been built up over many years. They have

been developed by teachers and students at Balby Carr CSSC, Doncaster and are used to help

students to remember important factual information.

The memory hooks are colour coded and organised according to the various themes.

Please see next slide. Media hooks are in the process of development

If anyone has any useful memory hooks that are not featured here, please let us know!

FAMILY

Education

Social Inequality / Poverty

Beliefs in Society

Crime and Deviance

General Memory Hooks

Theories and Methods

To remember reasons for changes... use FLIRTS

•F Rise of Feminism

•L Law Changes

•I Rise of Individualism

•R Decline of Religion

•T Decline of Tradition

•S Social Changes

To remember the social factors that

influence people’s lives... use CARGO

•C Class

•A Age

•R Race

•G Gender

•O Other factors (religion, media etc)

•

To remember the different social systems use

SPLECT

•S Social

•P Political

•L Legal

•E Economic

•C Cultural

•T Technological

To remember the different types of family

diversity use CLOGS

•C Class, Cultural

•L Life Stage

•O Organisational

•G Generational

•S Structural, Sexual OR

OR...CLC ROCKS!

• C Class

• L Life Stage

• C Cultural

• R Regional

• O Organisational

• C Cohort / Generational

• K Kinship

• S Structural / sexual

To remember the functions/roles

of the family... use CREEEPS

•C Citizenship

•R Reproduction / Regulation of Sex

•E Economic support

•E Emotional support

•E Education

•P Primary Socialisation / political

•S Stabilisation of adult personalities

To remember the functions of education

... use All the Ssssss!

•S Secondary Socialisation

•S Social Solidarity / Cohesion

•S Specialist Skills / Social Mobility

•S Social Control / Order

•S Sifting and Sorting

•

To remember the main aims of education

since 1997 use VOICE

•V Vocational Education

•O Overcoming Obstacles

•I Improving attainment

•C Choice, Competition, diversity

•E Equal opportunities

To remember the key areas of agreement between New Right and Functionalists

regarding Education, use... MTVS

•M Meritocracy

•T Talents

•V Vocational Education

•S Secondary Socialisation

To remember the key areas of DISagreement between New Right and Functionalists

regarding Education, use... USA

•U Universalism

•S State interference

•A Accountability

To remember the key areas of cultural deprivation in relation to ethnicity and educational performance:

Whizzing Asians Fight Class In A Class

• W White working class families

• A Asian Families

• F Family structure / parental attitudes

• C Compensatory Education

• I Intellectual and Linguistic development

• A Attitudes and Values

• C Criticisms of cultural deprivation

•

To remember the main social issues tackled

by the Welfare State... use SQWIDI

•Sq Squalor - poor housing

•W Want - lack of money

•I Idleness - lack of work

•D Disease - ill health

•I Ignorance - lack of education

To remember the definitions/types of

poverty... use ARSE!

•A Absolute poverty

•R Relative poverty

•S Subjective poverty

•E Environmental poverty

To remember the key terms/ideas associated with secularisation use “Darling, Shortly I’m

Going To Purposely Shop Really Drunk!”

•D Disengagement •S Structural Differentiation• I Individuation•G Generalisation •T Transformation•P Participation •S Secularisation of Religious Institutions •R Religious Pluralism •D De-sacrilisation / Disenchantment

To remember the MYTHS associated with secularisation use: “Don’t Risk Biased

Understanding of Secularisation”

Disengagement is seen by some to be a mythRe-sacrilisation is seen by some to be a mythBelieving without Belonging is seen by some to be a mythSecularisation as a Universal process is generally seen to be a mythThe rise of Spirituality / a religious revival is seen by some to be a myth

To remember how to compare religious

organisations use MHWRAMCI

•M My Membership

•H House Hierarchy

•W Will Worship

• R Rot Ritual

• A And Attitude to wider society

•M Might Monopoly of the truth

• C Cave Commitment

• I In Ideology (right or left wing?)

To remember the main ways in which

crime/deviance is ‘relative’ use PPPTTC

•P Person - WHO commits the act

•P Place - WHERE it is committed

•P Power - WHO sees it committed

•T Time - WHEN it is committed

•T Tradition - How far away from tradition

•C Culture - In which culture the act occurs

To remember Hirschi’s factors that propel

people away from crime use CABI

•C ommitment

•A ttachment

•B eliefs

•I nvolvement

To remember Box’s factors that propel people

towards crime use the ‘S’ Factors

•S - Secrecy

•S - Supply

•S - Symbolic support

•S - Social support

•S - Skill

To remember the key features of New Right theory

and crime/deviance use SCRUBBAS

S - Situational TheoryC - Control TheoryR - Rational Choice TheoryU - Underclass TheoryB - Broken Windows TheoryB - Biological determinismA - Anti communitarianismS - Socialisation (differential)

To remember the important features of

research methods use PROVE

•P Practicality - Is it do-able?

•R Reliability - Is it repeatable?

•O Objectivity - Is it bias free?

•V Validity - Is it TRUE?

•E Ethical concerns - have the rules of research been observed?

To remember the important features of

research methods use P E R V E R T O

• P Practicality - Is it do-able?• E Evidence of Studies?• R Reliability - Is it repeatable/replicable?• V Validity - Is it TRUE?• E Ethical concerns - have the rules of

research been observed?• R Representativeness - does it reflect

society?• T Theoretical Stance - positivist or anti-

positivist?• O Objectivity - Is it bias free?

To remember the Functional pre-requisites of

society, use A G I L

• Adaptation• Goal Attainment• Integration • Latency / pattern

maintenance