Zimsec A level Sociology Past exam papers and notes.(6043)

 DEFINITION OF FAMILY AND HOUSEHOLD BY WILBERT MASAMBA 1: EXCLUSIVE DEFINITION OF FAMILY. Murdock’s (1949) conventional definition of a family suggests that it is characterized by: -common residence -economic co-operation and reproduction    - Adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship    -One or more children, own or adopted. This functionalist definition is exclusive because it is based on the idea that families have characteristics that make them different from other social groups, such as schools. This definition is flexible enough to accommodate different types of family relationship and organisation. For example, families do not have to be monogamous (one man married to one woman); they can also be polygamous. One man can be married to a number of women (polygyny) or one woman married to a number of men (polyandry). -Exclusive definition can be useful for distinguishing between family and non-family groups. ...

 THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC THEORY  ON THE ROLE OF EDUCATION  The social democratic theory is a political theory that advocates technocratic and meritocratic solutions to the problem of differential educational achievement. This theory looks at the relationship between education and the economy in terms of two related processes in modern societies: -technological changes in the work place, involving the decline in traditional manufacturing and the rise of service industries in areas such as the finance, computing and information technology. In the UK for example the tripartite system produced a small percentage(15% )  of highly university entrants and a large number of poorly qualified school leavers. This situation failed to meet the economic need for a better qualified service industry workforce. -social changes focused on ideas about equality in gender, sexuality, ethnicity and class. The tripartite system failed to meet the requirements of social fairness because it w...

  The Functionalist Perspective. By Wilbert  Masamba The structural-functional—or, more simply, functionalist—perspective draws substantially upon the ideas of Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer,and Émile Durkheim, and takes a broad view of society, focusing on the macro aspects of social life. In the 1950s and early 1960s, the functionalist theories of Talcott Parsons (1949, 1951) and his students occupied center stage in American sociology. Indeed, some proponents such as Kingsley Davis (1959) argued that the approach was essentially synonymous with sociology.   Society as a Social System Functionalists took as their starting point the notion that society is a system, a set of elements or components that are related to one another in a more or less stable fashion through a period of time. Functionalists focused on the parts of society, particularly its major institutions, such as the family, religion, the economy, the state, and education. They identified ...

    CALA   LEARNING AREA                          :             HISTORY   LEVEL                                                                    :             FORM SIX   SYLLABUS TOPIC                            :             S...