Behaviour and social order

- Functionalists exaggerate how far peoples behaviour is controlled by external forces. Explain
and assess this view.
- Interpretivists provide the most convincing account of how people perform social roles. Explain
and assess this view.
- Social order is rarely challenged because people are afraid of breaking the rules. Explain and
assess this claim
- Rather than being maintained through ideology, as Marxists claim, social order is based on
common interests. Explain and assess this view.
- Explain and assess different theories of how social order is maintained in society.
- In modern industrial societies individuals now have much more freedom to choose their own
social identities. Explain and assess this view
- Explain and assess the extent to which individuals are able to shape social reality.
- Explain and assess the view that functionalist approach to socialization is too deterministic to
fully explain how human behaviour is shaped.
- Human behaviour can be fully explained by the processes of socialization. Explain and assess
this view
- The idea that class is the key factor influencing social identity has been over stated by
sociologists. Explain and assess this claim.
- Explain and assess competing sociological theories of the processes that shape social identity.
- Only the postmodernist perspectives can explain the factors influencing social identity today.
Explain and assess this claim.
- The Marxist model of how society works has many limitations and few strengths. Explain and
assess this view
- Feminist theory no longer has any relevance for understanding modern industrial societies.
Explain and assess this view
- Explain and assess the similarities and differences between Marxist and Functionalist models of
how modern industrial societies work.

Focus on
- Theories on how societies work /How behaviour is controlled by society/How social order is
maintained
- How society is influenced by behaviour
- How social identity is influenced

1. Theories on how social order is maintained (the influencer and the influenced. More of a
Marxist touch)
2. Theories on how society works (different institutions /parts of society. More of a Functionalist
touch)
3. The process of socialization or how identity is shaped (class, religion, ethnicity, education,
gender, cultural background etc. In relation to feral children)
4. How individual behaviour shapes society ( how social order is maintained by people)