This document provides information about an advanced sociology exam that will take place on January 15, 2013. It is divided into three sections and students must choose one section to answer all the questions from. The exam will last 1 hour and students must write their answers in an AQA 8-page answer book. The exam is out of a total of 60 marks. Questions worth 24 marks require answers in continuous prose and will be assessed on use of English, organization of information, and appropriate use of specialist vocabulary. The document also provides two sample exam items, one discussing the dark side of family relationships like domestic violence and child abuse, and problems with statistics on these issues. The other sample item discusses reliability of statistics on modern families

1. General Certificate of Education
Advanced Subsidiary Examination
June 2012
Sociology SCLY1
Unit 1
Tuesday 15 January 2013 8.45 am to 9.45
For this paper you must have:
 an AQA 8-page answer book.
Time allowed
 1 hour
Instructions
 Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
 Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Examining Body for
this
paper is AQA. The Paper Reference is SCLY1.
 This paper is divided into three sections.
 Choose one section and answer all questions in that section.
 Do not answer questions from more than one section.
 Do all rough work in your answer book. Cross through any work you do not want to be
marked.
Information
 The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
 The maximum mark for this paper is 60.
 Questions carrying 24 marks should be answered in continuous prose. In these questions
you will be marked on your ability to:
– use good English
– organise information clearly
– use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.

2. Sociology Unit 1 – Families and households
Mock Jan 2013
Item 1A
There is a very dark side to human relationships, which is identified and discussed by
interpretative approaches to the analysis of family life. Literature has long demonstrated
how abusive the family can be for some members of the family; particularly for children
and women. Domestic violence is overwhelmingly perpetrated by men against women,
and children are often the victims of abuse and age patriarchy. Some of these problems
are not tackled successfully because of the problems in using official statistics to
understand these offences.
Item 1B
Statistical evidence on the nature of the modern family is unreliable. It seems that people
remarry fairly quickly after divorce, and this means that the Functionalist view of marriage
as an important building block for society has not been undermined. It also seems that
the ‘death of the nuclear family’ as predicted by the New Right may have been
exaggerated. For example, most unmarried mothers register the name of the father when
they register the birth. This may well mean that they are cohabiting with the father. Gay
parenthood is still fairly uncommon, and again, its impact can be overstated.
0 6 Explain what is meant by the ‘age patriarchy’ (Item 1A, line 6). (2 marks)
0 7 Suggest two reasons why domestic violence is still a widespread problem within family
life, apart from those referred to in Item 1A. (4 marks)
0 8 Suggest three reasons for the decline in the death rate since 1900. (6 marks)
0 9 Examine different sociological views on changes in the experience of being in a couple in
the past 50 years or so. (24 marks)
1 0 Using material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the view that social policy since
World War II has led to the decline of the traditional nuclear family. (24 marks)