Exam-style question
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Which response best protects a concept boundary in Theory and Methods? Variant 5.
- A.Keep treating crime and deviance as the same concept out of the answer by distinguishing the concepts explicitly.
- B.Explaining crime patterns without linking them to class, gender, ethnicity or social control.
- C.Making a moral judgement instead of using sociological theory or evidence.
- D.Write a broad opinion about Theory and Methods without sociological theory, evidence, method or AO focus.
Model answer
What a good answer should say
- The correct answer is Keep treating crime and deviance as the same concept out of the answer by distinguishing the concepts explicitly..
Explanation
Why this works
The correct option is Keep treating crime and deviance as the same concept out of the answer by distinguishing the concepts explicitly. because it matches this objective's Sociology focus.
AO1: research methods is the sociological focus needed to sources of data, including questionnaires, interviews, participant observation, non-participant observation, experiments, documents and official statistics. Define the relevant concept, theory, evidence or method accurately before applying it.
AO2: Apply the point to contemporary UK society and relevant institutional context rather than writing a generic comment about society. AO3: Analyse by explaining the chain from social structure, social action, institution, policy or method to its effect on behaviour, opportunity, identity, control or inequality.
Where research evidence is used, explain how the method, sample, data type, validity, reliability or representativeness affects the conclusion. Evaluation should consider whether the conclusion changes across social groups or contexts; the judgement should follow from the evidence and context, not from moral opinion.
The distractors are weaker because they blur a concept boundary, omit education-specific methods application where required, or replace sociological reasoning with generic commentary.
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