TCE Sociology exam 2026Exam: Mon 9 Nov · TASC timetable

Deviance is any behaviour that breaks the norms of a social group and attracts disapproval. Crime is the narrower category of deviance that also breaks the formal law and attracts official sanctions. All crime is deviant, but much deviance, such as queue jumping or unusual dress, is not criminal.

Anomie is a condition of weakened or unclear social norms, leaving individuals without firm moral guidance. Durkheim linked it to rapid social change; Merton reworked it to mean the strain produced when society cannot deliver the success it tells everyone to want.

Patriarchy is a social system in which men hold most of the power and women are systematically disadvantaged across institutions such as the family, work, politics and the media. Feminists use the concept to explain why gender inequality is structured and durable rather than a series of individual choices.

Weber's term for the long term process by which traditional, customary and emotional ways of acting are replaced by calculated, efficient, rule governed ones. Bureaucracy is the clearest example, and Weber warned it could become an iron cage that traps people in impersonal routines.

Life chances are the opportunities each person has to obtain things society values, such as good health, education, housing and income. The point of stratification theory is that life chances are not random but patterned by class, gender and ethnicity.

A social institution is an established, organised cluster of norms and roles built around a basic social need, such as the family (reproduction and care), education (knowledge transmission) or the economy (production). Institutions are interconnected and relatively stable over time.

Power is the capacity to influence or control the behaviour of others, with or without their consent. Authority is power that people accept as rightful and legitimate, so they obey willingly. The state seeks authority, not just power, because rule by consent is more stable and cheaper than rule by force.

The hidden curriculum is the set of values, attitudes and behaviours that students learn implicitly through the experience of schooling, such as accepting authority, competing for grades and keeping to timetables, rather than through the official subjects taught.

Values are broad, abstract principles a society holds dear, such as mateship or a fair go in Australian culture. Norms are the specific, practical rules that put those values into action, such as queuing fairly or shouting a round at the pub. Norms enforce values in everyday life.

Sociologists stress that we hold several identities at once, for example as a student, a sibling, a worker and a member of an ethnic or religious group, and these can shift over time and across situations. Identity is fluid and socially constructed, not a single fixed essence we are born with.

A sanction is any social reaction that rewards or punishes behaviour. Positive sanctions (praise, prizes, promotion) reward conformity; negative sanctions (fines, ridicule, imprisonment) punish deviance. Sanctions can be formal (official) or informal (everyday).

Primary is early childhood and the family; secondary is wider institutions across most of life; tertiary is later adulthood. Resocialisation, desocialisation and anticipatory socialisation are not life stages but processes that can occur at any point when someone changes their social position or prepares to.

An aim is a general statement of what you want to find out. A hypothesis is a specific, testable prediction, for example that older residents use social media less than younger residents. Quantitative projects often test a hypothesis; qualitative projects may instead pursue a more open aim.

Reliability means a method produces consistent results if repeated by another researcher. Validity means the data gives a true, authentic picture of what is really happening. Quantitative methods tend to be reliable; qualitative methods tend to be valid.

A broad agreement among the members of a society about what is important, right and worth striving for. Functionalists argue this shared morality is the glue that holds society together.