VCE Sociology cheat sheet

Culture is the shared system of meanings, values, norms, symbols and practices transmitted and negotiated within a group; material culture refers to physical objects, non-material culture to beliefs and ideas.

Norms are socially shared expectations of behaviour; they range from folkways (mild, everyday) to mores (strong moral force) to laws (formally codified and enforced).

Values are abstract ideals about what is desirable; norms are the behavioural rules derived from values, so a value such as respect may produce norms about greeting elders.

Sanctions are reactions that enforce norms: positive sanctions reward conformity, negative sanctions punish deviance, and both may be formal (institutional) or informal (interpersonal).

Ethnocentrism judges another culture by one's own standards; cultural relativism interprets a practice within its own cultural context without necessarily endorsing it.

Socialisation is the lifelong process of learning culture; primary socialisation occurs in early childhood within the family, secondary socialisation occurs later through school, peers, media and work.

Agents of socialisation include family, school, peer group, media, religion and workplace; each transmits selective norms and values, so their messages may conflict.

Identity is the self-concept an individual develops through social interaction; it is shaped by categories such as class, gender, ethnicity, age and sexuality, and is both ascribed and achieved.

Status is a social position; an ascribed status is assigned at birth or without choice, an achieved status is earned, and a role is the set of expectations attached to a status.

Deviance is behaviour that violates a social norm; because norms vary by culture, time and setting, deviance is relative rather than absolute.

Crime is behaviour that breaks a formal legal code; all crime is deviance but not all deviance is crime, so the two categories overlap without being identical.

Social control is any mechanism that encourages conformity; formal social control is exercised by institutions such as police, courts and schools, informal control by family, peers and community.

Internal social control operates through socialisation and conscience, so individuals police themselves; external social control operates through rewards, punishments and surveillance.

Functionalism (Durkheim) treats deviance as normal and functional: it clarifies norms, strengthens social solidarity and can signal the need for social change.

Merton's strain theory explains deviance as a gap between culturally approved goals and legitimate means; adaptation modes are conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion.

Labelling theory holds that deviance is a product of social reaction: being labelled deviant can produce a self-fulfilling prophecy and a deviant career through secondary deviance.

Conflict theory links deviance and law to power: dominant groups define what counts as criminal, and sanctions may target the less powerful more heavily.

The dark figure of crime is the gap between crimes committed and crimes recorded; it is produced by non-reporting, non-detection and recording decisions by authorities.

Australian society is culturally diverse: the population includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and people with ancestry from many migration waves since 1788.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures are the world's oldest continuing cultures, with diversity across hundreds of language groups rather than a single uniform culture.

Ethnicity is a sense of belonging based on shared ancestry, language, religion or culture; race is a socially constructed category with no valid biological basis.

Prejudice is a preconceived attitude toward a group; discrimination is behaviour that treats people unequally; both can be individual or institutional in form.

Institutional discrimination refers to policies or practices built into organisations that disadvantage groups even without individual intent, such as unequal access to services.

Multiculturalism as policy recognises cultural diversity and supports maintenance of cultural identity within shared national institutions and civic values.

Assimilation expects minority groups to adopt the dominant culture; integration allows cultural maintenance alongside participation in mainstream institutions.

Migration patterns shape Australian diversity: post-1945 mass migration, the end of the White Australia policy, and later refugee and skilled migration programs.

Reconciliation involves acknowledging past injustice, such as the Stolen Generations, and building relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians through recognition and equity.

Social change is a shift in social structures, institutions, norms or values over time; it can be gradual or rapid, planned or unplanned, and is rarely linear.

Agents of change include social movements, governments, media, technology, economic forces, religion and individuals; their influence is interactive rather than isolated.

A social movement is an organised, sustained collective effort to promote or resist change; it differs from a crowd, a fad or a single protest event.

Types of social movement include reform movements (change within existing structures), revolutionary movements (replace structures), reactionary or resistance movements (restore past arrangements) and expressive movements (change individuals).

Resource mobilisation theory explains movement success through access to money, members, skills, networks and media attention rather than grievance alone.

Political opportunity structure refers to openings in the political system, such as sympathetic governments, electoral alliances or divided elites, that make mobilisation more likely to succeed.

Framing is the process by which movements construct meaning: diagnostic framing names a problem, prognostic framing proposes a solution, and motivational framing calls people to act.

Tactics range from conventional (petitions, lobbying, litigation) to disruptive (strikes, boycotts, blockades) to violent; tactic choice affects public support and state response.

Technology accelerates change and mobilisation by lowering communication costs and enabling rapid coordination, but digital activism may lack sustained organisational depth.