KS3 Sociology Key Terms & Vocabulary
Every key term and definition you need for KS3 Sociology, organised by topic. 210 definitions across 7 topics, free to read and practise with spaced-repetition flashcards.
Inequality and fairness
Practise Inequality and fairness →Practise →- Absolute poverty
- lacking the basics needed to survive, measured against a fixed standard.
- Absolute poverty
- not being able to afford basic needs such as food, shelter and clothing.
- Benefits
- payments from the government that help people on low incomes.
- Direct discrimination
- treating someone worse than others because of a protected characteristic.
- Discrimination
- treating people unfairly or differently because of who they are, instead of treating everyone equally.
- Discrimination
- treating someone unfairly because of who they are.
- Equality Act 2010
- the main UK law that protects people from discrimination.
- Equality Act 2010
- a UK law that protects people from being treated unfairly.
- Equality
- treating everyone the same and seeing each person as equal under the law.
- Equity
- giving people what they each need, which may be different things.
- Fairness
- treating people in the right way so everyone gets a fair chance.
- Poverty figures
- often shown after housing costs, because rent and mortgages take a large share of income.
- Income
- the money a person gets coming in regularly, such as wages from a job.
- Income
- a flow of money that keeps arriving over time, like water through a pipe.
- Indirect discrimination
- when a rule that applies to everyone unfairly disadvantages one group.
- Life chances
- a person's opportunities for good outcomes in life, such as good health, education, work and housing.
- Median income
- the middle income if everyone were lined up from lowest to highest.
- Life chances
- about probability, not certainty; they make some outcomes more or less likely, not guaranteed.
- Poverty
- not having enough money to meet everyday needs like heating, food and rent.
- Poverty
- not having enough money for the things people need for a normal life.
- Prejudice
- having a negative attitude or feeling about a person or group before getting to know them.
- Prejudice
- judging someone unfairly before you really know them.
- Prejudice
- an attitude or thought, while discrimination is the unfair action that can follow it.
- Relative poverty
- having a much lower income than most other people in your country.
- Rights
- things everyone in society should be able to enjoy, like education and safety.
- Life chances
- shaped by differences in wealth, income, power and status.
- Social justice
- society is set up so everyone can enjoy their rights and a fair share.
- Social justice
- about changing unfair rules in society, not just giving to charity.
- Stereotype
- a simplified, fixed idea about a whole group of people.
- Life chances
- not shared out equally; some groups have more opportunities than others.
Showing 30 of 68. Practise the full Inequality and fairness set →
Crime, rules and deviance
Practise Crime, rules and deviance →Practise →- Deviance
- breaking social norms and crime means breaking the law; many crimes are also deviant, but some deviant acts, like wearing pyjamas to school, are not crimes.
- Criminal justice system
- usually described as three main parts: the police, the courts, and prisons and probation, which detain and supervise offenders.
- Crime
- an act that breaks the law.
- Crime
- breaking an official written law of a country.
- Deviance
- behaviour that goes against the normal rules and expectations of society.
- Deviance
- breaking the unwritten rules (norms) about how to behave, even if it is not illegal.
- Formal sanction
- an official punishment or reward given by an organisation like a court, the police or a school.
- Formal sanctions
- official punishments such as fines or prison, given by bodies like the police and courts.
- Informal social control
- everyday pressure from family and friends to behave well.
- Informal sanction
- an everyday reaction from people around us, such as a smile, a glare or being left out.
- Informal sanctions
- unofficial reactions such as disapproval, criticism or being told off.
- Magistrates
- ordinary trained members of the public who hear less serious cases in local courts.
- Norms
- the everyday expected behaviours that most people in a society follow.
- Crime pattern
- a trend showing which groups are more likely to be caught offending, not a rule about every individual.
- Police
- a public force that helps keep the community safe by preventing and investigating crime.
- Arrest
- one of the main powers the police use to deal with crime.
- Punishment
- a negative sanction given to someone who has broken a rule or law.
- Deterrence
- punishment that aims to put people off committing crime.
- Protection (incapacitation)
- keeping the public safe by removing a dangerous offender from society.
- Rehabilitation
- helping an offender change so they can return to society as a law-abiding person.
- Retribution
- punishment given because the offender deserves it for the wrong they did.
- Sanction
- a reaction to someone's behaviour, used to either reward following the rules or punish breaking them.
- Teenagers' brains
- still developing self-control, so they take more risks.
- Recorded crime
- higher in cities and inner-city areas than in rural areas.
- Values
- the beliefs a society holds about what is right and important.
- Formal sanctions
- given by official people and organisations, such as judges, police officers and teachers.
- Young people
- the age group most likely to be caught committing crime.
- In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the age of criminal responsibility is 10.
- Most crimes are also deviant, but not every deviant act is a crime.
- In 2023/24 men made up about 84% of all arrests and women about 16%.
Showing 30 of 66. Practise the full Crime, rules and deviance set →
Family and relationships
Practise Family and relationships →Practise →- Adolescence
- the stage of growing up between childhood and adulthood, often called the teenage years.
- Beanpole family
- one with several generations but very few children in each generation.
- Blended (reconstituted) family
- formed when two separate families join together, often creating step-parents and step-siblings.
- Looking after children
- a form of unpaid work that takes time and effort, even though no one is paid for it.
- Domestic labour
- the unpaid work done at home, such as cooking, cleaning, washing and looking after children.
- Family
- usually the first social group a child ever belongs to.
- Lone-parent (single-parent) family
- one parent raising their children.
- Single-parent families
- far more common today than they were a century ago.
- Nuclear family
- two parents living with their children in one home.
- Nuclear family
- two parents living with their own children.
- Nuclear family
- two parents and their children living together.
- Peers
- people of a similar age, such as friends and classmates, who influence how we behave.
- Primary socialisation
- learning the basic rules and values of society, mostly at home in early childhood.
- Same-sex family
- one where the two parents are the same gender, with or without children.
- Same-sex family
- headed by two parents of the same gender, who may have adopted or birth children.
- Single-parent (lone-parent) family
- one parent raising one or more children on their own.
- Single-person household
- one person living on their own.
- Socialisation
- the way we learn the rules, values and behaviour of the society we live in.
- Socialisation
- the way a family helps a child learn how to fit into society.
- Step-parent
- the new partner of a child's parent who is not the child's birth parent.
- Symmetrical family
- one where partners share the housework and childcare more equally than families did in the past.
- In an adoptive family, the parents have legally become the permanent parents of a child who was not born to them.
- The main agents of socialisation are the family, school, friends (peers) and the media.
- Since the 1970s, the proportion of UK children living with both parents has fallen, while lone-parent and step-families have become more common.
- One job of a family is to care for members by giving food, shelter, clothing and safety.
- Children and young people can also have roles at home, such as tidying their room or helping with chores.
- A couple living together without children is also counted as a family or household type.
- Family types in the UK have become much more varied over the last hundred years.
- There is no single "normal" family type; many different family shapes are common and accepted in the UK today.
- The division of labour in the home means how jobs like housework, childcare and earning money are shared out in a family.
Showing 30 of 66. Practise the full Family and relationships set →
Identity and belonging
Practise Identity and belonging →Practise →- Families
- usually the first to teach children gender roles, often without meaning to.
- Britain's culture
- shaped over centuries by many peoples who settled here and mixed their ways of living.
- Culture
- learned from the people around us, not something we are born already knowing.
- Culture
- the shared way of life, traditions and customs of a group of people.
- Culture
- the shared values, beliefs, customs and ways of living of a group of people.
- Discrimination
- treating someone unfairly because of who they are.
- Diversity
- the range of differences between people, such as background, culture and beliefs.
- Ethnicity
- about shared culture and background, which is different from skin colour alone.
- Ethnicity
- belonging to a group that shares things like ancestry, history, language, religion or culture.
- Family
- usually the first and earliest influence on a child's identity.
- Gender expectations
- learned from society, not something people are born knowing.
- Gender role
- how society expects someone to look and behave based on their gender.
- Gender
- the social idea of how people should behave based on whether they are seen as male or female.
- Heritage
- the customs, traditions and history passed down to us from earlier generations.
- Identity
- not fixed; it can change over time as our experiences and groups change.
- Identity
- the sense of who you are, including your beliefs, interests and the groups you belong to.
- Label
- a word people use to define someone, which can stick and shape how others treat them.
- Mainstream culture
- the tastes and ways of life shared by most people in society.
- Britain
- a multicultural country, home to people from many different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
- Peer pressure
- when friends influence you to think or act in a certain way.
- Prejudice
- having negative feelings about a person or group before getting to know them.
- Prejudice
- a negative attitude towards others because of their colour, religion or ethnic origin.
- Primary socialisation
- the early learning that happens in the family in childhood.
- Subcultures
- often recognised by clothes, music, slang and shared attitudes.
- Secondary socialisation
- learning from wider groups like school, friends and the media.
- Self-fulfilling prophecy
- when a label makes someone act the way they were labelled.
- Biological sex
- the physical body features a person is born with.
- Socialisation
- the way we learn the values, rules and behaviour of the society around us.
- Gender socialisation
- the process of learning how to behave according to gender roles.
- Stereotype
- a simplified, fixed idea about a whole group of people.
Showing 30 of 64. Practise the full Identity and belonging set →
What is society?
Practise What is society? →Practise →- Culture
- the shared way of life of a group of people, including their beliefs, customs and language.
- Customs
- traditions passed down through generations, like having a cake on your birthday.
- Education
- the institution that teaches people knowledge and skills, mainly through schools.
- Family
- usually the first place a child learns norms and values, before school and friends.
- Family
- an institution that raises children and gives people care and support.
- Formal group
- officially organised with set roles and rules, like a football team or a school.
- Genes
- biological instructions passed from parents to children, an example of nature.
- Genie
- a girl found in 1970 after years of isolation; she never fully learned to speak, supporting the idea that nurture matters.
- Government
- the institution that makes laws and keeps order in society.
- Social institution
- a big, organised part of society that helps meet people's needs.
- Law
- a rule made for the whole country that everyone must obey.
- Law
- there to protect us and our rights.
- Norms
- the everyday unwritten rules about how to behave in different situations.
- Values
- what people think matters; norms are the rules about how to behave that follow from those values.
- Peer group
- a group of people who are a similar age, such as your friends or classmates.
- Primary group
- small, with close and personal relationships, like a family.
- Rule
- a guideline that tells people what is and is not allowed in a particular place or group.
- Sanction
- a reward for following a norm or a punishment for breaking one.
- Secondary group
- larger and more impersonal, formed to get something done, like a class at school.
- Social group
- a set of people who connect with each other and often share something in common.
- Social order
- when people follow shared rules so that a community stays calm and organised.
- Social pattern
- something many people in a group tend to do in a similar way.
- Sociology
- a social science because it studies people and society in an organised, careful way.
- Socialisation
- the process of learning the norms and values of the society we grow up in.
- Socialisation
- the process of learning the norms and values of your society as you grow up.
- Society
- a large group of people who share a place, way of life and rules for living together.
- Society
- a large group of people who live together and share rules and ways of life.
- Sociologist
- a person who studies how people behave in groups and how society works.
- Sociology
- the study of society and how people live together in groups.
- Values
- the big ideas a society thinks are important, such as honesty, respect or fairness.
Showing 30 of 61. Practise the full What is society? set →
Media and society
Practise Media and society →Practise →- Adverts
- designed to persuade people to buy something or change what they think.
- Algorithm
- a computer program that decides which posts you see, based on what you looked at before.
- Bias
- unfairly favouring one side, person or group.
- Celebrity endorsement
- using a famous person to make a product seem trustworthy or desirable.
- Clickbait
- a headline, text or thumbnail designed to attract attention and get people to click, and it is often misleading.
- Convergence
- one device, like a smartphone, can do many media jobs such as news, music and films.
- Deepfake
- a video, image or sound digitally changed to make someone seem to do or say something they never did.
- Deepfake
- a fake video or image made to look real using technology.
- Disabled people
- often missing from media or shown only as helpless or as a victim.
- Disinformation
- false information shared on purpose to confuse or mislead people.
- Disinformation
- false information spread on purpose to mislead people.
- Disinformation
- false content created on purpose to confuse or mislead people.
- Echo chamber
- when you only see ideas you already agree with, so your beliefs are never challenged.
- Ethnic minority groups
- often underrepresented, meaning they appear less often than in real life.
- Fake news
- false information made to look like real news.
- Influencer
- a person with many online followers who can affect what their audience thinks or buys.
- Media bias
- when coverage is slanted to favour one side instead of staying balanced.
- Media
- ways information reaches lots of people, such as TV, newspapers, websites and social media.
- Media literacy
- asking questions about media instead of believing every image is true.
- Media
- the ways people share news, ideas and entertainment with a large audience at once.
- Misinformation
- false information shared by mistake, without meaning to deceive.
- New media
- interactive, letting users like, comment and reply to content.
- Old media
- mostly one-way: the audience usually just watches or listens without replying.
- Representation
- the way the media shows, or portrays, a person, group or place.
- Stereotype
- a simple, exaggerated image of a whole group of people.
- Stereotypes
- often negative and can be unfair to the group shown.
- Stereotypes
- risky because they make people judge a whole group from a few examples.
- In the UK, paid posts must be clearly labelled as adverts, usually with the tag #ad.
- Adverts often use emotions like happiness or fear rather than just facts to persuade us.
- Biased fake news can spread prejudice, where people are judged unfairly.
Showing 30 of 60. Practise the full Media and society set →
Three minutes a day. Knowledge that sticks.
Short daily practice with spaced repetition, so what you revise today is still there in the exam. Free to use, no card needed.
Socialisation
Practise Socialisation →Practise →Showing 30 of 65. Practise the full Socialisation set →