4.2.8.3 Defining and measuring social class Quiz: AQA Sociology, Unit 2

The 20 questions

1. How many main categories does the Registrar General's social class scale (RGSC) use in its standard form?

   • Four categories: professional, managerial, manual and unskilled, based on the employer's size and the number of staff employed
   • Six categories: I, II, IIIN, IIIM, IV and V, based mainly on occupation and the skill level it requires
   • Three categories: upper, middle and lower class, based on a combined measure of income, wealth and inherited property
   • Eight categories: higher managerial, lower managerial, intermediate, small employers, supervisors, routine, semi-routine and unemployed

2. What is the main basis on which occupational social class schemes such as the RGSC classify people?

   • Religious affiliation, with the types of worship practised by each family being used to rank households into distinct social classes
   • Political voting record, with the party supported by each adult being used to assign people to a class in the scheme
   • Occupation, with the skill level and training required being used to rank different types of work
   • Place of residence, with the postcode of each household being used to rank neighbourhoods by their average house price

3. Which problem is most associated with using the head of household's occupation to assign social class to a household?

   • Head-of-household classification works equally well for every household, so no problem has ever been identified by researchers
   • Head-of-household classification uses income data rather than occupation, which means it cannot be used to measure class at all
   • Women's own occupations are often excluded or treated as secondary, which can misrepresent their class position
   • Head-of-household classification is required by law, so sociologists cannot change the method even when it gives poor results

4. Which feature distinguishes the NS-SEC from the RGSC?

   • NS-SEC uses employment relations and conditions, such as whether a person is an employer, supervisor or employee, not just occupation
   • NS-SEC has three categories only, while the RGSC has more than fifteen categories based on property and land ownership
   • NS-SEC uses only income data, while the RGSC uses only occupational titles listed in the census without any further analysis
   • NS-SEC uses only religious data, while the RGSC uses only information about education levels and qualifications held

5. What is the main idea behind Marx's definition of social class?

   • Class is defined by the level of education achieved, so people with university degrees always belong to the upper class
   • Class is defined by the number of children in a household, since larger families are assumed to have lower incomes
   • Class is defined by relationship to the means of production, such as owning capital or selling labour power
   • Class is defined by the number of years a person has lived in one area, which determines their status in the community

6. Which of the following is a strength of measuring class using occupation?

   • Occupation is widely recorded in official data, which allows comparison across large populations and over time
   • Occupation is always a perfect guide to income, so no other measure of class is ever needed in any research study at all
   • Occupation directly reveals a person's political beliefs, so surveys about occupation can replace voting data entirely
   • Occupation is unaffected by changes in the labour market, so occupational schemes remain accurate across all historical periods

7. Which limitation applies to measuring social class by income alone?

   • Income is a fixed characteristic that never changes over a person's lifetime, so it always gives an accurate measure of class
   • Income can fluctuate over time and ignores wealth, so it may not show a household's long-term economic position
   • Income is impossible to record in any survey, since people never provide any information about their earnings to researchers
   • Income is determined only by education, so measuring income tells researchers nothing about other dimensions of class

8. The Great British Class Survey (2011) identified a group of insecure and low-paid workers that it called what?

   • The petite bourgeoisie, characterised by ownership of small businesses that employ a small number of workers in each local area
   • The lumpenproletariat, characterised by criminal activity and by a rejection of all forms of regular paid employment and training
   • The precariat, characterised by insecure work, low income and limited access to cultural and economic resources
   • The aristocracy, characterised by inherited titles, country estates and a long tradition of holding seats in the House of Lords

9. Which statement about measuring class by self-identification is most accurate?

   • Self-identification always matches the objective class position of individuals, so it is the most reliable measure of class available
   • Self-identification is only used in medicine, so it has no relevance to the measurement of social class in sociological research
   • People's own sense of class can differ from objective measures, so self-identification provides a different kind of evidence
   • Self-identification is required by law for all official measures of class, so researchers have no alternative methods to use

10. Which problem arises when measuring the social class of students, retired people or the long-term unemployed by occupation?

    • These groups have no social class, so measurement is simply not required for them in sociological or official research
    • Occupation may not be current or relevant, so alternative indicators such as previous occupation or household data may be used
    • These groups are excluded by law from all social surveys, so measurement issues never arise in relation to them at all
    • Occupation is always available for these groups, so there is no measurement problem for any of them in official statistics

11. What does the Weberian approach to class emphasise in contrast with the Marxist approach?

    • Religious beliefs and rituals, which Weber regarded as the only factor capable of creating distinct social classes in history
    • Market situation and life chances, rather than a single relationship to the means of production
    • The role of the state in redistributing income, which Weber saw as the only mechanism of class formation in modern life
    • Ownership of land only, since Weber argued that agriculture was the sole basis of all social classes in industrial societies

12. Which measurement approach to social class most directly seeks to capture employment relationships such as supervision and autonomy?

    • The Index of Multiple Deprivation, which uses only local area statistics on crime, health and housing quality in each neighbourhood
    • The Registrar General's scale, which uses only the number of years of formal schooling completed by each adult in the household
    • The Goldthorpe class schema, which distinguishes employment relations such as service relationships and employment contracts
    • The census count of households, which records only the number of people living at each address on census night each decade

13. A researcher finds that two people in the same occupation have very different incomes and levels of wealth. What does this suggest about measuring class?

    • Income and wealth are the same thing, so the two people must have the same class position despite their differences
    • Occupation alone may not capture all economic advantage, so multiple indicators can give a fuller picture of class position
    • Class is determined only by religion, so differences in income and wealth between two people are irrelevant to their class
    • Occupation is a perfect measure of class, so the difference in income and wealth must be an error in the data collection process

14. Which statement about the 'problem of defining class' in sociology is most accurate?

    • Definitions of class depend entirely on government legislation, so sociologists have no independent role in defining it
    • Definitions of class vary between theorists, and the choice of indicator affects who is placed in which category
    • Definitions of class are identical across all theories, so the choice of indicator has no effect on any research result
    • Definitions of class have been abandoned by sociologists, who now study only individual consumption and lifestyle choices

15. Which concept refers to the use of household income or wealth data to assess the overall economic position of a family unit?

    • Cohort measurement, which groups people by their year of birth and assigns them the class of their birth generation
    • Household-level measurement, which treats the family unit as the basis for assessing economic advantage and disadvantage
    • Individual-level measurement, which treats each adult's occupation as a separate and independent indicator of economic advantage
    • Regional measurement, which uses the average income of an entire local authority area to classify every resident there

16. Which of these is a key criticism of the NS-SEC for measuring social class?

    • It classifies people by current employment, which may not reflect long-term position for those who are retired or not working
    • It classifies people by postcode, which assumes that everyone living in the same area has the same economic position
    • It classifies people only by education, which means it cannot distinguish between a manual worker and a professional
    • It classifies people by religious belief, which has no relationship to employment or economic position in any society

17. Why might sociologists prefer using multiple indicators, such as occupation, income, wealth and education, to measure social class?

    • Using multiple indicators is required only by law, and each indicator gives identical results so the combination is unnecessary
    • Using multiple indicators is cheaper than using any single indicator, since each one requires no data collection at all
    • Each indicator captures a different aspect of advantage, and combining them can give a more complete picture of class
    • Using multiple indicators removes all need for theory, since the data speak for themselves without any conceptual framework

18. What does a 'class schema' in sociology usually refer to?

    • A written plan of research interviews used to recruit participants for a study of the working lives of different workers
    • A list of the chairs and seats in a parliamentary chamber, grouped by the political party each member represents
    • A timetable of school lessons used to group pupils into classes by age and ability within each secondary school year
    • A systematic classification of occupations or employment positions into categories used to represent social class

19. Why is a retired person's class sometimes assigned using their former occupation?

    • Former occupation tells researchers the current income of a retired person, since pensions are always paid at the same rate
    • Former occupation is required by law for every retired person, so researchers must use it regardless of other information available
    • Former occupation is the only information that pension providers keep, so official statistics always rely on it for retirees
    • Former occupation is often the best available indicator of longer-term economic and social position for someone who no longer works

20. A critic argues that Marx's two-class model struggles to explain modern societies. Which point best supports this criticism?

    • Marx's theory applies only to agricultural economies, so it has nothing to say about the managerial and professional sectors of work
    • Every worker in modern societies now owns shares in the company that employs them, so no clear division between classes remains
    • Modern societies have no economic classes at all, since all incomes are now equal and no group holds significant property or capital
    • A large group of managers and professionals occupies a position that does not fit neatly into either capitalist owners or wage labourers

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