What is an IDEOLOGY?

Ideology, science and religion

An ideology is basically a set of ideas and beliefs that can be held by a group a society or an individual. An ideology reflects these people’s needs or aspirations and these are used to make sense of their world.

A2 Thinking Point:

Seeing as you are in year 2 of your sociology courses, can you give me an example of an ideology that you may have studied over the past year of your sociology A level?

Many ideologies are political and/or economic, however Ideologies’ are also within religious beliefs systems, like Buddhism, Catholicism, Hinduism, or Islam.

A2 Thinking Point:

As I have written above, Ideologies (sets of ideas and beliefs) are used to frame, guide and inform human behaviour. For example, there may be people in here who follow Islam or Christianity. Can you use the word ideology and writes a small paragraph on how religion contains ideological features. Which elements of these religions help individuals to set a path for their lives?