A Level
A Level Psychology Paper 1
Covers Conformity and Minority Influence, Obedience and Social Change, Memory Models and Multi-Store Memory and 9 more.
Questions
Question 1 [2 marks]
Research Methods and Statistics
State one strength and one limitation of using a laboratory experiment in psychological research.
Question 2 [3 marks]
Depression and OCD
Outline one cognitive characteristic of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Question 3 [3 marks]
Approaches in Psychology
Outline what is meant by 'the emergence of psychology as a science'.
Question 4 [3 marks]
Memory Models and Multi-Store Memory
Outline the role of maintenance rehearsal in the multi-store model of memory.
Question 5 [3 marks]
Conformity and Minority Influence
Ben joins a debate society where every member confidently argues that the school day should start later.
Ben has never thought about this issue before, but after a few meetings he starts to agree.
Using Ben's example, explain how compliance might account for his change in opinion.
Question 6 [4 marks]
Obedience and Social Change
Tom works in a warehouse. His new manager instructs him to falsify a delivery record. Tom feels uncomfortable but does it anyway, telling himself he was 'just following instructions'.
Use the agentic state explanation of obedience to explain Tom's behaviour.
Question 7 [4 marks]
Definitions of Abnormality and Phobias
Explain two limitations of the 'failure to function adequately' definition of abnormality.
Question 8 [4 marks]
Biopsychology: Nervous System and Brain
Explain the difference between an excitatory and an inhibitory neurotransmitter, naming an example of each.
Question 9 [5 marks]
Explanations of Attachment and Cultural Variations
A child adopted from an institution at age 3, having received very little individual attention before adoption, shows attention-seeking and overly friendly behaviour towards unfamiliar adults years later.
Use your knowledge of research into the effects of institutionalisation to explain this child's behaviour.
Question 10 [5 marks]
Issues and Debates in Psychology
A court case considers whether a defendant should be held fully responsible for a crime, given expert evidence that a specific gene variant made the defendant significantly more likely to act impulsively and aggressively than the average person.
Use your knowledge of the free will and determinism debate to evaluate the implications of this evidence for the legal system.
Question 11 [6 marks]
Eyewitness Testimony and Forgetting
Discuss the application of eyewitness testimony research to the criminal justice system.
Question 12 [6 marks]
Caregiver-Infant Interactions and Attachment Types
Discuss Ainsworth's Strange Situation as a way of assessing individual differences in attachment.
Question 13 [6 marks]
Eyewitness Testimony and Forgetting
Discuss the use of the cognitive interview as a way of improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.
Question 14 [6 marks]
Caregiver-Infant Interactions and Attachment Types
Discuss research into reciprocity and interactional synchrony as an explanation of attachment formation.
Model solutions
| Question 1[2 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| a suitable strength, e.g. high control over extraneous variables allows cause and effect to be established | 1 |
| a suitable limitation, e.g. the artificial setting may reduce ecological validity | 1 |
| Final answer: Strength: high control allows cause and effect to be established. Limitation: the artificial setting can reduce ecological validity. | |
| Question 2[3 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying a suitable cognitive characteristic, e.g. obsessive thoughts | 1 |
| elaborating that these are recurrent, intrusive thoughts that the person finds difficult to ignore | 1 |
| noting the thoughts cause significant anxiety, which drives the compulsive behaviour | 1 |
| Final answer: Obsessive thoughts are recurrent, intrusive thoughts that cause anxiety and drive compulsive behaviour aimed at reducing that anxiety. | |
| Question 3[3 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying that psychology moved away from purely subjective methods, such as introspection, towards more objective, empirical methods | 1 |
| a suitable example, e.g. controlled experiments and standardised procedures that allow a study to be replicated | 1 |
| noting this shift is especially seen in later approaches, such as behaviourism and biological psychology, which rely on objective, measurable data | 1 |
| Final answer: Psychology's emergence as a science reflects a shift from subjective methods like introspection towards objective, replicable methods, as seen in approaches such as behaviourism and biological psychology. | |
| Question 4[3 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying maintenance rehearsal as repeating information over and over | 1 |
| explaining that this keeps information active in short-term memory (STM) | 1 |
| noting that with enough rehearsal, information can be transferred to long-term memory (LTM) | 1 |
| Final answer: Maintenance rehearsal is repeating information to keep it in STM; sufficient rehearsal transfers it to LTM. | |
| Question 5[3 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying compliance as a public, temporary change in behaviour/opinion without private acceptance | 1 |
| applying this to Ben, who goes along with the group's view to fit in and avoid standing out | 1 |
| noting the change is likely to be superficial and may not persist once Ben leaves the group | 1 |
| Final answer: Compliance is public agreement without private belief change; Ben may just go along with the group to avoid disapproval, and could revert once away from them. | |
| Question 6[4 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying the agentic state as acting on behalf of another, an authority figure, rather than from personal conscience | 1 |
| applying this to Tom, who shifts responsibility for the act onto his manager | 1 |
| identifying the moral strain Tom experiences (discomfort) as consistent with being in an agentic state | 1 |
| noting the phrase 'just following instructions' reflects an agentic shift away from an autonomous state | 1 |
| Final answer: Tom appears to have entered an agentic state, obeying his manager and shifting responsibility onto them, which explains both his compliance and his discomfort (moral strain). | |
| Question 7[4 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying that judgements of who is failing to function are often subjective, made by an observer rather than the individual | 1 |
| a suitable example, e.g. an unusual lifestyle may be judged dysfunctional by others despite the person being content | 1 |
| identifying that the definition may class atypical but not harmful behaviour as abnormal | 1 |
| a suitable example, e.g. an extreme sportsperson taking unusual risks could be seen as failing to function despite thriving | 1 |
| Final answer: Limitations include the subjectivity of judgements about functioning, and the risk of labelling atypical but harmless behaviour as abnormal. | |
| Question 8[4 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying an excitatory neurotransmitter as one that increases the likelihood of the postsynaptic neuron firing, e.g. acetylcholine | 1 |
| elaborating on the excitatory effect, e.g. depolarising the postsynaptic membrane, moving it closer to the threshold needed to fire | 1 |
| identifying an inhibitory neurotransmitter as one that decreases the likelihood of the postsynaptic neuron firing, e.g. GABA | 1 |
| elaborating on the inhibitory effect, e.g. hyperpolarising the postsynaptic membrane, making it less likely to reach the firing threshold | 1 |
| Final answer: Excitatory neurotransmitters, e.g. acetylcholine, increase firing likelihood by depolarising the membrane; inhibitory neurotransmitters, e.g. GABA, decrease it by hyperpolarising the membrane. | |
| Question 9[5 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying the child's behaviour as consistent with disinhibited attachment | 1 |
| identifying disinhibited attachment as attention-seeking, clingy behaviour towards any adult, familiar or not | 1 |
| linking this to research on Romanian orphans, where disinhibited attachment was more common in children adopted after infancy | 1 |
| explaining this is thought to result from a failure to form a single, stable early attachment in the institution | 1 |
| noting that earlier adoption, before around 6 months, was associated with better long-term outcomes in this research | 1 |
| Final answer: The child shows disinhibited attachment, attention-seeking behaviour towards any adult; this is linked to Romanian orphan studies where late adoption after a lack of stable early attachment predicted this pattern, whereas earlier adoption was linked to better outcomes. | |
| Question 10[5 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying this evidence as reflecting a biologically deterministic view of the defendant's behaviour | 1 |
| explaining that a strict deterministic position could be used to argue the defendant had reduced or no free choice, and so reduced moral responsibility | 1 |
| noting the legal system is generally built on an assumption of free will, that people choose their actions and can therefore be held responsible | 1 |
| identifying a tension this creates, since accepting strong biological determinism could challenge the usual basis for punishing offenders | 1 |
| noting that, in practice, courts often take a soft-determinist-type position, treating such evidence as one relevant factor rather than as fully removing responsibility | 1 |
| Final answer: The genetic evidence reflects biological determinism, creating tension with the legal system's assumption of free will; in practice, such evidence is usually treated as one relevant factor rather than as removing responsibility entirely. | |
| Question 11[6 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| outlining that laboratory research, e.g. into leading questions, has informed guidance on how police should phrase questions to witnesses | 1 |
| outlining that the cognitive interview, developed from psychological research, is now used by police forces to improve the accuracy of witness accounts | 1 |
| identifying that research has highlighted the risk of wrongful conviction based on inaccurate but confident eyewitness testimony | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. much of the underpinning research used artificial lab tasks, questioning how directly it applies to genuinely traumatic real crimes | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. field studies of real witnesses, such as of an actual robbery, support reasonably accurate recall of central details, suggesting some real-world applicability | 1 |
| a concluding evaluation point, e.g. despite these limitations, EWT research has had clear practical value in shaping interview procedure and identification guidelines | 1 |
| Final answer: EWT research has practically improved police questioning and interview technique (e.g. the cognitive interview) and highlighted the risk of wrongful conviction from confident but inaccurate testimony; its main limitation is reliance on artificial lab research, though field studies of real witnesses support some real-world applicability. | |
| Question 12[6 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| outlining the procedure of the Strange Situation, a series of separations and reunions observed through a two-way mirror | 1 |
| outlining the three attachment types identified: secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. good inter-rater reliability has been reported, as observers can be trained to agree closely on classifications | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. the procedure has been criticised for lacking validity outside a Western, individualist cultural context | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. it may measure the quality of the relationship rather than a fixed trait of the child, since attachment type can differ across caregivers | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. it is a controlled observation, increasing replicability but reducing ecological validity compared to naturalistic settings | 1 |
| Final answer: Outline the procedure and three attachment types; evaluate with good inter-rater reliability, but cultural bias and questions over validity/generalisability. | |
| Question 13[6 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| outlining 'report everything', encouraging witnesses to recall even trivial details | 1 |
| outlining 'mental reinstatement of context', encouraging witnesses to mentally recreate the environment and their emotional state at the time | 1 |
| outlining a further technique, e.g. 'change order' or 'change perspective' | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. research support finding the enhanced cognitive interview produces more correct details than the standard police interview | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. the technique is more time-consuming and requires special training, limiting its use in practice | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. some components, e.g. change perspective, may be more effective than others, questioning whether all elements are equally useful | 1 |
| Final answer: Outline report everything, mental reinstatement of context and a further technique (e.g. change order/perspective); evaluate with research support for more correct detail versus practical limitations of time, training and the uneven usefulness of individual components. | |
| Question 14[6 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| outlining reciprocity, a mutual, turn-taking pattern of interaction between caregiver and infant | 1 |
| outlining interactional synchrony, caregiver and infant mirroring each other's actions and emotions in a coordinated, rhythmic way | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. interactions are usually filmed and coded by more than one observer, which can achieve high inter-observer reliability | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. the research is largely correlational, so it cannot show that synchrony/reciprocity actually causes later attachment quality | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. observing caregiver-infant interaction is not distressing or invasive, giving the research good ethical standing | 1 |
| an evaluation point, e.g. these concepts describe patterns of behaviour but do not fully explain why they occur or what purpose they serve | 1 |
| Final answer: Outline reciprocity and interactional synchrony; evaluate with high inter-observer reliability from filmed coding and straightforward ethics, against the correlational nature of the evidence and the concepts being descriptive rather than fully explanatory. | |