AQA A Level Psychology Paper 1: Introductory Topics in Psychology June 2018 question paper 7182/1

Outline what is meant by ‘agentic state’ as an explanation for obedience.

Jenny is a psychology teacher who works with six other teachers in the department. Jenny believes strongly that homework should not be graded as it distracts students from reading verbal feedback on their work. She would like her colleagues to stop grading work. The other members of the department do not agree but have told Jenny they are willing to have a meeting about it.

Using your knowledge of minority influence, explain how Jenny might be able to persuade the rest of the department to accept her view.

Psychologists investigating social influence have discovered several reasons why people conform.

Discuss what psychological research has told us about why people conform.

A researcher investigated the working memory model using a laboratory experiment. Forty students from a local college volunteered to take part.

In Condition A, 20 students performed the following two tasks at the same time:

• mentally counting backwards from 100

• tracking coloured shapes on a computer screen.

In Condition B, 20 different students performed the following two tasks at the same time:

• mentally counting backwards from 100

• reading a poem out loud.

The researcher predicted that the performance of students in Condition A would be better than the performance of students in Condition B.

Name the two components of working memory that would be involved in the performance of the tasks in Condition A.

Mentally counting backwards from 100:

Tracking coloured shapes on a computer screen:

Briefly explain two ways in which the working memory experiment described above could be improved.

Discuss one strength of the working memory model.

Describe the cognitive interview.

Aaron was upset as he left the Spanish exam. In the unfamiliar room and full of nerves, his mind had gone completely blank. He was regretting studying both French and Spanish because he was sure he had mixed up lots of the words.

Outline one explanation of forgetting. How might this explanation account for Aaron’s poor performance in the Spanish exam?

Briefly evaluate the explanation of forgetting you have outlined in your answer to Question 08.

State two effects of institutionalisation.

Outline how Lorenz and Harlow studied attachment using animals.

Two mothers at the toddler and parent group are chatting.

“I always felt sorry for my husband when Millie was a baby. He used to say his bond with Millie was not as strong as mine because I was breastfeeding.”

“I’m not sure”, replies the other mother. “I think there’s something about a mother’s love that makes it more special anyway – and so important for future development.”

Discuss the learning theory of attachment and Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment. Refer to the conversation above in your answer.

You may do your working in the blank space around each question but this will not be marked. Do not use additional sheets for this working.

A researcher studying depression wanted to see whether or not there was a relationship between level of self-esteem and negative schema score. She constructed two questionnaires and asked ten people who had been diagnosed with depression to complete them.

One questionnaire measured the participant’s level of self-esteem. A low score (out of 50) indicated low self-esteem.

The other questionnaire measured whether the participant showed evidence of negative schema. A low score (out of 50) indicated evidence of negative schema. The two sets of results for each participant are shown in the table below.

Table 1 Self-esteem score and negative schema score for each patient

Is negative schema score best described as measuring a cognitive, emotional or behavioural characteristic of depression? Shade one box only.

Draw a suitable graphical display to represent the data in Table 1. Label your graph appropriately.

The researcher analysed the data in Table 1 using a Spearman’s rho statistical test.

With reference to level of measurement, explain why Spearman’s rho is an appropriate statistical test for this data.

Estimate the correlation coefficient most likely to result from analysis of the data in Table 1. Shade one box only.

The correlation coefficient would be approximately

Discuss the cognitive approach to treating depression.