Edexcel A Level Psychology Paper 1 November 2021 question paper 9PS0/01

In your studies of social psychology, you will have learned about prejudice.

Using an example, describe what is meant by ‘prejudice’.

Explain one way that individual differences in personality could affect prejudice.

Explain one way that culture could affect prejudice.

Francis has recently joined a new dance team. His friend Jason is in a different dance team. The regional semi-final of a major dance competition is taking place at the weekend, and both teams are taking part.

Francis has started making disrespectful comments about Jason on social media and in college. Jason retaliated and told students at the college that Francis’s team would never win the competition as Francis cannot dance.

Using realistic conflict theory, describe the behaviour of Francis and Jason.

Evaluate the use of questionnaires for research in social psychology.

During a psychology lesson, Saima was asked to recall the contents of her history classroom. Some of the items she recalled included; 15 tables, a clock, paper, and a calendar. However, her history classroom did not contain a clock or a calendar.

Using reconstructive memory, describe why Saima incorrectly recalled some items from her history classroom.

Explain one strength and one weakness of reconstructive memory as an explanation of Saima’s recall of the items from her history classroom.

Strength

Weakness

Ken is planning to research whether the time of day has an impact on working memory processing speed. He intends to use high school students from the city where he lives for his research.

Describe how Ken would gather a stratified sample for his research.

To test working memory processing speed, Ken intends to ask his participants to complete a series of mathematical calculations in the morning. They will then return to complete another set of mathematical calculations in the afternoon.

Ken will time (in seconds) how long each participant takes to complete the task in the morning and in the afternoon to see if there is a difference.

Explain which statistical test Ken would use for his data.

Evaluate the multi-store model of memory (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968).

Oscar investigated whether there was a relationship between attitudes to recreational drug use and parts of the personality (id, ego and superego) according to Freud.

Participants completed a personality questionnaire to determine how strongly they were dominated by the ‘id’. The questionnaire was scored out of 10, with 10 being strongly dominated by the ‘id’.

They also completed a questionnaire about how they felt about recreational drug use in society. The questionnaire was scored out of 10, with 10 being completely in favour of recreational drug use.

Using the critical values table for Spearman’s rank, determine the lowest level of significance Oscar could use for his results to be significant for a directional (one-tailed) hypothesis.

In your studies of biological psychology, you will have learned about one adoption study.

Explain one strength and one weakness of your chosen adoption study.

Chosen study

Strength

Weakness

Rachael is in prison for assault. She has a history of aggressive behaviour such as fighting and shouting abuse at people.

Rachael was exercising with a group of other prisoners, but has been placed in solitary confinement for pushing over another prisoner who had tried to take her trainers.

She told a prison officer that she often feels very stressed and angry with other people, but is unable to manage her aggression.

Discuss the role of hormones as an explanation of Rachael’s behaviour.

Zoë investigated the use of operant conditioning in training two different animals. She trained squirrels and mice to successfully complete a maze that she had designed.

Zoë used positive reinforcement with the squirrels and mice, by giving each animal two acorns every time it found the way out of the maze. She recorded the length of time it took each animal to complete the maze successfully.

Using the Scientific Procedures Act (1986), state two considerations Zoë would have made for her research with squirrels and mice.

State a fully operationalised directional (one-tailed) experimental hypothesis for Zoë’s investigation.

Explain one strength of Zoë’s research in terms of reliability.

Explain one improvement that could be made to Zoë’s investigation in terms of validity.

Evaluate the classic study by Watson and Rayner (1920).

Discuss the practical issues you considered in the design and implementation of your social psychology practical investigation.

In cognitive psychology and learning theories you will have learned about the use of psychological knowledge in society, including key questions of relevance in society.

Evaluate the use of psychological knowledge from cognitive psychology and learning theories in society.

You must use concepts, theories and/or research from cognitive psychology and learning theories in your answer.