A level psychology past papers flashcards Edexcel

1. In your studies of social psychology, you will have learned about the classic study by Sherif et al. (1954/1961).

(a) Describe the sample of participants used in the study by Sherif et al. (1954/1961). (2)

• Sherif et al. (1954/1961) sampled boys who were aged 11 to 12- years old and of a similar educational level. (1) The boys were middle-class and from Protestant families who were considered well-adjusted (1).

(b) In stage three of the experiment, Sherif et al. (1954/1961) attempted to reduce inter-group conflict. Describe one way that Sherif et al. (1954/1961) attempted to reduce inter-group conflict. (2)

• Sherif et al. (1954/1961) introduced superordinate goals that required collaboration between the two groups of boys to encourage group cohesion (1), such as cooperating to make an improvement to a water tank and pump that provided water for both groups (1).

(c) Explain one weakness of the study by Sherif et al. (1954/1961) in terms of reliability. (2)

• The study by Sherif et al. (1954/1961) was a field experiment at a summer camp which meant that they could not control all extraneous variables that may impact on the conflict between the Rattlers and Eagles (1). This reduces the reliability of the findings about negative attitudes towards an out-group as the study cannot be fully replicated to check the results for consistency (1).

2. Jack wanted to investigate whether males were prejudiced towards females who worked in stereotypical male professions, such as building work and lorry driving. He asked five males to answer a questionnaire about gender roles. Participant responses were scored out of 10 for gender prejudice, with 10 indicating a very strong gender prejudice, and 0 indicating little or no gender prejudice. Jack’s results are shown in Table 1.

(a) Calculate the standard deviation for the gender prejudice score using the data in Table 1. Show your working and give your answer to two decimal places. (4)

Answer: 2.41

(b) Calculate the range for the gender prejudice score. (1)

Answer: 6

3. Evaluate agency theory as an explanation of obedience. (8)

AO1

• Milgram’s agency theory suggests that most people are likely to obey an authority figure and give up their free will.

• The process of moral strain is the point where individuals feel such discomfort between their judgement and an order from an authority figure that they shift to an agentic state to relieve the strain.

• An agentic state is when individuals become agents of the authority figure and will obey without questioning what they are told to do.

• An autonomous state is when individuals maintain free will and responsibility so dissent against the orders of an authority figure.

AO3

• Supporting evidence comes from Milgram’s (1963) study which showed that 65% of his participants behaved agentically and shocked the learner to 450 volts.

• Milgram’s agency theory does not consider individual differences in personality therefore it is an incomplete explanation of what influences a person to obey.

• Agency theory can be applied to explain the acts of genocide like the Holocaust in which the soldiers behaved agentically and blindly obeyed without question, killing millions of people.

• Charismatic leadership (House, 1976) suggests that the traits of the leader are important in gaining obedience, so autonomy may be a result of the authority figure lacking charisma rather than an individual’s state.

4. In your studies of cognitive psychology, you will have completed a practical investigation.

(a) State the fully operationalised independent variable (IV) and the fully operationalised dependent variable (DV) for your cognitive psychology practical investigation. (2)

Independent variable (IV)

• Whether there was an interference task of 30 seconds or no interference task (1)

Dependent variable (DV)

• The number of trigrams recalled correctly from a list of 15 (1).

(b) Explain two strengths of your cognitive psychology practical investigation. (4)

• We conducted the practical in a controlled setting with the classroom windows closed and blinds down to prevent any distractions to the students making the experiment reliable (1) so we can be more certain that any changes in the number of trigrams recalled were due to the interference task and not extraneous variables confounding the results (1).

• The trigram list was checked against the initials of the students taking part in the experiment to be sure the list did not include initials, increasing construct validity (1) so we had a valid test of recall of trigrams from STM and not recall from existing LTM making sure we accurately measured the effect of interference on STM (1).

(c) Explain one improvement you could have made to your cognitive psychology practical investigation.

• One improvement we could make would be to gather a more representative sample of participants aged from 18 to 60 years old to represent memory recall across different ages (1). This would increase the generalisability of our findings about the duration of STM and the effects of interference tasks to a wider target population (1).

5. Milo and Betty had watched a film together and were talking to their friends about the film. Milo described a scene where the main character had travelled by train to a big city where there were yellow taxis and really tall buildings. Betty said that the taxis were black, not yellow. Betty also described how the main character had arrived at a train station but said it was in a town. She said that the main character had a large suitcase, but Milo claimed there was no suitcase, just a bag. Betty disagreed with Milo, she said because the main character was staying in the town for several weeks, it must have been a suitcase. Discuss, using reconstructive memory (Bartlett, 1932), including schema theory, Milo’s and Betty’s recall of the film. (8)

AO1

• Reconstructive memory suggests that we actively try and make sense of new information based on what we already know.

• Memory recall may be distorted when memories are reconstructed based on an individual’s understanding from past events.

• Schemas are the mental structures which hold prior knowledge that are built from personal experiences.

• The concept of confabulation is where gaps in memories are filled in using pre-existing information and expectations.

AO2

• Betty may have recalled the suitcase because this is something she already knows about from her own travelling and staying in a town for an extended period of time.

• Milo may have distorted his recall of the colour of the taxis as yellow from past events in films he has watched where taxis in a city are yellow, not black taxis.

• Betty and Milo may both have similar schemas for journeys travelling by train and arriving at train stations from their own experiences which would have influenced their memory of the film when they recalled the scene.

• Milo may have confabulated the character having a bag and not a suitcase as he may expect that people visit cities for shorter periods of time, so his pre-existing knowledge would be that people only take a bag and not a suitcase.

6. Amelia is using a correlational research method to investigate whether there is a relationship between recreational drug use and aggression. She intends to study individuals who have been arrested for violent offences.

(a) Describe how Amelia could use a random sampling technique to gather a sample of 30 participants for her correlational research. (2)

• Amelia could firstly approach the police for a list of violent offenders which she could put into a computer database (1) and then use a random number generator to select the first 30 violent offenders for her research into drug use and aggression (1).

(b) Explain one weakness of Amelia using a correlational research method for her investigation about recreational drug use and aggression. (2)

• By using a correlational research method Amelia cannot be certain that violence is the result of recreational drug use as the data she gathers will only tell her if there is a relationship between her covariables of aggression and drug use (1) which means Amelia would not be able to determine any cause and effect that drug taking results in violent behaviour, so limiting the usefulness of her findings (1).

7. Explain two strengths of brain structure as an explanation of aggression.

• Real-life case studies indicate that damage to brain structure can result in individuals becoming aggressive which increases the plausibility of the explanation that brain structures affect aggression (1). Damasio et al. (1994) studied the case of Phineas Gage who suffered damage to his pre-frontal cortex that resulted in a personality change that made him irresponsible and aggressive, so brain structure can influence aggression (1).

• Considering brain structure as a factor in human aggression could help inform the way violent offenders are perceived by the criminal justice system by including considerations of a person’s pre-disposition to violence (1). Wong et al. (1997) used MRI scans with 19 violent male criminals, they found the volume of the amygdala was smaller in the violent criminals compared to controls, supporting brain structure as a factor involved in violent offending (1).

8. Assess whether hormones can fully explain human behaviour such as aggression. (8)

AO1

• Testosterone is a hormone found in males more than females and is responsible for sex drive, body muscle mass and mood.

• The hormone estradiol plays a role in dominance, motivation for power and physical aggression among females.

• Low levels of cortisol, a hormone secreted in response to stress, is associated with persistent aggressive behaviour beginning in childhood.

• The combination of high levels of testosterone, low levels of cortisol and low levels of serotonin have been associated with impulsive aggression. AO3

• Dabbs (1995) found higher levels of testosterone in adult male prison inmates who had committed violent crimes compared to property crime, so hormones may explain aggressive behaviour.

• It may be that when faced with a situation that leads to aggression, estradiol levels increase in response to the situation, therefore hormones may not be the cause of aggression, but the result of aggression.

• McBurnett et al. (2000) found that boys who had lower levels of cortisol in their saliva were three times more aggressive than boys with higher levels of cortisol, so cortisol does seem to play a role in aggressive behaviour.

• A focus just on hormones could be considered reductionist as it excludes the role of neurotransmitters along with genetics or brain functioning, so hormones on their own cannot fully explain human behaviour such as aggression.

9. Archie conducted an observation to see whether boys are more likely to play with gender stereotypical toys than girls. He visited a pre-school where he observed children aged between three and four years old playing with toys.

(a) Describe how Archie may have gained informed consent to conduct his observation. (2)

• Archie may have asked the parents of the children if they would allow their child to be observed on a specified day during activities at the pre-school (1). He would have told parents that he aimed to observe play with gender stereotypical toys and explained his observation process (1).

Archie recorded the first choice of toy that each boy and girl at the pre-school chose to play with. Table 2 shows the number of boys and girls that Archie recorded as playing with a gender stereotypical boys’ toy or gender stereotypical girls’ toy.

(b) Complete Table 3 to calculate the chi-squared test for Archie’s observation. You must give your answer to two decimal places. (4)

Chi squared = 0.24

(c) Archie had a one-tailed (directional) hypothesis with df=1 and used p=0.05 as his level of significance. Determine whether there is a significant difference between boys and girls in the choice of gender stereotypical toys. (1)

• There is not a significant difference between the choice of gender stereotypical toys by boys and girls as the calculated value (0.24) is lower than the critical value (2.71) for a one-tailed test at p=0.05 (1).

10. Marigold is a teacher at a primary school. She is concerned about the behaviour of a nine-year-old boy in her class. The boy often refuses to sit on a chair at his desk, instead he sits on the floor next to Marigold. When he is asked to sit at his desk, he leaves the classroom and sits in the corridor. Marigold decides to use behaviour shaping. She hopes to encourage him to first sit on a chair next to her, and then eventually shape his behaviour until he sits on a chair at his desk. Explain one strength and one weakness of Marigold using behaviour shaping to encourage the boy to sit on a chair at his desk. (4)

Strength

• There is evidence that behaviour shaping is a successful way to help young children learn appropriate behaviours through reinforcing the boy to take the small steps of sitting on a chair with Marigold, eventually sitting at his desk (1). Nasa et al. (2008) found that behaviour shaping was successful in supporting a child aged 11 years old with ADHD to concentrate on tasks, so Marigold is likely to achieve success with the child in her class (1).

Weakness

• Shaping the behaviour of a 9-year-old child to comply with the desired expected behaviour that Marigold determines to be appropriate in her classroom could be considered ethically and morally unacceptable (1) as it is only a manipulation of surface behaviour, so Marigold is just attempting to control his actions which could be considered a form of social control (1).

11. Dora has a phobia of boxes. When she was young, her parents bought her a toy in a box. Every time she lifted the lid of the box, a clown jumped out and scared her. Since then, she has been unable to open boxes and is frightened about what could be inside them. Dora’s family members open all boxes for her and reassure her that there is nothing dangerous inside each time. Dora regularly becomes upset when a box is delivered to the house. Her family members calm her down by making her a cup of tea and sitting with her until she feels safe. Discuss how learning theories can explain the acquisition and maintenance of Dora’s phobia of boxes. (8)

AO1

• Classical conditioning suggests a phobia is acquired through the pairing of a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus.

• The unconditioned response becomes associated with the neutral stimulus, resulting in a conditioned response each time the conditioned stimulus is presented.

• Negative reinforcement maintains a phobia when a behaviour or action results in the removal of an undesired consequence.

• When a desired consequence is received for a behaviour or action, the behaviour is reinforced positively, so the phobic response is maintained.

AO2

• The clown toy in the box was an unconditioned stimulus that resulted in an unconditioned fear and startle response, the action of opening a box would have been a neutral stimulus for Dora.

• When Dora’s UCR of fear and startle was paired with the NS of opening the box an association developed between opening the box and fear, creating a conditioned response of fear to boxes.

• By opening all the boxes for her, Dora’s family are negatively reinforcing the fear by removing her undesired consequence of having to open boxes when they are delivered so Dora’s phobia of boxes is maintained.

• By consoling Dora and bringing her cups of tea, her family are providing positive reinforcement for her behaviour of showing fear of boxes, which is desired by Dora so she will continue the phobic response of being afraid of boxes.

12. Assess the ethical issues involved when using animals for research in learning theories. (8)

AO1

• Animal research is governed by the Scientific Procedures Act (1986) to make sure it is conducted with consideration for the animals safety and welfare.

• Animals should be given appropriate conditions to live in to ensure they are well looked after and cared for, before, during and after experimental testing.

• Pavlov (1927) studied salivation in dogs to theorise that people and animals could be conditioned to behave in certain ways.

• The three R’s include replacement where animal use only takes place when necessary; refinement of procedures to minimise harm; and reduction of the number of animals used.

AO3

• The Bateson Cube is used to determine a cost-benefit analysis of research using animals, which helps determine whether the potential benefits to humankind outweigh any harm that may be caused to animals during the research to ensure ethical issues are considered carefully in research.

• Small animals such as rodents can be housed in small laboratory spaces, which allows researchers to maintain ethical considerations of suitable conditions whilst having sufficient animals to undertake testing with, so ethical issues can be met.

• Pavlov (1927) inserted a tube into the dogs to collect the saliva to be measured, which may have caused unnecessary pain to the dogs as conditioning could be tested in other ways, so not all research with animals is fully ethical.

• Skinner studied pigeons and attempted to train them to carry missiles during WWII, this is unethical as the animals would have been sent to their deaths, however during the time of war it was considered acceptable to attempt to use animals so it was necessary to use pigeons in this way.

13. Marco has been suffering with memory processing issues that cause him to become confused. He is not always able to understand situations and becomes frustrated with the people around him. Marco was arrested on two previous occasions for aggressive behaviour. He was also once found by police in a car park at 3am unable to find his way home. Recently Marco got into a fight with a man who he thought was laughing at him. When the police arrived, the man said he was not laughing at Marco, but Marco told the police that the man was lying. The police arrested Marco. When they interviewed him, Marco struggled to remember exactly what had happened. The police requested a doctor to examine Marco while he was in custody. The doctor decided to refer him for a brain scan for his memory processing issues. Evaluate how well knowledge from cognitive psychology could explain Marco’s situation. (12)

AO1

• The multi-store model of memory assumes that processing is a structural feature of human cognition which includes rehearsal and encoding as part of memory processing.

• The central executive is said to be the control centre responsible for focussing attention and inhibiting distraction from multiple information inputs into our short-term memory.

• Research into memory processes in cognitive psychology has included the use of brain scanning techniques to try and find the locations of memory functions like the central executive.

• Episodic memory is time and spatially referenced information about life events that an individual has experienced.

AO2

• Marco may not have rehearsed the events of the fight with the other man and so cannot fully remember what took place as he had not transferred this to his long-term memory store.

• Marco demonstrates cognitive confusion which could indicate he has abnormal executive functioning, explaining why he lacks an ability to process what is taking place around him and becomes frustrated and aggressive.

• The referral for a brain scan could provide empirical evidence for Marco’s memory processing to help him understand why he was found by police at 3am unable to get home.

• Marco recalled the fact that the man was lying but had an inability to recall exactly what happened during the fight, which may show an issue with his memory of life experiences and an episodic dysfunction in his long-term memory store.

AO3

• Peterson and Peterson (1959) found that when STM rehearsal was prevented using an interference task, participants could not recall the trigrams after 18 to 30 seconds, so rehearsal appears to be required for transfer of information to LTM.

• Marco’s frustration and aggression may not be the result abnormal executive processing, as Raine et al. (1997) found that brain functions, such as reduced glucose metabolism in bilateral prefrontal cortex, could be linked to aggression.

• Schwindt and Black (2009) conducted a meta-analysis of fMRI studies of Alzheimer’s disease which showed that Alzheimer’s disease patients show decreased activation in the MTL, so the brain scan could help find out if Marco has this type of disorder.

• Ostergaard (1987) studied a 10-year-old boy with brain damage to his episodic but not semantic memory as he could make academic progress, which suggests that Marco could have damage to one feature of his long-term memory.

1. In your studies of clinical psychology, you will have learned about classification systems for mental health.

(a) Define the term ‘reliability’ in relation to classification systems used for diagnosing mental health. (1)

• A classification system for mental health is reliable if there is consistent diagnosis of mental health between clinicians (1).

(b) Explain two reasons why classification systems for mental health may not be valid. (4)

• Different classification systems such as DSM and ICD may diagnose different mental health for a person presenting with the same symptoms so they may lack concurrent validity (1), as shown by Cooper et al. (1972) where the same patient was diagnosed with schizophrenia twice in New York two times more than in London (1).

• Classification systems cannot always accurately predict how effective treatments will be for a given disorder, so they may lack predictive validity (1) as shown by Kuyken et al. (2008) who found that 75% of his participants stopped taking anti-depressants and more relapsed compared to MCBT, so classification systems cannot predict who anti-depressants will work for (1).

2. Charles conducted an investigation to see whether therapy delivered online was as effective as therapy delivered face to face (in person). If people were interested in taking part in Charles’s investigation, they could contact him. His participants came from a variety of different therapists and had a range of different mental health disorders. The participants were separated into two groups.

• Condition A: the therapy was delivered online.

• Condition B: the therapy was delivered face to face (in person).

Every participant had completed eight weeks of therapy and Charles asked them if their mental health disorder had improved, stayed the same, or deteriorated.

(a) Identify the dependent variable (DV) in Charles’s investigation. (1)

• The dependant variable was whether the patients said they had improved, stayed the same or deteriorated after eight weeks of therapy (1).

(b) Charles used a volunteer sampling technique. Explain one weakness of Charles using a volunteer sampling technique in his investigation. (2)

• Charles’s sample may be biased as only those patients who felt they were responding well to their face to face or online therapy may have contacted him (1), so Charles’s results may not be representative of all patients receiving face to face or online therapy, so there may be issues with generalising the results (1).

(c) Once Charles had collected his data, he conducted a chi-squared test. State one reason why Charles used a chi-squared test to analyse his data. (1)

• Charles used nominal data as the results were whether they clients had improved, stayed the same or deteriorated (1).

(d) Charles found an observed/calculated value of 3.23 where df = 2 when he calculated the chi-squared test for his investigation. Explain whether Charles’s results were significant for a one-tailed (directional) hypothesis when p≤0.05. (2)

• Charles did not find a significant difference in the effectiveness of face to face/in person or online therapy (1) as his calculated value (3.23) does not equal or exceed the critical value (4.61) for a one-tailed test at p≤0.05 when df=2 (1).

(e) Explain one improvement Charles could make to his investigation. (2)

• Charles could have used participants who had the same therapist for online therapy and face to face therapy to improve the validity of his investigation (1), as this would ensure his results are not affected by the participants reactions to different therapists so he could be more certain his results are due to the different types of the therapy (1).

3. You will have learned about the function of neurotransmitters as an explanation of schizophrenia.

(a) Describe the function of neurotransmitters as an explanation of schizophrenia. (3)

• The dopamine hypothesis states that those with too much dopamine in the mesolimbic pathway will have positive symptoms of schizophrenia (1). A higher number of D2 receptors in the brain means that more dopamine will bind to the receptors leading to schizophrenia (1). A decrease of glutamate in the mesolimbic pathway in people with schizophrenia no longer inhibits dopamine leading to an excess of dopamine. (1).

(b) Explain one strength of the function of neurotransmitters as an explanation of schizophrenia. (2)

• Carlsson et al. (2000) proposed that glutamate and dopamine interacted in their review of studies giving the explanation credibility (1) as they reviewed several studies that found NMDA antagonists reduce glutamate functioning and increased the release of dopamine (1).

4. Evaluate how issues around genes and mental health can affect development. (8)

AO1

• Many psychiatric disorders run in families suggesting there is a genetic component to the development of mental health disorders.

• Several chromosomes such as 22,1, 18, 15, 14, 13, 12 are thought to contain genes that are associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia.

• People who have a first degree relative with depression could be three times more likely develop depression at some point in their lifetime compared to the general population.

• Chromosomes 1 and 10 are linked to the development of eating disorders including anorexia nervosa.

AO3

• Gottesman (1991) found that the concordance rate of 48% in monozygotic twins for schizophrenia suggesting that genes do affect the development of schizophrenia.

• Studies have not found a 100% concordance rate between genes and a mental disorder therefore genes are not the only factor that affect the development of mental disorders, the environment also plays a part.

• The cognitive explanation of unipolar depression says that it is caused by a combination of negative thoughts about themselves, the world and the future suggesting it is thought patterns not genes that affect the development of unipolar depression.

• Scott-Van Zeeland et al. (2013) concluded there was an association between the EPHX2 gene and anorexia suggesting genes do play a role in the development of anorexia.

5. Lydia is a clinical psychologist. She is investigating the experiences of patients who attend the local mental health unit. Lydia has decided to use interviews to ask the patients about communication at the mental health unit and wants some feedback regarding the areas they think are effective as well as possible improvements. Lydia interviews each patient individually and uses a variety of question types within her interviews. Once the interviews have been completed, Lydia collates her data and then reports on her findings to the manager of the mental health unit. Discuss how Lydia could use interviews with the patients in the mental health unit. You must make reference to the context in your answer. (8)

AO1

• Interviews can be used to gather detailed information about different aspects of clinical psychology to gain an understanding of people’s experiences.

• Interviews can be structured where they use the same questions for all patients, semistructured or unstructured.

• Interviews can use closed questions where the answers, such as yes/no questions for example, to gather quantitative data about clinical psychology.

• Open questions allow the patients to answer in their own words giving an understanding of why they gave the answer they did.

AO2

• Lydia is using interviews to gather detailed data about the patients’ views and experiences and whether they feel they are listened to in the local mental health unit.

• Lydia could use a semi-structured interview as she could adapt her questions based on the patients answers about what could be improved in the mental health unit, but some questions about how they feel they are listened to could be the same for all the patients.

• Lydia could use closed questions, such as ‘do you feel the staff speak to you with empathy?’ which would gather numerical data which she could then analyse and include in her report to the manager to help improve the mental health unit.

• Lydia could ask open questions about what the patients feel works well in the mental health unit so the manager can build on this once they have seen Lydia’s report.

6. Henry has been referred to a psychiatrist and has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Whilst talking to the psychiatrist he disclosed he has a variety of symptoms including hearing voices telling him he is not a good person. He also has delusions where he thinks he is a superhero and can save the world. Henry has also withdrawn from his family and friends and no longer goes out to see his local rugby team play. He does not get on with his parents as he feels they were not loving parents when he was a child. Henry’s psychiatrist wants to treat him with a psychological treatment. To what extent could one psychological treatment be effective for Henry’s schizophrenia? You must make reference to the context in your answer. (20)

AO1

• Cognitive behavioural therapy sees the patient with schizophrenia once a week in a supportive nonthreatening environment.

• Specific symptoms are focussed on target areas such as delusions with the therapist and patient working together.

• The therapist may help the client identify their irrational thoughts that lead to the delusions and challenge them to prove the thoughts using reality.

• Explaining that hallucinations come from irrational thought processes can help reduce the client’s anxiety around their symptoms.

• When working with auditory hallucinations the therapist will first focus on physical attributes of the voice such as the tone of voice.

• Therapists will discuss events that happened before the schizophrenia and cognitive distortions from illness in order to make the schizophrenia seem more normal.

• The client may be asked to record their beliefs and feelings about any hallucinations as homework so the therapist can better understand the clients.

• The client may be asked to record evidence to back up their delusions with the aim of showing there is no basis for the delusions.

• Clients may also be asked to change their behaviour and record their experiences, such as going out with friends if social withdrawal is a symptom.

AO2

• The therapist will focus on Henry’s specific symptom such as hearing voices saying he is not a good person asking Henry what exactly they are saying.

• The therapist will challenge Henry’s irrational delusions asking him why he needs to save the world and how he will do it.

• The therapist will try and work out the trigger for the schizophrenia, so the therapist may look at the parental relationship.

• Henry may be asked to go for a coffee with a friend over the next week and record how he felt about the situation.

AO3

• Drake & Sederer (1986) found that intense, over long therapies often led to worsening of the schizophrenia and negatively affects them in the long term, so CBT may not be an effective treatment for Henry if it is both intense and long.

• CBT requires the patient to be motivated and engage with the therapy, which may not be possible for patients like Henry with schizophrenia as he has social withdrawal so it may not be effective for all patients with schizophrenia.

• Patients with schizophrenia may need to take medication in order to be able to engage in CBT as they may not be able to communicate effectively, so CBT without medication may not be effective for Henry as it may not work.

• CBT aims to treat the cause of the schizophrenia so it could be seen as more effective as a treatment than anti-psychotics on their own, as these just treat the symptoms.

• If schizophrenia has a biological basis in the form of neurotransmitters, then CBT will not be an effective treatment as it does not address the biological cause of the schizophrenia.

• Bradshaw (1998) assessed CBT in a case study with a female schizophrenic patient called Carol and found considerable improvement in functioning and symptoms over a 3-year treatment period and 1-year follow-up so it could be effective for Henry.

• Chadwick et al. (2000) found significant reductions in the power and control that voices had over 22 schizophrenic patients using group based CBT, so if Henry did CBT in a group it could be effective for him.

• Turkington et al. (2002) found the use of CBT improved overall symptomology, insight and depression in those with schizophrenia showing that it can be an effective treatment for Henry.

7. In your studies of criminological psychology you will have learned about treatments for offenders.

(a) Describe one biological treatment for offenders. (2)

• Drugs such as MPA are given to offenders to address the imbalance in neurotransmitters or hormones and so reduces their criminal behaviour (1). Antiandrogens such as MPA are given to sex offenders to reduce their level of testosterone and their reoffending (1).

(b) Explain one strength of a biological treatment for offenders. (2)

• Turner et al. (2013) showed that the use of drugs is an effective treatment for sex offenders so the treatment has validity (1) as they found that up to 75% of inmates prescribed testosterone lowering medication did reduce frequency or intensity of sexual thoughts (1).

8. Alicia conducted an experiment to investigate perceptions of criminal behaviour. She gave participants from a local office two different scenarios about an office manager. In the first scenario the participants had to say how likely it was that the office manager committed assault (condition A). In the second scenario the same participants had to say how likely it was that the office manager committed fraud (condition B). The participants were asked to give a score from 1 to 10, where 1 was highly unlikely and a score of 10 was highly likely.

(a) Explain one weakness of Alicia collecting quantitative data for her experiment. (2)

• Alicia only collects numerical data in a score from 1 to 10 in terms of the likelihood the manager committed a crime so her data lacks detail (1), therefore she does not get a full understanding of why the participants thought the manager may or may not have committed assault or fraud (1).

(b) Alicia’s results are shown in Table 1. Complete Table 1 and calculate the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test for Alicia’s experiment.

T = 2

(c) Explain one improvement Alicia could make to her experiment. (2)

• Alicia could have used an independent groups design so the participants were only exposed to either the assault or the fraud scenario (1), which would increase the validity of the findings regarding the judgements of likelihood as they would not be affected by prior exposure to the other scenario (1).

9. George is a psychologist who works in a local prison. He has been asked to carry out a case formulation on a prisoner who is due for parole. The prisoner has not been engaging in a treatment programme. George asks the prisoner about his childhood when he was neglected by his parents. He also asks about his current relationships, which are unstable. George finds out that the prisoner has an addiction and was homeless before going to prison. Discuss how George may conduct a psychological formulation to understand the function of offending behaviour in the prisoner. You must make reference to the context in your answer. (8)

AO1

• Psychological formulations aim to create hypotheses about what has led to someone’s criminal behaviour and why they may continue that behaviour.

• Psychological formulations should be short and focus on key features about the criminal behaviour.

• To create a psychological formulation psychologists will look at an offender’s past and present relationships as well as social and economic circumstances.

• Formulations can be used to decide how likely an offender is to reoffend as well as possible reasons why they may not be responding to treatments.

AO2

• George will use the information he has gathered, such as the fact the prisoner is homeless to create a hypothesis about whether he thinks the prisoner will commit more crimes or not if released.

• George has gathered a lot of data about the prisoners past and current circumstances, such as his previous relationships which he will have to condense into a brief document so he will need to decide the most important information to include.

• George has asked the prisoner about his childhood and his unstable relationships and he will use this information to create a psychological formulation about the prisoner.

• As the prisoner is due for parole George may take into account the prisoner has an addiction and has not responded to treatment, and may suggest he is likely to reoffend if released on parole.

10. Mark is 20 years old and is very tall and muscley. He is constantly in trouble with the police. When Mark was a toddler, he started to talk at a slightly later age than his sister. At school Mark found it difficult to concentrate as he was easily distracted from his work. He was a member of a junior rugby team until he was asked to leave after being too aggressive. As a teenager Mark often got into fights. He left school at the age of 16 with average exam results, but his parents were disappointed as he did not do as well as his sister. Mark has just been arrested after crashing a stolen car. His mother says his criminal behaviour is due to his genetics whilst his father says it is due to Mark being seen as a naughty child in the past. Evaluate XYY syndrome as an explanation of Mark’s behaviour. You must make reference to the context in your answer. (16)

AO1

• XYY syndrome is caused by males having an extra Y chromosome thought to be due to an error when the cells divide around fertilisation.

• About 50% of boys who have XYY syndrome will have some delay when developing their speech.

• Boys with XYY tend to grow slightly faster than other boys their age, and tend to be slightly taller as men.

• Boys who have XYY syndrome have normal intelligence but their intelligence may be 10 to 15 IQ points below their siblings.

• Boys who have XYY syndrome find it harder to concentrate on tasks and they may be more easily distracted from what they are doing.

• Boys with XYY may be more impulsive than XY boys, and they may also be more active physically.

AO2

• Mark had some delay in his speech as he started talking at a later age than his sister.

• Compared to his sister Mark could be said to be less intelligent as his sister got better exam results, but he did get some average exam results so can be said to be in the normal range.

• Mark did not do as well at school as his sister possibly because he got easily distracted from his work which he could not concentrate on.

• Mark was a member of the junior rugby team but his impulsive behaviour meant he was asked to leave the team after being too aggressive.

AO3

• Re and Birkhoff (2015) conducted a literature review of articles from the past 50 years and concluded that males with XYY syndrome were not necessarily going to become anti-social or criminals.

• In a meta-analysis Leggett et al (2010) found that males with XYY syndrome had IQs within the average range, but had difficulties with their speech and language.

• There are alternative theories of anti-social behaviour such as labelling theory, if XYY boys are labelled as disruptive due to them being easily distracted at school this could lead to the (16) 23 anti-social behaviour rather than the extra Y chromosome.

• The XYY theory has application, as knowing that XYY males are more physically active and more easily distracted means strategies can be put in place a school to help them, which may reduce their tendency to be anti-social.

• XYY syndrome focuses on nature and ignores nurture, such as it may be that people treat the boys differently due to their extra height and it could be this that leads to the anti-social behaviour.

• Money et al. (1969) found that 19 of his participants had behavioural problems at school including a deficit attention span, restlessness and disrupting the classroom routine showing XYY can affect a child’s education.

1. Eye contact study

Eye contact could be used as a non-verbal cue to help interpret an individual’s behaviour. A longing gaze could be considered as liking someone, but too long a gaze could lead to discomfort. If the eye contact is too brief, there could also be feelings of discomfort due to suspicions about the individual’s motives. Researchers therefore wanted to investigate the length of time that people consider eye contact to be the most comfortable. They recruited 515 visitors to a Science Museum from 56 nations who had an age range of 11–79 years old, with 240 male and 275 female participants. The researchers asked participants to watch a series of video clips of an actor making eye contact with them for various durations, ranging from 0.1 seconds to 10 seconds. Throughout the course of the study, the researchers used eight different actors, who were all white British, with half of them male and half female. Each participant only saw a single actor who was the same sex as themselves. After watching each video clip, the participant had to say if the duration of eye contact made them feel comfortable.

(a) Identify the dependent variable (DV) in the eye contact study. (1)

• Whether the participant felt comfortable or uncomfortable with the duration of eye contact (1).

The data was collected by the researchers and the results are shown in Table 1.

(b) Explain one conclusion you can make using the data in Table 1. (2)

• The most comfortable duration of eye contact for all participants was 3 seconds (1) because males had the highest number who felt comfortable at 3 seconds with 220/240 and the females also had the highest number at 3 seconds with 258/275 (1).

Table 2 shows the percentage (%) of males and females that felt comfortable with an eye contact duration of 5 seconds.

(c) Using the data in Table 2, draw a bar chart to represent the male and female data for eye contact with a duration of 5 seconds. (3)

One mark for correct/appropriate title (see graph below for a suitable example)

One mark for correct/appropriate labelling of axes (see graph below for a suitable example)

One mark for correct plots of data points (see graph below for correct plotting)

(d) Explain one improvement that could have been made to the eye contact study. (2)

• The researchers could have asked the participants to view the actor of a different sex to themselves, rather than just the same sex actor (1) because this would have enabled them to see if the participant still felt comfortable with the duration of eye contact with members of the opposite sex which would be more representative of real-life interactions (1).

2. Helping behaviour study

Researchers wanted to see whether being in close proximity to luxury goods would influence helping behaviour. 80 participants (40 males and 40 females) were either seen to be exiting a luxury shop in a prestigious area of Paris (20 males and 20 females) or were passers-by on an ordinary street in Paris with no shops (20 males and 20 females). A female confederate was instructed to use crutches and carry a bottle of water in one hand and a packet of sweets in the other hand. When a participant was approximately five metres away, the confederate was required to ‘accidentally’ drop her bottle of water and packet of sweets and try to pick them up. The participants, who were estimated to be aged between 20–70 years old, were judged to have helped the confederate when they offered to pick up the items or picked them up without asking. The confederate recorded the participant’s sex, estimated age, whether they helped or not, and the location (outside the luxury store or on the ordinary street with no shops).

(a) The researchers in the helping behaviour study used opportunity sampling to recruit the participants for their study. Explain one strength and one weakness of using opportunity sampling for the helping behaviour study. (4)

Strength

• By using the people exiting the luxury shops or on the ordinary street that were available at the time means that this method is very convenient (1) because the participants are readily available meaning that sampling people to check their helping behaviour does not take excessive time or effort compared to other sampling techniques (1).

Weakness

• As they have only used people exiting the luxury shops or on the ordinary street at the time, the participant sample may be biased and unrepresentative (1) because the people shopping or walking by may have been particularly unhelpful and so the conclusions about helpfulness would not be generalisable to the target population of people in that area (1).

Table 3 shows the data collected by the confederates regarding the age of the participants for the helping behaviour study.

(b) Explain one conclusion you can make using the data in Table 3. (2)

• Older participants were more likely to help the confederate than the younger participants (1) because 68% of the 56-70 year olds helped compared to 51% of the 20-35 year olds (1).

Table 4 shows the data collected regarding the participants’ location.

(c) Explain one conclusion you can make using the data in Table 4. (2)

• The participants exiting the luxury shop were less helpful than those on the ordinary street with no shops (1) because only 14/40 helped near the luxury shop compared to 31/40 on the ordinary street which is far more (1).

Table 5 shows the data collected regarding the participants’ gender.

(d) The researchers in the helping behaviour study decided to carry out a chi-squared test on their data from Table 5. They found an observed/calculated value of 1.27 for a one-tailed (directional) test at the 5% level of significance when df=1. Explain what this shows in terms of the helping behaviour of the participants in the study. (2)

• The calculated value (1.27) is less than the critical value (2.71) at the 5% level of significance for a one-tailed test (1). This means that there was no significant difference between the helping behaviour of the males and females in the study (1).

(e) State two reasons why the researchers in the helping behaviour study used a chi-squared test to analyse their data in Table 5. (2)

• They are looking for a difference between the males and females in terms of helping behaviour (1).

• The data was nominal because they were placed into one of four categories (1).

(f) The researchers collected quantitative data when recording whether the participant would help the confederate or not for the helping behaviour study. Explain one weakness of using quantitative data for the helping behaviour study. (2)

• Using the number of people helping or not helping only gives restricted information about the helping behaviour of the participants which lacks validity (1) because they cannot know the underlying reasons for their behaviour so may not truly represent the helpfulness of the participants in the study as they may have normally helped but were just in a rush so did not help (1).

(g) The researchers used a field experiment for the helping behaviour study. Explain one weakness of using a field experiment for the helping behaviour study. (2)

• Using a field experiment in the natural setting of Paris may have extraneous variables that affected the participant level of helpfulness so could lack validity (1) because it could be that situational variables such as the presence of others near the confederate could have influenced whether the participant helped them so may not represent their usual behaviour (1).

3 .Anti-littering study

Researchers wanted to understand how norms would be enforced or maintained in real-world contexts. They wanted to see how people would respond to someone violating a social norm in different city locations. The researchers chose to use littering and selected two city locations to run their study. The cities chosen were New York City in the USA and Bern in Switzerland. The study was conducted at a busy tram/subway stop in each city at the same time of day.

There were two independent variables in the study to investigate littering:

• Place – they compared New York City (a very large city in the USA) to Bern (a small city in Switzerland)

• Disorder – they compared an empty bin with no surrounding litter (clean) with a full bin with lots of surrounding litter (littered). In all conditions, a confederate walked towards the bin and threw an empty plastic bottle that missed the bin and fell on the floor. The confederate did not pick up the bottle and continued walking.

The researchers observed the reaction of people close by and recorded whether they:

• gave direct sanction (for example, verbally confronting the confederate)

• picked up the litter themselves (norm maintenance)

• had no reaction.

The results of the participants’ reaction to the confederate in the anti-littering study are shown in Table 6.

(a) Explain one practical application of the anti-littering study using the data from Table 6. (2)

• A practical application is that keeping the area around bins clean can reduce further littering (1) because there was a difference of 15% in the norm maintenance when the areas around the bins were clean (16%) and when it was littered (1%) (1).

(b) Using research evidence, explain how far learning theories could account for the findings of the anti-littering study. (6)

Application of learning theories to the study

(AO2)

• Social learning theory could account for the greater tendency to show norm maintenance in Bern (27%) compared to New York (9%) through the citizens copying their role models who may be more likely to keep areas clean and tidy (1).

• The lower amount of direct sanctions in New York (2%) than Bern (12%) could be accounted for by operant conditioning as there may be a higher possibility of positive punishment in terms of retaliation in a large city like New York if an individual directly sanctioned someone littering compared to a small city like Bern in Switzerland (1).

• By having cleaner areas, people may experience self-reinforcement for keeping the areas cleaner and could account for the higher chance of norm maintenance in the clean context (16%) compared to the littered context (1%). Judgement/justification of how far research evidence can account for the findings of the study

(AO3)

• Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1961) showed children were likely to learn to imitate a role model acting aggressively and this could be the same for the citizens of Bern in Switzerland who may learn from their role models to keep areas tidier (1).

• Skinner (1938) found that if animals were positively punished for their actions then they would be less likely to repeat the behaviour and so could support the idea that people may be less likely to directly sanction others due to previous negative experiences of retaliation (1).

• It could be that research investigating conformity to majority influence, such as Asch (1951), explains why people keep tidier areas cleaner and they are following the social norm and not self reinforcement, so may be more due to social psychology than learning theories (1).

4. Evaluate Rosenhan (1973) and Sherif et al. (1954/1961) in terms of their practical issues in design and implementation. (16)

AO1

• In Rosenhan (1973) there were eight pseudopatients who went to 12 hospitals across the USA which varied with age and funding.

• The pseudopatients in Rosenhan (1973) were all asked to say they could hear the same words ‘empty’, ‘hollow’, and ‘thud’ when they went to the hospital.

• When at the hospital, the pseudopatients in Rosenhan (1973) were asked to record the behaviour of the staff and other patients in the hospital.

• Sherif et al. (1954/1961) carefully selected a sample of 11 year old boys for their study in Robbers Cave state park.

• The parents of the children in Sherif et al. (1954/1961) were told the aims of the study and were asked to not visit the camp to try and avoid homesickness.

• The children in the Sherif et al. (1954/1961) study took part in competitive activities such as tug of war and baseball to see how this affected prejudice.

• Quantitative and qualitative data were collected by camp counsellors throughout the Sherif et al. (1954/1961) study regarding the boys’ behaviour throughout the different activities.

AO3

• The decision to select a variety of real hospitals across the USA means that the results about the diagnosis of mental health issues and the treatment of patients has increased validity.

• By choosing to have all the pseudopatients to say the same thing when presenting themselves to the hospitals there is a standardised approach which increased reliability.

• Asking healthy people to lie about having mental health symptoms in the design and implementation of the study means that the doctors were deceived and the study may therefore not actually be measuring the reliability and validity of diagnosis.

• There have been suggestions that when implementing his study Rosenhan may have removed data from a pseudopatient that would have shown positive treatment in the hospitals (Cahalan, 2019) so his reported findings (16) lack credibility.

• By asking the pseudopatients to take their own notes whilst in the hospitals there is the possibility that they could have been biased in what they chose to report and also Rosenhan in choosing what to report in his published study so there is subjectivity.

• Using such a rigorous method of selection for the boys when designing his study means that the differences in the behaviour of the boys could not be due to prior temperament and only due to the situation created for them by Sherif et al. (1954/1961).

• Choosing to only use boys of 11 years old and from the USA in the design of the Robbers Cave study means there is limited generalisability of the findings about prejudice to adults, females, and other cultures.

• When designing the study Sherif et al. (1954/1961) attempted to account for certain extraneous variables such as presence of parents which could have affected the children’s natural behaviour at the camp in an attempt to increase the validity of the findings.

• Sherif et al. (1954/1961) took place in Robbers Cave state park in a natural setting for a summer camp but this means there were uncontrolled variables that could have affected the boys’ behaviour and undermined the cause and effect relationship between competition and prejudice.

• As Sherif et al. (1954/1961) collected both qualitative and quantitative about the boys’ behaviour throughout the different competitive and cooperative activities the data can be triangulated and inter-rater reliability established.

5. Ada was reading a book about a woman who became a police officer and solved an important crime. She enjoyed reading the book so much that she read it all in a single day. Ada’s mum has always really enjoyed reading books and Ada had always had excellent reports from school about her reading development. Ada’s friend Daniel does not enjoy reading and never has. He told Ada that he preferred to play video games, particularly games about sport. Daniel’s dad enjoys reading and playing video games. When he was younger, Daniel had been asked to read more by his school and was always given extra support for his reading development. Evaluate the extent to which human behaviour, such as the ability to read, can be explained by biological psychology. You must make reference to the context in your answer. (12)

AO1

• A genetic predisposition is where an individual has the genetic information to give them the ability to have an increased likelihood of developing a trait.

• The brain has two hemispheres, with the left hemisphere of the brain being predominantly used when processing language and the right hemisphere more active during spatial tasks.

• The dopamine reward pathway gives reinforcement to individuals who do things that they find pleasurable by releasing dopamine and gives them motivation to repeat the act.

• A phenotype is where the inherited genotype from parents is combined with environmental factors in an individual’s life to give the expressed traits.

AO2

• Ada’s mum enjoys reading and so does Ada so it may be that she has a gene which predisposed her to be able to have a higher level of reading development.

• Ada may have greater development of her left hemisphere of the brain as she enjoys reading which requires language processing whereas Daniel may enjoy tasks involving more spatial ability like the video games as he does not like reading.

• When she reads Ada may have enhanced dopamine initially to encourage her to read more but Daniel may not have the same increase in dopamine as he does not enjoy reading so he does not have the same motivation to want to read books.

• As Ada’s mum enjoys reading, her mum may have the gene(s) for enhanced reading development which may have become an expressed trait when combined with her environment where Ada may have been encouraged to read and been rewarded by her excellent reports from school.

AO3

• Chester et al. (2015) found that low functioning MAOA genotype in 277 female and male participants was linked to greater aggression, so it may be that there is also a gene for aggression, which could be the same for (12) reading ability and so could account for Ada’s advanced reading development.

• Studies that use PET scanning to measure brain activity for tasks such as reading take place in artificial controlled settings so may not represent the brain activity of an individual in their everyday life.

• Evidence from Volkow et al. (2009) supported the dopamine changes in the brain for drug abuse and addiction with short term increases for use of drugs but deficits in addicted individuals, so the same changes in dopamine could happen when Ada is reading so it motivates her to continue reading.

• Social learning theory could equally explain Ada’s enjoyment of reading or Daniel’s enjoyment of television as they could have been observing and imitating their parents as role models so biological psychology is not the only explanation for Ada and Daniel’s behaviour.

6. Assess the ethical issues in psychological research using humans and animals. (20)

AO1

• The BPS code of ethics and conduct (2009) requires psychologists to show responsibility by protecting the participants in their study.

• Psychological research needs to ensure respect by allowing participants to leave the study when they wish without any pressure to remain in the research.

• When conducting psychological research with humans, the researchers are expected to keep all participant records anonymous and confidential.

• Research investigating psychological issues could involve telling the participants everything about the study in giving full informed consent or sometimes the researchers are allowed to purposely deceive the participants.

• Psychological research involving animals requires a personal licence which requires the researcher to only kill any animals when necessary and in an appropriate way.

• A majority of the research used for the review by Carlsson et al. (2000) used animals to show that there were other neurotransmitters than just dopamine involved in schizophrenia, so the benefits must have been considered against the costs for these studies before they were allowed to be conducted.

• When necessary, endangered species of animals can be used in psychological research when it is considered to benefit the species as a whole in terms of its survival.

• The Animal Scientific Procedures Act (1986) states that protected animals are any living vertebrate, other than humans, and any living cephalopod.

AO3

• Burger (2009) wanted to protect the participants in his study by using a two-step screening process to exclude any individuals who may have a negative reaction to the experience in his obedience study.

• It could be said that Milgram (1963) did not protect the participants in his obedience experiment as they reported experiencing psychological distress and three participants had full-blown seizures.

• Sherif et al. (1954/1961) allowed two of the boys from the group called the Eagles to leave the study due to (20) homesickness so research can investigate prejudice whilst also being ethical.

• When conducting his research into the diagnosis of mental health disorders, Rosenhan (1973) took steps to protect the identity of the hospitals used and the pseudopatients.

• If participants or their location are identifiable in psychological research, this could negatively affect the participants or their local area if the research is considered socially sensitive.

• Fully informing participants of the aim of the study may lead to changes in their behaviour so the results will lack validity, but lying to the participants to prevent this may upset the participants and lead to them not wanting to participate in future research.

• Van den Oever et al. (2008) had their study approved by The Animal Users Care Committee (Netherlands) so they were able to show they could competently handle the rats and killed them in an appropriate way.

• It could be argued that Harry Harlow’s research into attachment using monkeys led to unnecessary harm and suffering for the animals and led to early death that was avoidable for research purposes.

• Using animals in research studies is considered by some as controversial because animals that are considered similar to humans are not treated in the same way as humans.

• Humans have benefitted from animal research in psychology through advancement in understanding about conditions such as schizophrenia and potential treatments for this such as antipsychotic medication, so this may outweigh the costs for the animals.

• Skinner (1948) used pigeons in his research regarding operant conditioning which are considered a protected animal so his research could have been more ethical if he had not used a protected animal, such as an insect.

• Skinner (1948) used minimal animals in his research as he chose to use only eight pigeons so it could be considered ethical as he used the minimum number required.

1. In your studies of social psychology, you will have conducted a practical investigation.

(a) Describe how you gathered qualitative data in your social psychology practical investigation. (2)

• We used open ended questions about favouritism towards other groups of students in college (1) and gathered detailed opinions from the respondents on their views about students from different groups in college (1).

(b) Describe how you gathered quantitative data in your social psychology practical investigation. (2)

• We used statements with Likert scales ranging from 0 to 10 to gather a score for in-group favouritism (1) where respondents rated how far they agreed or disagreed with statements about student groups in college (1).

(c) Explain one improvement you could make to your social psychology practical investigation. (2)

• We could have conducted a pilot study and tested our questions about in-group favouritism before distributing them to the students we sampled (1) which would have increased the validity of the findings by making sure the questionnaires we used could be accurately understood by the students answering the questions (1).

2. Belinda investigated whether personality had an impact on levels of obedience at work. She selected 10 senior managers from different companies, five with high scores for authoritarian personality traits and five with low scores. The participants were asked whether they would dismiss an unpopular employee based on false allegations if the company director told them to. The results of the investigation are shown in Table 1.

Draw a bar chart to show the number of participants with high scores for authoritarian personality who would and would not dismiss the employee. (3)

One mark for correct/appropriate title (see graph below for a suitable example)

One mark for correct/appropriate labelling of axes (see graph below for a suitable example)

One mark for correct plots of data points (see graph below for correct plotting)

3. Assess how far culture can influence prejudice. (8)

AO1

• Culture incorporates the values, ideas, customs, and behavioural norms of a particular group of people or a society.

• Individualistic cultures emphasise individualism within the group, while collectivist cultures stress the importance of the whole group as a collective.

• Multiculturalism is where the diversity of all cultures is accepted within a society and one group is not considered to be superior.

• Intergroup prejudice are negative attitudes about different cultural groups and intragroup prejudice are beliefs within a culture about different subcultural groups.

AO3

• Adorno et al.’s (1950) concept of authoritarian personality claims that specific characteristics may result in hostility to people of a different race, social group, age, sexuality, or other minority group, so prejudice may be a personality difference and not due to culture.

• Al-Zahrani and Kaplowitz (1993) found Saudis, a collectivist culture, tended to self-report more negative out-group bias than Americans, an individualistic culture, so prejudice may develop because of different types of culture.

• Guimond (2013) looked at cultural norms and government policy within multicultural societies and found that anti-Muslim attitudes were reduced when the pro-diversity policy was high, so prejudice can be reduced when diversity and multiculturalism is promoted.

• Negative attitudes within a culture to those who are unemployed may not be intragroup subcultural prejudiced beliefs about values but could be a result of situational forces such as conflict over access to material resources.

4. Lei investigated the effect of word length on short-term memory capacity. She used a volunteer sampling technique to gather 20 participants.

Lei allocated her participants randomly to one of two conditions.

• Condition A: participants are given 14 monosyllabic words (words with only one syllable such as cat, tub, or red) to learn in 30 seconds.

• Condition B: participants are given 14 polysyllabic words (words with more than one syllable such as elephant, happiness, or carpet) to learn in 30 seconds.

Lei recorded the number of words recalled correctly by participants.

(a) State the fully operationalised independent variable (IV) and dependent variable (DV) in Lei’s investigation. (2)

Independent variable (IV)

• Whether the words are monosyllabic or polysyllabic (1)

Dependent variable (DV)

• The number of words recalled correctly from the list of 14 (1).

(b) Complete Table 2 and calculate the Mann-Whitney U for the results of Lei’s investigation.

(c) Using the Mann-Whitney U value that you calculated for 4(b), determine whether Lei’s data were significant at p ≤ 0.05 for a directional (one-tailed) hypothesis. (1)

Note: U = the smaller value 9.5

(c) Using the Mann-Whitney U value that you calculated for 4(b), determine whether Lei’s data were significant at p ≤ 0.05 for a directional (one-tailed) hypothesis. (1)

• The calculated U value (9.5) is less than the critical value (27), so the results are significant (1).

5. Describe the working memory model (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974).

• The central executive is said to control the subsystems while also being involved in tasks such as problem solving and attention (1). The visuospatial sketchpad is a subsystem that processes visual input such as images or light, and spatial information such as direction (1) and the phonological loop processes auditory information using the articulatory control to subvocalise and the phonological store to temporarily hold sound (1).

6. In your studies of cognitive psychology, you will have learned about one of the following contemporary studies in detail:

• Schmolck et al. (2002)

• Steyvers and Hemmer (2012)

• Sebastián and Hernández-Gil (2012).

Evaluate your chosen contemporary study. (8)

Sebastián and Hernández-Gil (2012)

AO1

• The sample was 570 volunteer, or volunteered, children aged between 5 and 17 years old from a range of schools, such as public and private, in Madrid.

• Participants were divided into five different age groups and then each child was read the digits independently.

• Each participant was read increasing sequences of digits to recall in the correct order with digit span recorded as the maximum digits recalled in the correct order without error.

• Digit span in the Spanish population is significantly shorter than Anglo-Saxon culture, probably due to the word length effect associated with digits.

AO3

• The sample is only representative of Spanish speaking children in the Madrid region, so it cannot be generalised beyond this population to speakers of other languages.

• The use of cross-sectional groups allowed them to track the development of digit span over time without the extended duration of conducting a longitudinal study.

• Digit sequence recall is artificial and has limited task validity as children are unlikely to learn random sequences of numbers in their day-to-day experiences.

• The study can be replicated to test verbal digit span across cultures to understand cross-cultural developmental and individual differences in phonological processing in working memory.

7. Tabitha wanted to investigate whether there is a difference in brain activity when people are exposed to aggressive stimuli and non-aggressive stimuli. She decided to gather a sample of female participants aged between 20 years old and 30 years old.

(a) Describe how Tabitha could use a volunteer sampling technique to gather participants for her investigation. (2)

• Tabitha could post a notice on social media advertising for female participants aged between 20 years old and 30 years old (1) and provide her contact details for them to respond and offer to take part in her research about brain activity and aggression (1).

(b) Tabitha decides to use a PET brain-scanning technique for her investigation. Describe how Tabitha could use a PET brain-scanning technique for her investigation. (3)

• Tabitha would give the female participants a radioactive tracer before they took part so the PET scan can measure their brain activity in response to the stimuli (1). Tabitha would need to take a measure of the resting brain activity prior to any aggressive or non-aggressive stimuli being presented to the participants (1). She would then show each participant the film scenes, such as an aggressive car chase or calm walk in a park to measure the brain activity in response to each scene (1).

(c) Explain one strength of Tabitha using a PET brain-scanning technique for her investigation. (2)

• A PET scan will give Tabitha an image of the participant’s brain activity when they are watching the scenes from the films that can be checked by other researchers (1) which increases the reliability of her findings about aggression as multiple researchers can interpret the scan to achieve consistency (1).

(d) Explain one improvement that could be made to Tabitha’s choice of participants. (2)

• Tabitha could use a more representative sample of participants by including different ages from 18 years old to 75 years old (1), which would improve the generalisability of her findings about brain activity and aggression to a wider target population of different generations of people (1).

8. Jinal wants to find out about recreational drug use and early childhood experiences. She has decided to focus on nicotine as the recreational drug. She intends to see how often people use nicotine and find out about any negative life experiences they had experienced during early childhood. Jinal believes that the more negative life experiences a person has, the more nicotine they will use. Discuss how Jinal could use a correlational research method for her investigation. You must make reference to the context in your answer. (8)

AO1

• Correlational research measures two variables to see if there is a relationship between them.

• Correlations can use the same individual participants where each participant will be measured on both co-variables.

• The results of correlation research can be plotted on a scatter diagram to show a direction, such as positive correlation, which is when one variable increases the other variable increases.

• A correlation can be considered strong or weak, which shows the strength of the relationship between the covariables being tested.

AO2

• Jinal could measure nicotine through cigarette use or vaping and count the number of negative life experiences in childhood to see if one increases alongside the other.

• She could give a questionnaire to participants to gather data on how many cigarettes are smoked per day and measure the number of negative childhood experiences the same participants had at different ages.

• Jinal may use a scatter diagram to plot her data about the volume of recreational drug use and how many negative childhood experiences they had to see if there is a positive correlation.

• She could determine the strength of the relationship between nicotine and negative childhood experiences, if this is weak she could then investigate other factors involved in nicotine use.

9. Ruhee receives reward points at school when she behaves extremely well, helps other students, and does extra research for her homework tasks. When she has 25 points, she can get a free snack at break time from the canteen. Ruhee always works hard to receive the points. Using operant conditioning, describe why Ruhee works hard to receive the points. (2)

• Reward points are positive reinforcement that encourage Ruhee to work hard in order to receive the desirable consequence of the points for things like homework (1). The points are a secondary reinforcer that Ruhee wants to accumulate to exchange for the primary reinforcer of snacks at break time (1).

10. Victor went to a local restaurant for a meal with friends. He ate pasta with a fish sauce but shortly afterwards he felt very poorly and was sick. Two weeks later Victor walked past the restaurant and could smell the same fish sauce, which made him feel sick, so he hurried past. When his friends invited him to the restaurant again, Victor said he did not want to go.

(a) Using classical conditioning, describe why Victor may no longer want to go to the restaurant. (4)

• The unconditioned stimulus would be the pasta in fish sauce that resulted in an unconditioned response of being sick (1). The restaurant was the neutral stimulus that produced no instinctive reaction from Victor (1). When the unconditioned stimulus of fish sauce was paired with the neutral stimulus of the restaurant it became a conditioned stimulus (1), resulting in the restaurant triggering Victors conditioned response of feeling sick, so he no longer wants to go (1).

(b) Explain two weaknesses of classical conditioning as an explanation of human behaviour. (4)

• Classical conditioning cannot explain behaviours such as a fear where an individual has not encountered the stimulus for pairing to take place (1), so it cannot be applied to a wider range of learned behaviour unlike social learning theory which explains the process of learning behaviour through observing the actions of others (1).

• Evidence supporting classical conditioning has largely taken place on animal subjects which may not be representative of how human associations form during learning (1), such as stages of classical conditioning being explained using the salivation responses of dogs in confinement which when extrapolated may not fully explain how humans are conditioned (1).

11. Evaluate Bandura’s (1965) Bobo doll experiment with vicarious reinforcement. (8)

AO1

• The participants were 33 boys and 33 girls aged between 42 months and 71 months from the Stanford University Nursery school.

• The children were randomly assigned to three different groups with 11 boys and 11 girls in each group.

• A 5-minute film of a male role model being aggressive to the Bobo doll was shown to the children after which they watched the model be either rewarded, punished or given no consequences.

• Two observers then observed the children’s behaviour for 10 minutes in a different room playing with the Bobo doll.

AO3

• The participants were of an equal gender mix which prevents androcentric bias in findings, so they are more generalisable to children of both genders.

• Randomisation means they were not matched for prior aggression levels so one group may have had higher aggression prior to exposure to the role model.

• The standardised film clip showing the process of vicarious reinforcements give internal consistency in the exposure to the role model conditions, increasing the reliability of the findings.

• A 10-minute observation may not reflect how vicarious reinforcement influences children’s learned behaviour in the longterm, limiting the application of the findings about learned aggression.

12. Assess how far learning theories can be considered reductionist. (8)

AO1

• Reductionism means looking at the smaller, isolated parts of human behaviour when studying and measuring it.

• Holism looks at the whole person instead as it considers the influences of experience/culture/socialisation on human behaviour.

• Watson and Rayner (1920) focussed on the pairing of a stimulus and response between a rat and Little Albert’s emotional reaction.

• Scientific research may reduce complex human actions into isolated specific variables when testing the learning of behaviour.

AO3

• Operant conditioning reduces learning to simplistic rewards and punishments in suggesting that a desired consequence can sufficiently explain learned behaviour.

• Social learning theory suggests learning is more holistic and includes cognitive processes involved attention to role models that individuals identify with, so not all theories of learning are reductionist.

• As Watson and Rayner (1920) only focussed on stimulus-response associations they ignored possible external factors for Little Albert’s emotional reaction, some features of learning theory could be considered reductionist.

• Learning theories may ignore the whole picture involved in learning behaviours because of their focus on the isolated components of behaviour as they are underpinned by empiricism and scientific testing, such as Skinner’s (1948) study of pigeons.

13. To what extent does nurture influence cognitive and biological psychology? (12)

AO1

• Nurture refers to the environment, interactions, and experiences that a person has over the duration of their lifetime.

• Nature refers to the internal, innate aspects of a person that they are born with such as their physiological attributes.

• Amnesia may occur following damage to brain regions because of an environmental influence.

• Brain functioning can be influenced by nurture such as drug taking behaviour to achieve reward pathway excitation.

• Nurture can include cultural experiences that change memory process through building individual schemas.

• The environment can influence brain functioning, such as through exposure to toxins in the womb resulting in early developmental damage to the brain.

AO3

• Nurture is difficult to isolate when studying memory or brain functioning and so the influence of nurture on these components of human behaviour may never be completely measurable.

• Raine et al. (1997) found differences in the brains of murderers (NGRI’s) suggesting that violence is a result of brain functioning in the prefrontal cortex, so nurture may not have a strong influence.

• The case of HM shows that human memory is a function of the brain but that an environmental process can change the operation of human memory, so nature and nurture are linked.

• Olds and Milner (1954) found that stimulation of neural pathways resulted in the experience of pleasure, so while a neural response is an innate process it is the drug intake that triggers this, which would be nurture.

• Bartlett’s (1932) theory of reconstructive memory highlights how we use prior experiences and schemas that are part of individual personal history, so memory is highly influenced by nurture.

• The influence of cannabis during pregnancy has been claimed by Chia-Shan Wu et al. (2011) to interfere in pre-natal brain maturation leading to deficits in higher-order cognitive functions, meaning nurture can influence both biological and cognitive psychology simultaneously.

1. Lena cannot go to work due to her anxiety. She has also stopped going out with her friends once a week and does not like people visiting her at home. She has recently seen a psychiatrist who has diagnosed her with a mental disorder.

(a) Define the term ‘dysfunction’ as it is used to diagnose Lena’s mental disorder. (1)

• Dysfunction occurs when a mental disorder means that Lena cannot successfully carry out everyday life as she cannot go to work (1).

(b) Explain two weaknesses of using ‘dysfunction’ to diagnose Lena’s mental disorder. (4)

• There is subjectivity when deciding what is dysfunctional so Lena’s psychiatrist will base the diagnosis on their own professional opinion (1), which means that not going to work may be classified as dysfunctional by one clinician and not another, affecting reliability of Lena’s diagnosis (1).

• Using dysfunction on its own does not take into account the reasons for the dysfunction such as not going out with friends (1), so Lena may not go out with friends as they may now have different interests, this does not mean she has a mental disorder (1).

2. Vihaan wanted to conduct a meta-analysis to investigate the effectiveness of a psychological therapy on a range of mental disorders. He aimed to investigate how effective a psychological therapy was compared to a biological therapy. Vihaan collected his data from one country. (a) Describe how Vihaan may have carried out his meta-analysis. (3)

Vihaan may decide to use research articles on the psychological therapy from a specific date, such as in the past five years (1). Vihaan should decide which mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, PTSD and bipolar disorder, he wants to research before he starts his metaanalysis (1). Once Vihaan has gathered the research articles, he should combine the results and analyse them to see how effective the psychological therapy is (1).

(b) Vihaan collected secondary data. Compare primary and secondary data as used in clinical psychology. (2)

• Primary data is collected by the researcher such as treatment for schizophrenia whilst secondary data has already been collected by other researchers (1). Both primary and secondary data can be quantitative for example the number of hallucinations after treatment and can be analysed using statistical tests (1).

3

You will have learned about the classic study by Rosenhan (1973).

(a) Describe the results of Rosenhan (1973). (4)

• Rosenhan found that 11 out of the 12 hospitals admitted the pseudopatients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (1). The average time a pseudo patient stayed in hospital was 19 days, it ranged from 7 to 52 days (1). In three cases the pseudo patients writing behaviour was seen as part of their pathological behaviour by nurses (1). In his second experiment he found that 41 patients were said to be pseudo patients by at least one member of staff (1).

(b) Explain one strength of Rosenhan (1973). (2)

• Rosenhan used quantitative, objective data in the form of number of days spent in the hospital (1), this means that other researchers could conduct a similar study and compare the results to see if they are similar to test the reliability of Rosenhan’s results on newer versions of DSM (1).

(c) Explain one improvement that could be made to Rosenhan (1973). (2)

• Rosenhan could have used a range of hospitals across all of America rather than just the east and west coast (1) which would have shown that the results were representative of all states within America and how they treat patients in mental institutions (1).

4. In your studies of clinical psychology, you will have learned about a key question of relevance to today’s society. Discuss the key question for society you have studied using concepts, theories and/or research from clinical psychology. (8)

Key question: Is the use of drugs an effective treatment for mental disorders?

AO1

• A lot of mental disorders are treated with drugs whilst the patients may be waiting for psychotherapy.

• In 2018 over 70.9 million items were prescribed for mental disorders such as depression by the NHS in England.

• Whilst prescriptions are not free the cost of antidepressants to the NHS up to October in 2018 was £672.5 million.

• The use of medication for mental disorders can keep people in work so that the government receives taxes and does not have to pay out some benefits.

AO2

• Drug treatments work by changing the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain to alleviate the symptoms of the mental disorder.

• Drugs may reduce the level of the neurotransmitters in the brain, such as antipsychotics reducing the levels of dopamine.

• When drugs are used to reduce the level of neurotransmitter, they may block the receptors so neurotransmitters such as dopamine cannot bind to the receptors.

• Other drugs, such as anti-depressants increase the level of the neurotransmitter by stopping the reuptake of serotonin for example.

5. Evaluate the use of the longitudinal research method as used in clinical psychology. (8)

AO1

• Longitudinal research investigates the same participants with mental health over a long period of time, often months or years.

• A longitudinal design can collect data in various ways, such as observations of those with mental health as well as interviewing them over time.

• The same tools for data collection will be used throughout various points in the study e.g. Vallentine et al. (2010) took three measures of ward placement.

• Longitudinal research can collect quantitative data such as measurements on the Beck depression inventory or qualitative data over a period of time.

AO3

• As they take place over a long period of time the development of the mental health issue can be tracked which can give more valid data than cross sectional studies.

• As the same participants are studied over a period of time participant variables such as the effect of their home life on their mental health are controlled for, increasing reliability.

• As the participants and researchers would be in regular contact, the researchers may become too emotionally involved with the participants which may lead bias towards how a mental disorder is progressing.

• Participants with severe mental illness may drop out of the study if it is over a long period of time so the sample may become biased towards a specific severity of mental ill health.

6. Alba has recently been diagnosed with a mental health disorder using a classification system. She has presented with a number of symptoms including losing interest in everyday life, altered sleep patterns and an inability to express her emotions. She also occasionally has angry outbursts. Alba’s psychiatrist has diagnosed her with schizophrenia. Her mother disagrees and thinks Alba has a different mental health disorder and wants her to see another psychiatrist who is from the same culture as Alba. To what extent are classification systems a reliable and valid way of diagnosing mental health disorders? You must make reference to the context in your answer. (20)

AO1

• If the diagnosis of a mental health disorder is reliable then the same person will get the same diagnosis from two clinicians.

• Intra rater reliability is when the same physician diagnoses the same patient with the same symptoms as having the same disorder at two different points in time.

• A diagnosis is reliable if two different classification systems diagnose the same disorder for the same patient.

• Validity refers to whether the classification systems accurately measure the mental disorder they say they are measuring.

• If a classification system is not reliable then it cannot be a valid measurement of mental disorders.

• When a diagnosis can be used to accurately predict the way the mental disorder will develop then it is said to have predictive validity.

• If a psychiatrist diagnoses a mental disorder using a classification system and suggests a treatment based on that diagnosis that works the classification system can be said to be valid.

• A valid classification system includes symptoms that are operationalised and measurable such as people with schizophrenia having to have two or more symptoms over a month. AO2

• Alba’s symptoms such as losing interest in everyday life could apply to more than one mental health disorder so her diagnosis may not be reliable.

• If a second psychiatrist agrees with the diagnosis of schizophrenia, then the diagnosis is reliable which should reassure Alba’s mother.

• By using two psychiatrists to diagnose Alba, if they have a reliable diagnosis of schizophrenia then it is more likely to be valid.

• If the diagnosis of schizophrenia is valid then Alba’s psychiatrist should be able to tell her mother how her schizophrenia will develop over the coming months.

AO3

• Morey (2019) found that DSM 5 was more reliable than DSM IV in diagnosing borderline (20) 14 personality disorder so diagnosis of mental health disorders should be reliable if DSM V was used.

• Diagnosis can be affected by what the patients tell the psychiatrist, so if a patient tells two psychiatrists different things this may affect the reliability of their diagnosis.

• DSM 5 includes section 3 which advises cultural issues should be taken into account so these should have less of an effect on the reliability of diagnosis.

• DSM 5 had a concordance rate of 0.46 for schizophrenia according to Reiger et al. (2013) so the reliability of diagnosis of mental health disorders such as schizophrenia may be questioned.

• Rosenhan (1973) found that DSM was not valid as it could not tell that the pseudo patients did not have a mental health disorder so diagnosis of schizophrenia may not be valid.

• Lee et al. (2006) found that the diagnosis of ADHD had concurrent validity when using DSM and other measures such as questionnaire data, so diagnosis may be valid.

• Using two different classification systems to test for concurrent validity assumes one of the systems is valid when neither may be valid, so affecting the validity of diagnosis.

• Stinchfield et al. (2015) found that DSM 5 led to fewer false negatives than DSM IV when diagnosing gambling disorder suggesting classification systems are valid.

7. Alexei conducted an investigation into whether appearance of the defendant can affect the decisions made by a jury. Alexei used an opportunity sampling technique to recruit participants for his investigation from a local business. The participants watched a video of a mock trial where the defendant was found guilty. Half the participants saw the defendant in a smart suit (condition A) and the other half of the participants saw the defendant in casual clothes (condition B). The participants had to say how long the defendant should be in prison for, in months.

(a) Explain one strength and one weakness of the sampling technique used by Alexei for his investigation about jury decision making. (4)

Strength

• As Alexei used an opportunity sample it would not take him a long time to gather his participants for his study on jury decision making (1), as the participants were readily available as they were working at the local business on the day he conducted his investigation. (1).

Weakness

• The participants that Alexei used for his jury decision making investigation were from a local business so they may not be representative of juries (1), as they may regularly wear suits so could have a negative bias towards people in casual clothes (1).

Table 1 shows the results of Alexei’s investigation.

(b) Calculate the mean number of months participants in condition A said the defendant should spend in prison. (1)

4

(c) Calculate the median number of months participants in condition B said the defendant should spend in prison. (1)

8

(d) Alexei carried out a Mann–Whitney U test on his data. His calculated/observed value was 4.5. Determine whether Alexei’s results were significant or not at p 0.05 for a two-tailed (non-directional) hypothesis. (1)

• There is a significant difference between the number of months given to the defendant who was wearing a smart suit or wearing casual clothes as the calculated value (4.5) is less than the critical value (5) (1).

(e) Explain one improvement that Alexei could make to his investigation. (2)

• Alexei could use participants from a variety of businesses from locations other than his local area (1) which would be more representative of a real jury which uses people from a wider area and different backgrounds so the results would be more generalisable (1).

8. Describe one theory of personality as an explanation of crime and anti-social behaviour.

• Eysenck said biological factors can affect personality and cause a predisposition towards criminal or anti-social behaviour (1). The reticular activating system of extroverts leads to under arousal so extroverts may engage in anti-social behaviour to increase their arousal (1). The sympathetic systems of the autonomic nervous system may be more active for longer, leading to impulsive behaviour which may be anti-social or criminal (1).

9. Jekaterina has recently had an accident which resulted in damage to her amygdala. Since the accident she has lost her temper a lot more. She has had frequent arguments with her parents. Jekaterina’s old friends do not like to go out with her any more, as she often starts fighting with strangers. She is now going out with some new friends. Jekaterina has just been arrested by the police for hitting someone whilst she was out with her new friends. Jekaterina thinks her aggression is due to the damage to her amygdala. Discuss how damage to Jekaterina’s amygdala may account for her aggression. You must make reference to the context in your answer. (8)

AO1

• The amygdala processes information from our senses and determines how we respond to that information.

• The amygdala can trigger the flight or fight response when we either run away from the situation or stay and fight.

• When it is activated the amygdala over rides the rational part of our brain so we are less likely to think in a rational manner.

• Damage to the amygdala can lead to an individual being unable to prevent themselves acting spontaneously in an aggressive way.

AO2

• Jekaterina may have processed information from her environment as threatening due to damage to her amygdala, which is why she starts fights when she is out.

• When her amygdala is activated Jekaterina goes into the fight mode which explains why she hit another person when she was out with her new friends due to an increase in adrenaline.

• Jekaterina does not think of the consequences of her actions, such as being arrested by the police because her damaged amygdala may be overactive.

• Her new friends could be more aggressive and Jekaterina may be copying her aggressive behaviour from them.

10. Denis and Angela recently witnessed a robbery at a bank. The robber was waving a gun at the bank staff as he demanded the money. Denis had to give the police a statement about what he saw and heard during the robbery. He gave detailed accounts of the gun used. He failed to pick the robber out of a selection of photographs. Two weeks after the robbery, Angela, who enjoys watching police dramas, also gave a statement to the police. She accurately identified the robber, but she said the robber had a knife rather than a gun. Another witness who had discussed the robbery with Angela also said a knife was used by the robber. Evaluate factors influencing the eye-witness testimony given by Denis and Angela. You must make reference to the context in your answer. (16)

AO1

• Witnesses to crimes tend to focus on the weapon if there is one involved as it may cause harm to the witness.

• Our attention is limited so when witnesses focus on weapons involved in crime they pay less attention to other details.

• The presence of a weapon can cause emotional arousal that means witnesses are focussed on the weapon rather than what the perpetrator was saying or wearing.

• Eye witness testimony can be influenced by information they heard after the incident.

• Eye witnesses may use their schemas of crimes to reconstruct the event so that it makes sense when they recall it.

• If the event is discussed with other witnesses and two witnesses think they saw something that did not happen this can reinforce their error and make it more likely to be remembered as happening.

AO2

• If Denis automatically kept his attention on the gun, then he would not have looked at other details such as what the robber looked like.

• Due to the increase in stress that Denis experienced his memory for the robbery would have declined so he could not identify the robber from the photographs.

• Angela may have reconstructed the robbery based on her schemas of a robbery that she has developed from watching police dramas.

• When Angela discussed the robbery with another witness and they both thought the robber had a knife this would have reinforced her inaccurate memory of the type of weapon used.

AO3

• Steblay (1992) found when reviewing 19 tests when a weapon was present there was lower accuracy when asked to identify the perpetrator so this may explain why Denis could not accurately identify the robber.

• Pickel (1999) found that it was the unusualness of the weapon that affected eye witness testimony rather than the presence of a weapon, (16) 23 as Denis would not have expected to see a gun at the bank it may have affected his memory.

• A lot of the research on weapon focus involves photographs or videos so they do not have the same emotional impact as a real robbery so the results may not apply to Denis.

• Loftus and Palmer (1974) found that changing the verb from smashed to contacted influenced the participants estimated speed, showing post event information may influence Angela’s memory.

• Yuille and Cutshall (1986) found that the memory of witnesses to a real crime was still accurate several months after the incident, so post event information may not have had an effect on Angela misidentifying the type of weapon used.

• Allport and Postman (1947) found participants did reconstruct their memory of a picture, so the white man was no longer the perpetrator holding the knife, showing that Angela may have reconstructed her memory of the robbery based on her schemas.

1. Junior to senior Pinocchio study

Approximately 1000 participants were recruited by researchers to visit a Science Centre to investigate lying ability and frequency. The researchers used a cross-sectional design for their study. The participants had their ability and frequency of lying measured and their results were then grouped into age categories. To measure lying ability the participants had to respond to 15 simple questions with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response. For example, one question was ‘can pigs fly?’. Participants were told to either tell the truth or lie depending on the colour of the yes/no response options. The researchers expected the most able liars to respond the quickest and with fewer errors when lying and the least able liars to either have a delayed response or give a reflex truthful response when told to lie. To measure lying frequency, the participants were asked how many times they had lied in the past 24 hours to family members, friends and strangers in a face-to-face situation. The age categories and number of participants used for the study are shown in Table 1.

(a) Explain one strength and one weakness of using a cross-sectional design for the junior to senior Pinocchio study. (4)

Strength

• Using a cross-sectional design allowed the researchers to gather information about lying ability and frequency quicker than using a longitudinal design (1) because they could ask participants from the age categories to lie at a single moment in time, rather than having to take years to follow the same participants throughout their life, so it is faster to gain results (1).

Weakness

• The participants in the age categories are all different people so individual (participant) differences may have affected the frequency of their lying (1) because some participants may have been compulsive liars and so this could have skewed the results in some age categories which would have affected the validity of the findings about lying frequency (1).

Table 2 shows the average lying ability of the participants in each of the age categories.

(b) Explain two conclusions you can make using the data in Table 2 regarding the lying ability of the participants in the age categories. (4)

• Young adults were the most able liars (1) which is shown by the lowest error rate of 8.55% and took the least time when telling a lie to a simple question (1).

• Children aged 6-8 were the least able liars (1) as they had the highest error rate of over 20% and took the longest time to tell a lie to a simple question (1)

(c) Explain one weakness of the junior to senior Pinocchio study in terms of validity. (2)

• Participants were told when to lie in the study so they may not have acted naturally so it lacks validity (1) because people choose whether and when to lie in real life situations for various reasons and are not told when to lie so the findings may not represent how people would lie in daily life (1).

(d) Explain one strength of the junior to senior Pinocchio study in terms of reliability. (2)

• The participants in all age categories were given the same 15 questions so the study can be tested for reliability (1) because every participant was given identical simple questions so the study could be repeated and responses compared to assess consistency (1).