Edexcel A-Level Psychology AS Topic a Social Psychology Questions

AO1 (2 marks) AO3 (2 marks)

Credit one mark for accurate identification of one strength and
one weakness (AO1)
Credit one mark for justification of each strength and each
weakness (AO3)

Strength

For example:

• Agency theory, which includes the concept of blind
obedience, is supported by a number of research studies
(1). Burger’s (2009) replication of Milgram’s original study
found that participants followed instructions and
administered shocks to the learners, supporting blind
obedience (1).

Weakness

For example:

• The theory relies on the concept of agentic state
behaviour in the presence of authority (1) so it does not
explain obedience to authority when an authority figure is
distant, such as following the law when police are not
nearby (1).

Look for other reasonable marking points.

(4)

AO1 (2 marks)

Credit one mark for each accurate conclusion.

For example:

• Obedience decreases when the authority figure was
not in close proximity (1).
• Obedience decreases the lower the prestige/status of
authority figure is to the teacher (1).

Look for other reasonable marking points.

(2)

AO1 (1 mark) AO3 (1 mark)
Credit one mark for accurate identification of individual
difference (AO1).
Credit one mark for justification of individual difference (AO3).
For example:
- Adorno (1950) claimed that those with an authoritarian
personality tend to obey (1) Elms and Milgram (1966)
found that those with an authoritarian personality are said
to like rules, which leads to high levels of obedience (1).
Look for other reasonable marking points.

(2)

AO1 (4 marks), AO3 (4 marks)
A01
- Asch's (1951) conformity study was tested in a laboratory
in order to see the extent to which social pressure from a
majority group could influence a person to conform.
- An opportunity sample of 50 male students from
Swarthmore College in America participated in Asch's
(1951) conformity experiment.
- Participants in the experimental room had to state out
loud which comparison line ( 1,2,3 ) was most like the
target line.
- Asch (1951) found that 74\% of participants conformed at
least once on the critical trials giving the incorrect
answers and following the majority.
AO3
- Testing conformity in a laboratory environment provides
control over variables that could have affected the
dependent variable of the number of incorrect responses
given by the participants.
- Asch's (1951) experiment lacks population validity as he
did not use female participants in his sample therefore his
results lack generalisability as he cannot conclude that
women would conform the same as men.
- Judging line lengths is not a realistic way to measure
conformity therefore Asch's (1951) experiment lacks task
(internal) validity as a line task cannot be generalised to
conformity examples in real life.
- Asch replicated his research several times creating
different variations which all supported his initial findings
that the minority would conform to a majority increasing
reliability of his 1951 study.
Look for other reasonable marking points.

(8)

\begin{tabular}[t]{|l|l|l|}
\hline Level

Mark

Descriptor

AO1 (4 marks), AO3 (4 marks)
Candidates must demonstrate an equal emphasis between knowledge and
understanding vs evaluation/ conclusion in their answer.

0

No rewardable material.

Level 1

1-2
Marks

Demonstrates isolated elements of knowledge and understanding.
(AO1)
A conclusion may be presented, but will be generic and the
supporting evidence will be limited. Limited attempt to address the
question. (AO3)

Level 2

3-4
Marks

Demonstrates mostly accurate knowledge and understanding. (AO1)
Candidates will produce statements with some development in the
form of mostly accurate and relevant factual material, leading to a
superficial conclusion being made. (AO3)

Level 3

5-6
Marks

Demonstrates accurate knowledge and understanding. (AO1)
Arguments developed using mostly coherent chains of reasoning
leading to a conclusion being presented. Candidates will demonstrate
a grasp of competing arguments but evaluation may be imbalanced.
(AO3)

Level 4

7-8
Marks

Demonstrates accurate and thorough knowledge and understanding.
(AO1)
Displays a well-developed and logical evaluation, containing logical
chains of reasoning throughout. Demonstrates an awareness of
competing arguments, presenting a balanced conclusion. (AO3)

AO1 (4 marks), AO2 (4 marks), AO3 (4 marks)
AO1
- Moscovici proposed that minorities influence others
through their behavioural style.
- Behavioural style involves consistency of opinion over
time and between members of the minority.
- Consistency gives an impression of certainty and causes
doubt in the majority norms.
- If the majority identifies with the minority they are more
likely to take the views of the minority seriously.
AO2
- The local shop owners could encourage people visiting the
area not to drop food waste near their shops through
using leaflets.
- The local shop owners could inform people of the benefits
of putting food waste in bins.
- The local shop owners could explain to people why
dropping food waste encourages rats into the area.
- The local shop owners could place signs around the
buildings reinforcing the message not to drop food which
is encouraging rats.
AO3
- Moscovici's study showed that when the majority
consistently judged the slides to be green rather than
blue, the majority followed them on 8.42\% of trials.
- Mass and Clark (1983) found that minorities caused a
change in private/opinions/attitudes before a change in
public behaviour.
- Minority influence does not always lead to social change;
minorities are not only lacking in social power but may
also be seen as "deviant" by the majority.
- The social impact theory predicts that as the size of the
majority grows, the influence of the minority decreases,
both in public and in private there is an attitude change.
Look for other reasonable marking points.

(12)

AO2 (2 marks), AO3 (2 marks)
Credit one mark for accurate identification of an improvement in relation
to the scenario (AO2)
Credit one mark for justification/exemplification of each improvement
(AO3)
For example;
- Freda could ask about more than the two scenarios in her
interview about conformity so there is a larger range of examples
for participants to consider (1), which could increase the validity
of her findings about majority influence as the participants may
show more or less conformity in different situations (1).
- Freda could conduct her interview each day for a full week to
gather participants that go shopping on different days to have a
more representative sample (1). This would improve the
generalisability of her findings about majority influence as Freda
would have a wider range of people from her target population
(1).
Generic answers score 0 marks.
Look for other reasonable marking points.

(4)

AO2 (1 mark), AO3 (1 mark)
Credit one mark for accurate identification of improvement in
relation to scenario (AO2)
Credit one mark for justification of improvement (AO3)
For example:
- Reliability can be improved by comparing secondary data
from previous studies on obedience to her own data (1)
this helps confirm that her results are similar to previous
findings showing consistency across studies into
obedience (1).
Look for other reasonable marking points.
Generic answers score 0 marks.

(2)

AO2 (2 marks) AO3 (2 marks)
Credit two marks for accurate identification of each
improvement (AO2).
Credit two marks for justification/exemplification of each
improvement (AO3).
For example:
- In our social practical investigation we could increase the
age range of our participants to include up to 65 years of
age (1) which would allow us to generalise our self-report
questionnaire results on obedience to a larger age range
(1).
- Our sample could include an equal number of males and
females from the college (1) which would give us a more
representative number of participant responses from both
genders to measure whether different genders perceive
men or women to be more obedient (1).
Generic answers score 0 marks.
Look for other reasonable marking points.
Answers must relate to the social practical investigation
using a questionnaire.

(4)

AO2 (2 marks)
Credit up to two marks for an accurate description in relation to the
scenario.
For example;
- Freda used an opportunity sampling technique to gather
participants for her investigation into conformity (1) by asking 20
people who happened to be available on the Tuesday at the local
shop (1).
Generic answers score 0 marks.
Look for other reasonable marking points.

(2)

AO2 (1 mark) AO3 (1 mark)

Credit one mark for accurate identification of median as an
appropriate measure of central tendency for this study
(AO2)
Credit one mark for justification/conclusion (AO3)

For example:

• The data in the study contains a skewed set of results
with extreme high and low scores (1) and the median
looks at just at the middle two scores so will give a
central tendency that excludes the extreme scores (1)

Look for other reasonable marking points.

(2)

AO2 (2 marks)
Credit up to two marks for an accurate description in
relation to scenario.
For example:
- Rendi could read through the interview answers and
look for common themes or patterns on why the
students said they would obey (1). She could then
collate the answers and total up the most common
reasons for obeying different people (1).
Look for other reasonable marking points.
Generic answers score 0 marks.

(2)

AO1 (3 marks), AO3 (3 marks)

Credit one mark for accurate identification of each ethical issue
(AO1)
Credit one mark for justification of each ethical issue (AO3)

For example:

• The right to withdraw was explicitly given to the
participants at the start of study (1) but by using verbal
prods it made it very difficult to actually withdraw during
the experiment itself so it was unethical (1).
• Informed consent was not obtained as they were told the
experiment was about learning not obedience (1)
therefore participants were not aware of aims of study
which was unethical but necessary to reduce demand
characteristics and gather more reliable obedience data
(1).
• Milgram caused severe distress to a number of the
participants during the experiment (1) however after
debriefing the participants were glad to have been
involved despite the unethical levels of distress the
experiment had caused them at the time, they felt it was
worthwhile (1).

Look for other reasonable marking points.

(6)

AO1 (3 marks)
Up to three marks for accurate description of procedure.
For example;
Yi Huang et al. (2014)
There are two parts to this research;
Experimental Part 1
and Participant and Experimental Part 2.
- 280 digital colour photographs of faces of young
Chinese women with neutral expressions were
obtained (1). Each photograph was displayed for 2
seconds on a computer screen (1). An 8 point Likert
scale was used for participants to rate the
attractiveness of the photograph (1).
Haun et al. (2014)
There are two studies within this research. Study 1: Peer
influence across species, and Study 2: Dynamics of peer
influence amongst children.
- The experiment consisted of a box with three sections
each a different colour that dispensed a reward when a
ball was dropped into them (1). Human and non-human
participants dropped balls into sections until they had
used the same section on 8 out of 10 consecutive tests
(1). All participants observed three demonstrators
complete the task twice each putting balls in a pre-
determined/favoured box (1).
Look for other reasonable marking points.

(3)

AO2 (2 marks)
Credit up to two marks for an accurate description of a control.
For example:
- Our participants all received the same self-report
questionnaire on perception of obedience (1) where the
questions were agreed beforehand and given in a
standard format (1).
Generic answers score 0 marks.
Look for other reasonable marking points.
Answers must relate to the social practical investigation
using a questionnaire.

(2)