Practice Exams
Assessment criteria -A & AS Level
The Scheme of Assessment for AS Level has a modular structure. The Advanced Subsidiary (AS) award comprises two assessment units.
Assessment Units
Unit 1Written Paper 1 hour and 30 minutes
Candidates will be expected to:
- develop knowledge and understanding of concepts, theories and studies in relation to Cognitive Psychology and Developmental Psychology
- develop skills of analysis, evaluation and application in relation to Cognitive Psychology and Developmental Psychology
- develop knowledge and understanding of Research Methods associated with these areas of psychology
- develop knowledge and understanding of ethical issues associated with these areas of psychology.
- Knowledge and understanding of Research Methods should be developed through:
• direct study of Research Methods
• undertaking practical research activities involving collection, analysis and interpretation of qualitative and quantitative data
• analysis and evaluation of studies relevant to the Cognitive and Developmental Psychology content of this unit.
Cognitive Psychology - Memory
Models of memory
• The multi-store model, including the concepts of encoding, capacity and duration. Strengths and weaknesses of the model
• The working memory model, including its strengths and weaknesses
Memory in everyday life
• Eyewitness testimony (EWT) and factors affecting the accuracy of
EWT,including anxiety, age of witness
• Misleading information and the use of the cognitive interview
• Strategies for memory improvement
Developmental Psychology - Early Social Development Attachment
Explanations of attachment, including learning theory, and evolutionary
- perspective, including Bowlby
- Types of attachment, including insecure and secure attachment and studies by Ainsworth
- Cultural variations in attachment
- Disruption of attachment, failure to form attachment (privation) and the effects of institutionalisation
Attachment in everyday life
- The impact of different forms of day care on children’s social development, including the effects on aggression and peer relations
- Implications of research into attachment and day care for child care practices
Research Methods
- How to plan and carry out research in Psychology.
Unit 2 Written Paper 1 hour and 30 minutes
Candidates will be expected to:
- develop knowledge and understanding of concepts, theories and studies in relation to individual differences, social psychology, biological psychology
- develop skills of analysis, evaluation and application in relation to individual differences, social psychology, biological psychology
- develop knowledge and understanding of research methods associated with these areas of psychology
- develop knowledge and understanding of ethical issues associated with these areas of psychology.
- Knowledge and understanding of research methods should be developed through:
- undertaking practical research activities involving collection, analysis and interpretation of qualitative and quantitative data analysis and evaluation of studies relevant to the content for each area of psychology in this unit.
Biological Psychology - Stress as a bodily response
The body’s response to stress, including the pituitary-adrenal system and the sympathomedullary pathway in outline
Stress-related illness and the immune system.
Stress in everyday life
- Life changes and daily hassles
- Workplace stress
- Personality factors, including Type A behaviour
- Distinction between emotion-focused and problem-focused approaches to coping with stress
- Psychological and physiological methods of stress management, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and drugs
Social Psychology - Social Influence
- Types of conformity, including internalisation and compliance
- Explanations of why people conform, including informational social influence and normative social influence
- Obedience, including Milgram’s work and explanations of why people obey
Social influence in everyday life
- Explanations of independent behaviour, including how people resist pressures
- to conform and pressures to obey authority
- The influence of individual differences on independent behaviour, including locus of control
- Implications for social change of research into social influence.
Individual Differences – Psychopathology (Abnormality)
Defining and explaining psychological abnormality
- Definitions of abnormality, including deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately and deviation from ideal mental health, and limitations associated with these definitions of psychological abnormality
- Key features of the biological approach to psychopathology
- Key features of psychological approaches to psychopathology including the psychodynamic, behavioural and cognitive approaches
Treating abnormality
- Biological therapies, including drugs and ECT
- Psychological therapies, including psychoanalysis, systematic de-sensitisation and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
Candidates answer structured compulsory questions. Questions include short answer, stimulus response questions and one 12 mark essay question requiring extended writing. Students write all answers in an answer booklet. The 12 mark essay question is assessed by 6 A01 skills (knowledge and understanding) and 6 A02 skills (analysis and evaluation).
A Level Psychology – Practice Exam questions
Biological Rhythms and Sleep
Describe and evaluate research on circadian rhythms, with reference to endogenous pacemakers and exogenous zeitgebers. (25 marks)
Describe and evaluate research on ultradian and infradian rhythms. (25 marks)
Discuss the role of endogenous pacemakers and exogenous zeitgebers in biological rhythms. (25 marks)
Discuss the role of endogenous pacemakers and exogenous zeitgebers in biological rhythms. (25 marks)
- Outline research into biological rhythms (9 marks)
- Evaluate the consequences of disrupting biological rhythms (16 marks)
Discuss the consequences of disrupting biological rhythms (e.g. shift work, jet lag) (25 marks)
Describe and evaluate lifespan changes in sleep. (25 marks)
Outline and evaluate restoration theory as an explanation of the function of sleep. (25 marks)
Discuss evolutionary explanations of the function of sleep. (25 marks)
- Outline two theories of the functions of sleep (9 marks)
- Evaluate one of the theories you have outlined in (a) (16 marks)
Outline and evaluate evolutionary explanations of the function of sleep (25 marks)
Disorders of Sleep
- Distinguish between primary and secondary insomnia (2 + 3 marks
- Discuss explanations of insomnia (7 + 13 marks)
- Outline and evaluate explanations of two or more sleep disorders. (25 marks)
- Discuss explanations for insomnia (25 marks):
** (a) Outline one or more consequences of disrupting biological
rhythms (5 marks)
(b) Outline and evaluate explanations of narcolepsy (20 marks)
Agression & Social psychological approaches to explaining aggression
- Discuss one social psychological theory of aggression (25 marks)
- Outline and evaluate two social psychological theories of aggression (25 marks)
- Discuss psychological explanations of two or more forms of institutional aggression (25 marks)
Biological explanations of aggression
- Discuss the role of neural and hormonal mechanisms in human aggression (25 marks)
- Discuss the role of genetic factors in human aggression (25 marks)
** Compare and contrast social psychological and biological explanations of aggression (25 marks)
** Compare social and biological approaches to explaining aggression (25 marks)
Aggression as an adaptive response
- Discuss evolutionary explanations of human aggression (25 marks)
- Discuss two or more explanations of group display as an adaptive response (25 marks)
- Outline one explanation of group display in humans (5 marks)
- Outline and evaluate the role of infidelity and jealousy as explanations of human aggression (20 marks)
- Outline one or more evolutionary explanations of human aggression (9 marks)
- Evaluate one of the explanations offered in (a) (16 marks)
AQA PSYA3 Specimen Paper
Outline and evaluate one social psychological and one biological explanation of human aggression (25 marks)
PSYA3 Jan 2010
Discuss explanations of institutional aggression (25 marks)
