OxfordAQA International A-Level Psychology: Introductory Topics (9685)

This guide covers Unit 1 Introductory Topics in Psychology, one of two units forming the International AS in OxfordAQA International AS and A-level Psychology (9685), first teaching September 2018. AS content (Units 1-2) is 50% of the full A-level content but contributes 40% of final marks; units are resittable. The full A-level adds Unit 3 and the synoptic Unit 4.

Where this fits in 9685

Unit 1 introduces three foundational areas of psychology – memory, social psychology, and psychopathology – establishing named studies, models and evaluative skills that later units, including Unit 4’s synoptic Approaches in Psychology content, draw on directly.

Syllabus coverage

OXFORDAQA INTERNATIONAL A-LEVEL PSYCHOLOGY (9685) — UNIT 1 INTRODUCTORY TOPICS IN PSYCHOLOGY

• 1.1 Memory — models and processes of memory and forgetting
• 1.2 Social Psychology — how individuals are influenced by the presence and behaviour of others
• 1.3 Psychopathology — the definition, causes and treatment of psychological disorders

How to approach it

Each of the three sub-topics is built around named studies and models, so structure revision around being able to describe a study or model accurately and then evaluate it, rather than description alone, since this description-plus-evaluation pattern is how OxfordAQA Psychology essay questions are typically marked. Social Psychology (1.2) connects naturally to research methods content developed later in Unit 2, so notice methodological issues – such as ecological validity or ethical concerns – as you learn the named studies here. Psychopathology (1.3) benefits from a clear compare-and-contrast structure across different disorders and their treatments, since exam questions frequently ask students to weigh competing explanations or treatment approaches against each other. Because units are resittable, it is worth consolidating Unit 1 thoroughly rather than moving on the moment content is first covered – a solid foundation here makes the Approaches in Psychology content in the synoptic Unit 4 considerably easier to access later in the course.

Official syllabus

OxfordAQA International AS and A-level Psychology (9685) specification, Version 2.2 — oxfordaqa.com.

Social influence

Conformity — yielding to group pressure — occurs at three levels: compliance (public agreement only), identification (adopting the group’s view while with them), and internalisation (genuine private acceptance). Two explanations account for it: normative social influence (the desire to be liked) and informational social influence (the desire to be right).

Asch’s line-judgement studies showed conformity rising with group size up to about three, falling sharply when one confederate dissented, and increasing with task difficulty. Zimbardo’s prison study demonstrated the power of social roles, though it attracts serious ethical and methodological criticism.

Obedience — following a direct order from an authority figure. Milgram found 65% of participants continued to 450 volts. Situational variables that reduced obedience included proximity to the victim, a less prestigious location, and the presence of a disobedient peer. Explanations include the agentic state and legitimacy of authority; the dispositional alternative is the authoritarian personality.

Resistance comes from social support and an internal locus of control. Minority influence works through consistency, commitment and flexibility.

Memory

The multi-store model separates sensory, short-term (5-9 items, 18-30 seconds, acoustic) and long-term stores (unlimited, lifetime, semantic). The working memory model replaces the unitary short-term store with a central executive directing a phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and episodic buffer — supported by dual-task studies.

Long-term memory divides into episodic, semantic and procedural.

Forgetting is explained by interference (proactive and retroactive) and retrieval failure (cue-dependent forgetting).

Eyewitness testimony is distorted by misleading information — Loftus and Palmer’s leading questions — and by anxiety, with the weapon focus effect. The cognitive interview improves accuracy through context reinstatement, report everything, reverse order and change of perspective.

Psychopathology

Definitions of abnormality — statistical infrequency, deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately, and deviation from ideal mental health — each fail alone: social norms vary by culture and era, and statistical infrequency alone would misclassify high intelligence as abnormal.

Three named disorders illustrate the explanation-and-treatment pattern the exam expects: a phobia is explained by the two-process model, in which classical conditioning acquires the fear and operant conditioning maintains it through avoidance, and is treated with systematic desensitisation or flooding; depression is explained cognitively through Beck’s negative triad or Ellis’s ABC model, and treated with CBT; OCD is explained through genetic and neural factors, and treated with SSRIs. The two-process model explains its own treatment directly — avoidance is negatively reinforced by the reduction in anxiety it brings, so exposure without avoidance is what breaks the cycle that maintains the phobia.

Attachment

Caregiver–infant interaction involves reciprocity and interactional synchrony. Schaffer and Emerson’s stages run from asocial through indiscriminate to specific and multiple attachments.

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation identified secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant types. Bowlby’s monotropic theory proposes a critical period and an internal working model; his maternal deprivation hypothesis is supported by the 44 thieves study but criticised on methodology.

Worked example

Explain why Asch’s findings may lack temporal validity.

Conducted in 1950s America, a notably conformist period
  (McCarthyism, strong pressure to fit in)

Perrin and Spencer (1980) replicated with UK engineering students
  and found conformity in only 1 of 396 trials

-> the findings may reflect that specific historical context
   rather than a stable feature of human behaviour

Counterpoint: engineering students were confident in judging lines,
   so the sample may explain the difference rather than the era

Offering the counterpoint is what lifts the evaluation into the top band.

Common mistakes

Confusing normative with informational influence. Describing compliance as internalisation. Saying Milgram studied conformity — it was obedience. Treating the working memory model as replacing long-term memory. Confusing proactive with retroactive interference. Describing evaluation as “the sample was small” without explaining the effect on validity.

Quick revision checklist

• Define the three types and two explanations of conformity, with Asch’s variables.
• Explain obedience, situational variables, the agentic state and the authoritarian personality.
• Compare the multi-store and working memory models with supporting evidence.
• Explain interference and retrieval failure as accounts of forgetting.
• Evaluate eyewitness testimony research and outline the cognitive interview.
• Describe the Strange Situation and Bowlby’s theory, with criticisms.