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. Unit 1 is a 1.5-hour written exam worth 90 marks (50% of the International AS, 20% of the full International A-level), split into three 30-mark sections: Memory, Social Psychology and Psychopathology.

Syllabus coverage

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

• 3.1.1 Memory — the multi-store and working memory models, types of long-term memory, and eyewitness testimony with the cognitive interview
• 3.1.2 Social Psychology — how individuals are influenced by the presence and behaviour of others
• 3.1.3 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 (3.1.2) 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 (3.1.3) 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 3.1 — 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; it is not itself named in the specification’s social psychology sub-topic, but the sub-topic’s bullets are each introduced with “including,” so this well-known study remains legitimately teachable as an illustration of conformity to social roles. 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 (obedience fell as the victim was brought physically closer), a less prestigious location, the presence of a disobedient peer/ally, and a reduction in the authority figure’s apparent status — in one variation, replacing the lab-coated experimenter with an ordinarily dressed member of the public cut obedience to about a fifth. 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 — also not itself named in this sub-topic, but likewise legitimately teachable under its “including” wording — 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.

Explanations for forgetting, such as interference and retrieval failure, are not part of this specification’s memory content (3.1.1 lists the multi-store model, the working memory model, types of long-term memory, and eyewitness testimony with the cognitive interview), so they are not taught here.

Eyewitness testimony is distorted by misleading information — leading questions (Loftus and Palmer) and post-event discussion — 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.

The specification names exactly two disorders in this unit – phobias and depression – illustrating the explanation-and-treatment pattern the exam expects. A phobia has defining characteristics of persistent, excessive fear of a specific object or situation, avoidance behaviour, and a response disproportionate to the actual danger; it 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 (pairing relaxation with a graduated hierarchy of feared situations, working up from least to most frightening while staying relaxed) or flooding. Depression has defining characteristics of persistent low mood, loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities, and disturbed sleep, appetite or energy levels; it is explained cognitively through Beck’s negative triad or Ellis’s ABC model, and treated with cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), which works by challenging irrational or negative thoughts and replacing them with more balanced ones. 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.

OCD is not named in this AS/A-level unit (it names only phobias and depression) – it belongs instead to the International GCSE (9218) specification, where its required therapy is cognitive behaviour therapy rather than any drug treatment.

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 on only 1 of 396 trials in that condition

BUT their study had a second condition, using probationers as
  participants and their probation officers as the confederate
  majority -- there, conformity returned close to Asch's original
  levels, so the 1980 study does not show conformity had simply
  disappeared by the 1980s

-> read together, the two conditions suggest the LOW-conformity
   result depended on the specific sample (confident engineering
   students among peers), not simply on a less conformist era --
   quoting only the near-zero condition overstates the case for
   temporal validity being the problem

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

Citing both conditions of the replication, not just the near-zero-conformity one, 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. 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.
• Distinguish episodic, semantic and procedural long-term memory.
• Evaluate eyewitness testimony research and outline the cognitive interview.
• Describe the two named disorders (phobias, depression) with their defining characteristics, explanations and treatments, including the components of systematic desensitisation and CBT.