AQA A-level Psychology (7182): Paper 3 – Addiction — Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions, and they do not replicate the exam’s exact structure, question count or mark tariffs – examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers from your board or school.

These questions follow the AQA AS and A-level Psychology (7181, 7182) specification, Version 1.4 (1 September 2025), for teaching from September 2025, section 4.3.10 Addiction. The specification assesses Addiction in Paper 3: Issues and Options in Psychology, Section D, which uses multiple choice, short answer and extended writing questions worth 24 marks. Research methods and mathematical skills are also assessed in Paper 3, so some questions use invented data. All people, places and data below are fictional.

Revise first with the Addiction study guide and the Addiction revision notes. The 7182 subject hub and the 7182 topic checklist show where this unit sits in the course.

Questions

1. Distinguish between physical dependence and psychological dependence. [2]

2. Explain what is meant by tolerance and by withdrawal syndrome. [4]

3. A fruit machine pays out after an unpredictable number of plays. Which schedule of reinforcement is this? Choose one: A fixed ratio; B fixed interval; C variable ratio; D continuous reinforcement. [1]

4. Callum stopped smoking eight months ago. At a friend’s barbecue he smells cigarette smoke while holding a cold drink in the garden, as he used to every summer, and suddenly feels a strong urge to smoke.

Using learning theory, including cue reactivity, explain why Callum experiences this craving. [4]

5. A psychologist at a fictional college in Harwick recruited 12 smokers. Each watched a short neutral video (people using a laptop) and a short smoking-cue video (people lighting cigarettes). Half the participants saw the neutral video first; the other half saw the smoking video first. After each video, participants rated their craving from 0 (none) to 10 (extreme).

Participant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Neutral video	3	2	4	3	2	5	3	4	2	3	4	3
Smoking video	7	6	8	5	6	9	7	6	5	7	8	6

(a) Calculate the percentage increase in mean craving rating from the neutral video to the smoking video. Show your working and give your answer to one decimal place. [3] (b) Name the most suitable statistical test for these data and give two reasons for your choice. [3] (c) Explain why the psychologist varied the order in which participants saw the two videos. [2]

6. Priya plays online roulette most evenings. She says: “After six reds in a row, black is bound to come up,” and she always wears the same bracelet because “it helps me pick the right numbers”.

Explain how two cognitive biases could account for Priya’s continued gambling. [4]

7. Outline the role of dopamine in nicotine addiction. [3]

8. A therapist plans to use covert sensitisation with a client who bets online late at night. Outline how this therapy could be carried out with this client, and give one limitation of it. [4]

9. Clients at a fictional stop-smoking service in Harwick made these statements.

• Client A: “I’ve booked a quit date for next Monday and bought patches.”
• Client B: “Smoking doesn’t bother me. I’ve no plans to stop.”
• Client C: “I’ve not smoked for four weeks, but it’s hard.”
• Client D: “I keep thinking about the cost and my health. Maybe I should quit.”

(a) Identify the stage of Prochaska’s six-stage model each client is in. [4] (b) Explain how the service could apply the model when working with Client B. [2]

10. Outline and evaluate personality and social influences as risk factors in the development of addiction. [8]

11. Discuss learning theory as an explanation for gambling addiction. Refer to partial and variable reinforcement in your answer. [16]

12. A fictional health centre in Harwick has money for one programme to help smokers quit. It must choose between drug therapy and cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT).

Evaluate drug therapy and CBT as ways of reducing nicotine addiction. Refer to appropriateness and effectiveness, and to the centre’s decision. [8]

Answers

1. Physical dependence means the body has adapted to the substance, so stopping produces physical withdrawal symptoms [1]. Psychological dependence is a compulsion or craving to use the substance or behaviour for pleasure or relief, without needing a physical withdrawal state [1]. [2] Examiner insight: “Distinguish” needs a clear contrast; two separate definitions that do not show the difference can lose the second mark.

2. Tolerance: over time the body or brain responds less to the same amount [1], so more of the substance or behaviour is needed to get the same effect [1]. Withdrawal syndrome: a set of unpleasant symptoms that occur when use stops or is reduced [1], for example irritability, anxiety, poor concentration or craving after stopping nicotine [1]. [4] Examiner insight: An example earns credit only if it fits the term; “needing a cigarette” is craving, not tolerance.

3. C, variable ratio [1]. [1] Examiner insight: Read every option; “fixed ratio” is the usual trap, because the fruit machine still pays out on a ratio but the number of plays is not fixed.

4. Through classical conditioning, cues that were repeatedly paired with smoking become conditioned stimuli [1]. For Callum, cigarette smoke and holding a cold drink in a summer garden were paired with smoking many times [1]. These cues now act as secondary reinforcers that trigger craving and arousal on their own, which is cue reactivity [1]. This explains why he craves strongly even eight months after quitting, long after physical withdrawal has passed [1]. [4] Examiner insight: Application marks need Callum’s specific cues (the smell, the drink, the garden) and the eight-month gap, not just a definition of cue reactivity.

5. (a) Mean neutral rating = 38 / 12 = 3.17 [1]. Mean smoking rating = 80 / 12 = 6.67 [1]. Percentage increase = (6.67 − 3.17) / 3.17 × 100 = 110.5% (110.4% if you use the rounded means) [1]. [3] (b) Wilcoxon signed-ranks test [1]. The design is repeated measures, as each participant did both conditions, so the data are related [1]. Craving ratings on a 0-10 scale are ordinal data, and the study tests for a difference [1]. [3] (c) To counterbalance order effects, such as craving from the smoking video carrying over into the next rating [1], so any difference between conditions is due to the type of video and not the order in which it was seen [1]. [2] Examiner insight: In calculations, a final answer with no working loses all marks if it is wrong, so write each step.

6. One bias is the gambler’s fallacy, the belief that past random outcomes change the chance of the next one [1]. Priya thinks black is “bound to come up” after six reds, so she keeps betting even though each spin is independent [1]. A second bias is the illusion of control, the belief that skill or rituals influence chance [1]. Priya believes her bracelet helps her “pick the right numbers”, so she feels her choices matter and continues to play [1]. [4] Examiner insight: Each bias needs a link to Priya’s words and to why she continues, not just a name and a definition.

7. Nicotine binds to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors on dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area [1]. This causes dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens, in the mesolimbic reward pathway, producing pleasure that reinforces smoking [1]. With repeated use the system adapts, so without nicotine dopamine activity drops and the person feels low and irritable, which smoking relieves [1]. [3] Examiner insight: Naming dopamine alone earns little; the mark comes from the sequence of receptor, release, reward and adaptation.

8. The client is asked to imagine the behaviour vividly, for example sitting at the laptop late at night placing a bet [1]. The image is immediately followed by an imagined unpleasant consequence, such as feeling sick or having to tell family about losing money [1]. This is repeated over sessions so that the urge to bet becomes associated with the unpleasant feeling [1]. Limitation: it depends on the client’s ability to imagine vividly, and the client could simply avoid the unpleasant image when alone at night [1]. [4] Examiner insight: The words “imagined” or “in imagination” separate covert sensitisation from aversion therapy; leaving them out can cost the outline marks.

9. (a) A: preparation [1]. B: precontemplation [1]. C: action [1]. D: contemplation [1]. [4] (b) The model says interventions should match the stage, so the service should not push a quit plan on Client B [1]. Instead it should raise awareness, for example by giving personal feedback on health or cost, to help move B towards contemplation [1]. [2] Examiner insight: Client C is in action, not maintenance; the model treats a change of under about six months as action, so read the time clues.

10. Note: the real exam marks this with levels of response, not point by point. Indicative content: Personality: high neuroticism and psychoticism (Eysenck) and sensation seeking (Zuckerman) are linked to drug use and gambling [1]. A sensation seeker may be drawn to the risk and excitement of drugs or betting [1]. Social influences: family and peers model use and supply substances, and norms make use seem normal [1]. Christakis and Fowler (2008) found that when a spouse quit smoking, a person’s chance of smoking fell by 67%, showing social networks affect use [1]. Evaluation: the network data are correlational, and people may choose friends who share their habits, so selection may explain clustering [1]. Personality findings face a direction problem, because drug use may change personality rather than the reverse [1]. Neither factor explains all cases; many sensation seekers never become addicted, which suggests interaction with genetic vulnerability, as in a diathesis-stress account [1]. A practical strength is that social risk factors point to prevention, such as targeting peer groups [1]. [8] Examiner insight: Top-band answers make evaluation specific to each risk factor rather than adding one general “correlation is not causation” line at the end.

11. Note: the real exam marks this with levels of response, not point by point. A model plan with indicative content: Description. Gambling can begin through social learning, by watching others win and be rewarded [1]. Wins act as positive reinforcement, strengthening betting [1]. Under partial reinforcement only some bets are rewarded, so losses do not stop the behaviour [1]. A variable ratio schedule rewards after an unpredictable number of bets, which produces high, steady rates of responding [1]. Behaviour learned this way is very resistant to extinction, because the next bet might always win [1]. Near misses, lights and sounds act as secondary reinforcers through association with wins [1]. Evaluation. Clark et al. (2009) found that near misses increased the desire to keep playing and activated win-related brain areas, supporting the secondary reinforcement idea [1]. However, it used a simplified laboratory slot-machine task, which lowers ecological validity [1]. Learning theory explains why gambling persists despite overall losses, a major strength [1]. It explains variation between forms of gambling: fast, frequent-reward machines may be more addictive than slow lotteries [1]. A limitation is that most people exposed to the same schedules do not become addicted [1], so individual differences such as genetic vulnerability or personality must play a part [1]. Cognitive theory adds what learning theory misses: Griffiths (1994) found regular gamblers made more irrational verbalisations, showing beliefs maintain betting [1]. The account is environmentally reductionist, reducing gambling to stimulus-response links [1]. It has practical value, since it points to behavioural treatment and to regulating machine features such as near-miss frequency [1]. Overall, learning theory explains how gambling is maintained, but a combined account with cognitive and biological factors is more complete [1]. [16] Examiner insight: Make sure “partial” and “variable” are each explained, not just named, because the question asks for both.

12. Note: the real exam marks this with levels of response, not point by point. Indicative content: Drug therapy, such as nicotine replacement therapy, reduces withdrawal symptoms so the person can break the habit [1]. Varenicline acts on nicotinic receptors to reduce both craving and the reward from smoking [1]. Effectiveness: drug treatments for smoking are supported by placebo-controlled trials [1]. Appropriateness: they are cheap to deliver and need little staff time, which suits a centre with limited money [1]. However, they do not change conditioned cues or beliefs, so relapse can follow when the drug stops [1]. CBT uses functional analysis and teaches skills for coping with triggers, targeting causes as well as symptoms [1]. It needs trained therapists and motivated clients, so it is more costly and less appropriate for people in precontemplation [1]. Judgement: the centre might choose drug therapy for reach, but combining brief CBT-based support with it would address both withdrawal and cue reactivity [1]. [8] Examiner insight: “Appropriateness” marks need a reason linked to the context (cost, staffing, the clients’ readiness), not a repeat of how effective the therapy is.

Where marks are usually lost

• Defining dependence, tolerance and withdrawal with circular wording (“tolerance is when you become tolerant”).
• Ignoring the scenario’s details in application questions and writing general theory instead.
• Explaining cue reactivity as operant conditioning when it is classical conditioning.
• Dropping working in calculations, or rounding too early.
• Choosing a statistical test without justifying it by design, data level and type of test.
• Confusing aversion therapy with covert sensitisation.
• Giving the stage names of Prochaska’s model in the wrong order or mislabelling action and maintenance.
• Evaluating therapies only on whether they work, with nothing on appropriateness.
• In extended answers, describing studies at length without saying what they show about the explanation.

Next steps

• Check any weak areas against the Addiction study guide and review learning theory in the approaches revision notes.
• Practise research methods skills in context with the Approaches practice questions.
• Find your gaps across the course with our diagnostics.
• Want help from a teacher? Book a free trial class.

Official syllabus

AQA AS and A-level Psychology (7181, 7182) specification, Version 1.4 (1 September 2025), for teaching from September 2025, section 4.3.10 Addiction and the Paper 3 scheme of assessment. Check aqa.org.uk/7182 for the current version.