AQA A-level Psychology (7182): Paper 3 – Gender – 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 cover the Gender topic, section 4.3.3 of the AQA AS and A-level Psychology (7181, 7182) specification, Version 1.4 (1 September 2025), for teaching from September 2025. Gender is one of three topics in option 1 of Paper 3: Issues and Options in Psychology, where it is examined in Section B (24 marks). All names, places and data below are fictional.

Revise first with the Gender study guide and the Gender revision notes. The AQA A-level Psychology hub and the AQA A-level Psychology checklist show where this topic fits.

Questions

1. Identify the sex chromosome pattern associated with Klinefelter’s syndrome and with Turner syndrome. [2]

2. Outline the difference between a non-binary gender identity and a gender fluid identity. [2]

3. Outline the role of testosterone and oestrogen in biological sex. [4]

4. Read the item below.

Tobi, aged 3, tells a nursery worker that he is a boy. When she asks whether he will be a mummy or a daddy when he grows up, he answers “a mummy”. His cousin Sana, aged 7, watches a school play and says that a boy wearing a dress on stage “is still a boy, it’s only a costume”.

With reference to Kohlberg’s theory, explain the difference between Tobi’s and Sana’s understanding of gender. [4]

5. A psychologist at the fictional Harwick College gave a questionnaire based on the Bem Sex Role Inventory to 48 students aged 17. She classified each student using the median of each scale.

Classification	Number of students
Masculine	12
Feminine	13
Androgynous	14
Undifferentiated	9

(a) Calculate the percentage of students classified as androgynous. Give your answer to one decimal place. Show your working. [2] (b) Explain one limitation of using the Bem Sex Role Inventory to measure gender in this study. [2] (c) Explain how the psychologist could check the test-retest reliability of her questionnaire. [3]

6. Read the item below.

At the fictional Elmfield Nursery, staff introduce a new wooden pull-along toy and tell the children it is “a toy for girls”. Leo, aged 4, glances at it and goes back to playing with toy cars. Later that day he is asked about a picture he saw earlier of a girl mending a bicycle. He says the picture showed a boy.

Use gender schema theory to explain Leo’s behaviour. [4]

7. Outline androgen insensitivity syndrome and explain what it suggests about the role of hormones in sex development. [4]

8. Researchers coded 80 characters in adverts shown on a fictional children’s channel, BrightBox.

Role shown	Female characters	Male characters
Caregiving	34	8
Leadership or expert	11	27

(a) Express the ratio of female to male characters in caregiving roles in its simplest form. Show your working. [2] (b) Using social learning theory, explain how regular viewing of these adverts might affect children’s gender roles. [4]

9. A psychologist wants to test whether children who have reached gender constancy pay more attention to same-gender models than children who have not. Describe how she could carry out this study. Refer to how constancy could be assessed, the independent and dependent variables, one control, and one ethical issue. [6]

10. Evaluate Kohlberg’s theory of gender development. Refer to gender schema theory in your answer. [8]

11. Discuss biological explanations of gender development. Refer to evidence from atypical sex development in your answer. [16]

12. Discuss biological and social/cultural explanations of gender incongruence. Refer to the difficulty of establishing cause in this research. [8]

Answers

Questions 10 to 12 are extended responses. In the real exam these are marked with levels of response, judged on the answer as a whole, not point by point. The [1] points below show the kind of creditworthy content a strong answer contains.

1. Klinefelter’s syndrome: XXY [1]. Turner syndrome: a single X chromosome, written XO [1]. [2] Examiner insight: write the pattern itself; “an extra chromosome” alone does not say which one.

2. A non-binary identity is one that is not exclusively man or woman [1]. A gender fluid identity is one that changes over time [1]. [2] Examiner insight: “outline the difference” needs both sides stated, not one definition with the other implied.

3. Testosterone is produced mainly by the testes [1]. Before birth it directs the development of male reproductive organs, and at puberty it drives male secondary sex characteristics [1]. Oestrogen is produced mainly by the ovaries and drives female secondary sex characteristics at puberty [1]. Oestrogen also regulates the menstrual cycle [1]. [4] Examiner insight: name where each hormone is produced and what it does; vague claims such as “makes you male” earn little.

4. Tobi is in the gender identity stage [1]: he can correctly label himself as a boy [1], but he does not yet understand that gender is stable over time, shown by his answer “a mummy” [1]. Sana has reached gender constancy, because she understands that gender stays the same across situations, even when appearance changes with a costume [1]. [4] Examiner insight: each mark here depends on quoting the scenario; naming the stages without Tobi’s and Sana’s words caps your score.

5. (a) 14 / 48 x 100 [1] = 29.2% [1] (b) The traits in the BSRI were selected using ratings by American students in the 1970s [1]. Harwick students today may not see traits in the same way, so some students may be misclassified, reducing validity [1]. (c) Give the same students the same questionnaire again after a gap, such as a few weeks [1]. Correlate each student’s scores on the two occasions [1]. A strong positive correlation, for example +0.80 or above, would suggest good test-retest reliability [1]. [7] Examiner insight: in (b), a limitation of the BSRI in general gains the first mark only; the second needs a link to the Harwick students.

6. Leo has basic gender identity, which is all gender schema theory needs for schemas to form [1]. The label “for girls” places the toy in his out-group schema [1], so he pays it little attention and returns to an activity that fits his in-group schema, the cars [1]. The picture of a girl mending a bicycle does not fit his schema, so his memory distorts it into a schema-consistent version, a boy [1]. [4] Examiner insight: the memory distortion is the detail most answers miss; use it, as it is the theory’s distinctive prediction.

7. People with AIS have XY chromosomes [1]. Their body cells do not respond, fully or partly, to androgens such as testosterone [1]. In complete AIS the external genitals are female, and people usually identify as women [1]. This suggests that the body’s response to hormones, not chromosomes alone, shapes sex development [1]. [4] Examiner insight: the “explain what it suggests” half needs a conclusion about hormones, not more description of symptoms.

8. (a) 34 : 8 [1] = 17 : 4 [1] (b) Children watching BrightBox see female characters modelling caregiving and male characters modelling leadership [1]. Children identify with same-gender characters, which makes imitation more likely [1]. If characters are shown being praised or succeeding, vicarious reinforcement increases children’s motivation to copy them [1]. Over time, girls may come to see caregiving and boys leadership as appropriate for their gender, strengthening these roles [1]. [6] Examiner insight: name the SLT process and attach it to the BrightBox data each time; a list of terms with no link scores poorly.

9. Assess constancy with interview questions, such as asking a boy whether he would still be a boy if he wore a dress [1]. The independent variable is whether the child has reached constancy or not; this is a naturally occurring difference, so it is a quasi-experiment [1]. Each child watches a short split-screen video of a man and a woman doing the same simple tasks [1]. The dependent variable is the number of seconds the child looks at the same-gender model, recorded by trained observers [1]. Control: every child sees the same video for the same length, with the side each model appears on counterbalanced [1]. Ethics: parents give informed consent for their children, and testing stops if a child shows distress [1]. [6] Examiner insight: design marks need operationalised variables; “measure attention” without seconds or a method earns less.

10. Kohlberg proposed that gender understanding develops through gender identity, stability and constancy [1], and that children only actively imitate same-gender models once constancy is reached [1]. Support comes from Slaby and Frey (1975), who found higher-constancy children, especially boys, watched the same-sex adult more in a film [1]. However, children show gender-typed preferences well before age 6 (Martin and Little, 1990) [1], which challenges the claim that constancy is needed [1]. Gender schema theory explains this better, because it says basic identity alone starts schema-driven learning [1]. Both theories see the child as active, a strength over social learning theory [1]. But Kohlberg does not explain where gender content comes from or why some people’s gender identity differs from their assigned sex, so culture and biology are also needed [1]. [8] Examiner insight: using gender schema theory as a comparison only gains credit when it is tied to a specific weakness in Kohlberg.

11. Model plan:

• AO1: Sex chromosomes (XX/XY) set the pattern of development; the SRY gene triggers testes [1]. Prenatal testosterone masculinises the body and is thought to masculinise the brain [1]. Hormones at puberty, testosterone and oestrogen, strengthen sex differences [1]. Oxytocin is linked to bonding, and Taylor et al. (2000) linked women’s “tend and befriend” stress response partly to it [1]. AIS shows that without androgen response an XY person develops a female body and usually a female identity [1].
• AO3 support: Berenbaum and Hines (1992) found girls with CAH, exposed to high prenatal androgens, preferred toys typically chosen by boys [1]. Van Goozen et al. (1995) found hormone treatment changed aggression in the predicted direction [1]. The David Reimer case suggests gender identity can resist socialisation [1].
• AO3 challenges: Reimer is a single unique case and cannot be generalised [1]. Parents of girls with CAH may have treated them differently, a social confound [1]. Imperato-McGinley et al. (1979) supports hormones, but community attitudes may explain the identity shift [1].
• AO3 issues and debates: the explanation is biologically reductionist [1] and determinist, leaving little room for choice [1]. It cannot explain cultural variation in gender roles, such as Mead’s reports [1].
• Judgement: biology appears to set a base [1], but the strongest account is interactionist, with social and cognitive factors shaping how it is expressed [1]. [16]

Examiner insight: higher-level answers build each evaluation point into an argument about biology, rather than listing studies one after another.

12. Model paragraphs: Gender incongruence is a marked, persistent mismatch between experienced gender and sex assigned at birth [1]. Brain-sex theory draws on Zhou et al. (1995), who found the BSTc was female-typical in size in trans women studied after death [1]. However, Chung et al. (2002) found the BSTc sex difference appears only in adulthood, while many people report incongruence in childhood [1]. Twin studies show higher concordance in identical than in non-identical twins, suggesting a genetic contribution [1]. Older psychodynamic-influenced accounts, such as Stoller’s, linked incongruence to early family relationships, but they have little supporting evidence [1]. A cultural view notes that some societies recognise identities beyond man and woman, such as hijra in South Asia [1], suggesting that the way incongruence is understood and experienced is shaped by cultural norms [1]. As biological studies use small samples and social accounts struggle with early onset, an interactionist view is often proposed, though researchers still disagree [1]. [8] Examiner insight: this is a socially sensitive topic; credit goes to balanced, accurately worded evidence, not to a personal verdict.

Where marks are usually lost

• Swapping Klinefelter’s (XXY, male) and Turner syndrome (XO, female).
• Treating oxytocin as relevant only to romance, with no link to labour, breastfeeding or bonding.
• Describing the BSRI as a measure of gender identity rather than self-rated traits.
• Confusing gender stability with gender constancy in scenario questions.
• Giving SLT answers with no gender-specific model, behaviour or reward.
• Leaving out working in calculation questions, which loses the method mark when the answer is wrong.
• Using David Reimer or Mead as decisive proof without noting their limits.
• Writing about gender incongruence in stigmatising terms or stating your own verdict.

Next steps

• Check gaps with the diagnostics.
• Refresh SLT in the Approaches revision notes.
• Book a free trial class for help with Paper 3 essays.

Official syllabus

AQA AS and A-level Psychology (7181, 7182) specification, Version 1.4 (1 September 2025), for teaching from September 2025. Gender is section 4.3.3; the Paper 3 structure is in section 2.2.