AQA A-level Psychology (7182): Paper 3 – Issues and debates – 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 section 4.3.1, Issues and debates in Psychology, of the AQA AS and A-level Psychology (7181, 7182) specification, Version 1.4 (1 September 2025), for teaching from September 2025. The specification assesses this compulsory content in Paper 3, Issues and Options in Psychology (2 hours, 96 marks, 33.3% of the A-level), and expects you to illustrate answers with topics studied elsewhere in the course. All people, places and data below are fictional.

Revise first with the issues and debates study guide and the issues and debates revision notes. The 7182 course hub and the 7182 checklist show the rest of the course.

Questions

1. A fictional textbook, written using research with men, describes women’s lower average scores on an assertiveness questionnaire as “a shortfall in confidence”. Explain how this shows androcentrism. [2]

2. Distinguish between alpha bias and beta bias. Use an example of each. [4]

3. Read the three statements. Identify the type of determinism shown in each one.

A. Ravi avoids crowds because an unconscious part of his mind links them with a frightening event from early childhood.

B. Lena’s high energy is explained by an unusually high level of a particular hormone.

C. Tom works hard because his teachers have always rewarded effort with praise.

[3]

4. A fictional research team at Harwick University reviewed 40 published studies of short-term memory.

Feature of the combined sample	Number of participants
Total participants	5,200
Men	3,640
Recruited in North America or Western Europe	4,680

(a) Calculate the percentage of participants who were women, and the percentage recruited outside North America and Western Europe. [2] (b) The team concluded that their findings “describe how human memory works”. Explain how the sample could lead to gender bias and cultural bias in this conclusion. [4]

5. A fictional twin study investigated a fear of heights severe enough to stop people climbing stairs in tall buildings.

Twin type	Number of pairs	Pairs where both twins had the fear
Identical (MZ)	120	54
Non-identical (DZ)	140	21

(a) Calculate the concordance rate for MZ twins and for DZ twins. [2] (b) Using the data, explain what this study suggests about the nature-nurture debate. [4] (c) Explain one limitation of using twin studies to separate nature from nurture. [2]

6. Priya, a fictional sixth-form student, feels sick and shaky before every exam and cannot sleep the night before.

(a) Outline how Priya’s anxiety could be explained at three different levels of explanation. [3] (b) Explain one strength and one limitation of a biologically reductionist explanation of Priya’s anxiety. [4]

7. Two fictional studies looked at difficulty recognising faces.

Study X: a researcher interviewed one woman with a rare difficulty recognising faces every week for a year and analysed her diary.

Study Y: 3,000 adults completed an online face-recognition test, and mean scores were compared across age groups.

(a) Identify which study takes an idiographic approach and which takes a nomothetic approach. [2] (b) Explain one strength and one limitation of the idiographic approach used in Study X. [4]

8. Researchers in a fictional town, Harwick, plan to test whether children from the town’s poorest estate score lower on a reading test than other children. They intend to publish the results by estate name. Explain why this research could be socially sensitive. [6]

9. A student says: “The heritability of height is 0.8, so 80% of my height was caused by my genes.” Explain what is wrong with this statement. [3]

10. A fictional lecturer tells first-year students: “Most findings in psychology tell us how people everywhere behave.” Evaluate this claim with reference to cultural bias. Use at least one topic you have studied as evidence. [8]

11. A fictional magistrate says: “If science shows that behaviour is caused, then nobody can be blamed for anything.” To what extent does psychological research support hard determinism rather than soft determinism or free will? Use examples from at least two topics you have studied. [16]

Answers

1. The textbook treats the men’s scores, from the research it was based on, as the normal standard for assertiveness [1], so women’s different scores are judged as lacking, a “shortfall”, rather than simply different [1]. [2] Examiner insight: “Biased against women” alone is too vague for the second mark; say what is used as the norm and what happens to behaviour that differs from it.

2. Alpha bias exaggerates differences between men and women, often treating them as fixed [1]. Example: Freud’s claim that girls develop a weaker superego than boys [1]. Beta bias ignores or minimises differences [1]. Example: early fight-or-flight research used mostly male samples and assumed it applied to females, before Taylor et al. (2000) proposed “tend and befriend” [1]. [4] Examiner insight: A distinction question needs the contrast made explicit; two separate definitions with no “whereas” can lose the comparison credit.

3. A: psychic determinism [1]. B: biological determinism [1]. C: environmental determinism [1]. [3] Examiner insight: Use the exact specification names; “behaviourist determinism” or “Freudian determinism” is not the term asked for.

4. (a) Women: 5,200 - 3,640 = 1,560, which is 30% [1]. Outside North America and Western Europe: 5,200 - 4,680 = 520, which is 10% [1]. (b) Gender: 70% of participants were men, so applying the findings to everyone assumes there are no sex differences in short-term memory, which is beta bias [1]. If women used different strategies, the conclusion would misdescribe women, who are about half the population but only 30% of this sample [1]. Culture: 90% were recruited in North America or Western Europe, so the findings may reflect Western schooling, such as practice at memorising lists [1]. Claiming they “describe how human memory works” treats one culture’s results as universal, which is ethnocentric, an imposed etic [1]. [6] Examiner insight: Application marks come from using the 70% and 90% figures and the team’s own words, not from general definitions of bias.

5. (a) MZ: 54 / 120 = 45% [1]. DZ: 21 / 140 = 15% [1]. (b) MZ concordance is three times the DZ rate (45% against 15%) [1]. MZ twins share all their genes and DZ twins about half, so this suggests a genetic influence (nature) [1]. But 55% of MZ pairs were discordant despite identical genes [1], so the environment must also matter, which supports an interactionist view such as diathesis-stress, where a frightening experience triggers an inherited vulnerability [1]. (c) MZ twins may be treated more alike than DZ twins, for example by parents and friends [1], so their higher concordance may partly reflect a more similar environment, which overestimates the genetic influence [1]. [8] Examiner insight: In part (b), the strongest mark is often the one most students miss: concordance below 100% in identical twins is evidence for nurture.

6. (a) Socio-cultural: pressure from school or family norms that value high grades [1]. Psychological: irrational thoughts such as “if I fail this I am worthless” [1]. Biological: activation of the sympathetic nervous system and release of adrenaline, causing a fast heart rate and nausea [1]. (b) Strength: Priya’s arousal can be measured objectively, for example through heart rate, so the explanation is testable [1], and it suggests ways to reduce bodily arousal before exams [1]. Limitation: it ignores what exams mean to Priya, such as her belief that failing makes her worthless [1], so reducing her arousal may not stop the anxiety returning while those thoughts remain [1]. [7] Examiner insight: Each level in part (a) needs to be about Priya; a list of the three level names with no link to her scores little.

7. (a) Study X is idiographic [1]. Study Y is nomothetic [1]. (b) Strength: a year of interviews and diaries gives rich detail about how the woman copes day to day, which a test score cannot show [1]; one well-documented case can challenge a general theory of face recognition [1]. Limitation: she is one person, so the findings may not generalise to others with the same difficulty [1]; interpreting interviews and diaries is subjective, so the researcher’s expectations may shape the conclusions [1]. [6] Examiner insight: “Lacks generalisability” earns more when you say who it fails to generalise to, here other people with the same difficulty.

8. Research question: asking whether one estate’s children score lower could imply they are less able [1] and could reinforce stereotypes about families on that estate [1]. Conduct: publishing by estate name makes children and families easier to identify, which threatens confidentiality [1]. Institutional context: whoever funds the work, such as the council, may use the results to move funding or services away from the estate [1]. Interpretation and application: lower scores could be blamed on parents rather than on causes such as fewer libraries [1]. On the other hand, the findings could justify extra reading support, so the researchers should plan carefully how results are reported [1]. [6] Examiner insight: Social sensitivity is about consequences for the wider group; consent and debriefing points alone answer a different question.

9. Heritability describes variation across a population, not the make-up of one person [1]. A value of 0.8 means about 80% of the differences in height among people in that population are associated with genetic differences [1]. It can also change when the environment changes, for example if nutrition varies more, so it is not a fixed fact about the student [1]. [3] Examiner insight: The key word to use is “variation”; without it, answers tend to repeat the student’s mistake in different words.

10. The real exam marks extended answers with levels of response, not point by point. These are indicative creditworthy points. Cultural bias means judging all people by the norms of one culture; ethnocentrism treats your own culture as the standard [1]. Cultural relativism argues behaviour must be understood in its own cultural context [1]. Ainsworth’s Strange Situation was developed in the USA, so using it elsewhere may be an imposed etic [1]. Infants in cultures where they are rarely separated from their mothers may show high distress that is classified as insecure, when it reflects normal care practice [1]. Bond and Smith (1996) found higher conformity in collectivist countries across 133 Asch-type studies, so Asch’s US findings are not universal [1]. Henrich, Heine and Norenzayan (2010) argued most samples come from WEIRD societies, which questions the universality of many findings [1]. Evaluation: awareness of bias has led to emic research and cross-cultural replication, which reduces it [1]. But relativism taken too far can hide genuine universals, such as basic facial expressions of emotion [1]. [8] Examiner insight: A named topic, used as evidence, lifts an answer above a general essay on culture; the question asks you to refer to one.

11. The real exam marks extended answers with levels of response, not point by point. These indicative paragraphs show the content that earns credit.

Knowledge. Free will means people can choose their behaviour within limits [1]. Hard determinism says all behaviour has causes and free will is an illusion [1]; soft determinism says behaviour has causes but some conscious choice remains [1]. Biological determinism: genetic and neural explanations of OCD treat the behaviour as caused by the body [1]. Environmental determinism: the two-process model explains phobias through conditioning [1]. Psychic determinism: Freud explained behaviour through unconscious conflict [1]. Science emphasises causal explanations, for example manipulating an independent variable to cause a change in a dependent variable [1].

Evaluation. Libet et al. (1983) found brain activity began before people reported deciding to move, supporting determinism [1]. However, the task was a simple movement, not a complex life decision [1]. Determinism fits the scientific aims of prediction and control [1]. But hard determinism is unfalsifiable, because any behaviour can be called “caused” after it happens [1]. The magistrate’s own legal system holds people responsible for their actions, which assumes some free will [1]. People feel they make choices, which gives free will face validity [1], though that feeling could itself be caused [1]. Soft determinism fits treatments such as cognitive therapy for depression, which assumes people can change their thinking within limits [1]. Judgement: causes may raise the likelihood of behaviour rather than fix it, so a probabilistic, soft determinist view fits the evidence best [1]. [16] Examiner insight: Naming the type of determinism inside each example, and ending with a reasoned judgement, separates top-band answers from lists of debates.

Where marks are usually lost

• Defining a term correctly but not applying it to the named person, data or study in the question.
• Calculating a percentage but not using it in the explanation that follows.
• Saying twin studies “prove” a genetic cause, and missing what discordant identical twins show.
• Confusing beta bias with androcentrism; they overlap but are not the same idea.
• Treating heritability as a property of one person.
• Writing about consent or deception when a question asks about social sensitivity.
• Listing three levels of explanation without saying what each level explains.
• Ending an extended answer without a judgement, when Paper 3 gives evaluation the largest weighting.

Next steps

• Check your weaker areas with the free diagnostics.
• Revisit the examples you can use as evidence in the approaches revision notes and the introductory topics revision notes.
• Want help with essay technique? 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 4.3.1 (Issues and debates in Psychology), with the Paper 3 structure in section 2.2.