AQA A-Level Psychology: Introductory Topics (7182)

This guide covers Paper 1 Introductory Topics in Psychology, one of the AS content papers shared by AQA AS Psychology (7181) and A-level Psychology (7182), first teaching September 2015. Because this content is shared between the two qualifications, a student’s AS-year study of Paper 1 is not wasted preparation even if they later decide not to continue to the full A-level. AS and A-level content is assessed together via Papers 1 and 2 in the first year of teaching; A-level students go on to add Biopsychology, Issues and Debates, and options, assessed via Paper 3.

Where this fits in 7182

Paper 1 introduces three core areas of psychology – how other people influence our behaviour, how memory works, and how early relationships form – that establish foundational psychological concepts and research studies referenced throughout the rest of the course. A-level students continuing beyond this content into Biopsychology, Issues and Debates, and their chosen options in Paper 3 will find the same description-plus-evaluation essay structure recurring, so mastering it here pays off across the whole qualification, not just Paper 1.

AS and A-level content is assessed together via Papers 1 and 2 in the first year of teaching – a structure worth understanding early, since it means Paper 1’s foundational content is examined identically whether a student ultimately sits the AS or continues to the full A-level.

Syllabus coverage

AQA A-LEVEL PSYCHOLOGY (7182) — PAPER 1 INTRODUCTORY TOPICS IN PSYCHOLOGY

• 1.1 Social Influence — types and explanations of conformity (internalisation, compliance, informational and normative social influence) and Asch’s variables affecting conformity; explanations of obedience (agentic state, legitimacy of authority) and Milgram’s situational variables, plus the dispositional Authoritarian Personality explanation; explanations of resistance to social influence, including social support and locus of control; and minority influence
• 1.2 Memory — the multi-store model (sensory register, short-term and long-term memory) and the coding, capacity and duration of each store; the working memory model (central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad, episodic buffer); explanations for forgetting (proactive/retroactive interference, retrieval failure); and factors affecting eyewitness testimony accuracy, including the cognitive interview
• 1.3 Attachment — animal studies of attachment (Lorenz, Harlow); explanations of attachment, including learning theory and Bowlby’s monotropic theory; Ainsworth’s Strange Situation and attachment types; cultural variations in attachment; Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation and the effects of institutionalisation; and the influence of early attachment on later relationships

How to approach it

Each of the three sub-topics is built around named studies and theories, so structure revision around being able to describe a study or model accurately and then evaluate it (methodology, real-world application, alternative explanations), rather than description alone – this description-plus-evaluation structure mirrors how AQA Psychology essay questions are typically marked. A useful discipline is to build a short “AO1/AO3” split for every named study: a concise, accurate description (AO1) followed by two or three genuinely distinct evaluation points (AO3), rather than one long undifferentiated paragraph mixing description and evaluation together. Social Influence and Attachment both connect strongly to research methods (assessed formally in Paper 2), so notice methodological issues – such as ecological validity or ethical concerns – as you revise the named studies in this paper, since exam questions often draw those connections explicitly, and a student who revises Paper 1’s content in isolation from Paper 2’s methods content misses these deliberately built connections. Memory pairs particularly well with Introductory Topics as a whole, since the multi-store model and reconstructive memory research recur as reference points in later, more applied topics — a candidate who cannot describe the multi-store model precisely will find it resurfacing as an obstacle well beyond this paper’s own exam questions.

Social Influence — the argument in sequence

1.1 moves through a deliberate sequence: first why people conform or obey (the explanations), then the conditions that make conformity or obedience more or less likely (Asch’s and Milgram’s variables), and finally how people resist social influence despite those pressures. Revising this as a single argument — pressure, explanation, resistance — rather than three disconnected topics makes it easier to answer synoptic questions that span more than one part of 1.1, and it mirrors how minority influence (the final part of 1.1) is best understood as the flip side of majority conformity examined earlier in the same sub-topic.

Memory — connecting the two models

The multi-store model and the working memory model are not simply two alternative theories to learn in isolation — the working memory model specifically elaborates on the short-term memory store from the multi-store model, breaking it down into separate components (central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad, episodic buffer) that the simpler multi-store model treats as one undifferentiated store. Understanding this relationship — working memory as a more detailed account of one part of the multi-store model, not a rival model of memory as a whole — is what a strong “compare the two models” essay actually needs to demonstrate.

Attachment — from animal studies to human theory

The animal studies (Lorenz, Harlow) are examined not as isolated curiosities but as evidence that informed the human attachment theories that follow: Bowlby’s monotropic theory draws directly on the idea of a critical period established in Lorenz’s imprinting research. Tracing this influence explicitly — how animal research shaped human attachment theory — is a stronger answer than treating the animal studies and the human theories as two separate revision blocks.

Official syllabus

AQA A-level Psychology (7182) specification, first teaching September 2015 — aqa.org.uk.