OxfordAQA A Level Psychology: Introductory Topics — 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 available free from your board.

Related: Introductory Topics revision notes

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Section A: Memory

1. Describe the multi-store model of memory, including the capacity and duration of each store. [6]

2. Describe the working memory model, naming its four components, and outline one piece of evidence for it. [6]

3. Explain how post-event discussion can distort eyewitness testimony, and describe two components of the cognitive interview designed to improve accuracy. [6]

Section B: Social psychology

4. Distinguish between normative social influence and informational social influence, and explain why this distinction predicts whether a change in behaviour will persist. [5]

5. Explain how group size and unanimity affect conformity, as investigated by Asch. [4]

6. Explain the difference between the agentic state and legitimacy of authority as explanations of obedience, referring to Milgram’s research. [6]

Section C: Psychopathology

7. Outline two definitions of abnormality and explain one limitation of each. [6]

8. Describe the two-process model as an explanation of phobias, and explain how this justifies systematic desensitisation as a treatment. [6]

9. Describe Beck’s negative triad or Ellis’s ABC model as a cognitive explanation of depression, and explain how CBT treats depression using this explanation. [6]

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Answers

1. The sensory register encodes information in a modality-specific form, has a very large capacity, and holds it for under half a second [1] [1]. The short-term store encodes mainly acoustically, has a capacity of 5–9 items, and holds information for 18–30 seconds [1] [1]. The long-term store encodes mainly semantically, has unlimited capacity, and can hold information for up to a lifetime [1] [1].

2. The working memory model has four components: the central executive (limited-capacity attention controller that coordinates the other components) [1], the phonological loop (brief acoustic storage of spoken/written material) [1], the visuo-spatial sketchpad (visual and spatial information) [1], and the episodic buffer (integrates the other components and links to long-term memory) [1]. Evidence: dual-task studies show that two tasks drawing on the same component (e.g. two visual tasks) disrupt each other far more than two tasks drawing on different components (e.g. one visual, one verbal), showing STM is not a single unitary store [1] [1].

3. 6 marks: 2 for post-event discussion and 2 for each cognitive-interview component. Post-event discussion occurs when co-witnesses discuss what they saw before giving their own account [1], and can lead witnesses to incorporate misleading information from another witness into their own memory, or to conform their account to match others’, distorting accuracy without the witness being aware of the change [1]. The cognitive interview improves accuracy through techniques including: report everything — recalling every detail, even ones that seem irrelevant or the witness is not fully confident about, since this may trigger further relevant recall [1] [1]; and reinstate the context — mentally recreating the environment and emotional state at the time of the event, since context-dependent cues can trigger further accurate recall [1] [1].

4. Normative social influence (NSI) is conforming out of a need to be liked or accepted, producing only public compliance [1] [1]. Informational social influence (ISI) is conforming out of a need to be right, because the situation is ambiguous or the other person is seen as more expert, producing internalisation — both public and private acceptance [1] [1]. This predicts persistence: because NSI changes only outward behaviour, it lasts only while the person is being observed by the group, whereas ISI changes the underlying belief, so the change persists even in the group’s absence [1].

5. Group size: Asch found conformity increased as the number of opposing confederates rose from one to three, then levelled off, with little further increase beyond three [1] [1]. Unanimity: conformity fell sharply when the unanimity of the majority was broken — introducing a single dissenting confederate who gave the correct answer (or even a different wrong answer) sharply reduced the real participant’s conformity, because the social pressure of a unanimous group is disrupted [1] [1].

6. The agentic state is a situational explanation: a person sees themselves as an instrument carrying out another’s wishes and so passes moral responsibility for their actions onto the authority figure [1] [1]. Legitimacy of authority is a related situational explanation: obedience is higher when the order comes from a figure whose authority is socially recognised and accepted, such as Milgram’s experimenter in a lab coat at a prestigious university [1] [1]. Both are situational (not dispositional) explanations, and Milgram’s research supports legitimacy of authority specifically: obedience fell when the study was moved to a less prestigious location, or when the authority figure’s status was reduced, such as when an ordinarily dressed member of the public gave the instructions instead of the experimenter [1] [1].

7. Any two, 3 marks each: Statistical infrequency — behaviour that is statistically rare is classed as abnormal [1]; limitation — rarity does not mean harmful, so unusually high intelligence would be wrongly classed as abnormal, and a very common problem such as mild anxiety would be wrongly classed as normal [1] [1]. Deviation from social norms — behaviour that breaks unstated social rules is classed as abnormal [1]; limitation — norms vary by culture and era, so the same behaviour can be classed differently depending on where and when it is judged [1] [1]. Failure to function adequately — an inability to cope with ordinary daily demands is classed as abnormal [1]; limitation — who judges “adequate” functioning is subjective, and some highly unusual behaviour, such as an eccentric lifestyle, causes no distress or dysfunction at all [1] [1].

8. The two-process model explains phobias in two stages: classical conditioning creates the phobia, where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with fear through pairing with a frightening event [1] [1]; operant conditioning then maintains the phobia, because avoiding the feared stimulus is negatively reinforced by the reduction in anxiety it brings [1] [1]. This directly justifies systematic desensitisation: because avoidance is what maintains the phobia, the treatment gradually exposes the patient to the feared stimulus via a hierarchy of increasingly frightening situations while they remain relaxed, so the feared stimulus becomes associated with relaxation instead of fear, and the avoidance cycle is broken [1] [1].

9. Beck’s negative triad proposes that depressed individuals hold negative automatic thoughts about themselves, the world and the future, which distort how they interpret events [1] [1]. CBT treats depression by identifying these negative or irrational thoughts and challenging them, helping the patient replace distorted thinking patterns with more balanced, realistic ones, and testing negative beliefs against real evidence [1] [1] — because the explanation locates the cause of depression in the content of a person’s thinking, the treatment works directly on that thinking rather than on any biological cause [1] [1].

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Where marks are usually lost

• Stating capacity and duration for each memory store without any structural detail, or vice versa.
• Naming the working memory model’s components without linking them to dual-task evidence.
• Confusing normative with informational social influence, or omitting why the distinction affects persistence.
• Describing Asch’s group-size and unanimity findings without the specific pattern (levelling off at three; sharp drop when unanimity is broken).
• Confusing the agentic state with legitimacy of authority, or describing obedience without reference to Milgram’s actual variables.
• Giving a definition of abnormality without a linked limitation.
• Describing a therapy without linking it back to the explanation that justifies it.