AQA AS Psychology PAPER 1- 15th MAY 2017 *Unofficial Mark Scheme*

Ahh, brilliant thanks! for the question about situational variables affecting the obedience- I put proximity of the victim, location and proximity of the authority! Do you think that would have been okay?

Hey sorry for my not so prompt reply! Thank you it took a bit of time, but it paid off.

In answer to your question:

There were two types of variations with proximity-
- Proximity variation: Both the learner and the teacher were in the same room- obedience dropped to 60% to 40%

& Touch Proximity Variation: The Teacher was forced to place the learners hand on the shock pads- obedience dropped to 30%

For your answer I don't think you could do the 'proximity of the authority' because I think they would be more relative to the uniform. But I believe you got definitely say 'proximity of the victim' as that hints at the touch proximity variation.

I hope that answered your question !!

Damn! Thank you and good luck for the rest of your exams!

*unofficial mark scheme*

These are all the questions I can remember and some of the answers I put:

1) Which statement best describes the agentic state? (1 mark)

Answer: They feel no personal responsibility for their actions as they believe they are acting on behalf of the authority (It's not the exact right wording, but the start of the correct answer was that)

2) Describe internalisation (1 mark)

Individuals who changed their opinions both publically and privately

3) Outline and evaluate normative social influence (4 marks)

Normative social influence is the desire to be liked/socially accepted. They have the desire to behave like others and reduce the chances of them looking foolish, by not doing the same as everyone else. Often fear rejection and social exclusion.

One strength of the NSI is research support from Asch’s study. He later asked participant’s why they gave the wrong answer and some said they were afraid of disapproval or were self-conscious of giving the right answer, when the other ‘participants’ didn’t. This supports the explanation of conformity: NSI, as the participant’s results reflect this type of conformity.

(( For this one, I gave two evaluation points. I believe my other one was reductionist, as NSI doesn't take into account our sense of belonging to a group. Unfalsifiable could've been another one- this explanation relies on private cognitions, which can't be objectively measured using an IV/DV. ))
4) Gave a scenario about David and Matthew, asked which boy would be more likely to resist social influence (4 marks)

- David had internal LOC, whereas Matthew had external LOC.
- Internals show greater resistance to social influence because they take responsibility for their actions and are more self-confident so there is a lesser need for social approval.

5) Another friend Tom was described who refused to do it at all (2 marks)

- Showed the role of the dissenting peer (social support)
- They don’t follow the majority, so it frees others to follow or make their own decisions. Unanimity of the majority is broken, disobedient behaviour stands out less/ is less apparent to the majority, more confidence in resistance, etc.

6) Outline and discuss the research into situational variables affecting obedience and suggest why people obey. (12 marks)

- I believe you could have talked about Milgram’s study
- You had to talk about proximity, location and uniform.
- Proximity: If the teacher had to physically put the learners hand on the shock pads, obedience dropped to 30%
- Location: moved to a run down office block obedience dropped to 47.5
- Uniform: if the experimenter wore normal clothes then obedience dropped to 20.5%

That was basically A01. I’m not gonna list A03, but I know people know different ones and I don’t want them to feel bad if they didn’t put the ones I put.

(( I mentioned uniform, proximity and location, evaluating each one with a piece of research (uniform- Bickman, proximity and location- Milgram. As possible limitations, you could have had that these variables don't take into account dispositional factors (authoritarian personality, etc.), difficult to establish cause and effect (only shows correlation between obedience and these factors, etc. ))

7) Types of coding:

- STM: acoustic
- LTM: semantic

8) Memory research is sometimes criticised for being unrealistic. Explain two ways that psychologists could deal with this in the future (something along those lines) (4 marks)

-Conducted field/natural experiments

(( I thought this was a tricky one! I think I wrote about executing the experiment in different settings (natural/field experiments) and using mundane memory tasks with a large sample size to increase ecological validity. ))

9) (Zina and Amanda scenario) Zina saw the weapon and was standing close to the attacker (high anxiety), Amanda was standing further away and could not see the weapon (Low anxiety) Using what you know about the effects of anxiety on EWT suggest why both statements would be different. (4 marks)

- Weapon foucs effect: Zina with her high anxiety would be more focused on the weapon than on the attacker face, so maybe wouldn’t be able to identify it whereas Amanda possibly could.
- Yerkes-Dodson Model: high anxiety equals higher recall therefore Zina would be able to recall more.

(( Could've mentioned- in passing- some research evidence, i.e from Johnson and Scott, etc. ))

10) Suggest one ethical issue the psychologists needs to consider when interviewing Zina and Amanda again after 5 months (4 marks)

- I said about privacy and confidentiality

(( I wrote about potential psychological harm- i.e having to recall a traumatic incident. ))

11) Outline and evaluate the explaining for forgetting: Interference (12 marks)

- Outline what interference is
- Define Proactive interference + the study
- Define Retroactive interference + study
- Evaluative points at least 3 (( As an evaluation point, you could have had some research evidence for both proactive and retroactive, as this counts as your AO3 too! ))

12) Outline two behaviours associated with infants classified as insecure resistant (2 marks)

-Resits caregivers comfort at reunion
-Shows considerable separation and stranger anxiety

13) A pie chart given estimate the percentage of boys and girls (2 marks)

-Boys- 30%, Girls- 70%

(( There's probably going to be some leeway on this question- I got something like 35% and 65%. ))

14) Another sample of 150 children. 40% of them were boys. Calculate the number of girls who were participants (2 marks)

-150 * 0.4 = 60 boys
-150 – 60 = 90 girls

15) Outline Bowlby’s maternal deprivation (3 marks)

Maternal deprivation is the loss of emotional care which is typically provided by the caregiver (i.e. the mother) Lengthly separation from the mother/ maternal figure through illness, divorce, etc. within the critical period of 2 1/2 years. The value of maternal care suggests that the continued emotional care of the mother is necessary for normal emotional and intellectual development. The critical period is if the child I separated for an extended time during the first 30 months then psychological damage is inevitable. The long-term consequences of the lack of emotional care my result in affectionless psychopaths. These are people with the inability to experience guilt or empathy towards others. Poor cognitive, emotional (affectionless psychopathy) and social development, poor mental health.

16) Give one criticism of Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation (3 marks)

One limitation is that there is no assumed difference between physical and psychological separation when there is. Being depressed for example would mean that the mother is physically present, however that would not be able to provide the emotional care needed. A study studied mothers who had severe depression, it showed that 55% of children were insecurely attached compared to the control group who was only 29%. This shows that psychological separation can also lead to deprivation.

(( Again, there's probably loads you could've written about here. They tend to credit any valid evaluative points- I mentioned that the internal working model is part-conscious, part-unconscious, therefore the theory is partially unfalsifiable. ))

17) Outline and evaluate the learning theory of attachment (8 marks)

The role of classical conditioning plays a crucial role in attachment as it involves learning an association between two stimuli. In the case of attachment, the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is the food which leads to the unconditioned response (UCR) the feeling of pleasure. During conditioning, the neutral stimulus (NS) the mother is paired with the UCS which produces either no response or crying as this is an unfamiliar association. Once the NS has been paired with the UCS enough times, it becomes the conditioned stimulus (CS). After conditioning, the mother is the CS and can produce the CR of pleasure from the baby.

(Operant conditioning also explains how infants must learn to form attachments with caregivers. When the baby cry’s the caregiver rewards the baby, by feeing so the baby then associates the caregiver with the reward, and repeats any action that brings the caregiver closer again. This is because the food brings the baby a feeling of pleasure. Food is known as the primary reinforce. By removing discomfort, it reinforces the behaviour that lead it’s arrival. The caregiver is the second reinforce, so even without the food, the presence of the caregiver can reduce discomfort and still bring the feeling of pleasure. The infant therefore repeats any action e.g. crying to bring the caregiver closer again.) - The way you've applied operant conditioning is great- for learning theory, I think it's only referencing classical, though. Still, you'll probably get credited!

One limitation of the learning theory is that it is suggested that food is more important than contact comfort. The learning theory suggests that food is the most important factor in attachment, however Harlow’s study disproves this. In this study conducted by Harlow he concluded that contact comfort was more important than feeding when forming attachments. when orphaned monkeys chose a cloth covered monkey over one that fed them.

Another limitation is that there is an alternative explanation provided by Bowlby’s theory. Bowlby’s theory can explain why attachment form; the learning theory only explains how attachments might form. Bowlby’s theory can offer advantages of forming attachments i.e. for protection/survival, which the learning theory cannot do. Bowlby’s theory can also explain Schaffer and Emerson’s finding’s that attachments are not formed due to people who feed them. So attachment could be evolutionary rather than based solely around food.

(( Culturally absolute, determinist, reductionist, etc. ))

Explain what is meant by Quantitative data and Qualitative data and explain 2 differences about them (4 marks)

- Quantitative is any data in numerical form i.e. numbers
- Qualitative is any data is written form.
- Qualitative is harder to analyse as you can't put the results into a graph.
-Quantitative data is easier to analyse as you can put the results into a graph.





(AGAIN THESE DIDN’T HAVE TO BE EXACTLY WHAT YOU PUT THESE ARE JUST MY EVALUATION POINTS I LEARNT)

*unofficial mark scheme*

These are all the questions I can remember and some of the answers I put:

1) Which statement best describes the agentic state? (1 mark)

Answer: They feel no personal responsibility for their actions as they believe they are acting on behalf of the authority (Its not the exact right wording, but the start of the correct answer was that)

2) Describe internalisation (1 mark)

Individuals who changed their opinions both publically and privately

3) Outline and evaluate normative social influence (4 marks)

Normative social influence is the desire to be liked. They have the desire to behave like others and reduce the chances of them looking foolish, by not doing the same as everyone else.

One strength of the NSI is research support from Asch’s study. He later asked participant’s why they gave the wrong answer and some said they were afraid of disapproval or were self-conscious of giving the right answer, when the other ‘participants’ didn’t. This supports the explanation of conformity: NSI, as the participant’s results reflect this type of conformity.

4) Gave a scenario about David and Matthew, asked which boy would be more likely to resist social influence (4 marks)

- David had internal LOC, whereas Matthew had external LOC.
- Internals show greater resistance to social influence because they take responsibility for their actions and are more self-confident so there is a lesser need for social approval.

5) Another friend Tom was described who refused to do it at all (2 marks)

- Showed the role of the dissenting peer (social support)
- They don’t follow the majority, so it frees others to follow or make their own decisions.

6) Outline and discuss the research into siuational variables affecting obedience and suggest why people obey. (12 marks)

- I believe you could have talked about Milgram’s study
- You had to talk about proximity, location and uniform.
- Proximity: If the teacher had to physically put the learners hand on the shock pads, obedience dropped to 30%
- Location: moved to a run down office block obedience dropped to 47.5
- Uniform: if the experimenter wore normal clothes then obedience dropped to 20.5%

That was basically A01. I’m not gonna list A03, but I know people know different ones and I don’t want them to feel bad if they didn’t put the ones I put.

7) Types of coding:

- STM: acoustic
- LTM: semantic

8) Memory research is sometimes criticised for being unrealistic. Explain two ways that psychologists could deal with this in the future (something along those lines) (4 marks)

-Conducted field/natural experiments

9) (Zina and Amanda scenario) Zina saw the weapon and was standing close to the attacker (high anxiety), Amanda was standing further away and could not see the weapon (Low anxiety) Using what you know about the effects of anxiety on EWT suggest why both statements would be different. (4 marks)

- Weapon foucs effect: Zina with her high anxiety would be more focused on the weapon than on the attacker face, so maybe wouldn’t be able to identify it whereas Amanda possibly could.
- Yerkes-Dodson Model: high anxiety equals higher recall therefore Zina would be able to recall more.

10) Suggest one ethical issue the psychologists needs to consider when interviewing Zina and Amanda again after 5 months (4 marks)

- I said about privacy and confidentiality

11) Outline and evaluate the explaining for forgetting: Interference (12 marks)

- Outline what interference is
- Define Proactive interference + the study
- Define Retroactive interference + study
- Evaluative points at least 3

12) Outline two behaviours associated with infants classified as insecure resistant (2 marks)

-Resits caregivers comfort at reunion
-Shows considerable separation and stranger anxiety

13) A pie chart given estimate the percentage of boys and girls (2 marks)

-Boys- 30%, Girls- 70%

14) Another sample of 150 children. 40% of them were boys. Calculate the number of girls who were participants (2 marks)

-150 * 0.4 = 60 boys
-150 – 60 = 90 girls

15) Outline Bowlby’s maternal deprivation (3 marks)

Maternal deprivation is the loss of emotional care which is typically provided by the caregiver (i.e. the mother). The value of maternal care suggests that the continued emotional care of the mother is necessary for normal emotional and intellectual development. The critical period is if the child I separated for an extended time during the first 30 months then psychological damage is inevitable. The long-term consequences of the lack of emotional care my result in affectionless psychopaths. These are people with the inability to experience guilt or empathy towards others.

16) Give one criticism of Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation (3 marks)

One limitation is that there is no assumed difference between physical and psychological separation when there is. Being depressed for example would mean that the mother is physically present, however that would not be able to provide the emotional care needed. A study studied mothers who had severe depression, it showed that 55% of children were insecurely attached compared to the control group who was only 29%. This shows that psychological separation can also lead to deprivation.

17) Outline and evaluate the learning theory of attachment (8 marks)

The role of classical conditioning plays a crucial role in attachment as it involves learning an association between two stimuli. In the case of attachment, the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is the food which leads to the unconditioned response (UCR) the feeling of pleasure. During conditioning, the neutral stimulus (NS) the mother is paired with the UCS which produces either no response or crying as this is an unfamiliar association. Once the NS has been paired with the UCS enough times, it becomes the conditioned stimulus (CS). After conditioning, the mother is the CS and can produce the CR of pleasure from the baby.

Operant conditioning also explains how infants must learn to form attachments with caregivers. When the baby cry’s the caregiver rewards the baby, by feeing so the baby then associates the caregiver with the reward, and repeats any action that brings the caregiver closer again. This is because the food brings the baby a feeling of pleasure. Food is known as the primary reinforce. By removing discomfort, it reinforces the behaviour that lead it’s arrival. The caregiver is the second reinforce, so even without the food, the presence of the caregiver can reduce discomfort and still bring the feeling of pleasure. The infant therefore repeats any action e.g. crying to bring the caregiver closer again.

One limitation of the learning theory is that it is suggested that food is more important than contact comfort. The learning theory suggests that food is the most important factor in attachment, however Harlow’s study disproves this. In this study conducted by Harlow he concluded that contact comfort was more important than feeding when forming attachments. when orphaned monkeys chose a cloth covered monkey over one that fed them.

Another limitation is that there is an alternative explanation provided by Bowlby’s theory. Bowlby’s theory can explain why attachment form; the learning theory only explains how attachments might form. Bowlby’s theory can offer advantages of forming attachments i.e. for protection/survival, which the learning theory cannot do. Bowlby’s theory can also explain Schaffer and Emerson’s finding’s that attachments are not formed due to people who feed them. So attachment could be evolutionary rather than based solely around food.

Explain what is meant by Quantitative data and Qualitative data and explain 2 differences about them (4 marks)

- Quantitative is any data in numerical form i.e. numbers
- Qualitative is any data is written form.
- Qualitative is harder to analyse as you can't put the results into a graph.
-Quantitative data is easier to analyse as you can put the results into a graph.





(AGAIN THESE DIDN’T HAVE TO BE EXACTLY WHAT YOU PUT THESE ARE JUST MY EVALUATION POINTS I LEARNT)

No problem! Good luck for the rest of your exams too

What exam do you have left for this week?

Thanks for getting this all down! Really helpful! I've just added a couple of things. What're you thinking about grade boundaries?

Also do u think my 12 markers will get marked down if I didn't put percentages in and just wrote that the obedience rates went higher or lower

Omg. Thank u so much. U literally put me at ease. I was getting so paranoid thinking that I wrote the wrong stuff. I needed someone to tell me what they put.

Ah I've got 2 more this week, History on Wednesday and English on Friday! Wbu?

I'm deadass so mad omg I got the percentage question wrong bc I havent done maths in 2 years and I got the memory criticism question wrong bc I thought they wanted us to just talk about the criticisms because it said 'address' ? if they had structured the question more clearly I would've put improvements :/ I hope paper 2 goes better

Yeah they like to word it weirdly to see if you can still understand it. I hope paper 2 is good!

Yeah, I know exactly how you feel, I was the type to do that for GCSE and I still am! This is the first time I've ever done this.

Always believe in yourself and have confidence!

I hope so too. What grade r u aiming for to get in psychology?

I'm hoping to get an A overall, because I'm gonna take Psychology next year and I want to get an A* in that.

I think I got like a high B for this paper, so I'll have to get higher on my other paper.

What are you aiming for?

I'm hoping to get an A overall, because I'm gonna take Psychology next year and I want to get an A* in that.

I think I got like a high B for this paper, so I'll have to get higher on my other paper.

What are you aiming for?