So youve attended every lesson, you revised so hard you know every study, theory and research method

inside out and can evaluate to your hearts content and...You get a D in the exam. Why?? Its hard (you need 50% for a D) and you have not read your Bible! Essentially the exam is all about technique; reading the question correctly and ensuring your answer is tailored to it and detailed enough to get the marks. Hopefully this booklet will help you turn that D into an A. This booklet contains multiple choice questions and every question from the sample paper and the June and January 2009 Social and Cognitive exam group into categories. The aim is to give you a flavour of the type of questions you could be asked. In addition to this there is guidance about how to answer the questions and also some sample answers (good and bad). Your teacher will go through this and also show sample answers in class. This booklet is to be mainly be used at home to help with homework and preparation for the exams, however, do bring it to lessons as your teacher may refer to it from time to time. Below is a table to show the grade distribution for your first exam note the exam is out of 60, but it is converted to a uniform mark, which represents a %. 40% for an E, 50% for a D and so on. 6PS01 Uniform bounda ry mark Raw bounda ry mark Max.Ma rk 80 60 A 64 43 B 56 38 C 48 34 D 40 30 E 32 26

Some General Advice from the Exam Board: The main distinction between more and less able candidates always has been the ability to elaborate. Higher scoring answers could back up a point with general and specific examples of research. Others find it difficult to provide relevant psychological research and instead rely on anecdotal information which is not creditworthy. Candidates need to be reminded to read the short stimulus material given for certain questions. A firm understanding of the stimulus will make questions more accessible. There seem to be too many examples of unnecessary errors on the part of the candidate from simply glossing over the stimulus material and not
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reading it properly. The stimulus is designed to help candidates, not hinder them.

The answers to the multiple choice questions can be found on the Learning Platform in the exam materials section on the Social Approach page just look for the relevant mark scheme. Use this for revision and mark it yourself. If you do not understand any of the questions make sure you ask! In the exam do these first as they are the easiest questions. Sample Assessment Material 1. An independent variable (IV) is A The variable that is manipulated in an experiment B The variable that cannot be controlled in an experiment C The variable that is measured in an experiment D The variable the researcher is not interested in (1) 2. A researcher designs a survey using a structured interview to investigate opinions about social groups. She recruits some interviewers to conduct the survey. She must ensure that A interviewers are able to ask whatever they like B participants are interviewed in their own surroundings C interviewers are only able to ask the questions she has set D participants are only able to answer in writing (1) 3. Which of the following statements is true of a volunteer sample? A Researchers select their friends and family to do a memory experiment for them. B Researchers select ten men and ten women from each of four age groups to be tested. C Researchers use a random number generator to identify who to test from a workforce. D Researchers advertise in a local newspaper for participants. (1)

4. Laboratory Experiments involve A Manipulating the independent variable (IV) in the participants natural setting B Manipulating the independent variable (IV) in a controlled environment C Manipulating the dependent variable (DV) in a controlled environment D Manipulating the dependent variable (DV) in the participants natural setting (1) 5. A non-directional (two tailed) experimental hypothesis will make a statement about there Being A more effect of one condition than of the other B a difference between the conditions C less effect of one condition than of the other D no difference between conditions other than those that occur by chance (1) 6. A researcher is interested in whether obedience to pedestrian lights differs between men and women pedestrians. In order to be as objective as possible, which of the following options would be the best way to collect data? A Record the number of times that men and women disobey the pedestrian lights. B Ask a large sample of men and women how they behave at pedestrian crossings. C Rate crossings by men and women separately on a scale for level of obedience. D Give each crossing made a score from 1 to 5 depending on level of obedience. (1) 7. Cue dependency theory states that there are two types of cues that could affect memory. These cues are called
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A Internal and external B Primacy and recency C State and context D Encoding and recall (1)

8. Ali was very late for his psychology lesson because he had stayed behind in the common room to tidy it up. He explained to his teacher that he was just doing what he was told. Using knowledge from of the Social Approach, which of the following statements best describes his obedience? A He was going along with what the head of year insisted he must do to help. B He was going along with what the head of year asked him to do to help out. C He was going along with what his friends asked him to do as they needed his help. D He was going along with what his friends were doing as, if he helped, it would be quicker. (1) 10 9. Which of the following is an illustration of the processing of information from input through to output as explained by the Cognitive Approach? A David forgot to take his football kit to school as he did not usually play on Tuesdays. B Emily read the instructions for assembling her new wardrobe then put it together. C Moheed remembered every detail about his first drive in a racing car, even five years later. D Suki improvised the moves in her gymnastics routine which she had not learned. (1) 10. Identify two of the following five statements to show which are true about prejudice. A Prejudice is an attitude involving stereotyping B Prejudice involves disobeying an authority figure C Prejudice refers to correctly recalling events as an eye witness
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D Prejudice can lead to discrimination of minority groups E Prejudice is always a form of obedience (2) TOTAL FOR SECTION A: 11 MARKS

Jan 2009 SECTION A For questions 15 choose ONE answer from A, B, C or D. 1 The measurement obtained by adding up all the scores and dividing by the number of scores is known as the A mean B median C mode D range (Total for Question 1 = 1 mark) 2 Counterbalancing is used with the _________ __________ design to help overcome order effects. A independent groups B repeated measures C matched pairs D unrelated groups (Total for Question 2 = 1 mark) 3 Which of the following terms refers to the consistency of a test a test that produces the same results on different occasions? A Validity B Counterbalancing C Reliability D Objectivity
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(Total for Question 3 = 1 mark 4 In which one of the following examples would you be using an independent groups design? A You compare 20 boys with 20 girls on a reading test. B You test 10 participants on two different IQ tests and compare the results. C You investigate whether there is a link between a students days off from college and their achievement in exams. D You give 20 A level students a personality test and then re-test them the following week. (Total for Question 4 = 1 mark) 5 You are conducting an experiment testing memory but some of your participants have to cope with more noise than others. These ____________variables may affect your results. A participant B dependent C situational D experimenter (Total for Question 5 = 1 mark) For question 6 choose TWO answers from A, B, C, D and E. 6 Which two of the following five statements would be examples of nondirectional (two-tailed) hypotheses? A Older people are more forgetful than younger people. B People will treat members of their in-group differently from members of an out-group. C Boys are more aggressive than girls. D There will be a difference in levels of obedience between men and women. E Recall of a list of words will improve if the list of words is rehearsed. (Total for Question 6 = 2 marks) For question 7 choose ONE answer from A, B or C. 7 According to levels of processing theory, which one of the following types of processing should students use when revising? A Phonetic B Semantic C Structural
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(Total for Question 7 = 1 mark) For questions 810 choose ONE answer from A, B, C or D. 8 Discrimination is most accurately defined as A pre-judging someone before finding anything out about them. B behaving differently towards someone from another group. C believing that a member of another group is not as good as you. D stereotyping others based only on their appearance. (Total for Question 8 = 1 mark)

9 Which of the following is an illustration of moral strain? A Ali often forgets his homework and always gives his teacher a poor excuse because he does not care. B Jackie goes out with her friends because she thinks she deserves a night out after working hard all week. C Asmara helps an old man across the road because he is partially sighted and cannot see the traffic lights changing. D Kazim has been asked to do something he believes to be wrong but does not want to disobey his father. (Total for Question 9 = 1 mark) 10 A study investigating the role of context cues in remembering was carried out by A Hofling B Godden and Baddeley C Tajfel D Craik and Lockhart (Total for Question 10 = 1 mark) TOTAL FOR SECTION A = 11 MARKS

June 2009 1 Which of the following is an example of social comparison?

A Khuram wears the shirt of the local cricket team he supports. B Rosie is a basketball supporter and goes to more away games than her friends. C Max tells his friend that all the other football teams cheat more than his team. D Shakira adopts the identity of her rugby team. (Total for Question 1 = 1 mark) 2 In Hoflings study on obedience it was found that _______ out of 22 nurses obeyed the doctors instructions. A 18 B 20 C 21 D 22 (Total for Question 2 = 1 mark) 3 Godden and Baddeleys study on context dependent memory found that A words were remembered better when recalled in the same environment B words were remembered better when recalled in a different environment C there was no difference in words remembered regardless of environment D words were remembered better underwater than on land in all conditions (Total for Question 3 = 1 mark) For question 4 choose TWO answers from A, B, C, D and E. 4 Your teacher is demonstrating levels of processing theory and asks you a number of questions. The following questions would result in different levels of recall. Which two would result in the lowest level of recall? A Does it rhyme with lot? B Has it got 6 letters in it? C Is it an item of clothing? D Is it in small letters? E Is it a type of fruit? (Total for Question 4 = 2 marks) For questions 510 choose ONE answer from A, B, C or D. 5 The measurement that has as many scores above it as below it is known as the
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A mean B mode C median D range (Total for Question 5 = 1 mark) 6 Practice and _______ effects are examples of order effects. A demand B fatigue C experimenter D interviewer (Total for Question 6 = 1 mark)

7 Structured interviews involve A fixed, predetermined questions B no fixed questions or ways of answering C open-ended questions with phrasing and timing left up to the interviewer D the interviewers next question depending upon the interviewees last answer (Total for Question 7 = 1 mark) 8 A weakness of the volunteer sampling method is that A it is biased as every fifth person is chosen B it can be very time consuming and expensive C it can be unrepresentative through choosing only friends and family D it is biased as participants tend to be more motivated and perform better (Total for Question 8 = 1 mark) 9 When you are writing a hypothesis for a study your teacher asks you to define your variables so they can be precisely measured. What is this process known as? A Experimenter effects B Randomisation C Operationalisation
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D Order effects (Total for Question 9 = 1 mark) 10 In ______ _______ designs the same participants are used in both conditions. A cross-sectional B independent groups C matched pairs D repeated measures (Total for Question 10 = 1 mark) TOTAL FOR SECTION A = 11 MARKS

These should be among the easiest on the exam paper. To do well ensure you revise carefully the key terms in your revision guide and ensure you look at how many marks are allocated and tailor your answer appropriately 2 marks = 2 points. 1. What did Milgram mean by the agentic state? (2) Be careful with this question! It is for two marks therefore you need to give a definition of the agentic state and then elaborate by giving an appropriate example! 2. Social identity theory includes comparison. What is meant by social comparison? (2) See the comment above 3. (a) Complete the table below. For each of the following statements, write either
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the

concept

of

social

prejudice or discrimination in the appropriate box. (2) Statement A doorman refuses entry to a group of teenagers into a nightclub because the males are not wearing ties. Nick believes all women drivers are rubbish and should not be allowed on the road. Edith applies for a job but does not get it because the manager wants a younger person. Beth is rejected from Claires social networking site because of her taste in music. This question is asking you to apply your know it is more difficult than it appears at first glance. You need to read the scenarios and say whether this is an example of prejudice or discrimination there is a difference between the two! Prejudice is the stereotyped belief held about a group (the second scenario) the rest are discrimination. Prejudice Discrimination or

See the next page for a table telling you how to describe a study 1. Outline one of Milgrams variation studies of obedience. (3) 2. You will have learned about one of the following studies in detail from the Cognitive Approach: Peterson and Peterson (1959) study of the role of interference Craik and Tulving (1975) study of levels of processing Ramponi et al (2004) study of age and levels of processing Describe one study from the list. (5) From the exam board candidates where spending too much time outlining the aims and procedures (max 3) and running out of time/space to give results and conclusions. If a question asks you to describe a study you must cover the NAMRC. Also be careful with this question some candidates described Godden and Baddeleys study which, although
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is part of the Cognitive Approach, is not on this list so could not be credited. 3. Outline the procedure used by Hofling et al (1966) in their study testing obedience. (3) Questions 3, 4 and 6 are just asking you to focus upon specific parts of a study therefore you will not be credited for mentioning other parts of the study. You must ensure you know each key study in detail to do well. 4. Outline the findings (results and/or conclusions) of Hofling et als (1966) study (3) 5. You will have studied two of the following studies in detail from the Social Approach. Hofling et al (1966) Sherif (1961/1988) Tajfel et al (1970/1971) Reicher and Haslam (2003/2006) Choose one study from the list. Name of study: Outline the aim of your chosen study. (2)

Theories are more difficult to describe than studies as there is not a set way of describing them. To do well you must ensure you know the theory inside out. Some of the theories can be quite complex so do not be afraid to ask your teacher to go over it again if you are unsure. 1. Describe social identity theory as an explanation of prejudice. (4) Cover in-group favouritism, social identification, social categorisation and social comparison. 2. (a) Identify one model or theory of memory. (1) (b) Describe the model or theory of memory that you identified in (a). (4) Be careful! Cue-dependency theory and Trace Decay are not models of memory they are theories of forgetting. Only the Multi-store model or Levels of processing where credited here.

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These can be the most difficult questions on the exam make sure you are comparing by looking at similarities and differences between the things you are asked to compare. Each sentence should refer to both things. E.g. Meeus and Raaijmakers study looked at whether people would obey instructions to commit psychological violence whereas Milgram was interested to see whether his participants would follow orders to commit physical violence. Both studies are highlighted the use of the word whereas clearly pointing out that there is a difference. 1. For your course you will have studied another study in detail as well as Hofling et al (1966). Studies can be compared in terms of the methodology, ethics, results (findings and/or conclusions) as well as in other ways. Compare Hofling et al (1966) with your chosen other study. (3)

See the Evaluation guide on the next page If it says evaluate you must evaluate!!! According to the exam board; every year candidates simply describe the topic instead of weighing up the strengths and weaknesses. Also if it asks for strengths you must just give strengths and vice versa. Too many responses over-relied on terminology without explanation. It was high in ecological validity because it was a field experiment etc. There was lots of usage of mnemonics such as GRAVE to help candidates evaluate (see revision guide but do not rely on this) and in the main these tended to work well. Ethical and methodological points picked up the most marks, although better candidates did go beyond just these and could demonstrate an array of practical applications in detail. 1. Evaluate Milgrams Agency Theory. (4) According to the exam board Candidates who scored highly used evidence from real life situations such as the soldiers in WWII acting on Hitlers behalf and were thus in an agentic state. Where marks were lost, it was typically because candidates made the relevant point i.e. it has real life application without expanding. Others had prepared evaluative comments which were very weak (i.e. just naming studies without further elaboration of how they supported the theory). This is proof that to do well in the exam you must PEE (point, followed by evidence or elaboration).

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2. Outline one strength and one weakness of the study you described in (4) Do what the question says but be careful about the number of marks allocated you must state your strength, explain this and then elaborate upon this or give an example. The same applies for weaknesses. The exam board said where methodological strengths and weaknesses were offered, they really needed to be explicitly related to the studies to be credible. Too many generic points were given which could have been said about any psychological study. In other words, do not simply say the study lacked ecological validity because it was a laboratory this could be said about any lab experiment. Instead say the study lacked ecological validity as the lab experiment involved participants memorising lists of words which is not a task people have to do in real life. 3. Evaluate social identity theory as an explanation of prejudice. (4) 4. In social psychology, there are many ethical issues to be considered when involving human participants in research. Briefly evaluate Milgrams (1963) study of obedience in terms of one ethical issue. (2) Again, make your point and then elaborate further. 5. You will have studied one of the following studies in detail from the Cognitive approach: Peterson and Peterson (1959) Craik and Tulving (1975) Ramponi et al (2004) Choose one study from the list and evaluate this study (5) 5 marks!! You must learn those evaluation points! 6 (a) Identify one model or theory of memory other than the Levels of Processing model of memory. (1) (b) Outline one strength and one weakness of the model or theory you identified in (a). (4)

Make sure you have revised your research methods booklet thoroughly. The course introduces research methods gradually and you must remember what you learn for the whole course not just the exam you are studying for at the time. You must also ensure that you take an active
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part in the practicals you have to carry out and also revise these as you could be asked about this is the exam (see below). 1. As part of the course requirements for the Social Approach you will have conducted a survey (interview/questionnaire). Outline the alternative hypothesis of your survey and state whether it is directional (one-tailed) or non-directional (two-tailed). (3) According to the exam board very few hypotheses were fully operationalised and many were phrased as research questions rather than predictions. Better candidates did not get aims mixed up with hypotheses and clearly knew the difference between one and two tailed types. In this respect they easily scored at least two marks. So to get three out of three your hypothesis must make a prediction, the variables must be fully operationalised and you must state whether it is one or two tailed. 2. Outline one problem you came across when planning and/or carrying out the survey (interview/questionnaire). (2) From the exam board The problems offered in part (b) were disappointing often suggestive of lack of effort and application rather than genuine methodological issues I didnt have time and some of the solutions indicated a lack of regard for methodological rigour I had too many males than females so I removed their results to balance it out weak problems were to do with the sample not enough participants as we didnt have enough time One candidate wrote One problem was the fact that the results had to be analysed. I hope to God it was not someone from Pensby! Candidates who did well on this question were clearly outlining actual problems they had encountered such as ambiguous wording which was picked up in a pilot study or in analysis of the results themselves.

This answer got two marks as the problem given was appropriate and relevant to the study and the point made was elaborated upon (you can see where the examiner has awarded two marks).

3. Explain how you might have addressed (or did address) this problem when planning and/or carrying out the survey (interview/questionnaire). (2)
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You must be prepared to answer questions such as this about every practical you do. The answer below is from the same candidate above:

This question shows that the candidate clearly knows the advantages of using closed rather than open questions 4. Explain why in psychology it might be preferable to use a research method that produces qualitative rather than quantitative data. (4) Considering that this topic is quite complex it was refreshing to see better candidates appear to recognise the need for qualitative methods in psychology and cite its relevant strengths. These candidates made explicit links with why this type of data might be preferred in psychology, i.e. making reference to the complexity of human behaviour and the difficulty of reducing this to numbers. Essentially this question is asking why psychologists would use qualitative data. 5. The graph below portrays the results of a typical study testing the Levels of Processing theory of memory. From your knowledge of levels of processing and from the information on the graph answer the following questions. The Graph is a bar chart showing the results of the Levels of Processing study with the Semantic mean being 15, the Phonetic 9 and the Structural 6. (a) Identify the dependent variable (DV) in this study. (1) (b) Give a suitable experimental/alternative hypothesis for this study. (1) Only one mark but I would still be careful to operationalise my variables as you need to get into the habit of doing this. (c) This study was conducted using a repeated measures design. Outline one strength of this design. (2) (d) What is the mean recall score for the phonetic condition? (1)
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This question just asked for candidates to interpret a simple bar chart but amazingly some candidates got this wrong. 6. As part of the course requirements for social psychology you conducted an interview/ questionnaire by which you gathered qualitative data. Describe the steps you took in order to gather and analyse the data. (5) 7. A field experiment was carried out to see if environmental cues can aid recall. A student ice hockey team learned a list of 20 unrelated words in an ice rink. Half the group were then taken to a library (control group) whilst the other half (experimental group) stayed in the ice rink. Both groups then had to recall as many of the 20 words as possible. The results are shown in the table below: Control (Library) of 10 group Experimental (Ice rink) 16 group

Mean number words recalled (out of 20)

(a) Which design is being used in this study? (1) (b) Explain why this design is appropriate for this study. (2) (c) Which measure of central tendency is being used in the table above? (1) A surprising number of candidates were not familiar with the term central tendency in part (c) and were unable to answer this question correctly. Remember measures of central tendency are your mean, median and mode! (d) Would this study have high or low validity? Explain your answer.(2) Remember not to confuse validity with reliability (see research methods guide). (e) The researchers would have followed ethical guidelines. With reference to this study, explain two ethical guidelines they would have to consider. (4) Too many candidates scored badly on this question because they did not read the question properly and discussed ethical guidelines in general you need to refer to ethical problems related to the study. (f) Outline one weakness of field experiments in general. (2)

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1. In your course you would have studied a key issue in the social approach. Imagine you are a social psychologist and are being interviewed by a journalist about the issue you studied. Apply concepts and ideas on social psychology to explain the issue. (3) As you are being interviewed by a journalist you have to explain the issue and theory in laymens terms so that ordinary people can understand it. 2. Young people are getting a bad press coverage for hanging around towns in groups and wearing hoodies.

Using social identity theory, explain why teenagers might be getting negative media coverage. (3) According to the exam board this was probably the most poorly answered question on the (June 2009) paper and it involved a visual stimulus to help cue candidates. Many candidates just did not use Social Identity Theory to answer the question. Instead they reverted to story telling about gang culture.

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An example of a student story-telling an answer and not referring to Psychology.

Good clear points made which all refer explicitly to the three component parts of S.I.T. The first point about out groups is straight off the mark scheme and followed up by good descriptions of social identification and comparison. Full marks are therefore given here.

3. You are sitting in a lesson and suddenly hear a loud explosion outside. You run to the window with all your classmates and see a large cloud of smoke and people running around. You are questioned the next day by the police about what happened. Using concepts, theories and/or research from the Cognitive Approach explain why your recall of the event might differ from others who saw the same incident. (5)

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1 Good start directly answering the question and bringing in lack of rehearsal from the MSM. 2- Interference is used well as an explanation and elaborated upon with a solid example. The fact that the type of interference is not mentioned does not detract from the mark given. 3- A third mark is given here for reconstruction and confabulation which is put well and makes good reference to schemas and past experience influencing recall. 4-5 The final two marks are given for the explanation of lack of cues which is well expressed and elaborated upon (both types of cue are mentioned).

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For a guide to writing essays see the last page. Make sure you answer this question! If I was doing the exam I would do the multiple choice first and then spend 15-20 minutes on the essay question before tackling the shorter answer questions in the rest of the exam. 1. Describe and evaluate the cue dependent theory of forgetting. Your evaluation should include: comparison with one other theory of forgetting strengths and/or weaknesses of the cue dependent theory. (12)

A good introduction clearly defining how the theory explains forgetting

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Good definitions of both types of cues followed up by relevant research examples which demonstrates clear understanding

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This is the correct way to use a study to support the theory. No long description of the whole Duka study, candidate has been concise in describing how the findings support the theory.

Excellent comparison point with another theory, put really well. This candidate got 11/12, showing that an essay does not have to be perfect to score high marks. 2. Describe and evaluate one theory of forgetting (12) 3. Describe and evaluate one study of obedience from a country other than Milgrams (USA). (12)
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1 Very limited description with brief statements given about the procedure only. 2- Six separate evaluation points are made in this whole paragraph (which are all relevant criticisms) not one of which is in enough detail or elaborated. This puts this answer into the top of the first band. The End!

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