Laura, my Head of Psychology has looked at the trends and patterns that have come up in the past. She’s done an analysis of the topics and questions that have appeared in previous exam seasons and has used this to write Psychology predicted papers for this year.
Please remember to revise everything as these are just predictions. We don’t have any additional information or know anything in advance of the exams - we have not seen the real papers!
We know for Paper 1 – Introductory Topics in Psychology – there are four sections in the paper – Social Influence, Memory, Attachment and Psychopathology and we’ll go through each of these topics.
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Section A - Social Influence:
Minority Influence: A strong emphasis is likely to be placed on minority influence, particularly the roles of consistency, commitment and flexibility. You should be able to explain how minorities exert influence by maintaining a consistent position over time and between members, which draws attention to their viewpoint and increases interest from the majority. Commitment is demonstrated through personal sacrifice or risk-taking, enhancing the credibility of the minority position via the augmentation principle. Flexibility is also crucial, as minorities that show a willingness to compromise are perceived as more reasonable, increasing the likelihood of internalisation. Evaluation should focus on research support, such as Moscovici’s work, while also considering limitations, including artificial tasks and the difficulty of measuring real-world social change.
Resistance to social influence: Predictions also suggest a focus on resistance to social influence, specifically social support and locus of control. You should be prepared to explain how the presence of allies reduces conformity and obedience by breaking unanimity and increasing confidence in one’s own judgement. Locus of control refers to the extent to which individuals perceive outcomes as under their own control (internal) or determined by external forces (external). Individuals with an internal locus of control are more likely to resist social pressure because they feel personally responsible for their actions. Evaluation should address contradictory findings, the role of situational factors, and the potential oversimplification of individual differences.
Zimbardo: Finally, you should revise the work of Zimbardo, particularly the Stanford Prison Experiment. This research highlights how social roles, situational variables and deindividuation can lead to conformity and obedience, even among psychologically healthy individuals. Evaluation should consider ethical issues, lack of realism or control, and the extent to which behaviour was influenced by demand characteristics, while also recognising the study’s contribution to understanding situational explanations of social influence.
Section B - Memory:
Working Memory Model: A key area for revision is the Working Memory Model. You should be prepared to explain this as a multi-component model proposed by Baddeley and Hitch, which suggests that short-term memory is not a single, unitary store. Instead, it consists of several components with different functions. The central executive is responsible for attentional control and allocating cognitive resources, while the phonological loop processes verbal and auditory information and the visuo-spatial sketchpad deals with visual and spatial material. Later revisions added the episodic buffer, which integrates information from different subsystems and links working memory to long-term memory. Evaluation is likely to be required, so you should consider research support from dual-task studies, as well as limitations such as the vagueness of the central executive and the reliance on laboratory-based evidence.
Improving accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Another predicted focus is improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, with particular emphasis on the cognitive interview. You should be able to explain why eyewitness testimony can be unreliable, for example due to misleading information, anxiety, or post-event discussion, and then outline how interviewing techniques can reduce these problems. The cognitive interview, developed by Fisher and Geiselman, is based on psychological research into memory and aims to increase recall without increasing false memories. Key techniques include context reinstatement, encouraging witnesses to report everything, recalling events in a different order, and changing perspective. Evaluation should consider strong research support demonstrating improved recall, alongside practical limitations such as the time required to train officers and the risk that some techniques may increase inaccurate recall if not used carefully.
Section C - Attachment:
Cultural variations in attachment: For the Attachment topic, predictions suggest a strong focus on cultural variations in attachment, with an emphasis on how attachment patterns differ across cultures and what this tells us about the universality of attachment theory.
You should be prepared to explain how attachment types vary between individualist and collectivist cultures, often using findings from cross-cultural research based on the Strange Situation. A key study to revise is the meta-analysis by Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg, which analysed data from multiple countries and found that secure attachment was the most common type across cultures, supporting the idea that attachment is a universal phenomenon. However, there were notable cultural differences in insecure attachment types, such as higher rates of insecure-resistant attachment in collectivist cultures like Japan, and higher rates of insecure-avoidant attachment in individualist cultures such as Germany.
High-level responses should explain these differences using cultural child-rearing practices. For example, Japanese parenting often involves close physical proximity and high levels of interdependence, meaning separation in the Strange Situation is particularly distressing and may exaggerate resistant behaviours. In contrast, German parenting tends to encourage independence, which may explain higher levels of avoidant attachment, as such behaviour is socially valued rather than dysfunctional.
Evaluation is essential and should be well developed. You should consider the imposed etic criticism, as the Strange Situation was developed in the USA by Mary Ainsworth and may reflect Western norms of attachment, reducing its validity when applied cross-culturally. Methodological issues such as sample bias are also important, as many studies use small or unrepresentative samples that cannot be generalised to entire cultures. However, a key strength is that cross-cultural research highlights the influence of culture on attachment and challenges the assumption that one attachment type is the ideal standard across all societies.
Section D: Psychopathology:
Infrequency as definition of abnormality: A likely focus is infrequency as a definition of abnormality. You should be prepared to explain how behaviours or characteristics that are statistically rare are classified as abnormal, using examples such as very low IQ scores in the diagnosis of intellectual disability disorder. Strong answers will go beyond description by evaluating this definition, for example by recognising its usefulness due to its objective, measurable nature, while also highlighting key limitations. These include the issue that some rare behaviours are desirable (such as high intelligence) and that infrequency alone cannot account for social context or the subjective experience of the individual, limiting its validity as a sole definition.
Two-process model: Another predicted area is the two-process model, proposed by Mowrer, which explains phobias through behavioural processes. You should revise how phobias are acquired through classical conditioning, where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with fear, and maintained through operant conditioning, as avoidance behaviours are negatively reinforced. Evaluation is important here, particularly the strong explanatory power for the persistence of phobias and supporting evidence from treatments such as systematic desensitisation, alongside limitations such as the difficulty in explaining phobias without a clear conditioning experience.
Beck’s negative triad: Predictions also indicate a focus on Beck’s negative triad as a cognitive explanation for depression. You should be able to outline how negative views of the self, the world and the future interact to create and maintain depressive symptoms. High-level responses will evaluate this explanation by considering research support linking negative thinking to depression, while also acknowledging that the model may not fully explain the initial onset of depression and may oversimplify the complexity of the disorder.
CBT: Finally, CBT as a treatment is highly likely to be assessed. You should explain how CBT aims to identify and challenge irrational or maladaptive thoughts and replace them with more realistic alternatives, often using techniques such as cognitive restructuring and behavioural activation. Evaluation should include evidence for effectiveness, particularly for depression, alongside limitations such as CBT being less effective for severe cases or requiring high levels of motivation and insight from the client.
Embrace Research Methods Across All The Papers: Recognise that Research Methods content appears in all three exam papers, not just Paper 2. While Paper 2 is where you'll find the main section on Research Methods, it's crucial to understand that research methods knowledge can, and is!, examined across the entire course. Familiarise yourself with examples of research and identify key elements such as aims, hypotheses, variables, control measures, samples used, and data collected. Exposure to different research scenarios will better prepare you for the new piece of research you'll face in this section. Use resources such as our predicted papers and walkthroughs to strengthen your understanding and application of research methods!