2025 AQA A LEVEL PSYCHOLOGY PAPER 3|WITH
OVER 400 QUESTIONS WITH 100% CORRECT
ANSWERS
1. why may bias be inevitable in research - ANSWER: because psychologists'
beliefs and values are influenced by social and historical context, yet psychology
claims to have universality in its findings (they can be applied to anyone,
anywhere)
2. what are the two types of bias in issues and debates - ANSWER: gender and
cultural bias
3. what is gender bias - ANSWER: the idea that research or a theory may offer a
view that does not justifiably represent the experience and behaviour of men or
(usually) women
4. what are the main components of gender bias - ANSWER: alpha bias, beta
bias and androcentrism
5. what are the two types of gender bias - ANSWER: alpha and beta bias
6. what is alpha bias - ANSWER: exaggerates differences between sexes (e.g.
Freud said women were morally inferior because they had a less developed
superego)
7. what is beta bias - ANSWER: minimizes differences between the sexes (often
occurs when women are not included in research), assuming that finding apply
equally to both genders (e.g. Kohlberg's theory of moral development was based
on an all male sample, so his vignettes were orientated towards violence rather
than dialogue)
8. what is androcentrism - ANSWER: when 'normal' behavior is judged according
to a male standard, so female behavior may be misunderstood pathologized (e.g.
feminist commentators say that pre-menstrual syndrome, PMS, is a social
construct that medicalises female emotions while male anger is often seen as a
rational response to external pressures) $%^&*&
%$#$%^&
9. evaluate gender bias - ANSWER: recognizing bias but contributes to *(*&^%$
stereotypes, institutional sexism, Worrell's criteria to avoid gender bias #$%^&*(
*&^%$$%
10. describe recognizing gender bias - ANSWER: many modern researchers are
^&**&^%
beginning to recognized the effect of their own bias on their research and
embrace it as a crucial and critical part of research with some including reflection $#$%^&*
of how their gender-based experiences influence their interpretation of events, so &^%$#$%
reflexivity may lead to greater awareness about the role of personal biases in ^&&^%$
future research $%^&*&
%$#$%^&
*&^%$#$
%^&*&^
%$#@#$
,2025 AQA A LEVEL PSYCHOLOGY PAPER 3|WITH
OVER 400 QUESTIONS WITH 100% CORRECT
ANSWERS
11. describe how gender bias contributes to stereotypes - ANSWER: gender-
biased research may create misleading assumptions about behavior and
contribute to negative stereotypes and discrimination, which could provide a
scientific 'justification' for denying women opportunities in the workplace or wider
society
12. describe institutional sexism in psychology - ANSWER: there are fewer senior
female researchers so female concerns may not be reflected in research, male
researchers are more likely to have their work published, and studies that find
evidence of gender differences are more likely to appear in journal articles than
those that don't
13. describe Worrell's criteria to avoid gender bias in research - ANSWER: women
should be studied within meaningful real-life contexts, women should genuinely
participate in research rather than being the object of study, diversity within
groups of women should be studied, and a greater emphasis should be placed
on collaborative research collecting qualitative data
14. what is cultural bias - ANSWER: a tendency to ignore cultural differences and
interpret all phenomena through the 'lens' of one's own culture
15. give an example of culture bias in research - ANSWER: 94% of the studies
used in a 1991 social psychology textbook were conducted in north America, and
in 1992 64% of the world's psychology researchers were American, which
suggests that psychology mainly studies white American males despite claiming
that its results are universal
16. describe a criticism of mainstream psychology in terms of cultural bias -
ANSWER: mainstream psychology tends to assume that the finding of western
research can be applied worldwide, but replications of studies such as Asch's
and Milgram's have found very different results in different countries, so cultural $%^&*&
bias may lead to cultural differences in behavior being seen as abnormal, inferior, %$#$%^&
or unusual *(*&^%$
#$%^&*(
17. what is ethnocentrism - ANSWER: judging other cultures by the standards and
*&^%$$%
values of one's own culture (e.g. Ainsworth categorised children's attachment
type and suggested that 'secure' was the ideal attachment type, however this led ^&**&^%
to mothers in other cultures/countries such as Germany being seen as cold and $#$%^&*
rejecting rather than encouraging independence, so the Strange Situation is an &^%$#$%
inappropriate measure of attachment type for non-US children ^&&^%$
$%^&*&
%$#$%^&
*&^%$#$
%^&*&^
%$#@#$
,2025 AQA A LEVEL PSYCHOLOGY PAPER 3|WITH
OVER 400 QUESTIONS WITH 100% CORRECT
ANSWERS
18. what is cultural relativism - ANSWER: the idea that norms, values, ethics and
moral standards can only be meaningfully understood within specific social and
cultural contexts, so psychologists should be mindful of cultural relativism in their
research, and recognise this as a way of avoiding cultural bias
19. what is an 'etic' approach - ANSWER: looks at behavior from outside of a
given culture and attempts to describe universal behaviors
20. what is an 'emic' approach - ANSWER: functions from inside the culture and
identifies behaviours specific to that culture
21. evaluate cultural bias - ANSWER: universality of some behaviors but
distinguishing between individualist and collectivist cultures, participant familiarity
with research, can be used to justify discrimination
22. describe universality of some behaviours - ANSWER: research suggests that
the basic facial expressions for emotions e.g. happiness and disgust are the
same all over the world, so not all of psychology is culturally relative, and a full
understanding of human behaviour requires the study of both universals and
variation among individuals and groups
23. describe distinguishing between individualist and collectivist cultures -
ANSWER: many past studies have made a distinction between individualist
(e.g. USA) and collectivist cultures (e.g. China), however critics have suggested
that this distinction is lazy and simplistic, while research such as Osaka's (14/15
studies showed no cultural distinction between USA and Japan) may suggest
that cultural bias is now less of an issue because of globalization
24. describe participant familiarity with research - ANSWER: research conducted
in western cultures assumes that participants are familiar with the general aims
and objectives of scientific research, but this knowledge may not extend to other
cultures, so the importance of demand characteristics may be exaggerated when $%^&*&
working with a different culture, lowering the validity of research %$#$%^&
*(*&^%$
25. describe how cultural bias can be used to justify discrimination - ANSWER: #$%^&*(
during WW1 psychologists gave IQ tests to 1.75 million recruits, but many of the *&^%$$%
questions were ethnocentric (e.g. about previous US presidents), so recruits from
different cultural backgrounds (e.g. European people) scored lower and were ^&**&^%
deemed genetically inferior, which shows how cultural bias can be used to justify $#$%^&*
prejudice and discrimination towards ethnic/cultural groups &^%$#$%
^&&^%$
26. what is free will the opposite of - ANSWER: determinism $%^&*&
%$#$%^&
*&^%$#$
%^&*&^
%$#@#$
, 2025 AQA A LEVEL PSYCHOLOGY PAPER 3|WITH
OVER 400 QUESTIONS WITH 100% CORRECT
ANSWERS
27. what is free will - ANSWER: the notion that humans can make choices and are
not determined by biological or external forces
28. what is determinism - ANSWER: the notion that an individual's behaviour is
shaped or controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individual's will
to do something
29. what does free will imply - ANSWER: free will do not deny that biological and
environmental forces exert some influence on our behaviour, but implies that we
are able to reject these forces
30. what are the two types of determinism (both suggest that free will cannot explain
behaviour) - ANSWER: hard and soft determinism
31. what is hard determinism - ANSWER: implies that free will is not possible as
our behaviour is always caused by internal or external events beyond our control
32. what is soft determinism - ANSWER: suggests that all human action has a
cause but people have freedom to make choices within a restricted range of
option
33. what are the other types of determinism - ANSWER: biological, environmental
and psychic
34. what is biological determinism - ANSWER: the belief that behaviour is caused
by biological (genetic/hormonal/evolutionary) influences that we cannot control
(e.g. twins studies)
35. what is environmental determinism - ANSWER: the belief that behaviour is
caused by features of the environment (such as systems of reward and $%^&*&
punishment) that we cannot control (e.g. Bandura)
%$#$%^&
36. what is psychic determinism - ANSWER: the belief that behaviour is caused by *(*&^%$
unconscious conflicts that we cannot control (e.g. Freud) #$%^&*(
*&^%$$%
37. why is determinism useful - ANSWER: knowledge of causes and the ^&**&^%
formulation of laws allows scientists to predict and control future events (so lab
$#$%^&*
studies in psychology allow researchers to remove all other extraneous variables
in order to be scientific and attempt to precisely control and predict human &^%$#$%
behaviour) ^&&^%$
$%^&*&
%$#$%^&
*&^%$#$
%^&*&^
%$#@#$
OVER 400 QUESTIONS WITH 100% CORRECT
ANSWERS
1. why may bias be inevitable in research - ANSWER: because psychologists'
beliefs and values are influenced by social and historical context, yet psychology
claims to have universality in its findings (they can be applied to anyone,
anywhere)
2. what are the two types of bias in issues and debates - ANSWER: gender and
cultural bias
3. what is gender bias - ANSWER: the idea that research or a theory may offer a
view that does not justifiably represent the experience and behaviour of men or
(usually) women
4. what are the main components of gender bias - ANSWER: alpha bias, beta
bias and androcentrism
5. what are the two types of gender bias - ANSWER: alpha and beta bias
6. what is alpha bias - ANSWER: exaggerates differences between sexes (e.g.
Freud said women were morally inferior because they had a less developed
superego)
7. what is beta bias - ANSWER: minimizes differences between the sexes (often
occurs when women are not included in research), assuming that finding apply
equally to both genders (e.g. Kohlberg's theory of moral development was based
on an all male sample, so his vignettes were orientated towards violence rather
than dialogue)
8. what is androcentrism - ANSWER: when 'normal' behavior is judged according
to a male standard, so female behavior may be misunderstood pathologized (e.g.
feminist commentators say that pre-menstrual syndrome, PMS, is a social
construct that medicalises female emotions while male anger is often seen as a
rational response to external pressures) $%^&*&
%$#$%^&
9. evaluate gender bias - ANSWER: recognizing bias but contributes to *(*&^%$
stereotypes, institutional sexism, Worrell's criteria to avoid gender bias #$%^&*(
*&^%$$%
10. describe recognizing gender bias - ANSWER: many modern researchers are
^&**&^%
beginning to recognized the effect of their own bias on their research and
embrace it as a crucial and critical part of research with some including reflection $#$%^&*
of how their gender-based experiences influence their interpretation of events, so &^%$#$%
reflexivity may lead to greater awareness about the role of personal biases in ^&&^%$
future research $%^&*&
%$#$%^&
*&^%$#$
%^&*&^
%$#@#$
,2025 AQA A LEVEL PSYCHOLOGY PAPER 3|WITH
OVER 400 QUESTIONS WITH 100% CORRECT
ANSWERS
11. describe how gender bias contributes to stereotypes - ANSWER: gender-
biased research may create misleading assumptions about behavior and
contribute to negative stereotypes and discrimination, which could provide a
scientific 'justification' for denying women opportunities in the workplace or wider
society
12. describe institutional sexism in psychology - ANSWER: there are fewer senior
female researchers so female concerns may not be reflected in research, male
researchers are more likely to have their work published, and studies that find
evidence of gender differences are more likely to appear in journal articles than
those that don't
13. describe Worrell's criteria to avoid gender bias in research - ANSWER: women
should be studied within meaningful real-life contexts, women should genuinely
participate in research rather than being the object of study, diversity within
groups of women should be studied, and a greater emphasis should be placed
on collaborative research collecting qualitative data
14. what is cultural bias - ANSWER: a tendency to ignore cultural differences and
interpret all phenomena through the 'lens' of one's own culture
15. give an example of culture bias in research - ANSWER: 94% of the studies
used in a 1991 social psychology textbook were conducted in north America, and
in 1992 64% of the world's psychology researchers were American, which
suggests that psychology mainly studies white American males despite claiming
that its results are universal
16. describe a criticism of mainstream psychology in terms of cultural bias -
ANSWER: mainstream psychology tends to assume that the finding of western
research can be applied worldwide, but replications of studies such as Asch's
and Milgram's have found very different results in different countries, so cultural $%^&*&
bias may lead to cultural differences in behavior being seen as abnormal, inferior, %$#$%^&
or unusual *(*&^%$
#$%^&*(
17. what is ethnocentrism - ANSWER: judging other cultures by the standards and
*&^%$$%
values of one's own culture (e.g. Ainsworth categorised children's attachment
type and suggested that 'secure' was the ideal attachment type, however this led ^&**&^%
to mothers in other cultures/countries such as Germany being seen as cold and $#$%^&*
rejecting rather than encouraging independence, so the Strange Situation is an &^%$#$%
inappropriate measure of attachment type for non-US children ^&&^%$
$%^&*&
%$#$%^&
*&^%$#$
%^&*&^
%$#@#$
,2025 AQA A LEVEL PSYCHOLOGY PAPER 3|WITH
OVER 400 QUESTIONS WITH 100% CORRECT
ANSWERS
18. what is cultural relativism - ANSWER: the idea that norms, values, ethics and
moral standards can only be meaningfully understood within specific social and
cultural contexts, so psychologists should be mindful of cultural relativism in their
research, and recognise this as a way of avoiding cultural bias
19. what is an 'etic' approach - ANSWER: looks at behavior from outside of a
given culture and attempts to describe universal behaviors
20. what is an 'emic' approach - ANSWER: functions from inside the culture and
identifies behaviours specific to that culture
21. evaluate cultural bias - ANSWER: universality of some behaviors but
distinguishing between individualist and collectivist cultures, participant familiarity
with research, can be used to justify discrimination
22. describe universality of some behaviours - ANSWER: research suggests that
the basic facial expressions for emotions e.g. happiness and disgust are the
same all over the world, so not all of psychology is culturally relative, and a full
understanding of human behaviour requires the study of both universals and
variation among individuals and groups
23. describe distinguishing between individualist and collectivist cultures -
ANSWER: many past studies have made a distinction between individualist
(e.g. USA) and collectivist cultures (e.g. China), however critics have suggested
that this distinction is lazy and simplistic, while research such as Osaka's (14/15
studies showed no cultural distinction between USA and Japan) may suggest
that cultural bias is now less of an issue because of globalization
24. describe participant familiarity with research - ANSWER: research conducted
in western cultures assumes that participants are familiar with the general aims
and objectives of scientific research, but this knowledge may not extend to other
cultures, so the importance of demand characteristics may be exaggerated when $%^&*&
working with a different culture, lowering the validity of research %$#$%^&
*(*&^%$
25. describe how cultural bias can be used to justify discrimination - ANSWER: #$%^&*(
during WW1 psychologists gave IQ tests to 1.75 million recruits, but many of the *&^%$$%
questions were ethnocentric (e.g. about previous US presidents), so recruits from
different cultural backgrounds (e.g. European people) scored lower and were ^&**&^%
deemed genetically inferior, which shows how cultural bias can be used to justify $#$%^&*
prejudice and discrimination towards ethnic/cultural groups &^%$#$%
^&&^%$
26. what is free will the opposite of - ANSWER: determinism $%^&*&
%$#$%^&
*&^%$#$
%^&*&^
%$#@#$
, 2025 AQA A LEVEL PSYCHOLOGY PAPER 3|WITH
OVER 400 QUESTIONS WITH 100% CORRECT
ANSWERS
27. what is free will - ANSWER: the notion that humans can make choices and are
not determined by biological or external forces
28. what is determinism - ANSWER: the notion that an individual's behaviour is
shaped or controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individual's will
to do something
29. what does free will imply - ANSWER: free will do not deny that biological and
environmental forces exert some influence on our behaviour, but implies that we
are able to reject these forces
30. what are the two types of determinism (both suggest that free will cannot explain
behaviour) - ANSWER: hard and soft determinism
31. what is hard determinism - ANSWER: implies that free will is not possible as
our behaviour is always caused by internal or external events beyond our control
32. what is soft determinism - ANSWER: suggests that all human action has a
cause but people have freedom to make choices within a restricted range of
option
33. what are the other types of determinism - ANSWER: biological, environmental
and psychic
34. what is biological determinism - ANSWER: the belief that behaviour is caused
by biological (genetic/hormonal/evolutionary) influences that we cannot control
(e.g. twins studies)
35. what is environmental determinism - ANSWER: the belief that behaviour is
caused by features of the environment (such as systems of reward and $%^&*&
punishment) that we cannot control (e.g. Bandura)
%$#$%^&
36. what is psychic determinism - ANSWER: the belief that behaviour is caused by *(*&^%$
unconscious conflicts that we cannot control (e.g. Freud) #$%^&*(
*&^%$$%
37. why is determinism useful - ANSWER: knowledge of causes and the ^&**&^%
formulation of laws allows scientists to predict and control future events (so lab
$#$%^&*
studies in psychology allow researchers to remove all other extraneous variables
in order to be scientific and attempt to precisely control and predict human &^%$#$%
behaviour) ^&&^%$
$%^&*&
%$#$%^&
*&^%$#$
%^&*&^
%$#@#$
