AQA A-Level PsychologyEeE Exam Questions and Answers Graded 100%

1.) Which two of the following best describe Zimbardo's prison study? ( 2 marks) - ANSWER -A- Controlled Observation C-Laboratory experiment Students Natasha and Tanya are buying food in the supermarket on their way home from school. As they are paying, they notice their psychology teacher. Mr Boat, at the far end of the queue. They both smile and wave. Mr Boat shouts "Hey, you two! I think you owe me homework. Wait there so we can have a quick chat." Natasha and Tanya finish paying, glance at each other giggling and hurry out of the supermarket. 2.) Using your knowledge of obedience research, explain possible reasons why the students failed to obey their teacher. ( 6 marks) - ANSWER -As they were in a supermarket, the change in location and uniform meant Natasha and Tanya may have seen Mr Boat as less authoritative which led to them disobeying. This is because in Milgram's variation of his shock study, people are more likely to obey individuals with uniforms as they seem more authoritative. In the study, obedience fell from 65% to 20%. Therefore, uniform widely explains why Natasha and Tanya failed to obey their teacher. presence of disobedient person / role + social support = failure to obey because gives them confidence + courage to resist authorities orders, shown by Milgram (not Rosenstrasse 1943) In Milgram's variation of his shock study he had two other teachers (confederates) who refused to continue so obedience went from 65% to 30% 3.) Discuss research into minority influence ( 16 marks) - ANSWER -minority influence refers to how individuals or a small group of people can change the beliefs and behaviours of the majority mainly through the consistency, commitment and flexibility of their beliefs. This is seen in Moscovici's (1969) study where he had groups of 6 (4 participants 2 confederates, all females) identify the colour of slides in 3 conditions: the consistent conditions where confederates called blue slides green for every trial; the inconsistent condition where the confederates called blue slides green 2⁄3 times for every trial; and the control condition where 6 participants and no confederates called slides blue throughout. Moscovici found that consistent minority influence participants to say green on over 8% of the trials and inconsistent minority exerted very little influence of 1.25%. He concluded that minorities can influence a majority but not all the time, only when they behave in certain ways eg consistent. A strength of minority influence is that it can help people make better quality decisions. Nemeth (2010) argues that minority opinion opens the mind because people are able to consider more options and search for information, stimulating creative thought even if they are wrong. Therefore, it is beneficial to the real world population by making people more considerate and creative with what they conclude.