©THEBRIGHT EXAM SOLUTIONS
11/6/2024 12:22 AM
Paper 1 possible Exam Questions With
Correct Answers
Outline what is meant by 'agentic state' as an explanation for obedience. (2 marks) - answer✔The
opposite of the autonomous state when a person acts independently. It is when an individual carries out
the orders of an authority figure with little personal responsibility and moral strain for their actions.
Jenny is a psychology teacher who works with six other teachers in the department. Jenny believes
strongly that homework should not be graded as it distracts students from reading verbal feedback on
their work. She would like her colleagues to stop grading work. The other members of the department
do not agree but have told Jenny they are willing to have a meeting about it.
Using your knowledge of minority influence, explain how Jenny might be able to persuade
the rest of the department to accept her view. (6 marks) - answer✔In order for Jenny (the minority), to
persuade the rest of her psychology department (the majority) she must show consistency, commitment
and flexibility in her views about marking.
Firstly, Jenny could show consistency by continually repeating the same message about the benefits of
verbal feedback - that it prevents the students from becoming distracted over their grades - in each of
the department meetings.
Secondly, Jenny could show commitment to this view by explaining how she is making a personal
sacrifice, by investing time in researching the best teaching strategies for marking and working hard to
ensure that students have the best quality feedback on their work.
Finally, Jenny could show flexibility by listening to the other members of her department and agree to a
compromise. They may agree to trial a marking strategy that involves verbal feedback with a reduced
emphasis on grading. This will make Jenny appear less rigid and dogmatic.
Psychologists investigating social influence have discovered several reasons why people conform.
Discuss what psychological research has told us about why people conform. (16 marks) - answer✔There
are two key explanations about why people conform: informational social influence and normative
, ©THEBRIGHT EXAM SOLUTIONS
11/6/2024 12:22 AM
social influence. Normative social influence (NSI) is when a person conforms to be accepted and to feel
like they belong to a group. Here a person conforms because it is socially rewarding, or to avoid social
rejection; for example, feeling like they don't 'fit in'.
Asch's (1956) study into conformity provides research support for normative social influence. He found
that many of the participants went along with the majority and provided an obviously incorrect answer
on a line judgement task. When questioned by Asch in post-experimental interviews, participants said
that they changed their answer to avoid disapproval from the rest of the group which clearly shows that
NSI had occurred, as the participants conformed to fit in. Furthermore, Asch demonstrated that when
the pressure to publicly conform is removed, by asking participants to write down their answers on a
piece of paper rather than say them aloud, the conformity rates fell to 12.5%. This provides further
evidence for NSI because the reduction in public pressure reduced the rate of conformity.
While the Asch study provides support for the notion of NSI, more recent research has yielded different
results. For example, Perrin and Spencer (1980) conducted an Asch-style experiment and found a
conformity level of 0.25%. Therefore, it could be argued that the results of Asch are the results of a
different era and do not represent conformity and the idea of NSI in 2017. However, it must be noted
that Perrin and Spencer used a very different sample to Asch, consisting of engineering and mathematic
students. Therefore, it can be that the lower levels of conformity were also influenced by the
participant's expertise in problem-solving tasks.
However, NSI is not the
A researcher investigated the working memory model using a laboratory experiment. 40 students from a
local college volunteered to take part.
In Condition A, 20 students performed the following two tasks at the same time:
• mentally counting backwards from 100
• tracking coloured shapes on a computer screen.
In Condition B, 20 different students performed the following two tasks at the same
time:
• mentally counting backwards from 100
• reading a poem out loud.
The researcher predicted that the performance of students in Condition A would be
better than the performance of students in Condition B.
11/6/2024 12:22 AM
Paper 1 possible Exam Questions With
Correct Answers
Outline what is meant by 'agentic state' as an explanation for obedience. (2 marks) - answer✔The
opposite of the autonomous state when a person acts independently. It is when an individual carries out
the orders of an authority figure with little personal responsibility and moral strain for their actions.
Jenny is a psychology teacher who works with six other teachers in the department. Jenny believes
strongly that homework should not be graded as it distracts students from reading verbal feedback on
their work. She would like her colleagues to stop grading work. The other members of the department
do not agree but have told Jenny they are willing to have a meeting about it.
Using your knowledge of minority influence, explain how Jenny might be able to persuade
the rest of the department to accept her view. (6 marks) - answer✔In order for Jenny (the minority), to
persuade the rest of her psychology department (the majority) she must show consistency, commitment
and flexibility in her views about marking.
Firstly, Jenny could show consistency by continually repeating the same message about the benefits of
verbal feedback - that it prevents the students from becoming distracted over their grades - in each of
the department meetings.
Secondly, Jenny could show commitment to this view by explaining how she is making a personal
sacrifice, by investing time in researching the best teaching strategies for marking and working hard to
ensure that students have the best quality feedback on their work.
Finally, Jenny could show flexibility by listening to the other members of her department and agree to a
compromise. They may agree to trial a marking strategy that involves verbal feedback with a reduced
emphasis on grading. This will make Jenny appear less rigid and dogmatic.
Psychologists investigating social influence have discovered several reasons why people conform.
Discuss what psychological research has told us about why people conform. (16 marks) - answer✔There
are two key explanations about why people conform: informational social influence and normative
, ©THEBRIGHT EXAM SOLUTIONS
11/6/2024 12:22 AM
social influence. Normative social influence (NSI) is when a person conforms to be accepted and to feel
like they belong to a group. Here a person conforms because it is socially rewarding, or to avoid social
rejection; for example, feeling like they don't 'fit in'.
Asch's (1956) study into conformity provides research support for normative social influence. He found
that many of the participants went along with the majority and provided an obviously incorrect answer
on a line judgement task. When questioned by Asch in post-experimental interviews, participants said
that they changed their answer to avoid disapproval from the rest of the group which clearly shows that
NSI had occurred, as the participants conformed to fit in. Furthermore, Asch demonstrated that when
the pressure to publicly conform is removed, by asking participants to write down their answers on a
piece of paper rather than say them aloud, the conformity rates fell to 12.5%. This provides further
evidence for NSI because the reduction in public pressure reduced the rate of conformity.
While the Asch study provides support for the notion of NSI, more recent research has yielded different
results. For example, Perrin and Spencer (1980) conducted an Asch-style experiment and found a
conformity level of 0.25%. Therefore, it could be argued that the results of Asch are the results of a
different era and do not represent conformity and the idea of NSI in 2017. However, it must be noted
that Perrin and Spencer used a very different sample to Asch, consisting of engineering and mathematic
students. Therefore, it can be that the lower levels of conformity were also influenced by the
participant's expertise in problem-solving tasks.
However, NSI is not the
A researcher investigated the working memory model using a laboratory experiment. 40 students from a
local college volunteered to take part.
In Condition A, 20 students performed the following two tasks at the same time:
• mentally counting backwards from 100
• tracking coloured shapes on a computer screen.
In Condition B, 20 different students performed the following two tasks at the same
time:
• mentally counting backwards from 100
• reading a poem out loud.
The researcher predicted that the performance of students in Condition A would be
better than the performance of students in Condition B.
