AQA A-Level Psychology | Paper 2 | 2027 Predicted Paper
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- 2 hours ago
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For 7182 specification, first teach in September 2025
Paper 2: Psychology in Context
Time allowed: 2 hours
Section A - Approaches in Psychology
Answer ALL questions in this section.
Question 01
When Ravi was younger, he needed several painful dental treatments. During each treatment he could hear the sound of the dentist's drill.
Ravi no longer needs painful treatment, but he becomes anxious whenever he hears the sound of a dental drill.
Using your knowledge of classical conditioning, explain Ravi's anxiety response.
[4 marks]
Question 02
Explain the difference between genotype and phenotype.
Use an example in your answer.
[4 marks]
Question 03
Describe and evaluate the cognitive approach in psychology.
[16 marks]
Section B - Biopsychology
Answer all questions in this section.
Question 04
Which two of the following statements about post-mortem examinations are correct?
Shade two boxes only.
[2 marks]
A. Brain tissue can be examined after the person has died.
B. The person can complete psychological tasks while the examination takes place.
C. Researchers can relate features of the brain to behaviour shown by the person before death.
D. Post-mortem examinations provide a direct measure of moment-to-moment electrical brain activity.
E. Post-mortem examinations involve no ethical considerations.
Question 05
Explain the process of synaptic transmission.
Refer to inhibition in your answer.
[4 marks]
Question 06
Outline two differences between electroencephalograms (EEGs) and event-related potentials (ERPs).
[4 marks]
Sofia is playing the piano during a school concert. She deliberately moves her hands and fingers across the keyboard.
Halfway through the concert, a fire alarm sounds unexpectedly. Sofia's heart begins to beat more quickly and she starts to sweat.
Question 07
Using your knowledge of the somatic and autonomic nervous systems, explain Sofia's behaviour and physiological responses.
[6 marks]
Question 08
Discuss plasticity and functional recovery of the brain after trauma.
[8 marks]
Section C - Research Methods
Answer all questions in this section.
A psychologist wanted to investigate whether listening to instrumental music affects performance on a proofreading task.
Twelve A-level students volunteered to take part.
Each participant completed two conditions on different days.
Condition A: participants completed a proofreading task in silence.
Condition B: participants completed a similar proofreading task while listening to the same instrumental music through headphones.
Each proofreading passage contained 10 deliberately inserted errors. Participants had 5 minutes to identify as many errors as possible.
A participant was classified as:
successful if they identified at least 8 of the 10 errors
unsuccessful if they identified fewer than 8 errors.
Half of the participants completed Condition A first and half completed Condition B first.
Before the study began, the psychologist told the participants, "I think listening to music will help people to concentrate."
Question 09
Write a suitable aim for this study.
[2 marks]
Question 10
Write a suitable non-directional hypothesis for this study.
[3 marks]
Question 11
Which one of the following best describes the experimental design used in this study?
Shade one box only.
[1 mark]
A. Independent groups
B. Matched pairs
C. Repeated measures
D. Natural experiment
Question 12
Explain how demand characteristics might affect the validity of this study.
Suggest one way the psychologist could reduce the effect of demand characteristics.
[4 marks]
The results are shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Outcome for each participant in the two conditions
Participant | Condition A: silence | Condition B: music |
1 | Unsuccessful | Successful |
2 | Unsuccessful | Successful |
3 | Unsuccessful | Successful |
4 | Unsuccessful | Successful |
5 | Unsuccessful | Successful |
6 | Unsuccessful | Successful |
7 | Unsuccessful | Successful |
8 | Unsuccessful | Successful |
9 | Successful | Unsuccessful |
10 | Successful | Successful |
11 | Successful | Successful |
12 | Unsuccessful | Unsuccessful |
Question 13
Calculate the percentage of participants who were successful in:
Condition A
Condition B.
Give each answer to one decimal place.
Show your working.
[4 marks]
Question 14
Name one appropriate type of graph that the psychologist could use to display the percentage of successful participants in the two conditions.
Explain why this graph would be appropriate.
[2 marks]
Question 15
Identify an appropriate statistical test that the psychologist could use to determine whether there is a significant difference between the outcomes in the two conditions.
Explain three reasons for your choice of statistical test.
[7 marks]
a participant who was unsuccessful in silence but successful with music is given a +
a participant who was successful in silence but unsuccessful with music is given a −
participants with the same outcome in both conditions are omitted.
Table 2 shows critical values of S.
Table 2: Critical values of S for a two-tailed Sign test at p≤0.05
N | Critical value of S |
7 | 0 |
8 | 0 |
9 | 1 |
10 | 1 |
11 | 1 |
12 | 2 |
Question 16
Using the results in Table 1:
calculate the value of S
use Table 2 to decide whether the result is statistically significant.
Justify your answer.
[3 marks]
Before carrying out the main investigation, the psychologist could have conducted a pilot study.
Question 17
Explain one reason why conducting a pilot study would have been useful in this investigation.
[2 marks]
A different psychologist wants to investigate the study behaviour of one student who has experienced unusually severe difficulties concentrating at school.
The psychologist is considering using a case study.
Question 18
Explain one strength and one limitation of using a case study to investigate this student's behaviour.
[4 marks]
The psychologist also develops a questionnaire to measure students' self-reported concentration.
Question 19
Explain how the psychologist could assess the test-retest reliability of the questionnaire.
[4 marks]
A researcher wants to investigate whether there is a relationship between the amount of sleep students obtain and their performance on a memory task.
Question 20
Design a correlational study to investigate the relationship between sleep and memory performance in A-level students.
In your answer you will gain credit for providing appropriate details of the following:
how each of the two co-variables would be operationalised
the sampling method that would be used, with justification
the procedure, including appropriate standardisation or controls
ethical issues that should be considered.
[12 marks]
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