AQA Psychology A level A* Model Essay Answers 2024 Paper 1

If you're revising for AQA A Level psychology, there is one thing you really need to know if you want to do well in this subject;

You cannot score an A* grade for AQA psychology A level unless you create and memorise essay answers.

Why is this?

The reason for this is a significant part of AQA A Level psychology questions are essay based and even the smaller questions tend to be ones that are stripped down versions of bigger essays in some way. The essay questions you can be asked in the exams are worth up to 16 marks (6 for theory, 10 for evaluation) and represent a huge chunk of your possible score.

Also, there is simply far too much to remember and a significant part of the exams requires you to be able to recall a deeper level of understanding to score in the top bands.

This means basically you need to create and memorise A* model essay answers for psychology. This has been the main way students have been doing revision for this subject for years and its worked exceptionally well.

• Related: We've discussed in our post here how to write 16 mark psychology essays for AQA A level psychology if you're unsure on how to structure them.

In this post we are going to look at each topic for A-level psychology and paper 1 and identify all the essay questions that can come up and also provide you with example answers that will score you a Grade A.

The possible essay questions for AQA A level Psychology Social Influence includes at least 10 possible exam questions. These are all covered in our downloadable pack below with model essay answers:

1. Types of conformity: internalisation, identification and compliance.
2. Explanations for conformity: informational social influence and normative social influence
3. Variables affecting conformity including group size, unanimity and task difficulty as investigated by Asch
4. Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo
5. Explanations for obedience:
   1. The agentic state
   2. legitimacy of authority
6. Situational variables affecting obedience as investigated by Milgram including:
   1. proximity
   2. location
   3. uniform
7. Dispositional explanation for obedience: the Authoritarian Personality
8. Explanations of resistance to social influence, including social support and locus of control
9. Minority influence including reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility
10. The role of social influence processes in social change

The possible essay questions for AQA A level Psychology Memory include at least 6 possible model answers you need to memorise. These are all covered with A* grade example answers below:

1. The multi-store model of memory: sensory register, short-term memory and long-term memory including features of each store: coding, capacity and duration.
2. Types of long-term memory: episodic, semantic, procedural.
3. The working memory model: central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and episodic buffer. Features of the model: coding and capacity.
4. Explanations for forgetting: proactive and retroactive interference and retrieval failure due to absence of cues.
5. Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: misleading information, including leading questions and post-event discussion; anxiety.
6. Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, including the use of the cognitive interview.

The possible essay questions for AQA A level Psychology Attachment include at least 10 possible example answers to memorise. These are all included in our Attachment booklet below with A* grade model example answers:

1. Caregiver-infant interactions in humans: reciprocity and interactional synchrony
2. Stages of attachment identified by Schaffer
3. Multiple attachments and the role of the father.
4. Animal studies of attachment: Lorenz and Harlow.
5. Explanations of attachment: learning theory and Bowlby’s monotropic theory.
6. The concepts of a critical period and an internal working model.
7. Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’. Types of attachment: secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant.
8. Cultural variations in attachment, including van Ijzendoorn.
9. Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation. Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation.
10. The influence of early attachment on childhood relationships
11. The influence of early attachment on adult relationships, including the role of an internal working model.

The possible psychology example answers you need to for psychopathology include at least 10 possible model essays. You can download our example answers which will score you in the top banding below:

1. Definitions of abnormality, including deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately, statistical infrequency and deviation from ideal mental health (4 explanations you need to know the theory for and then evaluate)
2. The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias,
3. The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of depression
4. The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
5. The behavioural approach to explaining phobias: the two-process model, including classical and operant conditioning.
6. The behavioural approach to treating phobias: Systematic desensitisation, including relaxation and use of hierarchy; flooding 
7. The cognitive approach to explaining depression: Beck’s negative triad and Ellis’s ABC model.
8. The cognitive approach to treating depression: Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), including challenging irrational thoughts.
9. The biological approach to explaining OCD: genetic and neural explanations
10. The biological treatment for OCD: drug therapy.

If you are wondering how much marks you need to score to get into the top band, we've covered this in our 2024 A level psychology grade boundaries.