A Level Psychology 9990 — 12 core studies, all four options, free.

Three routes. AS Level only = Papers 1 and 2, taken in the same series. A Level staged = Papers 1 and 2 in year 1, then Papers 3 and 4 together in a later series. A Level in one series = all four.

1.1Dement and Kleitman (sleep and dreams)

Reference: Dement, W and Kleitman, N (1957), The relation of eye movements during sleep to dream activity: an objective method for the study of dreaming, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 53(5): 339–46.

Psychology being investigated: sleep; dreaming; ultradian rhythms.

Aim: to investigate the relationship between rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and dreaming, using an objective measure rather than relying on dream reports alone.

Method: a laboratory experiment that also used correlations and an interview technique. Participants slept in a lab wired to an EEG; they were woken by a doorbell in REM or non-REM sleep and reported into a recorder whether they had been dreaming and, if so, the content.

Findings: dream recall was far higher when participants were woken from REM than from non-REM sleep; participants could accurately judge whether they had been asleep for 5 or 15 minutes; and the direction of eye movements broadly matched the content of the dream.

1.2Hassett et al. (monkey toy preferences)

Reference: Hassett, J M, Siebert, E R and Wallen, K (2008), Sex differences in rhesus monkey toy preferences parallel those of children, Hormones and Behaviour, 54(3): 359–64.

Psychology being investigated: sex differences; socialisation; play; the role of hormones.

Aim: to see whether rhesus monkeys — whose behaviour is assumed to be more biologically driven than children's — show the same sex differences in toy preference that children do, which would suggest a biological rather than a social origin.

Method: an experiment using observation with a behavioural checklist. Wheeled toys and plush toys were placed in the monkeys' enclosure and interactions coded. No human participants were in the sample; comparison with children used data from another study.

Findings: male monkeys interacted with wheeled toys significantly more than females did; female monkeys showed no strong preference, interacting with both types. The male pattern paralleled that found in boys.

1.3Hölzel et al. (mindfulness and brain scans)

Reference: Hölzel, B K et al. (2011), Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density, Psychiatry Research, 191(1): 36–43.

Psychology being investigated: mindfulness; localisation of function.

Aim: to investigate whether an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction programme produces measurable changes in brain grey matter.

Method: an experiment with a longitudinal design, using MRI scans, self-reports and correlations. Participants were scanned before and after the programme and compared with a waiting-list control group.

Findings: grey matter concentration increased in the left hippocampus and in regions associated with learning, memory, emotion regulation and perspective-taking. Self-reported mindfulness increased, and changes correlated with the amount of practice.

2.1Andrade (doodling)

Reference: Andrade, J (2010), What does doodling do?, Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24(1): 100–6.

Psychology being investigated: attention; memory.

Aim: to test whether doodling improves concentration on, and memory for, a dull auditory task.

Method: a laboratory experiment with an independent measures design. Participants listened to a mock telephone message about a party and monitored it for the names of people attending. The doodling group shaded printed shapes while listening; the control group did not. Afterwards both groups were tested on the names and on the places mentioned.

Findings: the doodling group recalled significantly more — on average about 7.5 items against 5.8 — a 29% improvement. Doodling appeared to reduce daydreaming and so aid concentration.

2.2Baron-Cohen et al. (eyes test)

Reference: Baron-Cohen, S, Wheelwright, S, Hill, J, Raste, Y and Plumb, I (2001), The 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes' Test revised version, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42(2): 241–51.

Psychology being investigated: theory of mind; social sensitivity.

Aim: to improve the original 1997 Eyes Test and use it to test whether adults with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism have impaired theory of mind.

Method: an experiment that also used correlations, with the test administered as an online questionnaire. Four groups: adults with AS/HFA, a general population group, a student group and an IQ-matched group. The revised test used four answer options instead of two, added foils and included equal numbers of male and female faces.

Findings: the AS/HFA group scored significantly lower than the comparison groups. Female participants scored slightly higher than males in the general population, and the AS/HFA group scored higher on the Autism Spectrum Quotient. Eyes Test scores correlated negatively with AQ scores.

2.3Pozzulo et al. (line-ups)

Reference: Pozzulo, J D, Dempsey, J, Bruer, K and Sheahan, C (2011), The culprit in target-absent lineups, Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 27(1): 55–62.

Psychology being investigated: false positive responses; eyewitness testimony.

Aim: to investigate why young children make more false positive identifications than adults in target-absent line-ups, and whether this happens with cartoon faces as well as human faces.

Method: a laboratory experiment with interviews and questionnaires as techniques. Children (aged 4–7) and adults watched video clips of cartoon characters and of human faces, then attempted identification from target-present and target-absent line-ups.

Findings: correct identification rates were similar for children and adults when the target was present. In target-absent line-ups, children made significantly more false positives, especially for human faces — suggesting a social rather than a cognitive explanation: children feel pressure to choose someone.

3.1Bandura et al. (aggression)

Reference: Bandura, A, Ross, D and Ross, S A (1961), Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63(3): 575–82.

Psychology being investigated: social learning theory; aggression.

Aim: to test whether children would imitate aggressive behaviour observed in an adult model, and whether imitation depended on the sex of the model and of the child.

Method: a laboratory experiment using observation through a one-way mirror, with a matched pairs design (children matched on pre-rated aggressiveness). 72 children aged 3–6 were assigned to an aggressive model, a non-aggressive model or a control group, then mildly frustrated and observed with the Bobo doll and other toys.

Findings: children who saw the aggressive model imitated both physical and verbal aggression, including novel acts they could only have copied. Boys were more physically aggressive than girls, and imitation was stronger when the model was the same sex as the child.

3.2Fagen et al. (elephant learning)

Reference: Fagen, A, Acharya, N and Kaufman, G E (2014), Positive reinforcement training for a trunk wash in Nepal's working elephants, Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 17(2): 83–97.

Psychology being investigated: operant conditioning; reinforcement (positive, negative, primary and secondary); shaping; behavioural chaining.

Aim: to show that positive reinforcement training could teach working elephants to accept a trunk wash — needed for tuberculosis screening — as a humane alternative to traditional training methods.

Method: an observation with success measured by a behavioural checklist. Five juvenile elephants were trained using secondary reinforcement: a whistle (secondary reinforcer) paired with food (primary reinforcer), with shaping and behavioural chaining to build the full sequence of behaviours.

Findings: all five elephants learned individual behaviours; two completed the whole trunk-wash chain within the training period. Training was effective, humane and practical in the field.

3.3Saavedra and Silverman (button phobia)

Reference: Saavedra, L M and Silverman, W K (2002), Case study: disgust and a specific phobia of buttons, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 41(11): 1376–79.

Psychology being investigated: evaluative learning; operant conditioning; classical conditioning; phobias.

Aim: to treat a nine-year-old boy's button phobia and to test whether targeting disgust (evaluative learning) as well as fear improves the outcome.

Method: a case study using interviews, rating scales and observation. First, exposure therapy based on a fear hierarchy with positive reinforcement; then, when distress remained, imagery exposure in which the boy described his disgust-related thoughts about buttons and challenged them.

Findings: the first (contingency-based) phase reduced avoidance but distress ratings actually rose. The second (cognitive, disgust-focused) phase produced substantial reductions in distress, maintained at six- and twelve-month follow-up.

4.1Milgram (obedience)

Reference: Milgram, S (1963), Behavioral study of obedience, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67(4): 371–78.

Psychology being investigated: obedience; social pressure.

Aim: to investigate the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience — how far a person would go in obeying an instruction that meant harming another person — and to test dispositional against situational hypotheses.

Method: conducted in a laboratory setting at Yale, using observation and an interview afterwards. 40 male volunteers, recruited by newspaper advertisement, were told the study was about learning and punishment. Each was assigned (by a rigged draw) the role of "teacher" and instructed to deliver increasing shocks up to 450 V to a confederate "learner". Prods such as "the experiment requires that you continue" were used.

Findings: all 40 went to at least 300 V; 26 of 40 (65%) went to the maximum 450 V. Participants showed extreme tension — sweating, trembling, nervous laughter. Obedience was far higher than psychologists and students had predicted.

4.2Perry et al. (personal space)

Reference: Perry, A, Mankuta, D and Shamay-Tsoory, S G (2015), OT promotes closer interpersonal distance among highly empathic individuals, Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 10(1): 3–9.

Psychology being investigated: interpersonal distance (personal space); social hormones; empathy.

Aim: to test how the hormone oxytocin and a person's level of empathy affect their preferred interpersonal distance.

Method: a laboratory experiment with a double-blind, repeated measures design using a placebo. Participants received intranasal oxytocin on one occasion and a placebo on another. Experiment 1 used a computerised Comfortable Interpersonal Distance Scale; Experiment 2 asked participants to choose between pictures of rooms with differing seat arrangements. Empathy was measured by questionnaire.

Findings: the effect of oxytocin depended on empathy. Highly empathic participants preferred closer distances after oxytocin; participants low in empathy preferred greater distances. Oxytocin does not simply make people more sociable — it amplifies existing tendencies.

4.3Piliavin et al. (subway Samaritans)

Reference: Piliavin, I M, Rodin, J and Piliavin, J A (1969), Good Samaritanism: an underground phenomenon?, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 13(4): 289–99.

Psychology being investigated: bystander apathy; diffusion of responsibility.

Aim: to investigate what affects bystanders' willingness to help in a real setting — in particular the victim's apparent condition (ill or drunk), race, and the presence of a model helper.

Method: a field experiment using observation, on New York subway trains between 59th Street and 125th Street. A confederate collapsed after about 70 seconds; observers recorded who helped, how quickly, and the comments of passengers.

Findings: the "ill" victim (carrying a cane) was helped far more often and more quickly than the apparently "drunk" victim. Help was frequently spontaneous and rapid, with no strong diffusion of responsibility. Men helped more than women. There was some tendency toward same-race helping, mainly in the drunk condition.

5.1Experiments

Experimental designs:

Related concepts: counterbalancing (half do condition A first, half do B first) controls order effects in repeated measures; random allocation distributes participant variables in independent measures; order effects are practice and fatigue; a control group or condition provides the baseline for comparison.

5.2Self-reports

Questionnaires: technique (paper and pencil, or online) and question format (open questions giving qualitative detail, closed questions giving quantitative, easily analysed data). Interviews: format (structured, unstructured, semi-structured) and technique (face-to-face or telephone), also with open and closed questions.

Evaluation: self-reports gather data on thoughts and feelings that cannot be observed, and questionnaires can reach large samples cheaply. But they are vulnerable to social desirability bias and to misunderstanding of questions; closed questions can force an inaccurate answer; and unstructured interviews are hard to replicate and to analyse.

5.3Case studies

Main features: a single participant or unit, studied in detail, usually over time and usually with several techniques (triangulation).

Evaluation: rich, in-depth, high-validity data, and often the only way to study a rare condition — but a single case cannot be generalised, the researcher may become too involved and biased, and replication is impossible. Core study: Saavedra and Silverman.

5.4Observations

Types: overt (participants know) versus covert; participant (the observer joins in) versus non-participant; structured (using behavioural categories and a checklist) versus unstructured; naturalistic (natural setting) versus controlled.

Evaluation: observations record what people actually do rather than what they say they do, and covert observation avoids demand characteristics — but observer bias is a risk, covert observation raises consent problems, and behaviour cannot be explained by observation alone. Inter-observer reliability is improved by clear, operationalised behavioural categories and by training observers.

5.5Correlations

A correlation measures the relationship between two co-variables, which must be operationalised and measured, not manipulated. Correlations are positive (both rise together), negative (one rises as the other falls) or absent, and vary in strength.

Evaluation: useful where manipulation would be impractical or unethical, and good for identifying relationships worth investigating further — but correlation cannot establish causation, because a third variable may explain both, or the causal direction may be the reverse.

5.6Longitudinal studies

The same participants are studied over an extended period, including experiments with longitudinal designs. They show genuine change over time and control participant variables — but they are expensive and slow, participants drop out (attrition), and the sample that remains may be unrepresentative of the one that started. Core study: Hölzel.

5.7Aims, hypotheses and variables

An aim states the purpose of the study. A null hypothesis predicts no difference or no relationship (any difference being due to chance). An alternative hypothesis predicts one; it is directional (one-tailed) if it states which way, and non-directional (two-tailed) if it does not.

The independent variable is manipulated, the dependent variable is measured. To operationalise a variable is to define it in terms of exactly how it will be manipulated or measured.

5.8Controlling variables

Controls keep everything except the IV the same. Standardisation means every participant experiences the same procedure and instructions. Know the difference between uncontrolled variables, participant variables (differences between people — age, IQ, mood) and situational variables (differences in the environment — noise, time of day, lighting).

5.9Types of data

Quantitative data is numerical — easy to analyse, compare and graph, but lacking depth. Qualitative data is descriptive — rich and detailed, but harder to analyse and open to interpretation. Objective data is not influenced by opinion; subjective data is. Most of the core studies collect both types; saying which, and why that combination was useful, is a common question.

5.10Sampling

The population is the whole group of interest; the sample is who is actually studied. Generalisation is only justified when the sample represents the population. Milgram used a volunteer sample; Andrade used an opportunity sample from a participant panel.

5.11Ethics

With human participants: minimising harm (and maximising benefit), valid consent including informed consent, the right to withdraw, lack of deception, confidentiality, privacy and debriefing.

With animals: minimising harm (and maximising benefit), replacement (use a non-animal alternative where possible), species (choose the least sentient species suitable), numbers (use the smallest number needed), and procedures — controlling pain, suffering and distress; appropriate housing; and careful use of reward, deprivation and aversive stimuli.

5.12Validity

Validity is whether a study measures what it claims to measure. Ecological validity is whether the findings generalise to real-life settings and behaviour. Threats to validity: subjectivity in measurement or interpretation, demand characteristics (participants guessing the aim and changing their behaviour), and poor generalisability of the sample or setting.

5.13Reliability and replicability

Reliability is consistency. Inter-rater / inter-observer reliability is agreement between two observers coding the same behaviour. Test–retest reliability is consistency of the same measure over time. Replicability is whether the study can be repeated exactly — which requires a standardised procedure, and which is why standardisation matters so much when you plan a study.

5.14Data analysis

Measures of central tendency: mode (most frequent), median (middle value when ordered), mean (total ÷ number). Measures of spread: range (highest − lowest), and standard deviation, which you must recognise and interpret — a larger standard deviation means the scores are more spread out.

Graphs: a bar chart for data in separate categories (bars have gaps), a histogram for continuous data (bars touch), a scatter graph for correlations. You must be able to draw, change and interpret all three, and present and interpret data in tables.

6.1The issues and debates, and how to use them

At AS Level, consider these in relation to each core study, where appropriate:

At A Level, the same list applies to the specialist options, minus the use of animals and plus three more:

7.1Schizophrenia

7.1.1 Diagnostic criteria. ICD-11 criteria, including positive symptoms (delusions, hallucinations, disorganised thinking) and negative symptoms (avolition, flat affect, social withdrawal), plus a case study of schizophrenia. Types of delusion, investigated using virtual reality.
Key study: Freeman et al. (2003), Can virtual reality be used to investigate persecutory ideation? — non-clinical participants entered a VR library with neutral avatars and a substantial minority attributed persecutory intent to them, showing that persecutory ideation exists on a continuum and can be studied experimentally under full control.

7.1.2 Explanations. Biological: genetic (twin and family studies) and biochemical (the dopamine hypothesis). Psychological: cognitive explanations, in terms of faulty attribution and failures of source monitoring.

7.1.3 Treatment and management. Biological: typical and atypical antipsychotics, and electro-convulsive therapy. Psychological: cognitive-behavioural therapy, including a study such as Sensky et al. (2000).

7.2Mood (affective) disorders

Covers depressive disorder (unipolar) and bipolar disorder.

7.2.1 Diagnostic criteria. ICD-11 criteria and symptoms for each, and how they are distinguished from each other and from ordinary low mood.

7.2.2 Explanations. Biological: genetic and biochemical — including the key study Oruč et al. (1997), an association analysis of the 5-HT2C receptor and serotonin transporter genes in bipolar disorder, which found only weak and sex-specific associations. Psychological: cognitive explanations such as Beck's cognitive triad, and learned helplessness.

7.2.3 Treatment and management. Biological treatments (antidepressants, mood stabilisers such as lithium, ECT) and psychological therapies (CBT, and behavioural activation).

7.3Impulse control disorders

7.3.1 Diagnostic criteria for impulse control disorders, including gambling disorder, kleptomania and pyromania.

7.3.2 Explanations — biological (reward pathways, dopamine and the opioid system) and psychological (behavioural reinforcement, cognitive distortions such as the gambler's fallacy and the illusion of control).

7.3.3 Treatment and management. Key study: Grant et al. (2008), Predicting response to opiate antagonists and placebo in the treatment of pathological gambling — a randomised, placebo-controlled drug trial finding that a family history of alcoholism predicted a better response to the opioid antagonist, pointing towards individualised treatment.

7.4Anxiety disorders and fear-related disorders

7.4.1 Diagnostic criteria for anxiety and fear-related disorders, including specific phobias, agoraphobia and generalised anxiety.

7.4.2 Explanations of fear-related disorders — behavioural (classical conditioning of the fear, operant conditioning maintaining the avoidance), cognitive (catastrophic thinking), psychodynamic, and biological (preparedness and genetic vulnerability).

7.4.3 Treatment and management. Systematic desensitisation, flooding, applied tension, and cognitive-behavioural therapy. Key study: Chapman and DeLapp (2013), a nine-session manualised CBT case study of a blood–injection–injury phobia in an adult, which shows both the effectiveness of manualised CBT and the limits of generalising from a single case.

7.5Obsessive-compulsive disorder

7.5.1 Diagnostic criteria — obsessions (intrusive, unwanted thoughts) and compulsions (repetitive behaviours performed to reduce anxiety), and the cycle linking them.

7.5.2 Explanations — biological (genetic, and the orbitofrontal–striatal circuit) and psychological (learning theory, and cognitive explanations based on inflated responsibility).

7.5.3 Treatment and management. Key study: Lovell et al. (2006), a randomised controlled non-inferiority trial of telephone-administered CBT for OCD, which found telephone delivery no less effective than face-to-face — with obvious implications for access in rural areas and for cost.

8.1The physical environment

8.1.1 Retail store design — store layout (grid, free-form, racetrack), the effect of aisle width, shelf position and the location of departments, and Gruen's principles of store design.

8.1.2 Sound and consumer behaviour — how music tempo, volume and genre affect the time shoppers spend, how fast they move and what they buy.

8.1.3 Retail atmospherics — lighting, colour, scent, crowding and temperature, and how they combine to create a mood that changes purchasing.

8.2The psychological environment

8.2.1 Environmental influences on consumers — cognitive maps of stores, wayfinding, and how disorientation affects behaviour.

8.2.2 Menu design psychology — the primacy and recency effects of item position, the influence of removing currency symbols, decoy pricing, and how menu wording shapes choice.

8.2.3 Consumer behaviour and personal space — the "butt-brush" effect and crowding, and how invasion of personal space shortens the time customers stay.

8.3Consumer decision-making

8.3.1 Consumer decision-making — utility theory and the models of decision-making (compensatory and non-compensatory strategies).

8.3.2 Choice heuristics — availability, representativeness and anchoring, and the trade-off between speed and accuracy.

8.3.3 Mistakes in decision-making — the key study Levin and Gaeth (1988) on framing effects (beef labelled "75% lean" versus "25% fat"), plus thinking errors such as the sunk cost fallacy.

8.4The product

8.4.1 Packaging and positioning of a product — including Becker et al. (2011) on how packaging design (shape, colour) changes taste impressions and product evaluations, and Hoegg and Alba on visual influences.

8.4.2 Selling the product — sales techniques, interpersonal influence, and the effects of the salesperson's behaviour.

8.4.3 Buying the product — the psychology of the purchase decision, including Hoyer-style observation of routine purchases and how little deliberation most purchases actually involve.

Also relevant here is the work on choice blindness for the taste of jam and the smell of tea, which shows how readily consumers justify a choice they did not in fact make.

8.5Advertising

8.5.1 Types of advertising and advertising techniques — informational versus emotional appeals, celebrity endorsement, fear appeals, and product placement.

8.5.2 Advertising–consumer interaction — including Snyder and DeBono (1985) on image versus quality appeals: high self-monitors responded better to image-based advertising, low self-monitors to quality claims.

8.5.3 Brand awareness and recognition — brand recall and recognition, brand loyalty, and how repeated exposure builds familiarity.

9.1The patient–practitioner relationship

9.1.1 Practitioner interpersonal skills — verbal and non-verbal communication, and the effect of practitioner style on patient satisfaction and recall of information.

9.1.2 Practitioner diagnosis and style — doctor-centred versus patient-centred consultations, and the effect on outcomes, including Savage and Armstrong (1990), a randomised controlled study finding that a directing (doctor-centred) style produced higher patient satisfaction in that setting.

9.1.3 Misusing health services — delay in seeking treatment (Safer's stages: appraisal, illness, utilisation delay), hypochondriasis, and Munchausen syndrome.

9.2Adherence to medical advice

9.2.1 Types of non-adherence and reasons — intentional versus unintentional non-adherence, and rational non-adherence.

9.2.2 Measuring non-adherence — subjective (self-report, practitioner estimate), objective (pill counting, medication dispensers), and biochemical tests (urine and blood samples). Evaluate each on accuracy, cost and intrusiveness.

9.2.3 Improving adherence — behavioural techniques such as prompts and customised packaging, cognitive techniques, and improving communication. Chaney et al. (2004) on a Funhaler spacer device that increased children's adherence to asthma medication by making the treatment rewarding is the classic operant-conditioning application.

9.3Pain

9.3.1 Types and theories of pain — acute and chronic, organic and psychogenic, phantom limb pain; specificity theory and the gate control theory of pain.

9.3.2 Measuring pain — self-report measures (visual analogue scales, the McGill Pain Questionnaire), behavioural and observational measures such as the UAB scale, and measures designed for children such as the Wong-Baker faces scale.

9.3.3 Managing and controlling pain — biochemical (analgesics), psychological (attention diversion, imagery, cognitive redefinition), and alternative techniques (acupuncture, TENS, hypnosis).

9.4Stress

9.4.1 Sources of stress — work (including the demand–control model), personality (Type A and hardiness), and life events.

9.4.2 Measures of stress — physiological measures (blood pressure, heart rate, cortisol, galvanic skin response), self-report scales (the Social Readjustment Rating Scale and the Hassles and Uplifts Scale), and combinations of the two.

9.4.3 Preventing and managing stress — medical (drugs, biofeedback), psychological (cognitive restructuring, stress inoculation training), and preventive approaches such as increasing perceived control and social support.

9.5Health promotion

9.5.1 Strategies for improving health — fear arousal, providing information, and behavioural interventions such as Cowpe (1989) on the chip-pan fire prevention television campaign.

9.5.2 Health promotion in schools and worksites — programmes targeting children's health behaviour, and worksite interventions such as the Fox et al. (1987) token-economy study which cut injuries in open-pit mines.

9.5.3 Individual factors in changing health beliefs — the Health Belief Model, the theory of planned behaviour, unrealistic optimism, and the transtheoretical (stages of change) model.

10.1Motivation to work

10.1.1 Need theories — Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Alderfer's ERG theory, and McClelland's theory of achievement, affiliation and power needs.

10.1.2 Cognitive theories — Vroom's expectancy theory, Locke's goal-setting theory, and equity theory.

10.1.3 Motivators at work — pay and reward systems, intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation, and non-monetary rewards. Landry et al.'s laboratory work on the motivational impact of cash rewards is the specified example of how financial incentives operate — and where they backfire by displacing intrinsic motivation.

10.2Leadership and management

10.2.1 Traditional and modern theories of leadership — the universalist "great person" theory, behavioural theories, contingency theories such as Fiedler's, and modern transformational and transactional leadership.

10.2.2 Leadership style — autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire, and the interaction with gender, including Cuadrado et al.'s (2008) work on the evaluation of leadership styles and gender, which found that women adopting a stereotypically masculine style were evaluated more harshly.

10.2.3 Leaders and followers — leader–member exchange theory, and the characteristics and roles of followers.

10.3Group behaviour in organisations

10.3.1 Group development and decision-making — Tuckman's stages (forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning), groupthink and its symptoms, and group polarisation.

10.3.2 Individual and group performance — social facilitation and social inhibition, and social loafing; including work extending social facilitation to modern computer-mediated settings.

10.3.3 Conflict at work — levels and causes of conflict, bullying at work, and strategies for conflict resolution.

10.4Organisational work conditions

10.4.1 Physical work conditions — illumination (and the Hawthorne effect), noise, temperature, and open-plan versus private office layouts.

10.4.2 Temporal conditions of work environments — shift work and circadian rhythm disruption, rapid versus slow rotation, compressed work weeks, and flexitime.

10.4.3 Health and safety — accident-proneness and errors, theories of accident causation, and reducing accidents through token economies and safety programmes.

10.5Satisfaction at work

10.5.1 Theories of job satisfaction — Herzberg's two-factor theory (hygiene factors prevent dissatisfaction; motivators create satisfaction), job characteristics theory, and job enrichment and rotation.

10.5.2 Measuring job satisfaction — rating scales such as the Job Descriptive Index and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, and the use of interviews.

10.5.3 Attitudes to work — organisational commitment, absenteeism (and how it is measured and reduced), sabotage, and organisational citizenship behaviour.

PLThe general checklist — every plan, every time

1. Aim — one sentence stating what the study will investigate.
2. Hypothesis — a prediction with both variables operationalised, stated as directional or non-directional, plus the null hypothesis if asked.
3. Research method — and a reason for choosing it over the alternatives.
4. Sample — the target population, the size, and the sampling technique, with a justification.
5. Procedure — a numbered, standardised sequence detailed enough that someone else could carry it out exactly.
6. Controls / standardisation — name the variables you are controlling and say how.
7. Type of data collected, and how it will be analysed and presented.
8. Validity — say specifically what makes the plan valid.
9. Reliability — say specifically what makes it reliable and replicable.
10. Ethics — the guidelines that apply and how you will meet them.

Additional required features by method — Cambridge specifies these, so include them when the question names the method:

CWWhat each command word actually wants

LearnThe terms examiners want used precisely

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Official (free)

• Cambridge International — 9990 subject page: syllabus, specimen papers, past papers, mark schemes and examiner reports.
• Examiner reports name the exact questions candidates got wrong each series — read them for every paper you attempt.

Free archives

• GCE Guide · PastPapers.co — full CAIE past-paper archives.
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How to revise this subject

1. Build a one-page card for each core study: psychology being investigated, background, aim, method and design, sample, procedure, results, conclusions, and evaluation. Paper 1 asks about all of those.
2. Learn the method as carefully as the findings. Half of Paper 2 is research methods applied to the core studies, so "Milgram, lab setting, observation and interview, no independent variable in the main study" matters as much as the 65%.
3. Practise planning studies against the clock. Use the checklist in this guide: aim, hypothesis, IV and DV operationalised, design, sample and sampling technique, controls, procedure, data type, ethics, validity, reliability.
4. Evaluate with named concepts. Reliability, validity, ecological validity, demand characteristics, generalisability, ethics, quantitative versus qualitative. A vague "it was not very realistic" scores nothing.
5. Always give a two-sided evaluation. A strength and a weakness, each with a reason and an example from the study. One-sided answers are capped.
6. Use the command word. "Describe" wants content; "explain" wants reasons; "evaluate" wants judgement with evidence; "suggest" wants you to apply what you know to a scenario you have never seen.