AQA A-Level Psychology
Explore your course, one topic at a time.
Course version · 7182Exams through 2026Change version
Choose your course version: the course code is on your timetable or a past paper. Not sure? We’ll start you on the most likely version when you sign up.
Explore your topics
25 study areas
Introductory topics in psychology4 topics
Psychology in context3 topics · 3 subtopics
Issues and options in psychology11 study areas
- Issues and options in Psychology3 objectives
Issues and debates in psychology
Issues and debates in Psychology18 objectives- Relationships18 objectives
- Gender24 objectives
- Cognition and development17 objectives
- Schizophrenia26 objectives
- Eating behaviour26 objectives
- Stress29 objectives
- Aggression23 objectives
Forensic psychology
Forensic Psychology22 objectives- Addiction27 objectives
Mathematical skills1 topic · 4 subtopics
Assessment and exam guidance
Assessment Objectives
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, processes, techniques and procedures.
Apply knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, processes, techniques and procedures: in a theoretical context; in a practical context; when handling qualitative data; when handling quantitative data.
Analyse, interpret and evaluate scientific information, ideas and evidence, including in relation to issues, to: make judgements and reach conclusions; develop and refine practical design and procedures.
Exam Structure
Paper 1: Introductory Topics in Psychology
2h
Duration
96
Marks
33.3%
Weighting
Paper 2: Psychology in Context
2h
Duration
96
Marks
33.3%
Weighting
Paper 3: Issues and Options in Psychology
2h
Duration
96
Marks
33.3%
Weighting
Tips and common mistakes
Common Exam Mistakes
Pitfalls to avoid in your exams
- •Swapping the explanations round by writing that normative influence is about wanting to be right. Normative influence is about acceptance; informational influence is about accuracy.
- •Saying Asch found that most people conformed. The 36.8% figure is the rate on critical trials and the 75% figure is the proportion conforming at least once, and the two are not interchangeable.
- •Treating internalisation and compliance as strong and weak versions of the same thing instead of private versus public change.
- •Describing group size as a straight-line relationship when conformity levels off after about three confederates.
- •Calling the dissenter variation 'having a friend'. The dissenter can give a different wrong answer and still break the power of the group.
- •Calling it a true experiment with a control condition. While the assigned role (guard or prisoner) was a manipulated independent variable, there was no non-prison control group, so the causal claim is weaker than students usually assume.
- •Writing that prisoners were forbidden to leave. They were told they could not leave without parole, and it is the ambiguity of the right to withdraw, not its removal, that is criticised.
- •Assuming every guard was sadistic, when the variation between guards is the strongest evidence against the situational conclusion.
Top Examiner Tips
Expert advice for exam success
- •For an extended response, cover the requested knowledge accurately before evaluating it with evidence, methodological limits and alternative explanations; follow the command word and any application material in the question.
- •In an application question, find the cue in the stem: an ambiguous task or an expert points to informational influence, while fear of standing out points to normative influence.
- •When outlining the variables, give the direction of the effect and a figure, not just the name of the variable.
- •Use the type of conformity to explain how long a change lasts - internalisation for permanent change, compliance for change that disappears with the group.
- •Do not retell the whole story. Three or four procedural points and the key findings earn the AO1, and the rest of a long answer should be evaluation.
- •If the scenario describes a new job, a uniform or an anonymous online setting, apply deindividuation and role expectation to the specific details given.
- •Ethics earns evaluation credit only when it is linked to the conclusions or to a cost-benefit judgement, not offered as a list of broken guidelines.
- •Match the explanation to the stem: a uniform or an impressive setting calls for the situational variables, while an upbringing or a set of rigid attitudes calls for the dispositional explanation.
Ready for a little practice?
Create your account to start practising Psychology.
7 days Premium · Then the free plan continues · No card, no charge