Cambridge Past Paper Questions

'Managers only need to set clear goals to motivate their workers.' To what extent do you agree with this statement? Use examples of research you ha...

Two friends, Lok and Hiruni, are discussing the ethics of the study by Schachter and Singer (two factors in emotion). Lok thinks the study is ethic...

A hypothesis in a study about ways to reduce phobias states 'Positive reinforcement will reduce phobic reactions more than imagery exposure'.

Standardisation was important in the study by Dement and Kleitman (sleep and dreams):

State one advantage of using the standard deviation compared to the range as a measure of spread.

In the study by Yamamoto et al. (chimpanzee helping), the chimpanzees were housed socially. Explain why this housing was important in terms of the ...

The study by Baron-Cohen et al. (eyes test) used several samples of participants, selected in different ways. One of these was a volunteer sample.

Describe inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability, using any examples.

Freya is planning a semi-structured interview to find out whether people sleep better in the winter or the summer.

Claude is looking for a link between time spent eating and hunger. He thinks that students who eat faster will be more hungry two hours later. He o...

Jia has conducted an experiment on memory. Each participant played a memory game twice, first with a distracting noise and then without the noise.

Pihu, a teacher, has been watching the young children at her school playing at lunchtime. She has noticed that there are several different games an...

A hypothesis in a study states 'Recall will be better after a short delay than after a long delay'.

Explain what is meant by a 'sample', using an example from a core study from the biological approach.

In the study by Milgram (obedience), the 'primary dependent variable' was voltage.

Describe one similarity and one difference between an independent measures design and a repeated measures design, using any examples.

Dr Shah is conducting a naturalistic observation in a children's play area.

Sonia is conducting a study using drivers queueing in traffic. Her hypothesis is 'There will be a positive correlation between frustration and ange...

Zach is planning a study using laboratory rats to investigate whether they will copy a rat which acts as a model by eating unusual foods. He is awa...

Fahim is planning an interview study to investigate the types of dreams people have. He wants to collect a range of data using different types of q...

One ethical guideline is to avoid deception in research. Explain what is meant by 'deception', using an example from a core study from the social a...

A study aims to find out whether boys and girls differ in the amount of time that they talk.

Explain one advantage of using animals in research in psychology.

Describe how the case study method differs from other research methods, using any examples.

Liam is investigating whether children can be given false memories of a game they had played, such as winning a game that they actually lost. He pl...

Olivia is conducting an experiment to investigate whether students concentrate better in class before or after eating. Her experimental design is a...

Huan is planning an interview about attitudes to mental illness.

Fazli wants to study the relationship between kindness and obedience. He is not sure whether people who are more obedient will be more or less kind...

A question from the Kleptomania Symptom Assessment Scale (K-SAS): During the past WEEK, approximately how many hours (add up hours) did you spend t...

In a study by Milgram et al. (1986), a stooge (confederate) intruded into a line of people waiting in a queue. 'Hey buddy, we've been waiting. Get ...

Newspaper headline: Imagine a pleasant scene that makes you smile. According to psychologist Linda Bridge, the stress of patients suffering from br...

There are five job facets in the job descriptive index (JDI) (Smith et al., 1969). One question from the JDI asks about the co-worker facet: Think ...

Design a study using an observation to investigate whether a person has generalised anxiety disorder.

Design a study using a questionnaire to investigate the effectiveness of the 'disrupt-then- reframe' sales technique.

Design an experiment to investigate the effectiveness of ‘attention diversion' for patients during a painful medical procedure.

Design a study to investigate to what extent the manager of a clothes factory demonstrates 'levels of leadership'.

'All impulse control disorders are caused by a person receiving positive reinforcement after engaging in a particular behaviour.' To what extent do...

'Descriptive food names do not influence perception of food; people will eat what they like.' To what extent do you agree with this statement? Use ...

‘There is no need to have different measures of pain specifically for children.' To what extent do you agree with this statement? Use examples of r...

'Work absenteeism is always a sign of work dissatisfaction.' To what extent do you agree with this statement? Use examples of research you have stu...

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