A level-readyAll subjects · Psychology · Unit 1
WPS01 Social and Cognitive Psychology
Edexcel IAL Psychology, Unit 1 (AS unit, usually Year 12). 37 lessons so far, in the suggested order.
Lessons in WPS01
- Agency theory of obedience
Autonomous state (own responsibility) versus agentic state (agent of authority). Agentic shift needs a legitimate authority who takes responsibility. Moral stra - Social power theory of obedience
Five bases (French and Raven, 1959): legitimate, reward, coercive, expert, referent; Raven (1965) added informational. Obedience depends on the power base; coer - Obedience: Milgram (1963)
Milgram (1963): 40 men, shocks 15 V to 450 V, 65% went to 450 V, 100% to 300 V. Ethics: deception, distress, right to withdraw. - Milgram's variation studies: experiments 7, 10 and 13
Exp 7 (orders by phone): 9 of 40 fully obedient, cheating common. Exp 10 (Bridgeport office): 47.5%. Exp 13 (ordinary man): 4 of 20 = 20%. All show situational - Obedience and dissent: personality and gender
Personality: authoritarian personality (Adorno et al., 1950, F scale; Elms and Milgram, 1966) and locus of control (Rotter, 1966). Gender: usually no difference - Obedience and dissent: situation and culture
Situation: proximity of victim (40%, touch 30%), absent authority, low-prestige location (47.5%), ordinary man (20%), rebelling peers (10%). Culture: rates vary - Types and explanations of conformity
Compliance (public only, temporary), identification (with a valued group, lasts while a member), internalisation (public and private, lasting). NSI: to be accep - Asch's conformity research (1951, 1952, 1956)
Asch (1951): 50 men, 12 of 18 critical trials, 32% conformity, about 75% at least once, about 25% never, control under 1%. Variations: group size (3 is enough), - Minority influence: Moscovici (1976)
Minorities work by informational influence and can produce conversion (private change). Key behavioural style: consistency (diachronic and synchronic), confiden - Factors affecting conformity and minority influence
Personality: internal locus of control conforms less (Spector, 1983: linked to normative, not informational, tendencies). Situation: group size, unanimity, diff - Questionnaires and interviews
Closed and ranked scale questions give quantitative data; open questions give qualitative data. Interviews: structured, semi-structured, unstructured. Watch for - Primary and secondary data, and alternative hypotheses
Primary data: collected by the researcher for the study. Secondary data: collected by others. Alternative hypothesis: testable prediction for non-experimental r - Sampling techniques
Random: equal chance. Stratified: subgroups in proportion, chosen randomly. Volunteer: self-selected, volunteer bias. Opportunity: whoever is available, quick b - Descriptive statistics: averages, tables, graphs, percentages and ratios
Mean (all scores, affected by outliers), median (middle, good for skewed or ordinal data), mode (most common, for nominal data). Bar chart for categories or mea - Range, standard deviation and distributions
Range = highest - lowest (quick, affected by outliers). SD = spread around the mean (uses all scores). Normal: symmetrical, mean = median = mode. Positive skew: - Thematic analysis of qualitative data
Thematic analysis: familiarise, code, search for themes, review, define and name, report with quotes. Rich but subjective; improve reliability with independent - Ethics: the BPS Code of Ethics and Conduct (2009) and risk management
BPS (2009) principles: respect (consent, confidentiality, withdrawal), competence, responsibility (protection from harm, debriefing), integrity (honesty). Risk - Classic study: Moscovici et al. (1969)
Moscovici et al. (1969): 172 women, groups of 4 naive + 2 confederates, 36 blue slides. Consistent 'green': 8.42% green answers; inconsistent: 1.25%; 32% said g - Contemporary study: Burger (2009)
Burger (2009): 70 screened adults, stopped at 150 V. Base: 70% continued (Milgram 82.5%). Modeled refusal: 63.3%. No gender difference. Obedience still high tod - Optional contemporary study: Huang et al. (2014)
Huang et al. (2014): Chinese students rated 280 faces (1 to 8), saw a fake average of 200 peers (same only 25% of the time), re-rated after 1, 3, 7 days or 3 mo - Optional contemporary study: Haun et al. (2014)
Haun et al. (2014) Study 1: 18 two-year-olds, 12 chimpanzees, 12 orangutans; three-section box; peers showed a different section. First trial: 67% of children s - Practical investigation: a questionnaire study
Questionnaire practical: hypothesis, justified sample (at least 10 per group), Likert items plus open questions, ethics statement; analyse with central tendency - The multi-store model of memory (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968)
MSM: sensory register (attention) to STM (acoustic, 7 plus or minus 2, 18 to 30 s; rehearsal) to LTM (semantic, unlimited, lifetime). Evidence: Miller, Peterson - The working memory model (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974)
WMM: central executive (control, attention), phonological loop (phonological store + articulatory control process), visuo-spatial sketchpad (visual cache + inne - Reconstructive memory and schema theory (Bartlett, 1932)
Reconstructive memory: recall rebuilds memories using schemas (mental frameworks). Effects: omission, transformation, rationalisation, shortening, confabulation - Experiments, variables and hypotheses
Lab experiment: high control, low ecological validity. Field experiment: natural setting, less control. IV is manipulated, DV measured; operationalise both. Exp - Experimental designs and controls
Repeated measures (order effects; counterbalance), independent groups (participant variables; random allocation), matched pairs (matching is hard). Controls: co - Objectivity, reliability, validity and experimenter effects
Reliability = consistency; objectivity = free of researcher bias. Validity: internal (IV caused the DV change), ecological (real life), predictive (predicts fut - Levels of measurement, probability and significance
Nominal (categories), ordinal (ranks, unequal gaps), interval/ratio (equal units). p ≤ .05 = 5% chance. Compare observed value with critical value. Type I = fal - The Wilcoxon signed ranks test
Wilcoxon: difference, repeated measures, at least ordinal. Differences, drop zeros, rank ignoring signs (average ties), T = smaller rank total, N = non-zero dif - Case studies of brain-damaged patients: HM
HM: bilateral medial temporal lobe surgery (1953, aged 27) removed most of both hippocampi. Anterograde amnesia, normal STM, procedural learning spared. Case st - Classic study: Bartlett (1932) War of the Ghosts
Bartlett (1932): 20 British participants, War of the Ghosts, repeated reproduction (first recall after 15 minutes). Omission, transformation (canoes to boats), - Contemporary study: Schmolck et al. (2002)
Schmolck et al. (2002): 6 patients (3 MTL+, 2 HF, HM) and 8 controls; 48 line drawings; naming, fluency, sorting, definitions. HF normal, MTL+ impaired, HM mild - Optional contemporary study: Darling et al. (2007)
Darling et al. (2007): healthy participants, selective dual-task interference, latency measures; double dissociation between memory for appearance and memory fo - Optional contemporary study: Sacchi et al. (2007)
Sacchi et al. (2007): 187 Italian students saw original or doctored photos (Beijing 1989, Rome 2003). Doctored Rome: more recall of violence and injuries (67% a - Practical investigation: a repeated measures experiment
Cognitive practical: repeated measures lab experiment (for example, articulatory suppression and word recall), counterbalanced, standardised; descriptive statis - WPS01 exam technique
WPS01: 64 marks, 90 minutes; A social 26, B cognitive 26, C 12. 8-mark = AO1 4 + AO3 4; 12-mark = AO1 4 + AO2 4 + AO3 4. Use chains of reasoning, the scenario,
Next exams for WPS01
- January 2027: Fri 8 Jan 2027, afternoon, 1h 30m
- Summer 2027: Tue 4 May 2027, morning, 1h 30m
From Pearson's final timetables. All exam dates. Always confirm your entries with your exams officer.