WORKBOOK ANSWERS
OCR AS Psychology Unit G542
Core Studies
This Answers book provides guidance on the content and characteristics of effective answers to the questions in the workbook. It does not provide model answers for each question. These answers are intended as a guide to give teachers and students feedback.
Where a question calls for a specific response, a detailed answer is provided. For questions that could elicit a range of answers, a list of the most probable responses is included. Use your discretion when marking unexpected responses by assessing whether the question has been answered.
The examiner commentaries (underlined text) have been added to give you some sense of what is rewarded in the exam and which areas can be developed. Again, these are not the only ways to answer such questions but can be treated as one way of approaching questions of these types.
Topic 1 Social psychology
Milgram: Behavioural study of obedience
1 The social approach assumes that other people influence our behaviour.
2 Milgram looked at whether American men would follow an order that caused harm to others.
3 The study was a laboratory experiment. It is unusual because no independent variable is manipulated.
4 The participants were a volunteer (self-selecting) sample.
5 In all the trials the ‘learner’ was played by Mr Wallace.
6 The participant believed he was giving electric shocks to the ‘learner’.
7 The highest level of electric shock was a voltage of 450 volts.
8 The experimenter gave the same prods and prompts to encourage all the participants to continue.
Exam-style questions
1a The participants sweated, shook and trembled, indicating extreme tension.
b Milgram suggested that the tension was caused by the conflict between wanting to obey the external pressure caused by the prods and prompts to continue and wanting to stop because the participants’ internal conscience told them they were doing something immoral.
2a The participants were...