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Methods: Edexcel A‑Level Psychology questions

Every Edexcel A-Level Psychology exam question on 1.2 Methods, 2016–2025, with its mark scheme and examiner’s report.

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946 questions

  1. Q1

    June 2025 · Paper 1

    4 marks1.2 Methods1.6 Issues and debates
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2025 Paper 1, question 1: In your studies of social psychology, you will have learned about the British Psychological Society (BPS) code of ethics and conduct (2009). Describe two ethica

  2. Q1

    June 2025 · AS Paper 1

    2 marks1.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2025 AS Paper 1, question 1: Using an example, define what is meant by ‘qualitative data’.

  3. Q2(a)

    June 2025 · AS Paper 1

    2 marks1.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2025 AS Paper 1, question 2(a): Describe how Mo could use an opportunity sampling technique to gather participants for his investigation. (2) 2 Luncester and Melwich are two rugby teams that c

  4. Q2(b)

    June 2025 · AS Paper 1

    3 marks1.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2025 AS Paper 1, question 2(b): Mo’s questionnaire asked the fans to rate each player from Luncester and Melwich for rugby skills using a rating scale. On the rating scale, a score of 1 repres

  5. Q2(c)

    June 2025 · AS Paper 1

    2 marks1.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2025 AS Paper 1, question 2(c): Explain one weakness of Mo’s investigation. (2) 2 Luncester and Melwich are two rugby teams that compete against one another. Mo used a questionnaire to gather

  6. Q2(a)

    June 2024 · Paper 1

    1 mark1.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2024 Paper 1, question 2(a): Convert Noah’s findings from a fraction into a percentage. (1) 2 Noah investigated locus of control as a personality factor affecting obedience. He sampled 24 p

  7. Q2(b)

    June 2024 · Paper 1

    1 mark1.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2024 Paper 1, question 2(b): Out of the 24 participants, Noah found 18 had traits of an internal locus of control compared to 6 who had traits of an external locus of control. Convert Noah’

  8. Q2(c)

    June 2024 · Paper 1

    1 mark1.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2024 Paper 1, question 2(c): Noah’s sample of participants included 8 males. Calculate the male participants as a fraction of all participants. You must express your answer in the lowest fo

  9. Q3

    June 2024 · Paper 1

    4 marks1.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2024 Paper 1, question 3: Suzanne conducted an interview with 20 participants about their likelihood of obeying an authority figure. She described several scenarios of situations where i

  10. Q2(a)

    June 2024 · AS Paper 1

    2 marks1.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2024 AS Paper 1, question 2(a): Describe how Jasmine could have recruited her participants using a random sampling technique. (2) 2 Jasmine works at a local school. The school policy is that c

  11. Q2(b)

    June 2024 · AS Paper 1

    2 marks1.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2024 AS Paper 1, question 2(b): Explain one conclusion Jasmine could make using the data from Table 1. (2) 2 Jasmine works at a local school. The school policy is that children should only bri

  12. Q2(c)

    June 2024 · AS Paper 1

    2 marks1.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2024 AS Paper 1, question 2(c): Jasmine collected quantitative data. Explain one reason why Jasmine collected quantitative data for her investigation. (2) 2 Jasmine works at a local school. Th

  13. Q2(d)

    June 2024 · AS Paper 1

    2 marks1.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2024 AS Paper 1, question 2(d): Explain one way Jasmine could improve her questionnaire about bringing healthy snacks into school. (2) 2 Jasmine works at a local school. The school policy is t

  14. Q2(a)

    June 2023 · Paper 1

    4 marks1.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2023 Paper 1, question 2(a): Calculate the standard deviation for the gender prejudice score using the data in Table 1. Show your working and give your answer to two decimal places. (4) 2 J

  15. Q2(b)

    June 2023 · Paper 1

    1 mark1.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2023 Paper 1, question 2(b): Calculate the range for the gender prejudice score. (1) 2 Jack wanted to investigate whether males were prejudiced towards females who worked in stereotypical m

  16. Q4(a)

    June 2023 · AS Paper 1

    1 mark1.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2023 AS Paper 1, question 4(a): Calculate the median number of times the male participants disobeyed a parent / guardian request (in 30 days). (1) 4 Megan was interested in whether there was a

  17. Q4(b)

    June 2023 · AS Paper 1

    1 mark1.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2023 AS Paper 1, question 4(b): Calculate the mean number of times the female participants disobeyed a parent / guardian request (in 30 days). (1) 4 Megan was interested in whether there was a

  18. Q4(c)

    June 2023 · AS Paper 1

    3 marks1.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2023 AS Paper 1, question 4(c): Using the data in Table 2, calculate the standard deviation for the number of times the male participants disobeyed a parent / guardian request (in 30 days). Yo

  19. Q12

    June 2023 · AS Paper 1

    12 marks1.2 Methods2.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2023 AS Paper 1, question 12: Evaluate the use of interviews and field experiments when conducting research in psychology. (12)

  20. Q2

    June 2022 · Paper 1

    3 marks1.2 Methods
    The whole paper ↗
    June 2022 Paper 1, question 2: Belinda investigated whether personality had an impact on levels of obedience at work. She selected 10 senior managers from different companies, five with high
All 58 questions on Methods, as a list
  1. June 2025, Paper 1, Q1 (4 marks): In your studies of social psychology, you will have learned about the British Psychological Society (BPS) code of ethics and conduct (2009). Describe two ethica
  2. June 2025, AS Paper 1, Q1 (2 marks): Using an example, define what is meant by ‘qualitative data’.
  3. June 2025, AS Paper 1, Q2(a) (2 marks): Describe how Mo could use an opportunity sampling technique to gather participants for his investigation. (2) 2 Luncester and Melwich are two rugby teams that c
  4. June 2025, AS Paper 1, Q2(b) (3 marks): Mo’s questionnaire asked the fans to rate each player from Luncester and Melwich for rugby skills using a rating scale. On the rating scale, a score of 1 repres
  5. June 2025, AS Paper 1, Q2(c) (2 marks): Explain one weakness of Mo’s investigation. (2) 2 Luncester and Melwich are two rugby teams that compete against one another. Mo used a questionnaire to gather
  6. June 2024, Paper 1, Q2(a) (1 mark): Convert Noah’s findings from a fraction into a percentage. (1) 2 Noah investigated locus of control as a personality factor affecting obedience. He sampled 24 p
  7. June 2024, Paper 1, Q2(b) (1 mark): Out of the 24 participants, Noah found 18 had traits of an internal locus of control compared to 6 who had traits of an external locus of control. Convert Noah’
  8. June 2024, Paper 1, Q2(c) (1 mark): Noah’s sample of participants included 8 males. Calculate the male participants as a fraction of all participants. You must express your answer in the lowest fo
  9. June 2024, Paper 1, Q3 (4 marks): Suzanne conducted an interview with 20 participants about their likelihood of obeying an authority figure. She described several scenarios of situations where i
  10. June 2024, AS Paper 1, Q2(a) (2 marks): Describe how Jasmine could have recruited her participants using a random sampling technique. (2) 2 Jasmine works at a local school. The school policy is that c
  11. June 2024, AS Paper 1, Q2(b) (2 marks): Explain one conclusion Jasmine could make using the data from Table 1. (2) 2 Jasmine works at a local school. The school policy is that children should only bri
  12. June 2024, AS Paper 1, Q2(c) (2 marks): Jasmine collected quantitative data. Explain one reason why Jasmine collected quantitative data for her investigation. (2) 2 Jasmine works at a local school. Th
  13. June 2024, AS Paper 1, Q2(d) (2 marks): Explain one way Jasmine could improve her questionnaire about bringing healthy snacks into school. (2) 2 Jasmine works at a local school. The school policy is t
  14. June 2023, Paper 1, Q2(a) (4 marks): Calculate the standard deviation for the gender prejudice score using the data in Table 1. Show your working and give your answer to two decimal places. (4) 2 J
  15. June 2023, Paper 1, Q2(b) (1 mark): Calculate the range for the gender prejudice score. (1) 2 Jack wanted to investigate whether males were prejudiced towards females who worked in stereotypical m
  16. June 2023, AS Paper 1, Q4(a) (1 mark): Calculate the median number of times the male participants disobeyed a parent / guardian request (in 30 days). (1) 4 Megan was interested in whether there was a
  17. June 2023, AS Paper 1, Q4(b) (1 mark): Calculate the mean number of times the female participants disobeyed a parent / guardian request (in 30 days). (1) 4 Megan was interested in whether there was a
  18. June 2023, AS Paper 1, Q4(c) (3 marks): Using the data in Table 2, calculate the standard deviation for the number of times the male participants disobeyed a parent / guardian request (in 30 days). Yo
  19. June 2023, AS Paper 1, Q12 (12 marks): Evaluate the use of interviews and field experiments when conducting research in psychology. (12)
  20. June 2022, Paper 1, Q2 (3 marks): Belinda investigated whether personality had an impact on levels of obedience at work. She selected 10 senior managers from different companies, five with high
  21. June 2022, AS Paper 1, Q2(a) (1 mark): Define ‘opportunity sampling’. (1) 2 Kristian is the manager of a local hockey club and has been offered a new site for the club. The new grounds have better fa
  22. June 2022, AS Paper 1, Q2(b) (4 marks): Explain one strength and one weakness of Kristian using a questionnaire to gather opinions about relocating the hockey club. (4) 2 Kristian is the manager of a
  23. June 2022, AS Paper 1, Q3(a) (2 marks): Describe one ethical issue that Brittany needed to consider before conducting her investigation. (2) 3 Brittany carried out an investigation into the positive a
  24. June 2022, AS Paper 1, Q3(b) (4 marks): Brittany conducted a thematic analysis on the data she had collected. Describe how Brittany could analyse the qualitative data she has collected using thematic
  25. November 2021, Paper 1, Q3 (8 marks): Evaluate the use of questionnaires for research in social psychology. (8)
  26. October 2020, Paper 1, Q2(a) (3 marks): Identify the measure of central tendency shown at data points A, B and C on the frequency distribution curve for Jake’s data, shown in Figure 1. (3) A frequency
  27. October 2020, Paper 1, Q2(b) (1 mark): Interpret the data Jake gathered about driving speeds in his local town. (1) 2 Jake wanted to find out if people obeyed the 30 miles per hour (mph) speed restri
  28. October 2020, AS Paper 1, Q1(a) (2 marks): Describe how Jamshid could recruit the parents of the students using a volunteer sampling technique. (2) 1 Jamshid’s school is proposing to implement a ‘no park
  29. October 2020, AS Paper 1, Q1(b) (1 mark): Jamshid has chosen to use open questions for his semi-structured interview. Define what is meant by an ‘open question’. (1) 1 Jamshid’s school is proposing to i
  30. October 2020, AS Paper 1, Q1(c) (1 mark): Jamshid was considering issues of subjectivity in relation to his semi‑structured interview. Define what is meant by the term ‘subjectivity’ as used in psycholo
  31. October 2020, AS Paper 1, Q1(d) (4 marks): Explain two strengths of Jamshid using a semi-structured interview for his study. (4) 1 Jamshid’s school is proposing to implement a ‘no parking zone’ around th
  32. October 2020, AS Paper 1, Q1(e) (2 marks): Explain one improvement that Jamshid could make to his study. (2) 1 Jamshid’s school is proposing to implement a ‘no parking zone’ around the perimeter of the s
  33. October 2020, AS Paper 1, Q3(a) (3 marks): Describe how Fiona could collect primary data for her investigation. (3) 3 Fiona wants to investigate whether residents in retirement homes are more likely to b
  34. June 2019, Paper 1, Q1(a) (2 marks): Describe how Fuchsia could recruit her participants using a volunteer sampling technique. (2) 1 Fuchsia was interested to see whether location affected prejudic
  35. June 2019, Paper 1, Q1(b) (4 marks): Fuchsia intends to use thematic analysis to analyse her data. Explain one strength and one weakness of Fuchsia using thematic analysis to analyse her data. (4)
  36. June 2019, Paper 1, Q1(c) (2 marks): Fuchsia has drafted some open-ended questions that she plans to use, which are shown in Figure 1. My prejudice questions 1. If someone called you a racist, what
  37. June 2019, AS Paper 1, Q2(a) (1 mark): Suggest one closed question Alfredo could use in his questionnaire. (1) 2 Alfredo plans to conduct an investigation into obedience using a questionnaire. He wan
  38. June 2019, AS Paper 1, Q2(b) (1 mark): Suggest one open question Alfredo could use in his questionnaire. (1) 2 Alfredo plans to conduct an investigation into obedience using a questionnaire. He wants
  39. June 2019, AS Paper 1, Q2(c) (4 marks): Justify why Alfredo decided to use both closed and open questions in his questionnaire. (4) 2 Alfredo plans to conduct an investigation into obedience using a q
  40. June 2019, AS Paper 1, Q3(a) (2 marks): Using the data shown in Figure 1, explain one conclusion that Shannon could make. (2) 3 Shannon asked employees working in a supermarket which department they c
  41. June 2019, AS Paper 1, Q3(b) (2 marks): After interviewing all 200 employees working in the supermarket, Shannon found: • 67% considered their own department as the most important • 1:25 considered th
  42. June 2019, AS Paper 1, Q4 (8 marks): Evaluate the use of sampling techniques when researching social psychology. (8)
  43. June 2018, Paper 1, Q2(a) (2 marks): Suggest one open question and one closed question Tim and Laura could use in their questionnaire. (2) 2 Tim and Laura are undertaking a practical investigation
  44. June 2018, Paper 1, Q2(b) (2 marks): When conducting an investigation using a questionnaire a pilot study can be carried out. A pilot study is a small-scale preliminary version of a study which is
  45. June 2018, AS Paper 1, Q3(a) (1 mark): Calculate the mean for the authoritarian personality scores. (1) 3 Rajmund investigated the influence of personality on obedience levels. He used a self-report
  46. June 2018, AS Paper 1, Q3(b) (1 mark): Calculate the mode for the obedience scores. (1) 3 Rajmund investigated the influence of personality on obedience levels. He used a self-report questionnaire wh
  47. June 2018, AS Paper 1, Q3(c) (3 marks): Rajmund decided to use the standard deviation as a measure of dispersion for his data. Calculate the standard deviation for the obedience scores shown in Table
  48. June 2017, Paper 1, Q1(a) (1 mark): Identify the sampling method that Adam and Lauren used in their study. (1) 1 Adam and Lauren have carried out research into obedience as part of their A level P
  49. June 2017, Paper 1, Q1(b) (2 marks): State a fully operationalised directional (one-tailed) hypothesis for Adam and Lauren’s study. (2) 1 Adam and Lauren have carried out research into obedience as
  50. June 2017, Paper 1, Q1(c) (2 marks): Explain one improvement that could be made to the procedure of Adam and Lauren’s research. (2) 1 Adam and Lauren have carried out research into obedience as par
  51. June 2017, AS Paper 1, Q1(a) (2 marks): Suggest two closed questions that could be used in the questionnaire. (2) 1 Abigail would like to investigate science students’ perceptions of art students. She
  52. June 2017, AS Paper 1, Q1(b) (2 marks): Abigail is also considering using an interview in her study. Explain how Abigail could use one type of interview to investigate science students’ perceptions of
  53. June 2017, AS Paper 1, Q1(c)(i) (1 mark): Complete Table 1 with the frequency data for each participant and the total frequency. (1) 1 Abigail would like to investigate science students’ perceptions of
  54. June 2017, AS Paper 1, Q1(c)(ii) (1 mark): Calculate the range for this data. (1) 1 Abigail would like to investigate science students’ perceptions of art students. She decides that a questionnaire is a
  55. June 2017, AS Paper 1, Q1(d) (2 marks): When analysing quantitative data a researcher may calculate the standard deviation of data scores. Explain why researchers use the standard deviation of data sc
  56. June 2017, AS Paper 1, Q2(a) (1 mark): Define ‘stratified sampling’. (1) 2 Rashid is conducting research into in-group and out-group prejudice. He has decided to use a stratified sample to select par
  57. June 2017, AS Paper 1, Q2(b) (2 marks): Explain one strength of ‘stratified sampling’. (2) 2 Rashid is conducting research into in-group and out-group prejudice. He has decided to use a stratified sam
  58. June 2016, AS Paper 1, Q9 (12 marks): Ed and Najeeb are researching the effects of individual tutorials on student wellbeing. Ed wants to carry out a laboratory experiment and collect quantitative d

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