Paper 3

Paper 3 is the A level paper, where you will have to choose two areas of psychology to answer the questions for. For example, I’m studying Health Psychology and Abnormal Psychology, therefore I’ll be answering questions on these two.

I’ve already explained what the paper consists of here, so in this post I’ll be discussing different tips and ways to approach the different types of questions. Of course, I would advise you to also read the mark schemes and examiner reports on the Cambridge website. If you want to find more past papers look on this website too.

So, let’s get straight into the different types of questions and how to answer them.

• 2 marks questions

E.g. Explain, in your own words, what is meant by ‘chronic pain’.

In these questions, you have to give a brief definition of whatever is asked. In the case of the question above, I would say ‘chronic pain is a type of pain that lasts for more than 3 months, can become worse and occur intermittently. It can cause a feeling of anxiety to grow and this will develop into feeling helpless and hopeless if the pain does not dissipate.’

A tip that I could give you for this type of question is to write a sentence per mark. Obviously, if you don’t feel satisfied with the amount you wrote and want to put it more detail, you can do so. REMEMBER – everyone has different approaches to different questions and you should what makes you feel comfortable and satisfied.

• 4 marks questions

E.g. Describe one study that has used biofeedback to manage stress.

These questions tend to vary from paper to paper but they usually ask to describe something, be it a study, a theory or a technique. Again, I would say that here the method of writing one sentence per mark can be used as a guideline.

If you are asked to describe one study like the question above, I would write a sentence per section of the research – one for the aim, one for the procedure, one for the findings and one for the conclusion. At this stage, you don’t really need worry about evaluation. A possible answer to the question could be ‘ One study that used biofeedback to manage stress was Budzynski et al, who wanted to see whether the technique was useful to reduce tension headaches. The research was carried out with 18 participants who were put into 3 different groups. It was found that the groups which received biofeedback had reduced tension, fewer headaches and lower usage of drugs. Thus, it was concluded that the technique is an effective way for training patients to relax and this is increased when relaxation training was combined.’

If you are asked to describe a theory, I would firstly write the concept of it and then the different stages/sections of it. If you feel like you haven’t written enough, you can always include research that has been carried out on the research. For example, if you were asked to describe the Yale Model of communication, you could say that Caccioppo et al found that an attractive communicator is more likely to be listed to than an unattractive one.

If you are asked to briefly describe two study, I would divide the question in two = 2 marks per study. Therefore, you could say what each study wanted to research (the aim) and what they found/concluded.

• 8 marks questions in Section B

E.g. Describe what psychologists have discovered about the patient-practitioner relationship.

Usually, these questions ask to describe what has been found in one specific part of psychology. If you are able to, I would talk about 4 different studies and summaries what they wanted to find, how they carried out the research and what the conclusion was. Also, if there aren’t that many studies in the section like in ‘Pain’ or ‘Models of Abnormality’, I would write about 4 different parts of that section – for example, for Pain you could talk about the 1 theory and definition of pain , 1 or 2 measures of pain and 1 or 2 methods to treat pain. Similarly, for Models of Abnormality, you could talk about 1 or 2 definitions of abnormality, 1 model of abnormality and 2 treatments.

Here you can find a post with all my example answers to different Health psychology 8 marks questions.

Here you can find a post with all my example answers to different Abnormal psychology 8 marks questions.

• 12 marks questions

E.g. Evaluate what psychologists have discovered about the patient-practitioner relationship and include a discussion about generalisations.

These usually tend to ask to evaluate the studies mentioned in the 8 marks questions above, however if you don’t feel confident evaluating those studies or theories you can always talk about others.

Here the key concept is the one to include both STRENGTHS and WEAKNESSES and the topic of discussion they ask about. I would suggest you link this with an evaluation point. For example, you could say ‘One weakness of the study conducted by McKinlay is that the sample only included women in the UK, meaning that the results could have been affected by gender and cultural bias. Therefore, this makes the results not applicable or generalisable to other countries/cultures and men.’

The topics of discussion can be many, so I would advise you to revise the research methods, the experimental designs, the ethical issues,  the issues and the debates of psychology very well to prepare for these types of questions.

Here you can find a post with all my example answers to different 12 marks questions for Health Psychology.

Here you can find a post with all my example answers to different 6 marks questions for Abnormal Psychology.

• 8 marks question in Section C

E.g. Suggest how you would design and conduct an investigation to determine whether people in your community think the health campaign carried out was successful.

Usually, these questions ask to conduct a study – much like the 10 marks question in Paper 2 – therefore, you should include the aim, the sample, the research method, the experimental design, the independent and dependent variable. You should not include any findings or discussion about the evaluation of it unless it asks you to.

Also, these questions may ask you ‘to assess’ a certain therapy or treatment, which is basically the same thing as describing how you would conduct a study.

Other times, they may ask you to suggest a strategy or how you would use a certain technique to help a certain situation or patient. Here you just need to apply the theory to situation or person.

Here you can find a post with all my example answers to different 8 marks questions for Health Psychology. 

Here you can find a post with all my example answers to different 6 marks questions for Abnormal Psychology.

• 6 marks questions

E.g. Describe one community health promotion campaign.

Usually, these questions are asked to consolidate the theory you suggested in the 8 marks question above to make sure that you know the content. Thus, if it asks to describe one study you should write about 2-3 small paragraphs about the aim, the procedure, the findings and conclusion.

Here you can find a post with all my example answers to different 6 marks questions for Health Psychology.

Here you can find a post with all my example answers to different 6 marks questions for Abnormal Psychology.

IMPORTANT – I’ve also done a post with all the different types of questions per topic in Health Psychology. You can find this on the EXAM CENTRE category.