Short Answer & Application Questions

Short answer and application questions make up the majority of marks on both AQA GCSE Psychology papers. Mastering these question types is the single most effective way to improve your exam performance, because small improvements in technique across many questions add up to significant mark gains.

---

Understanding Mark Allocations

Before writing anything, look at the number of marks available. This tells you exactly how much detail the examiner expects.

1-Mark Questions: Identify / Name / State / Give

For 1-mark questions, brevity is key. The examiner is looking for one specific piece of information. Do not write a paragraph — a single word, phrase, or short sentence is all that is needed.

Command	What to do	Example question	Model answer
Identify	Name or state one thing	"Identify the type of long-term memory used when riding a bicycle."	"Procedural memory."
Name	Give the specific term	"Name the psychologist who conducted the obedience study using electric shocks."	"Milgram."
State	Make a brief factual statement	"State what is meant by the term 'hypothesis'."	"A testable prediction about the outcome of a study."
Give	Provide one example	"Give one example of a primary reinforcer."	"Food."

Exam Tip: Do not over-elaborate on 1-mark questions. Writing "Procedural memory, which is a type of implicit long-term memory that stores information about how to perform actions" does not earn extra marks and wastes time. Save your detailed writing for higher-mark questions.

---

2-Mark Questions: Outline

"Outline" questions require a brief description with enough detail to show understanding. You typically need two distinct points or one point with a brief elaboration.

Example: "Outline what is meant by 'reconstructive memory'." (2 marks)

Good answer: "Reconstructive memory is the idea that memory is not an exact recording of events (1 mark). Instead, memories are rebuilt each time they are recalled, and gaps are filled using schemas and expectations (1 mark)."

Common mistake: Writing only "Memory is not accurate" — this is too vague for 2 marks.

---

2–4 Mark Questions: Describe

"Describe" questions require a detailed account. Think of this as painting a picture with words — what happened, what was involved, what were the features?

Example: "Describe Bartlett's War of the Ghosts study." (4 marks)

Good answer structure:

• Aim/Method: Bartlett asked British participants to read an unfamiliar Native American folk tale called "The War of the Ghosts" and then recall it after different time intervals (1 mark).
• Key findings: Participants shortened the story, changed unfamiliar details to fit their own cultural expectations, and added rationalisations to make the story make more sense (1 mark per distinct finding, up to 2 marks).
• Conclusion: Memory is reconstructive — people alter memories to fit their existing schemas (1 mark).

Exam Tip: For "Describe" questions, you do not need to evaluate or say why something happens. Stick to describing what happened, what was found, or what the concept involves. Adding evaluation wastes time and earns no extra marks.

---

2–4 Mark Questions: Explain

"Explain" questions are where many students lose marks because they describe instead of explaining. The examiner wants to know why or how something happens.

The key difference:

• Describe: "The primacy effect is when people remember items from the beginning of a list."
• Explain: "People remember items from the beginning of a list because these items are rehearsed more often and transferred to long-term memory, where they are stored permanently."

Notice the word "because" — this is your signal that you are explaining rather than describing.

Example: "Explain why the findings of laboratory experiments may lack ecological validity." (3 marks)

Good answer: "Laboratory experiments take place in artificial settings (1 mark), so the tasks participants complete may not reflect how they would behave in real life (1 mark). For example, memorising word lists in a lab is not the same as remembering events in everyday life, meaning the findings may not generalise to real-world memory use (1 mark)."

Useful causal language to practise using:

Phrase	Example
"because..."	"This reduces demand characteristics because participants do not know the aim."
"this means that..."	"The sample was only university students. This means that the results may not generalise to other age groups."
"as a result..."	"The IV was not controlled. As a result, we cannot be sure the IV caused the change in the DV."
"this leads to..."	"Negative self-schemas cause people to interpret neutral events negatively. This leads to a cycle of negative thinking."

---

Application Questions: The STEM

Application questions are worth between 2 and 4 marks and present a scenario (called a stem) that you must refer to in your answer. These test AO2 — your ability to apply psychological knowledge to unfamiliar situations.

The Golden Rule