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Unit 4: The influence of others

11 dot points, in syllabus order. Each dot point has a focused answer, with exam-style questions and worked answers where available.

Topic 1: Social psychology

Explain the difference between primary (i.e. family) and secondary (e.g. media, schooling) socialisation; Describe gender and compare social learning, cognitive developmental and biological theories of gender role formation

The QCE Psychology Unit 4 answer on socialisation and gender (2025 syllabus): primary socialisation in the family versus secondary socialisation through school, peers and media, what gender and gender roles are, and how social learning, cognitive developmental (Kohlberg) and biological theories explain gender role formation, with a comparison table.

10 min read →

Describe group social influence, with reference to compliance, identification and internalisation; Explain how obedience, conformity and social norms (as described by Cialdini et al. 2006) lead to behaviour change; Describe the findings of historical social psychological research, with reference to Asch's (1955) research on conformity and Milgram's (1963) research on obedience

Social influence. Distinguishes conformity from obedience, explains normative and informational influence, and works through Asch's line study, Milgram's obedience experiments and Zimbardo's Stanford prison study, including the situational factors that increase or decrease each.

6 min read →

Describe the effect of status, roles and power on social behaviour; Describe the findings of historical social psychological research, with reference to Haney, Banks and Zimbardo's (1973) research on status, roles and power

Status and power. Defines status, power and social roles, describes French and Raven's bases of power, and analyses how status and assigned roles shape behaviour using Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment and the concept of role conformity.

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Topic 2: Interpersonal processes

Interpret the findings of Latané and Darley's (1969) study of bystander intervention; Describe social factors that influence prosocial behaviour, with reference to the reciprocity principle and social responsibility; Describe personal characteristics that influence prosocial behaviour, with reference to empathy, mood, competence and altruism; Make predictions using the general aggression model (GAM), with respect to single and multiple episodes; Explain how media can influence aggression, with reference to advertising, video games and social media

Prosocial and antisocial behaviour. Explains the situational and personal factors behind helping (reciprocity, social responsibility, empathy, mood), the bystander effect and diffusion of responsibility, and the influences on aggression including Bandura's social learning study.

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Describe social and cognitive factors that influence individual behaviour, including groupthink, diffusion of responsibility, audience inhibition, social influence and cost-benefit analysis

Group processes. Explains how groups change thinking and feeling through group polarisation, Janis's groupthink, deindividuation, social loafing and the bystander effect, using studies such as Darley and Latane and Zimbardo's deindividuation work.

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Describe biological and cultural explanations of attraction, with reference to Buss et al. (1990); Describe social and cognitive origins of attraction, including proximity, reciprocity, similarity and self-disclosure; Determine stages in relationship dissolution, with reference to Rollie & Duck's phase model, i.e. intrapsychic, dyadic, social, grave-dressing and resurrection phases

The QCE Psychology Unit 4 answer on relationships (2025 syllabus): biological and cultural explanations of attraction from Buss et al.'s 37-culture study, the social and cognitive origins of attraction (proximity, reciprocity, similarity, self-disclosure), and how to identify the five phases of Rollie and Duck's model of relationship dissolution in a scenario.

10 min read →

Topic 3: Attitudes

Describe the structure of attitudes using the tri-component model; Describe implicit and explicit attitudes; Describe how discrepancies between attitudes, cognitions and behaviours can lead to discomfort and a drive to reduce it, as described in cognitive dissonance theory

Attitudes. Explains the tri-component (ABC) model, how attitudes form through learning, the attitude-behaviour gap, Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory, and persuasion via the elaboration likelihood model.

6 min read →

Describe attributions, and recognise how they are used to explain behaviour, with reference to situational and dispositional attributions, and the fundamental attribution error; Describe self-serving and confirmation biases; Describe stereotypes and identify their advantages and disadvantages; Interpret data about the relationship between stereotype priming and behaviour from a modification of experiment 2 in Bargh, Chen & Burrows' (1996) study

The QCE Psychology Unit 4 answer on attributions and bias (2025 syllabus): situational versus dispositional attributions, the fundamental attribution error (Ross et al., 1977), self-serving and confirmation biases, the advantages and disadvantages of stereotypes, and how to interpret stereotype priming data from a Bargh, Chen and Burrows (1996) style experiment.

11 min read →

Explain social identity theory with reference to social categorisation, social identification and social comparison; Describe the formation of prejudice in terms of: scapegoating, direct experience and personal prejudice, group prejudice, and the prejudiced personality; Contrast prejudice and discrimination

Social identity and prejudice. Explains Tajfel and Turner's social identity theory and the three steps of categorisation, identification and comparison, distinguishes stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination, and evaluates strategies such as contact and superordinate goals.

6 min read →

Topic 4: Cross-cultural psychology

Explain how membership, influence, integration and fulfilment of needs, and shared emotional connection lead to a sense of community; Describe the concept of culture in the psychological context, with reference to behaviours, beliefs and values, and to individualist and collectivist cultures; Discriminate between multiculturalism and pluralism, on the basis of the absence or presence of a dominant culture

The QCE Psychology Unit 4 answer on the first half of cross-cultural psychology (2025 syllabus): McMillan and Chavis's four elements of a sense of community, culture as shared behaviours, beliefs and values, individualist versus collectivist cultures, and how multiculturalism and pluralism differ on whether there is a dominant culture.

10 min read →

Describe the psychological challenges of immigration and acculturation, including culture shock, assimilation and marginalisation; Explain how cultural diversity can be a source of conflict, with reference to prejudice expressed as implicit and explicit racism; Describe ways to reduce prejudice, with reference to intergroup contact that is sustained, with superordinate goals, mutual interdependence and equality of status

The QCE Psychology Unit 4 answer on the rest of cross-cultural psychology (2025 syllabus): culture shock, assimilation and marginalisation in acculturation, implicit and explicit racism as sources of conflict, and reducing prejudice through sustained, equal-status, interdependent contact towards superordinate goals.

11 min read →