TCE Psychology past exams 2021–2025, by year and topic

The rest of the syllabus

Question-level mapping for these areas is still being verified. Every official paper covering them is in the year table above.

• Scientific inquiry, operational variables and psychological perspectives — Distinguish psychological constructs from observations · Compare biological, behavioural, cognitive and socio-cultural perspectives · Move from a research question to an operational hypothesis · Distinguish experimental manipulation from observational association · Use controls and blinding for specific sources of bias · Build a stimulus-based argument instead of repeating a theory
• Sampling, research methods and statistical interpretation — Choose a sampling method and define the target population · Compare experiments, case studies, observations and self-report · Distinguish qualitative and quantitative evidence · Calculate means and percentages with the right denominator · Interpret correlation without converting it into causation · Evaluate reliability, validity and generalisation separately
• Research ethics and the 2026 Investigative Project — Choose the correct 2026 project topic before planning · Make consent, withdrawal and privacy meaningful · Evaluate deception and harm in the specific design · Build the report around the investigation actually conducted · Apply the stated count and presentation rules accurately · Evaluate findings with a specific limitation and improvement
• Gender concepts and evaluation of biological evidence — Distinguish sex characteristics, identity, roles and stereotypes · Evaluate chromosome evidence without treating it as destiny · Consider prenatal-hormone evidence and its confounders · Use androgen-insensitivity evidence to test simple models · Interpret the Dominican-kindred research in context · Evaluate brain evidence and avoid average-to-individual errors
• Gender development and environmental theories — Explain social learning through models and consequences · Compare social-role and evolutionary explanations · Explain Kohlberg through developing gender concepts · Explain Bem through gender schemas and information processing · Use cultural comparison without flattening whole communities · Construct an interactionist evaluation across the theories
• Intelligence theories, measurement and interacting influences — Define intelligence and distinguish a construct from a score · Explain Spearman through common and specific factors · Compare Gardner and Sternberg without invoking learning-style labels · Evaluate Stanford-Binet and Wechsler testing · Interpret twin and adoption evidence with its assumptions · Explain environmental opportunity and the Flynn effect · Use Turkheimer and reaction-range ideas interactionistically · Construct an ethical evidence-based intelligence argument
• Personality: psychodynamic and humanist explanations — Define personality and identify the explanatory question · Explain Freud through conflict and the structural model · Evaluate developmental claims without treating them as established facts · Distinguish Jung from Freud · Explain Rogers through self-concept and congruence · Explain Maslow and compare humanist evidence
• Personality: learning, social cognition, traits and measurement — Explain learned patterns through Skinner · Use Bandura through reciprocal influences and self-efficacy · Compare Mischel and Rotter through situations and expectancies · Explain Allport and Cattell as trait approaches · Compare Eysenck with the Five Factor Model · Evaluate projective methods and the MBTI · Interpret heritability without removing environmental influence · Build a comparative Personality essay
• Visual perception: sensory processes, organisation and depth — Separate sensation from perceptual interpretation · Explain attention, thresholds and sensory adaptation · Apply Gestalt grouping principles to a display · Explain constancies despite changing retinal information · Distinguish binocular and monocular depth information · Design and evaluate a perceptual-organisation investigation
• Visual perception: theories, perceptual set and illusions — Contrast bottom-up and top-down contributions · Explain Gregory through hypothesis testing · Explain Gibson through ecological information · Explain Neisser through a perceptual cycle · Apply perceptual set through context, culture and experience · Use illusions as evidence with clear physical measurements
• Consciousness, attention and measurement — Describe consciousness using several dimensions · Distinguish selective attention from divided attention · Explain controlled and automatic processing through practice · Compare daydreaming and altered experience carefully · Interpret physiological measures without claiming mind reading · Evaluate self-report, observation and converging evidence
• Sleep stages, research methods and sleep loss — Describe sleep architecture and changing stages · Compare REM and NREM using several measurements · Explain sleep pressure, circadian timing and adolescent sleep · Evaluate deprivation, recovery and rebound · Compare restoration and adaptive explanations of sleep · Distinguish wish fulfilment and activation-synthesis · Compare problem-solving and reverse-learning theories · Design and interpret sleep research ethically
• Classical conditioning and evaluation of learning evidence — Distinguish learning from maturation and unlearned behaviour · Map Pavlovian conditioning before, during and after acquisition · Explain extinction, recovery, generalisation and discrimination · Evaluate Watson and Rayner without overstating the evidence · Apply conditioning to fear and one-trial learning · Distinguish exposure applications and evaluate their limits
• Operant conditioning, consequences and schedules — Explain the antecedent–behaviour–consequence sequence · Classify reinforcement using its effect and the change in stimuli · Distinguish punishment and response cost from negative reinforcement · Compare ratio and interval schedules · Explain shaping, tokens and stimulus control · Compare classical and operant learning precisely · Integrate learned helplessness and two-factor fear accounts
• Observational and cognitive learning — Explain observational learning as acquisition through models · Trace attention, retention, reproduction and motivation in an example · Evaluate the Bobo-doll evidence with the correct boundaries · Explain latent learning and cognitive maps · Analyse insight, learning sets and transfer · Build the 2026 observational and cognitive learning argument
• Encoding and the multi-store and working-memory models — Separate encoding, storage and retrieval · Explain the multi-store model as a linked system · Compare sensory, short-term and long-term properties · Explain the central executive and specialised subsystems · Place the episodic buffer in the revised model · Use serial-position and task evidence to evaluate models
• Long-term memory, processing and reconstruction — Distinguish declarative and procedural memory · Explain semantic networks and their limits · Compare maintenance and elaborative rehearsal · Evaluate levels of processing through primary evidence · Explain reconstruction, schemas and Bartlett · Use Loftus and Palmer to distinguish wording effects from broad claims
• Psychological explanations of forgetting — Interpret the forgetting curve and savings method · Distinguish failure to encode and pseudo-forgetting · Explain retrieval failure and the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon · Compare context-dependent and state-dependent retrieval · Differentiate proactive and retroactive interference · Evaluate decay, suppression and repression
• Physiological forgetting, ageing and memory evidence — Distinguish organic explanations from task-level descriptions · Explain consolidation without locating all memory in one place · Differentiate anterograde and retrograde amnesia · Explain ageing as a variable pattern across functions · Distinguish Alzheimer’s disease and Korsakoff’s syndrome · Evaluate case evidence and dissociations
• Memory improvement and integrated evidence evaluation — Improve encoding through attention and meaningful organisation · Use elaboration and retrieval practice with feedback · Explain acronyms, acrostics and narrative chaining · Compare method of loci and peg-word techniques · Support consolidation and evaluate spacing claims · Integrate models, measures and the 2026 examination response