Eduqas A Level Psychology
Eduqas A Level Psychology Personal Investigations Exam Questions
Free Eduqas A Level Psychology revision for Personal Investigations: what you need to know, common mistakes and exam-style questions with answers. Covers the two set personal investigations, planning and carrying out research ethically, analysing data, drawing conclusions and evaluating your own studies.
Practise Personal Investigations with past papers
Once you have learnt this topic, find the Personal Investigations questions in real Eduqas A Level Psychology past papers and mark them with the mark scheme. Doing lots of real questions is the quickest way to learn how examiners ask about each idea.
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A-Level Psychology Flashcards for 2027 Onwards
Every answer is written in mark scheme wording, so you learn exactly what examiners give marks for. Then test yourself with the questions on this page.
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About Eduqas A Level Psychology Personal Investigations
In Component 2 you carry out two personal investigations set by Eduqas, which change each exam year, and answer compulsory questions about them in the exam. For the summer 2027 series the set investigations are a content analysis of post-match interviews and an experiment on social facilitation. You must plan, conduct and analyse each one following the BPS Code of Ethics and Conduct (2009), so you can explain your hypotheses, sampling, procedure, data analysis and conclusions, and evaluate what you would improve. Examiners want detail from your own studies, not general textbook knowledge.
What you need to know
- Planning Write an aim, a directional or non-directional hypothesis and a null hypothesis, and operationalise your variables or coding categories. Choose and justify a sample and, for experiments, a design.
- Content analysis investigation Select interviews, decide your coding categories (for example mentions of team versus self), code transcripts or videos, and check inter-rater reliability with another coder. Analysis turns qualitative material into counted frequencies.
- Experiment investigation Social facilitation research tests whether the presence of others improves or impairs task performance. Control extraneous variables, standardise instructions and choose between independent groups or repeated measures.
- Ethics Follow the BPS Code: valid consent, right to withdraw, confidentiality, debriefing and avoiding stress or embarrassment, especially when using peers as participants.
- Analysis Present descriptive statistics and an appropriate graph, then choose and justify an inferential test, compare observed and critical values, and state whether the null hypothesis is rejected.
- Evaluation Discuss the reliability and validity of your own procedure, the representativeness of your sample, and specific improvements you would make.
Common mistakes in Personal Investigations
- Answering in general terms. Refer to your own aim, sample size, materials and results so the answer is clearly about your investigation.
- Not knowing which inferential test you used and why. Learn the test and justify it with all three criteria.
- Forgetting that the set investigations change each year. Check the specification appendix for the series you are entered for.
- Bringing your log book into the exam room. It is not allowed, so revise the key details from it beforehand.
- Giving vague improvements such as 'use more participants'. Explain how the change improves reliability or validity in your study.
Try three Personal Investigations exam-style questions
1. Explain how you ensured your content analysis was reliable. (3 marks)
Show the mark scheme answer
Answer should describe operationalised coding categories; two coders independently coding the same interviews; correlating their tallies to check inter-rater reliability, with a high correlation such as +0.8 showing consistency.
2. Describe the procedure of your social facilitation experiment. (6 marks)
Show the mark scheme answer
A strong answer would state the task, the two conditions (alone versus with an audience), the design and how participants were allocated, the standardised instructions, how the DV was measured, the controls used, and the debrief, in enough detail to replicate.
3. Evaluate the sampling method used in one of your personal investigations. (4 marks)
Show the mark scheme answer
Identify the method, for example opportunity sampling of sixth form students; strength such as quick and convenient; weakness such as a narrow age range and demand characteristics among peers; consequence for generalising to the target population.
Personal Investigations FAQs
What does Eduqas A Level Psychology Personal Investigations cover?
Two practical investigations set by the board each year, which you plan, carry out, analyse and evaluate, then answer questions on in the exam.
Which paper are personal investigations examined in?
It is examined in Component 2, Psychology: Investigating Behaviour, a 2 hour 15 minute written paper worth one third of the A level.
How do I revise my personal investigations?
Make a one-page summary for each with the aim, hypotheses, method, sample, ethics, results, test, conclusion and improvements, and practise explaining each part from memory.
