OxfordAQA International A Level Psychology
OxfordAQA International A Level Psychology 3.4.3 Applied Psychology: Work and the Individual Exam Questions
Free OxfordAQA International A Level Psychology revision for 3.4.3 Applied Psychology: Work and the Individual: what you need to know, common mistakes and exam-style questions with answers. Covers social facilitation, social loafing, group decision making, deindividuation, social identity, workplace communication, job motivation, satisfaction and workplace stress.
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About OxfordAQA International A Level Psychology 3.4.3 Applied Psychology: Work and the Individual
Applied psychology: work and the individual is the third section of Unit 4, Approaches and application, on the OxfordAQA International A2 Psychology course. It applies psychological research to the workplace. You study how groups affect individuals, through social facilitation and social loafing; group decision making, including group polarisation, risky shift and groupthink; and group membership effects such as deindividuation and social identity theory. You then look at communication at work, including non-verbal cues, cultural universals and differences, and email; theories of job motivation and satisfaction, including Warr's job characteristics and well-being; and workplace stress. Examiners commonly ask you to apply these to workplace scenarios.
What you need to know
- Group processes Social facilitation is improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others (Triplett, 1898; Zajonc's drive theory explains poorer performance on difficult tasks). Social loafing is reduced individual effort in groups when contributions are not identifiable (Latané, Williams and Harkins, 1979).
- Group decision making Group polarisation is when group discussion makes views more extreme; risky shift is a move towards riskier decisions (Stoner, 1961). Groupthink (Janis) occurs in cohesive groups seeking agreement, leading to poor decisions and suppressed dissent.
- Group membership Deindividuation is the loss of personal identity in a group or under anonymity; Zimbardo found hooded participants gave longer shocks. Social identity theory (Tajfel) proposes that categorising into groups leads to in-group favouritism and out-group bias, even in minimal groups.
- Communication at work Non-verbal communication includes eye contact, facial expression and personal space. Ekman's research suggests some facial expressions of emotion are universal, while preferred personal space varies between cultures (Hall). Email lacks non-verbal cues; Kruger et al. (2005) found senders overestimated how well readers would detect their tone, showing egocentrism, and feedback is limited.
- Job motivation and satisfaction Need theory (for example Maslow) links motivation to meeting needs. Expectancy theory (Vroom) depends on expectancy, instrumentality and valence. Goal-setting theory (Locke) says specific, challenging goals with feedback improve performance. Warr's model identifies job characteristics that affect well-being, where some can be harmful in excess.
- Workplace stress High workload and low control increase stress; Marmot et al. found lower job control was linked to higher risk of coronary heart disease in civil servants. The job demands-resources model proposes that strain results when demands exceed resources such as support and autonomy, while resources also increase engagement.
Common mistakes in 3.4.3 Applied Psychology: Work and the Individual
- Saying social facilitation always improves performance. It improves simple or well-practised tasks but can impair complex or new ones.
- Confusing group polarisation with risky shift. Polarisation can move views in either direction; risky shift is specifically towards risk.
- Describing social identity theory without in-group favouritism and out-group bias, which the specification names.
- Mixing up the three parts of expectancy theory. Expectancy is effort leading to performance, instrumentality is performance leading to reward, and valence is how much the reward is valued.
- Applying theories without using the scenario. Quote the details of the workplace described and link each one to the theory.
Try three 3.4.3 Applied Psychology: Work and the Individual exam-style questions
1. Explain how social loafing could reduce productivity in a team project at work, and suggest one way to reduce it. (4 marks)
Show the mark scheme answer
When individual contributions cannot be identified, workers may put in less effort than when working alone; so total team output is lower than expected; this can be reduced by making individual contributions identifiable and evaluated, or by making the task meaningful.
2. Outline goal-setting theory as an explanation of job motivation. (3 marks)
Show the mark scheme answer
Locke proposed that goals direct and motivate behaviour; specific, challenging goals lead to higher performance than vague or easy goals; commitment to the goal and regular feedback increase the effect.
3. Discuss the job demands-resources model as an explanation of workplace stress. (16 marks)
Show the mark scheme answer
A strong answer would describe job demands and job resources and the two processes, health impairment and motivation; link to research on workload and control such as Marmot et al.; then evaluate the model's flexibility across jobs, support from research, reliance on self-report data, difficulty establishing causation, and comparison with simpler demand-control approaches; and apply it to practical ways of reducing stress at work.
3.4.3 Applied Psychology: Work and the Individual FAQs
What does OxfordAQA International A Level Psychology 3.4.3 Applied Psychology: Work and the Individual cover?
It covers group processes, group decision making, deindividuation and social identity, communication at work, job motivation and satisfaction, and workplace stress.
Which unit is 3.4.3 Applied Psychology: Work and the Individual examined in?
It is examined in Unit 4 (PS04), Approaches and application, a synoptic unit with three compulsory sections.
Which studies should I learn for work and the individual?
Learn Triplett, Zajonc, Latané et al., Stoner, Janis, Zimbardo, Tajfel, Ekman, Hall, Kruger et al., Vroom, Locke, Warr and Marmot et al. For each, know the key finding and how it applies to a workplace.
