Example Answer for Question 3 Paper 1: A Level Psychology, June 2017 (AQA)

Section A – Social: Q3 [4 Marks]

Individual differences could have affected the results as some of the participants may be likely to conform because of their personality (e.g. a strong internal locus of control).

To address this issue, the researchers could use a matched-pairs design. The researchers would need to give all the participants a questionnaire (e.g. locus of control questionnaire, as this could affect whether they would conform) to determine whether or not the participants had a high/low, internal/external locus of control. The researchers could then pair the participants with the highest internal locus of control and place one participant in group one and the other in group two. The researchers would then repeat this process with the pair who had the second highest score, and so on. Then when the researchers run the experiment, the issue of individual differences will be reduced as the participants would have been matched on an important characteristic that could affect the results.

Please Note: These answers have been produced without the knowledge of the mark scheme and merely reflect my attempt at producing a model answer on the day of the exam.