Social and cultural issues

The documented weakness: candidates define society and culture, then have nothing left. Definitions are AO1 (three of nine marks), so an answer of only definitions earns no AO2 — and AO3 cannot be given without AO2. Instead define briefly, then name the issue, apply an explanation and judge. Self-test: delete "society" and "culture" — is there still an argument?

The classic Topic 5 trap — the two explain different things. Conformity: changing to match a majority, no order given (Asch). Obedience: a direct order from an authority figure (Milgram). Pick wrong and every later point uses the wrong mechanism. On a difference item, two definitions side by side score 1 of 2; the second mark needs a connective like "whereas".

Candidates give a situational factor when a personal one was asked, and vice versa. Obedience — personality: authoritarian personality; situational: proximity, legitimacy of authority. Bystander — personal: mood, similarity to victim; situational: diffusion of responsibility. A personal factor travels with the person; a situational one changes with the setting.

Two corrections examiners keep making. It did not find a bystander effect: help was usually given, and quickly — so it is counter-evidence against one, not support. The same-gender claim is invalid: all victims were male, so nothing tests whether helping depends on matching (a validity point). Safe findings: ill helped more than drunk; males more than females.

Four things earn no AO2 on a stimulus item: the character's name ("Nadia conformed"), repeating the stem, copying a stimulus sentence, and describing the issue at length. Application is the stimulus's own detail matched to a named feature. On crowd questions, application was present but knowledge missing — so name and define deindividuation, then apply.

Candidates read anti-social as meaning shy or withdrawn. In psychology it is behaviour that harms others or breaks society's rules — aggression, vandalism, theft. Its partner pro-social behaviour helps others; neither is about being outgoing. Fatal in a crowd question: one crowd can loot or pass supplies. The check: does the behaviour have a target?

Two linked errors. Culture is not nationality — it is the learned beliefs and customs passed between generations, so one country holds many cultures. And a finding may not travel: much research used one place, one time, often young males (Haney et al.; Piliavin's victims male), so generalisability and time are fair AO3. The process may hold even where the rate varies.