Summary of changes - AS Psychology (7181) specification updates for first teaching in September 2025

Oct 20, 2026

Uploaded by SANS

Resource summarizing updates to the AS Psychology (7181) specification made in response to teacher feedback and earlier exam dates, with first teaching planned for September 2025. The update aims to reduce overall specification content, improve clarity for teachers and learners, and revise the language to better reflect society. Only subject-content changes are included. Additions include new research methods topics; other revisions remove, reword, or reorder existing content, with specific coding and teaching-learning impacts provided by paper.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Purpose of the updates

New specification content

Coding of changes

Paper 1 (7181/1): Introductory topics in Psychology

Social influence

Memory

Attachment

Paper 2 (7181/2): Psychology in context

Summary of changes Introduction This resource outlines the changes we have made to the AS Psychology (7181) specification. In response to teacher feedback and earlier exam dates, we have made some updates to our AS Psychology specification for first teaching in September 2025. The purpose of the updates is to: • reduce the overall specification content • provide teachers and learners with greater clarity about the specification content • update the language used to be more reflective of society. This resource has been created to provide a summary of the updates made. Only changes to the subject content are listed in the summary. No other changes have been made to the specification. New speciﬁcation content There is one new addition to speciﬁcation content. A summary of the topics with new content is below: • Research methods. The changes have been coded as follows: | Change to the speciﬁcation | This means | Coding | Impact on teaching and learning | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Removed | Speciﬁcation content has been removed. | ~~Strikethrough~~ | No longer a requirement to teach.
Review planning and teaching materials in light of change. | | Reworded | Change to the terminology used in the speciﬁcation. | Italics | Amend teaching resources to reﬂect the new terminology used in the updated speciﬁcation.
No change to speciﬁcation content. | | Reordered | The order of bullet points orthe positioning of speciﬁcation content has changed. | Bold | May impact planning, SOW and order of delivery of the speciﬁcation content. | Contents You can use the title links to jump directly to the different sections of this Summary of changes. | | Page | | --- | --- | | Paper 1 (7182/1) Introductory topics in Psychology | 3 | | Paper 2 (7182/2) Psychology in context | 6 | Paper 1 (7181/1): Introductory topics in Psychology | Paper 1 Current speciﬁcation content | Paper 1 Updates to speciﬁcation content | | --- | --- | | Social influence
• Types of conformity: internalisation, ~~identiﬁcation~~, and compliance. Explanations for conformity: informational social inﬂuence and normative social inﬂuence, and variables aﬀecting conformity including group size, unanimity and task diﬃculty as investigated by Asch.
~~• Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo~~.
• Explanations for obedience: agentic state and legitimacy of authority, and situational variables aﬀecting obedience including proximity and location, as investigated by Milgram, and uniform. Dispositional explanation for obedience: the Authoritarian Personality.
• Explanations of resistance to social inﬂuence, including social support and locus of control.
• Minority inﬂuence including reference to consistency, commitment and ﬂexibility.
• ~~ The role of social inﬂuence processes in social change~~. | The following speciﬁcation content is:
Removed
• ‘Identiﬁcation’ as a type of conformity.
• Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo.
• Role of social inﬂuence processes in social change. | | Paper 1 Current speciﬁcation content | Paper 1 Updates to speciﬁcation content | | --- | --- | | Memory
• The multi-store model of memory: sensory register, short-term memory and long-term memory. Features of each store: coding, capacity and duration.
~~• Types of long-term memory: episodic~~,~~ semantic~~,~~ procedural~~.
• The working memory model: central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and episodic buﬀer. Features of the model: coding and capacity.
• Explanations for forgetting proactive and retroactive interference and retrieval failure due to absence of cues.
• Factors aﬀecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: ~~misleading information~~,~~ including~~ leading questions and postevent discussion; anxiety.
• ~~ Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony~~,~~ including~~ the use of the cognitive interview. | The following speciﬁcation content is
Removed

FAQs

Why were updates made to the AS Psychology (7181) specification?

Updates were made in response to teacher feedback and earlier exam dates, to support first teaching in September 2025.

What is the purpose of the updates stated in the summary?

The updates aim to reduce the overall specification content, give clearer guidance to teachers and learners, and update the language to better reflect society.

What kinds of changes are included, and what is excluded?

Only changes to the subject content are listed. No other specification changes are included in the summary.

Oct 20, 2026

Uploaded by SANS