A Level Psychology

Course summary

Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and behaviour. Studying Psychology at A-Level involves learning about theories of the human mind and behaviour, then evaluating these using research evidence. It also includes understanding research methods and approaches in Psychology. Course Content: Year 12 • Memory – how memory works, why forgetting occurs and issues with memory • Attachment – why children form attachments and what happens when they don’t • Approaches in Psychology – how different approaches assume human behaviour can be explained using specific key concepts • Biopsychology – an introduction to biological factors that affect behaviour • Social Influence – why some people do or don’t conform and obey in different social situations and how social change takes place • Clinical Psychology and Mental Health – definitions in the field of mental health, approaches to explain and treat mental health disorders Year 13 • Issues, debates and approaches in Psychology (nature and nurture, free will, determinism, socially sensitive research, culture and gender bias, reductionism, holism, idiographic and nomothetic approaches to research) • Biopsychology – localisation of function, plasticity and functional recovery, brain scanning techniques • Research Methods – inferential statistical tests • Gender – biological, cognitive and social learning explanations for gender development, atypical sex chromosome patters and gender dysphoria • Schizophrenia – clinical symptoms, approaches used to explain and treat schizophrenia • Aggression – explanations of aggression, institutional aggression and media influences on aggression