Psychology

Course summary

The Psychology department at Grace Academy Coventry seeks to teach powerful knowledge that will allow learners to develop excellence in Psychology, higher education, their future careers, and their lives beyond school. Learners will understand the importance of our biology and environment and the impact this will have on our behavior. Learners will know, understand, and be able to apply psychological perspectives and knowledge to real-life situations, institutions, and contemporary examples. This is important because it will enable young people to understand how interactions between nature and nurture shape outcomes for themselves and other groups. We intend that through the study of the Psychology curriculum students are better prepared to develop integrity and understand the impact of their actions and the actions of others and how this ultimately shapes all our outcomes. This understanding and knowledge will be the foundation they need to lead fulfilling lives and make a valuable contribution to society. For students to develop powerful knowledge we will reinforce key concepts throughout, retrieving knowledge at regular intervals and reapplying to new areas, to enable learners to make connections. Learners will be given opportunities to explore future careers in Psychology and related areas inspiring them to have limitless potential to achieve. During the Psychology course, young people will acquire the ability to analyze arguments and identify the strengths and limitations of theories and findings, even those they initially disagreed, providing opportunities for learners to develop mutual respect. Year 12 This topic is required to help you understand: What Psychology is? • How it is studied • How to carry out psychological research • The importance of valid and reliable research • How to evaluate psychological research • The different types of research studies and methods • Key terms and definitions You need to understand this topic before you learn broader psychological concepts. This is often the hardest topic for students and is double-weighted so it allows us to complete retrieval work on this topic throughout Years 12 and 13 embedding the content. Year 13 You will have already learned most the basic theories that form the Approaches topic e.g. classical conditioning, operant conditioning, neuropsychology, neurons, memory models, etc. This topic therefore acts as a retrieval practice for Paper 1. It will then help you to develop your understanding of these theories further and will allow you to apply them to relevant approaches.