Psychology

Course summary

You will study a range of introductory topics in Psychology in Year 12. They include social influence, which looks at why people conform and obey; memory, which explores how people remember and why they forget; attachment, which investigates how bonds form and why they are important; and psychopathology, which explains how we define, explain, and treat various mental health disorders. Psychology in context will also be considered by looking at the different approaches that psychologists use to explain human behaviour, and the methods used in psychological research. Finally, Year 12 will also entail focusing on biopsychology to address how our physical state influences our thoughts and behaviours. In Year 13, issues and debates are studied, including assessing the influence of nature and nurture on behaviour and the importance of acknowledging the role of free will and individual differences when explaining actions. You will also focus on schizophrenia by looking at how we describe, explain, and treat this chronic illness. To build on your knowledge of how we develop, you will study cognition and development to understand further how we grow as humans over our lifetimes. The final topic you will study is addiction, to give you an understanding of how we can address this complex issue to reduce its effect on society.