Psychology

Course summary

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behaviour. Psychology remains a subject that is offered at KS5 (A-level), following the AQA A syllabus. As a psychology student, you will analyse behaviour in both humans and animals and assess why this behaviour is present in society. In the first year there is a focus on research methods (how to design an experiment on people), key approaches in psychology, memory, social influence, attachment and child development and psychopathology (the study of mental health, specifically depression, OCD and phobias). In the second year, we focus specifically on schizophrenia, the psychology of relationships and forensic psychology, statistics and biopsychology. All of the topics that we cover include biological and psychological explanations of behaviour. Psychology is a scientific subject, so be prepared to use biological concepts and terminology. A key part of the research methods involves mathematical skills and statistical analysis (around 10% of the course).