Psychology

Course summary

A Level Psychology on the AQA specification is a broad and diverse course consisting of 11 topics. One paper consists of the underlying principles in Psychology, including the perspectives to explain human behaviour, a look at the influence of neuropsychology on behaviour, and developing knowledge of the research process in Psychology. The other topics across two papers consist of applying psychological explanations to answer questions such as why do we forget; how do we form social bonds in childhood; why do we obey; and how do we define normality and abnormality. Some of the second year topics are taken from Option blocks that all take an applied area of psychology. We investigate an aspect of “normal” development, an aspect of health psychology, and an aspect of applied “abnormal” psychology. Another key topic in second year Psychology is issues and debates, where we discuss issues in Psychological research including gender and culture bias and the nature-nurture debate, as well as ethical implications of research studies and theories.