Psychology

Why Study This Subject?

Choosing Psychology will allow you to develop an understanding of the scientific study of the mind and behaviour.

Here at Greenhead College, Psychology is an ideal bridging subject between the arts and the sciences due to its scientific and statistical elements, which complement the study of mathematics and natural sciences, alongside the requirement to write evaluative essays, which will appeal to humanities students.

Psychologists research brain structure and function, memory, thinking and reasoning, and social factors, such as how other people influence us. Students must therefore be interested in people, specifically why they act and think in the way they do.

The subject develops skills suitable for further study in almost any discipline and is highly regarded by universities.

It is particularly useful for health-related degree courses and professions that involve working closely with people. A number of medical schools actively encourage students to choose Psychology as their third A Level.

Topics You Will Cover

This course follows the AQA specification.

The A Level Psychology course is assessed through three written examinations, each lasting 2 hours and worth 96 marks. There is no coursework.

Paper 1

Social Influence:

Types of conformity
Explanations for obedience
Explanations of resistance to social influence
Minority influence

Memory:

The Multi-Store Model of Memory
The Working Memory Model
Explanations for forgetting
Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

Attachment:

Animal studies of attachment
Explanations of attachment
Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation
The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships

Clinical Psychology and Mental Health:

Definitions in the field of mental health
The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
The behavioural approach to explaining and treating phobias
The cognitive approach to explaining and treating depression
The biological approach to explaining and treating OCD

Paper 2

Approaches in Psychology:

Learning approaches
The cognitive approach: the study of internal mental processes, the role of schema, the use of models to explain and make inferences about mental processes.
The biological approach
The psychodynamic approach
Humanistic Psychology
Comparison of approaches

Biopsychology:

The divisions of the nervous system
The structure and function of sensory, relay and motor neurons (the process of synaptic transmission)
The function of the endocrine system
The fight or flight response
Ways of studying the brain
Localisation of function in the brain and hemispheric lateralisation

Research Methods:

Research methodology
Scientific processes
Data handling and analysis
Inferential testing

Research Methods accounts for approximately 30% of the A Level course.

Paper 3

Issues and Debates in Psychology:

Gender and culture in psychology
Free will and determinism
The nature-nurture debate
Holism and reductionism
Idiographic and nomothetic approaches to psychological investigation
Social sensitivity in psychological research

Schizophrenia (studied by all students):

Positive symptoms of schizophrenia
Biological explanations
Psychological explanations
Drug therapy
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and family therapy
The importance of interactionist approaches to explaining and treating schizophrenia

Optional Topics

Students will study one of the following:

Relationships
Cognition and Development
Gender

Students will also study one of the following:

Aggression
Forensic Psychology

Entry Guidelines

This course requires grades 5/5 in Combined Science or two grade 5s from Biology, Chemistry or Physics. In addition, you will also need Grade 5 in GCSE Mathematics and Grade 5 in either English Language or Literature.

10% of Psychology involves mathematical data analysis and interpretation and 30% involves Biology.