Psychology

EXAM BOARD: AQA

Entry requirements:

Grade 6 in English GCSE.

Extra information:

Every year students attend trips to Sigmund Freud’s house to explore the depth of the unconscious, London Zoo to experience the systematic desensitisation therapy for arachnophobia, Natural History Museum to look at the evolutionary impacts on human behaviour. We area also regular visitors to the Wellcome Collection for their frequent mental health events.

Head of department:

Ania Herbut

A level psychology will give you a good fundamental and lasting insight into human behaviour, thinking and reasoning. This will definitely help you to cope better with your own life, but also it will help you to gain a better understanding of others.

Assessment

The A level exam consists of three separate units. Each unit is assessed by a two hour exam, which comprises of multiple choice, short answer and extended writing questions.

Paper 1: Introductory topics in psychology

• Social influence: conformity, obedience, resistance to social pressures, minority influence and the role of social influence processes in social change. • Memory: models of memory, explanations for forgetting, factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, use of the cognitive interview in police setting. • Attachments: caregiverinfant interactions in humans, stages of attachment, the role of the father, explanations of attachment, secure and insecure attachments,

influence of early attachments on adult relationships. • Psychopathology: definitions of abnormality, behavioural, cognitive and biological approach to explaining and treating disorders, phobias, depression, OCD.

Paper 2: Psychology in context

• Approaches in psychology: origins of psychology, learning approaches, cognitive approach, biological approach, psychodynamic approach, humanistic approach. • Biopsychology: the role of the nervous and endocrine systems on behaviour. • Research methods: all methods and techniques of conducting independent research.

Paper 3: Issues and options in psychology

• Issues and debates in psychology: gender and culture in psychology, free will and determinism, the naturenurture debate, holism and reductionism. • Relationships: theories of romantic relationships, relationships formation, maintenance and breakdown,

factors affecting attraction, nature of virtual relationships, levels of parasocial relationships. • Schizophrenia: symptoms, validity of diagnosis, biological and psychological explanations, drug therapy and antipsychotics, cognitive behavioural therapy and family interventions. • Forensic Psychology: issues in defining crime, offender profiling, types of offenders and investigative Psychology, geographical profiling, biological and psychological theories of crime, dealing with offending behaviour, including recidivism, behaviour modification and anger management.