Psychology

Why study Psychology ?

You will follow the AQA Specification Unit 1: Making Sense of Other People.

Why do people react to certain things in certain ways? What can make people happy or sad, and how can we use that in the modern world? Learning psychology will teach you all about the behavior of people and how their minds work, which can be useful everywhere.

It can lead to:

• Becoming a professional psychologist.
• Beyond professional psychology you can apply your knowledge to studies of human behaviour in social scenarios all over the world or in laboratory settings.
• You can use your knowledge of people to pursue a career in law, business, management or education.

Psychology fits well with Biology and Maths, as both these subjects feature in what you will study. However, it also fits well with English and History, as you will be expected to look at a psychological problem from different points of view.

 

Aims & Objectives:

 

The Psychology short course will provide you with a sound understanding of the various approaches and methods in Psychology at an introductory level. Knowledge of methods and approaches will be illustrated through various topic areas representing the core areas in Psychology of social, cognitive, developmental,
biological and individual differences.

 

You will study:

 

Memory

• Explanation of how memory works
• Models of memory
• Explanations of forgetting
• Reliability of eyewitness testimony

Non-Verbal Communication

• Paralinguistics
• Types of non-verbal communication
• Facial expression
• Description and evaluation of studies of nonverbal communication and verbal communication

Development of Personality

• Definition of personality, including temperament.
• Description/evaluation of Eysenck's type theory
• Antisocial Personality Disorder

Stereotyping, Prejudice and Discrimination

• Description and evaluation of studies of prejudice and of discrimination
• Explanations of prejudice and discrimination.
• Ways of reducing prejudice and discrimination.

Research Methods Methods of Control, Data Analysis and Data Presentation
Methods of investigation will be taught at appropriate places in the course, including:-

• The use of scientific methods and techniques which aim for objectivity.
• Procedures for the experimental method of investigation, including research in natural and experimental settings, sampling methods, calculations used for analysis of data and graphical representations of data.

Ethical Considerations
Ethical issues in psychological research as outlined in the British Psychological Society guidelines, and ways of
dealing with each of these issues.

 

You will learn:

 

The topic areas have been chosen because of their importance and prominence within the core area and their application to everyday life. For example:

• studying prejudice allows psychologists to suggest ways of reducing prejudice in society;
• research into eyewitness testimony has led to improved police interview techniques, and fairer court proceedings;
• understanding abnormal development leads to appropriate therapies.

You will also gain experience of designing and conducting informal classroom research using a variety of scientific methods. You will be expected to analyse data collected in investigations at a descriptive level and draw conclusions based on your research findings. The specification also requires you to understand ethical issues, such as consent and deception, that must be considered when conducting research in psychology, and how these can be dealt with.

Assessment:

 

Assessment is through one written Paper lasting 1 hour 30 minutes, where you will answer all questions. The paper is worth 80 marks. You will sit this paper at the end of year 11.  There is no controlled assessment.