Psychology

Why study Psychology?.

Why choose AQA A Level Psychology?

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind, brain and behaviour. It investigates a wide range of issues with real world applications including artificial intelligence, how drugs interact with chemicals in the brain to change behaviour, the reliability of eyewitness testimony, genocide and the link between genes, the environment and particular behaviours.

Throughout the course you will learn how to both conduct and critically evaluate psychological research and will develop your knowledge and understanding of scientific processes and statistics. Psychology also places much emphasis on application as well as theoretical knowledge, so you will be expected to explain previously unconsidered scenarios in the examinations. Given the nature of assessment, studying psychology will also develop your literacy skills.

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What I will  learn in Psychology and how it will be assessed

Unit 1: Introductory Topics

This unit is designed to introduce you to four key content areas that are of interest to psychologists. These include: Social Influence; Memory, Attachment and Psychopathology.

Assessment: Examination paper (2 hours). Weighting: 33.3% (96 marks). Multiple choice, short answer and extended writing (16-mark essay).

Unit 2: Psychology in Context
This unit is designed to explore the origins of psychology and the scientific nature of the subject through studying research methods. You will study the Learning, Cognitive and Biological Approaches (including Biopsychology) as well as Psychodynamic and Humanistic approaches.

Assessment: Examination paper (2 hours). Weighting: 33.3% (96 marks). Multiple choice, short answer and extended writing (16 Mark essay and a 12 Mark ‘Design a study’ question).

Unit 3: Issues and options in psychology
This unit is designed to introduce you to three contemporary topic areas such as Gender, Schizophrenia and Forensic psychology. This unit also includes a compulsory element covering the main issues and debates within psychology . This unit is synoptic and requires you to make links to all previous taught material.

Assessment: Examination paper (2 hours). Weighting: 33.3% (96 marks). Multiple choice, short answer and extended writing (16-mark essay).

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How I will learn

You will learn through opportunities to:
• Conduct independent research
• Design and conduct psychological studies
• Self- and peer-assessment
• Work on tasks independently, in pairs and in groups
• Make presentations to the class
• Mini lectures and Cornell note-taking

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Related Degrees:

A number of students every year go on to study for a BSc degree in Psychology or in the related field of Neuroscience. They also go on to study Medicine, Nursing, primary Education, Occupational Therapy and Forensic Science.

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Related Careers:

The A-level course has a broad and balanced content and is useful for a wide variety of further courses and occupations. Psychology is one of the most popular courses studied at university and continues to be part of many other related degrees.

Many students studying Psychology go on to further education to become a Chartered Psychologist (Clinical, Educational, Occupational, Forensic, Sport or Teaching and Research).
The skills that psychology students demonstrate are highly valued by a range of employers. You will find psychology useful in many areas of work, such as research, teaching, policing, medicine/health care, business and marketing, leadership and management, sport and coaching.

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Further Course Information:

You will benefit from wider-reading around the subject (for example, by signing up with the British Psychology Society and receiving their publication ‘The Psychologist’ as well as their Research digest).

All students receive a range of resources including detailed notes, revision packs and examination papers. Regular assessment is a feature of the course.

All students studying Psychology will receive access to digital textbooks meaning they can access materials through any electronic device, make notes and use extension tasks to deepen their knowledge and understanding.

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Extra-Curricular Opportunities in Psychology:

• Class Research projects, we take ‘real-world’ problems and build a research project to develop our understanding of Psychology. Our past projects include ‘A change in the school day’ and ‘Y11 Revision strategies - back to exams’.
• Take part in Masterclasses available through universities
• Participate in Psychology clubs such as, Reading, Podcasts and Movie Nights!

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