So you want to study A level Psychology?

Welcome to Psychology! We are very pleased that you have chosen to study this fascinating subject at A level and hope that you are ready to embark on learning how we study human behaviour.

As part of your A level studies you will be required to carry out independent work to a high standard. This often involves researching topics and summarising your findings, this summer work will give you an introduction to psychology and the resources that we use. Please bring this with you to your first lesson

Textbooks

The textbook we use is without doubt the best A level Psychology textbook there has been in the 20 years we have taught this at WHS. The good news is that you have access to a free on-line copy using the following link:

www.illuminate.digital/aqapsych1/

Your username is SWILMSLOW and your password is student

Overview of the course

Psychology is the study of the human mind and behaviour.

In Y12 we look at four key areas of research (called substantive content);

1) Social Influence (how our behaviour changes in the presence of others)

2) Memory (how our memory works)

3) Attachment (how babies become attached to care givers and how this affects future development)

4) Psychopathology (3 mental illnesses; OCD, depression and phobias)

Psychology can be looked at from lots of ‘different angles’ for example people who study animal behaviour will have different explanations of human behaviour compared to a medical doctor. These different ‘ideas’ are called Approaches. In Y12 we study four different approaches and how they compare.

Psychology is a science because it is ‘studied’. However, there are lots of different ways to ‘study it’. We call this Research Methods. Studies are not just experiments, there are case studies, correlational analysis, content analysis, self-report (questionnaires and interviews) and observations. Each of these has strengths and limitations to be aware of. Research methods run through every aspect of psychology and they make up about 25% of available marks in the A level.

Biological Psychology. Like biology A level, we need a thorough knowledge of the brain, nerves, endocrine system, reflex arc. In Y13 we extend this to studies on brain plasticity, split brain studies and biological rhythms.

In Y13 we introduce yet more substantive content (aggression, relationships, biological psychology and schizophrenia). We also look at intrinsic issues and debates. There are many of these, but one example is the ‘nature-nurture’ debate. To what extent is an illness or behaviour genetic or a learned response to environmental influences?

Task 1

For this task you need to find out some information on the different 'approaches' to explaining behaviour. Use the table below as a guide. You can print the table or draw your own (probably better on A3 size) or if you prefer you could present this work as a mind map/concept map but you must address the points in the table.

Useful Resources:

Course textbook (details above)

www.simplypsychology.org/a-level-approaches.html

psychologyalevel.com/aqa-psychology-revision-notes/approaches-in-psychology/

Films/clips related to Psychology (optional)

Put your feet up and watch a film:

1) The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015) – Definitely watch this; it is something we teach!

2) Shutter Island (2010)

3) Momento (2000)

A few YouTube clips we use within the course

A person suffering schizophrenia talks about her experiences

Asch’s famous experiment on social influence

The Strange situation; A famous experiment with mums and toddlers to identify attachment types

Crash Course In Psychology – This VERY fast talking American presenter will talk you through an entire topic in about 15 minutes. Probably too fast to take it all in, but a good way to get the feel for each topic area

This is just one of about 15 videos (this one being social influence)