Psychology

What is Psychology?

Psychology is an academic subject that focuses on the science of the mind, behaviour and experience. It therefore looks at how an individual thinks, what they do and the way they are affected by their biological make up and the wider social group.

What will I study?

You will be given the opportunity to study many of the core areas of psychology, thus giving you a broad knowledge of the subject.

At AS these include:

  1. Cognitive psychology – which includes mental processes such as memory, forgetting and the use of memory when witnessing a crime.
  2. Developmental psychology – which focuses on changes that occur over the lifetime, especially the importance of childhood and examines the importance of an attachment to the mother and the impact of day care on a child’s development.
  3. Physiological psychology – explains behaviour in terms of biological processes and how genes, chemicals, hormones and different areas of the brain affect behaviour with specific reference to how stress affects the body and leads to illness, what causes stress and how it can be reduced.
  4. Individual differences – mainly examines ‘abnormal behaviour’ and why there are differences in mentally healthy, and unhealthy, individuals. It involves looking at the main explanations for behaviour and covering a topic on eating disorders.
  5. Social psychology - looks at the way people affect each other/ the social group, why we conform and why we obey others.
  6. Research methods – examines the different options psychologists have for studying people/ behaviour.

There is one modular examination in January, two in June but no coursework. These consist of two short answer questions and one longer essay style question.

The A2 course builds upon these modules and more specififc topics are examined including animal behaviour, gender and personality development and emotion and motivation.

Disorders such as anxiety, depression and schizophrenia are explained and a look is taken at the wider ethical issues in psychology. These are examined in essay based papers and you will also have the opportunity to conduct your own psychological research on an area of interest to you.

What GCSEs do I need?

No specific subjects are required, although a C grade or above is desirable in English and Maths.

Why study Psychology?

Psychology will offer you a unique academic experience. You will need to be able to learn scientific information such as the aims, procedures and findings of studies but you will also need to be able to evaluate these theories. Some answers require you to be concise but there are also longer essay based answers, thus again providing diverse experiences and useful transferable skills.

Lessons will offer different learning opportunities with teachers who are enthusiastic about the subject with written work conducted alongside discussion and pair work, presentations, videos and practicals (such as memory experiments).

Most importantly psychology gives you an opportunity to learn about issues that can be applied to the wider world and focus on things that you experience on an everyday basis.

Psychology is now a recognised A level and is one of the largest University subjects. With a constant focus on human behaviour and thought it is attractive to all employment involving human resources. The subject also instils skills in research, analysis, communication and organisation that go well beyond the value of the material covered. Psychology graduates enter the whole range of employment with only a minority carrying on to a career in Psychology.

The Department

Richard Heelas, Head of Department, and Carol Brown share the tuition for the AS and A2 level. With a background in Anthropology and Human Sciences, Richard has been teaching Psychology for over 10 years. Carol is an experienced Psychology teacher with two books published and more in the pipeline.