Course description
Course summary
This course has been designed to provide a broad introduction to the scope and nature of psychology as a science.
The emphasis is on applying knowledge and understanding rather than just acquiring knowledge, thereby developing students’ transferable skills of analysis, evaluation and critical thinking.
At AS, the specification offers a broad range of topics, with research methods in context.
At A2, there is a range of topic-based options which bring together explanations from different approaches and engage students in issues and debates in contemporary psychology.
This course allows you to study at your own pace. This course is suitable to be studied by all students irrespective of age, creed, religion or gender.
Read on to find out more about our A Level Psychology distance learning course and how you can learn with our amazing materials and online support.
Course Content
An outline of what is offered in our A Level Psychology course:
AS Level
Unit 1: PSYA1 – Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology and Research Methods
Cognitive Psychology – Memory
1. Models of memory
The multi-store model, including the concepts of encoding, capacity and duration. Strengths and weaknesses of the model
The working memory model, including its strengths and weaknesses
2. Memory in everyday lifeEyewitness testimony (EWT) and factors affecting the accuracy of EWT, including anxiety, age of witness
Misleading information and the use of the cognitive interview
Strategies for memory improvement
3. Developmental Psychology - Early Social DevelopmentExplanations of attachment, including learning theory, and evolutionary perspective, including Bowlby
Types of attachment, including insecure and secure attachment and studies by Ainsworth
Cultural variations in attachment
Disruption of attachment, failure to form attachment (privation) and the effects of institutionalisation
4. Attachment in everyday lifeThe impact of different forms of day care on children’s social development, including the effects on aggression and peer relations
Implications of research into attachment and day care for child care practices
5. Methods and techniques
Candidates will be expected to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the following research methods, their advantages and weaknesses:
Experimental method, including laboratory, field and natural experiments
Studies using a correlational analysis
Observational techniques
Self-report techniques including questionnaire and interview
Case studies
6. Investigation design
Candidates should be familiar with the following features of investigation design:
Aims
Hypotheses, including directional and non-directional
Experimental design (independent groups, repeated measures and matched pairs)
Design of questionnaires and interviews
Pilot studies
Control of extraneous variables
Reliability and validity
Ethical issues and ways in which psychologists deal with them
Demand characteristics and investigator effects
7. Data analysis and presentation
Candidates should be familiar with the following features of data analysis, presentation and interpretation:
Presentation and interpretation of quantitative data including graphs, scattergrams and tables
Analysis and interpretation of quantitative data. Measures of central tendency including median, mean, mode. Measures of dispersion including ranges and standard deviation
Analysis and interpretation of correlational data. Positive and negative correlations and the interpretation of correlation coefficients
Presentation of qualitative data
Processes involved in content analysis
Unit 2: PSYA2 – Biological Psychology, Social Psychology and Individual Differences
Biological Psychology – Stress
1. Stress as a bodily response
The body’s response to stress, including the pituitary-adrenal system and the sympathomedullary pathway in outline
Stress-related illness and the immune system
2. Stress in everyday life
Life changes and daily hassles
Workplace stress
Personality factors, including Type A behaviour
Distinction between emotion-focused and problem-focused approaches to coping with stress
Psychological and physiological methods of stress management, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and drugs
Social Psychology - Social Influence
3. Social influence
Types of conformity, including internalisation and compliance
Explanations of why people conform, including informational social influence and normative social influence
Obedience, including Milgram’s work and explanations of why people obey
4. Social influence in everyday life
Explanations of independent behaviour, including how people resist pressures to conform and pressures to obey authority
The influence of individual differences on independent behaviour, including locus of control
Implications for social change of research into social influence
Individual Differences - Psychopathology (Abnormality)
5. Defining and explaining psychological abnormality
Definitions of abnormality, including deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately and deviation from ideal mental health, and limitations associated with these definitions of psychological abnormality
Key features of the biological approach to psychopathology
Key features of psychological approaches to psychopathology including the psychodynamic, behavioural and cognitive approaches
6. Treating abnormality
Biological therapies, including drugs and ECT
Psychological therapies, including psychoanalysis, systematic desensitisation and Cognitive Behavioural therapy
A2 Level
Unit 3: PSYA3 – Topics in Psychology
Biological Rhythms and Sleep
1. Biological rhythmsCircadian, infradian and ultradian rhythms, including the role of endogenous pacemakers and of exogenous zeitgebers
Consequences of disrupting biological rhythms, for example shift work, jet lag
2. Sleep states
The nature of sleep
Functions of sleep, including evolutionary explanations and restoration theory
Lifespan changes in sleep
3. Disorders of sleep
Explanations for insomnia, including primary and secondary insomnia and factors influencing insomnia, for example, apnoea, personality
Explanations for other sleep disorders, including sleep walking and narcolepsy
Aggression
1. Social psychological approaches to explaining aggressionSocial psychological theories of aggression, for example, social learning theory, deindividuation
Explanations of institutional aggression
2. Biological explanations of aggressionThe role of neural and hormonal mechanisms in aggression
The role of genetic factors in aggressive behaviour
3. Aggression as an adaptive responseEvolutionary explanations of human aggression, including infidelity and jealousy
Explanations of group display in humans, for example sports events and lynch mobs
Cognition and Development
1. Development of thinking
Theories of cognitive development, including Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner
Applications of these theories to education
2. Development of moral understanding
Theories of moral understanding (Kohlberg) and/or prosocial reasoning (Eisenberg)
3. Development of social cognition
Development of the child’s sense of self, including Theory of Mind (Baron-Cohen)
Development of children’s understanding of others, including perspective taking (Selman)
Biological explanations of social cognition, including the role of the mirror neuron system
Unit 4: PSYA4 – Psychopathology, Psychology in Action and Research Methods
Psychopathology
You are required to study one disorder
Schizophrenia
Clinical characteristics
Issues surrounding the classification and diagnosis of schizophrenia, including reliability and validity
Biological explanations of schizophrenia, for example, genetics, biochemistry
Psychological explanations of schizophrenia, for example, behavioural, cognitive, psychodynamic and socio-cultural
Biological therapies for schizophrenia, including their evaluation in terms of appropriateness and effectiveness
Psychological therapies for schizophrenia, for example, behavioural, psychodynamic, and cognitive-behavioural, including their evaluation in terms of appropriateness and effectiveness
Psychology in Action
You are required to study one contemporary application
Media Psychology
1. Media influences on social behaviourExplanations of media influences on pro- and anti-social behaviour
The effects of video games and computers on young people
2. Persuasion, attitude and change
Persuasion and attitude change, including Hovland-Yale and Elaboration Likelihood models
The influence of attitudes on decision making, including roles of cognitive consistency/dissonance and self-perception
Explanations for the effectiveness of television in persuasion
3. The psychology of ‘celebrity’
The attraction of ‘celebrity’, including social psychological and evolutionary explanations
Research into intense fandom, for example, celebrity worship, stalking
Psychological Research and Scientific Method
You are required to study all of the following
1. The application of scientific method in psychologyThe major features of science, for example replicability, objectivity
The scientific process, including theory construction, hypothesis testing, use of empirical methods, generation of laws/principles (eg Popper, Kuhn)
Validating new knowledge and the role of peer review
2. Designing psychological investigations
Selection and application of appropriate research methods
Implications of sampling strategies, for example, bias and generalising
Issues of reliability, including types of reliability, assessment of reliability, improving reliability
Assessing and improving validity (internal and external)
Ethical considerations in design and conduct of psychological research
3. Data analysis and reporting on investigationsAppropriate selection of graphical representations
Probability and significance, including the interpretation of significance and type1/type2 errors
Factors affecting choice of statistical test, including levels of measurement
The use of inferential analysis, including Spearman’s Rho, Mann-Whitney, Wilcoxon, Chi-squared
Analysis and interpretation of qualitative data
Conventions of reporting on psychological investigations
Summary of Assessments
Unit 1: PSYA1 – Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology and Research Methods
• 50% of AS Level
• 25% of A2 Level
• Examination: 1 hour 30 minutes
Structured compulsory questions based on Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology and Research Methods.
Questions include short answer, stimulus material and one 12-mark question requiring extended writing in which QWC will be assessed.
Unit 2: PSYA2 – Biological Psychology, Social Psychology and Individual Differences• 50% of AS Level
• 25% of A2 Level
• Examination: 1 hour 30 minutes
Three compulsory structured questions, one based on the Biological Psychology content, one based on the Social Psychology content and one based on the Individual Differences content.
Questions include short answer, stimulus material and one or more 12-mark questions requiring extended writing in which QWC will be assessed.
Unit 3: PSYA3 – Topics in Psychology• 25% of A Level
• Examination: 1 hour 30 minutes
• Three essay-style questions chosen from eight topics:
• Biological rhythms and sleep
• Perception
• Relationships
• Aggression
• Eating behaviour
• Gender
• Intelligence and learning
• Cognition and development
• QWC will be assessed in each essay
Unit 4: PSYA4 – Psychopathology, Psychology in Action and Research Methods
• 25 % of total A Level
• Examination: 2 hours
• Three sections:
Psychopathology: One essay-style question chosen from three. QWC will be assessed in this essay.
Psychology in Action: One question chosen from three.
Research Methods: One compulsory structured question.
