A Level Psychology

• Types of conformity
• Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo
• Explanations for obedience
• Explanations of resistance to social influence, including social support and locus of control
• Minority influence including reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility
• The role of social influence processes in social change.

• The multi-store model of memory
• Types of long-term memory
• The working memory model
• Explanations for forgetting
• Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony
• Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, including the use of the cognitive interview.

• Caregiver-infant interactions in humans
• Animal studies of attachment
• Explanations of attachment
• Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’
• Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation
• The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships, including the role of an internal working model.

• Learning approaches
• The cognitive approach
• The biological approach

• Definitions of abnormality, including deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately, statistical infrequency and deviation from ideal mental health.
• The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
• The behavioural approach to explaining and treating phobias
• The cognitive approach to explaining and treating depression
• The biological approach to explaining and treating OCD

• Experimental method. Types of experiment, laboratory and field experiments; natural and quasi-experiments
• Observational techniques
• Self-report techniques
• Correlations

An individual may change their feelings and behaviour so that they can fit in or be liked. Other individuals might be swayed as they may feel others know better or are told to do something by someone with authority. For example, if you are at a concert and everyone claps, you might clap too – even if no one told you to or you didn’t feel like it was a great performance. This is known as social influence. This topic will look into why people conform, obey authority, resist pressure or create social change.

• Types of conformity
• Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo
• Explanations for obedience
• Explanations of resistance to social influence, including social support and locus of control
• Minority influence including reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility
• The role of social influence processes in social change

The human brain is able to take information, store it and recall it later. This is known as memory. However, sometimes the brain can forget things, mix things up or be influenced by other people. This is why psychologists study how it works.

• The multi-store model of memory
• Types of long-term memory
• The working memory model
• Explanations for forgetting
• Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony
• Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, including the use of the cognitive interview

Early relationships such as a baby and mother can affect emotional development, behaviour and later relationships in life. For example, when a baby cries, a parent may comfort the baby and then the baby will settle. This shows that the baby feels safe, protected and comforted with that person. This topic will explore how babies bond with their caregivers, why comfort and care is important and how early relationships can affect later life.

• Caregiver-infant interactions in humans
• Animal studies of attachment
• Explanations of attachment
• Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’
• Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation
• The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships, including the role of an internal working model.

Psychopathology is the study of mental disorders such as phobia, depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder. This topic will look at abnormal behaviours, what causes mental disorders and how they can be treated effectively. For a fear such as being afraid of spiders, a psychologist would study why the fear developed and how to treat it.

• Definitions of abnormality, including deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately, statistical infrequency and deviation from ideal mental health.
• The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
• The behavioural approach to explaining and treating phobias
• The cognitive approach to explaining and treating depression
• The biological approach to explaining and treating OCD.

This topic will explore different ways psychologists explain human behaviour and mental processes. Each approach has a theory about why people think, feel and behave the way they do. Human behaviour is complex and therefore psychologists use multiple approaches which focus on different causes.

• Learning approaches
• The cognitive approach
• The biological approach
• The psychodynamic approach
• Humanistic Psychology
• Comparison of approaches.

This topic will look at the brain, nervous system, hormones, genes and biological rhythms and help us to understand how the body and brain affect behaviour, thoughts and emotions.

• The divisions of the nervous system
• The structure and function of sensory, relay and motor neurons. The process of synaptic transmission, including reference to neurotransmitters, excitation and inhibition.
• The function of the endocrine system: glands and hormones
• The fight or flight response including the role of adrenaline
• Localisation of function in the brain and hemispheric lateralisation
• Ways of studying the brain
• Biological rhythms.

Psychologists will use research methods to study behaviour and mental processes. They will collect data, test theories, analyse results and draw conclusions. For example, a psychologist may want to know whether sleep affects memory. Therefore, they would run an experiment, collect data and analyse the results to see if there is a relationship.

• Experimental methods
• Observational techniques
• Self-report techniques
• Correlations
• Content analysis
• Case studies
• Scientific processes
• Data handling and analysis
• Inferential testing

For this topic, we will consider questions and arguments about how behaviour should be explained. We will explore different viewpoints and think critically about how behaviour develops, whether people control their actions and the impact of psychological research on society. For example, if an individual committed a crime, a psychologists may debate whether it happened because of their biology or their upbringing.

• Gender and culture in Psychology
• Free will and determinism
• The nature-nurture debate
• Holism and reductionism
• Idiographic and nomothetic approaches to psychological investigation
• Ethical implications of research studies and theory, including reference to social sensitivity.

This topic will study how children’s thinking and understanding develop as they grow. Cognition refers to mental processes involved in thinking, learning & remembering and Development refers to how these mental abilities change and grow over time.

• Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
• Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development, including the zone of proximal development and scaffolding
• Baillargeon’s explanation of early infant abilities, including knowledge of the physical world
• The development of social cognition.

This topic will refer to how, why and what people eat. You will look into factors that influence food choices, hunger and appetite. Studying this topic will help us understand normal eating patterns and disorders like obesity or anorexia nervosa.

• Explanations for food preferences
• Neural and hormonal mechanisms involved in the control of eating behaviour, including the role of the hypothalamus, ghrelin and leptin
• Biological explanations for anorexia nervosa, including genetic and neural explanations
• Psychological explanations for anorexia nervosa
• Biological explanations for obesity, including genetic and neural explanations
• Psychological explanations for obesity, including restraint theory, disinhibition and the boundary model.

If someone is addicted to something such as a substance, they are not able to control their use of the substance even when it has negative consequences on their health or life. Addictions can be substance additions (nicotine, alcohol, drugs) or behavioural addictions (gambling, gaming, shopping). Studying this topic will help you to understand why it develops, who is at risk and how to treat or reduce it.

• Describing addiction
• Risk factors in the development of addiction, including genetic vulnerability, stress, personality, family influences and peers
• Explanations for nicotine addiction
• Explanations for gambling addiction
• Reducing addiction
• The application of the following theories of behaviour change to addictive behaviour; the theory of planned behaviour and Prochaska’s six-stage model of behaviour change.

• Dement and Kleitman (sleep and dreams)
• Hassett et al. (monkey toy preferences)
• Hölzel et al. (mindfulness and brain scans)

• Andrade (doodling)
• Baron-Cohen et al. (eyes test)
• Pozzulo et al. (line-ups)

• Bandura et al. (aggression)
• Fagen et al. (elephant learning)
• Saavedra and Silverman (button phobia)

• Milgram (obedience)
• Perry et al. (personal space)
• Piliavin et al. (subway Samaritans)

• the application of psychology to everyday life
• individual and situational explanations
• nature versus nurture
• the use of children in psychological research
• the use of animals in psychological research.

Clinical psychology is the study of a range of mental and behavioural disorders/conditions and the potential explanations and available treatments for them.

There are many competing explanations and treatments for the conditions/disorders.

Learners will be expected to understand the strengths and weaknesses of these explanations and treatments and compare them with each other.

Consumer Psychology is the study of human behaviour in relation to the retail environment.

For this option learners look at different areas of consumer environments (shops, restaurants and online) and consider how psychology can affect consumer patterns and decision-making.

Learners will also explore the reaction and preferences of consumers to the packaging of products, the marketing of products and the advertising of products.

Health psychologists look at the factors that influence behaviours in both health and community settings.

For this option, learners will look at psychological factors that influence health, and will also examine the management and assessment of health-related behaviours linked to stress, pain and non-adherence to medical advice.

Organisational psychology is the study of behaviours within the workplace.

Learners will need to consider how social, physical and psychological environments affect individual and group behaviour in the workplace.

Do you ever feel you act differently when you are surrounded by people as opposed to when you are at home by yourself? You may feel more influenced by other people’s decisions and behave differently. Social Psychology helps explain peer pressure, bullying, group behaviour and power. Cognitive psychology helps us to understand how the mind works. This can include how we think, remember and process information. Understanding cognitive psychology can help us better revise for exams and make decisions. It can also help explain how eyewitness testimony works.

• Topic A: Social psychology
• Topic B: Cognitive psychology

Sometimes thoughts and actions are hard to control due to how the body and brain affects behaviour. For example, someone may be feeling happy, scared or anxious. Another example is of someone who might have brain damage. This can cause a change in personality or memory. As an individual grows, behaviour will change as it is learned from experience.

• Biological psychology
• Learning theories and development

Developmental psychology will look into thinking, behaviour and emotions focusing on child development and how people become who they are. You will then have the option of Criminological or health psychology. Criminology helps us understand criminal behaviour and why individuals commit crimes. Health will look into how behaviour affects healthy living and what affect lifestyle choices can have on an individual.

• Topic E: Developmental psychology
• Optional topics (students must study one of the following topics): Topic F: Criminological psychology Topic G: Health psychology

Clinical psychology will look into mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and phobias. The topic will cover diagnoses and different types of therapy used to treat the illnesses. Psychological skills are the tools psychologists use to study behaviour. This can include experiments, observations and questionnaires.

• Topic H: Clinical psychology
• Topic I: Psychological skills