Psychology A Level

Psychology A Level

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.

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 life
Eyewitness 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 Development
Explanations 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 life
The 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 rhythms
Circadian, 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 aggression
Social psychological theories of aggression, for example, social learning theory, deindividuation

Explanations of institutional aggression

2. Biological explanations of aggression
The role of neural and hormonal mechanisms in aggression

The role of genetic factors in aggressive behaviour

3. Aggression as an adaptive response
Evolutionary 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 behaviour
Explanations 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 psychology
The 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 investigations
Appropriate 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.