Psychology A-level

When studying A-Level Psychology you will delve into the forces that drive and determine human behaviour. You will study important and interesting research from around the world. In your first year, you will look at a range of different areas helping to explain behaviour and apply what you have learned to real life situations; for example, how eyewitness testimony can be affected by the wording in a question, and factors that influence whether someone helps in an emergency situation. In your second year, you will have the opportunity to study issues in mental health such as psychological disorders, criminal psychology and environmental psychology.

There are three components / modules taught over two years. All of these modules are assessed by exams at the end of the second year.

• Component 1 – Research Methods (30%, 2 hour exam)
• Component 2 – Psychological Themes Through Core Studies (35%, 2 hour exam)
• Component 3 – Applied Psychology (35%, 2 hour exam)

Component 1 – Research Methods

This module encourages students to become familiar with the main techniques for collecting and analysing data: self-report, experiment, observation, correlation and case study.

Component 2 – Psychological Themes Through Core Studies

This module allows students to explore different approaches to explaining behaviour including the physiological, cognitive and social approaches through studying ten pairs of key psychological studies.

Component 3 – Applied Psychology

This module involves the exploration of specific areas of Psychology that students may wish to specialise in. All students will study mental health, criminal psychology and environmental psychology.

Mental Health Psychology includes the history of mental health; categorising and diagnosing abnormal behaviour; as well as the medical, behaviourist, cognitive, and psychodynamic explanations and treatments of mental health disorders.

Criminal Psychology involves studying Psychology in application to the law including reasons why people turn to crime such as biology, the collection and processing of forensic evidence, factors that affect jury decisions, and the different ways to manage offenders.

Environmental Psychology focuses on areas such as stress, biological rhythms (sleep), recycling, ergonomics, the psychological impact of built environments and terriority and personal space.

No the syllabus includes an introduction to the topics, no prior knowledge is needed

Psychology is often considered a scientific subject so there is a maths element of the course. This builds on data analysis skills that students will have used at GCSE, including drawing and analysing graphs; calculating averages (mean, median and mode) and measures of dispersion. The mathematical skills that are beyond GCSE are linked to carrying out statistical tests, the teaching of these is scaffolded and revisited throughout the course to support students. It is preferable that you have gained a higher grade pass in GCSE Maths.

If you are considering studying Psychology at degree level you should be aware that some universities require a grade 6 in GCSE Maths. You should check entry requirements with individual universities.

If you are not also studying A-Level Maths, taking L3 Mathematical Studies (Core Maths) could be a useful option to help support the work done in A-Level Psychology. This is a one-year course that you would take alongside your other 3 subjects, with exams at the end of your first year. Taking this would help to reinforce the data analysis work done in Psychology, giving you further practice of displaying and interpreting data in graphs such as histograms and scatter graphs, and calculating and comparing averages and measures of spread including standard deviation. You would also get further practice of the Normal Distribution, both to estimate probabilities and find confidence intervals of a population’s mean. Core Maths also looks at critical analysis, Fermi Estimation and personal finance.

Students that do well in Psychology are self motivated and show a genuine interest in the subject area. They complete flipped learning prior to their lessons so that they are ready to apply their knowledge to sessions. Students who do well also review their work outside of lessons and complete exam questions to practice exam technique and revise consistently throughout the course. Students who perform well have excellent levels of attendance and take on board the feedback from staff to help them improve. They attend extra revision sessions and read around the applied psychology topics in year 1.

Students are expected to read back over their notes after each lesson, create revision resources from these and to complete preparation work for the next lesson. In year 1 this flipped learning work is linked to the 20 core studies. In year 2, students complete home learning booklets for each of the applied psychology topics and this content is reinforced and applied in lessons. Students will also be expected to complete revision for end of topic tests (approx 1 or 2 per half term) and timed exam questions.