Psychology is the study of behaviour & mental processes. It is a science subject which challenges how students think about themselves and the decisions they make about their lives. It covers topics such as memory, responses to authority, responses to people in need, sleep patterns, causes of psychopathy etc. It allows us to consider the motives of others, to empathise with others and to understand how a wide variety of treatments and therapies can play a significant part in people’s lives. Understanding how different cultures, social groups and families can lead to particular behaviour also adds an awareness of different values and expectations which affect us and this will help you to understand both the similarities and differences which make the world a very interesting place to be in, within a scientific, research based environment.

Psychology is the science of the mind and is taught as a science subject. It is relevant to a wide variety of job fields, including Health, Police, Social Work, Teaching as well as Advertising, Sales and Marketing and should appeal to a very wide audience. In the classroom, participation and opinion is invited and encouraged and therefore this subject would appeal to those who are particularly interested in people, in current affairs and in facilitating debate about a wide variety of topics. We offer the opportunity for students to join a student-led psychology group or to pursue an additional enrichment in either an Extended Project Qualification where the possibility to conduct a piece of investigative research may be realised, or to join a non-examined Forensic Psychology group with a series of guest speakers and engaging group activities. You will study the course for two years and will sit three exams at the end in order to gain an A Level qualification. This is an examined subject with no coursework.

GCSE grade 4/5 or above in English and Maths; grade 5 in two Sciences.

You will gain knowledge of different approaches used in psychology and the methods used by psychologists to study behaviour. In the first year, you will look at several key studies that have been conducted in psychology to learn what they tell us about human behaviour and you will get an opportunity to conduct your own small-scale research projects and analyse the results to see how they can help us understand motivations and explanations for a variety of actions.

In the second year of study, you will be able to gain knowledge of applied areas of psychology such as criminal psychology, mental health and environmental psychology. Under these broad categories, you will study leading research papers and theories being used by psychologists today and will gain skills in analysis, application and evaluation and a good understanding of the statistics used in psychological research. You will:

• Gain hands on experience of a range of different research methods encouraging active learning.
• Appreciate how psychological knowledge and understanding develops over time.
• Explore applications of psychology and gain an insight into how psychological theory can be applied to real world situations.
• Develop the ability to communicate effectively using appropriate language and become psychologically literate citizens.

This course is externally assessed by examination at the end of 2 years. There will be three exams: – Introductory Topics; Psychology in context and Issues and Options. There will be a range of assessment methods including multiple choice, short answer questions and longer essay type questions. There are no coursework units with this qualification.

• Research methods – We will look at the key methods used by psychologists to study behaviour such as experiments, questionnaires, observations etc.
• Memory – how does our memory work and why do we forget?
• Social psychology – Why do we conform to authority figures? Can a minority group change the behaviour of a majority group?
• Biopsychology – how does our biology affect our behaviour? What role does our brain play?
• Forensic psychology – we investigate why people become criminals, how we might apprehend them and the role of prison.
• Many other exciting topics.

You will need an A4 folder, notepaper and pens in every lesson. We do, on occasion, organise trips or guest speakers and there may be a small fee for this. We provide workbooks and readers to reinforce learning and costs for these will be included in the course costs for this subject.