A Level

What is Psychology?

Psychology is all about the study of human behaviour. We examine the ways in which different psychological approaches explain behaviours including memory, attraction, stress and addiction.

The course requires you to study and compare different theories and evaluate them in terms of the evidence produced through psychological research.  The table below summarises the three examination papers that you will sit at the end of two years and the range of human behaviours that we shall be investigating.

Exam Board: AQA

Course Summary 

Paper 1 Introductory Topics	Social Influence Memory Attachment Psychopathology (Abnormal behaviour)
Paper 2 Psychology in Context	Approaches in Psychology Biopsychology Research Methods
Paper 3 Issues and Options	Issues & debates Relationships Stress Addiction

What skills will I gain from studying psychology?

You will develop:-

• your ability to investigate explanations for human behaviour with reference to psychological studies. (Behaviours include stress, sleep, memory, addiction and abnormal behaviour.)
• your ability to evaluate psychological theories in terms of their strengths weaknesses, evidence and applications to the real world
• an appreciation of the different experimental and non experimental methods used by psychologists to investigate human behaviour.

Where can I find out more information?

Mr Cornell icornell@parkhall.org
Miss Vaughan cvaughan@parkhall.org
Mrs Williams twilliams@parkhall.org