Psychology (Y12-Y13)
Vision
To explore the different reasons why human beings think and behave the way they do.
To develop and apply your mathematical and scientific skills and build your knowledge of Psychology as a scientific discipline. I.e. develop your own research.
Analyse different perspectives and theorists within Psychology and compare their views on human behaviour.
To critically evaluate human behaviour and see the benefit that psychology and its research value have on the economy.
Psychology is an excellent subject to have as it is helpful to understand how and why people behave in every-day life. For example, is it part of the environment or our genetics that certain individuals are more likely to break the law?
The image above is still (not a Gif.). However, when we look at this image our eyes perceive it to be moving. Why? This is an optical illusion where Psychologists are interested in researching why humans see this still image move. It really is a still image, if you stare at one point on the image it should stop moving for you.
Psychologists conduct a variety of different research depending on the human behaviour they are interested in. In the perception of moving images case laboratory experiments in controlled settings have been used to gather evidence to support a hypothesis (a scientifically testable prediction).
Possible findings from research into the above illusion are:
- The colour white turns our retinas receptors “on” while black shuts them “off”. Having black and white colours in patterns near each other confuses our brain and makes the image appear to flicker or move.
- The arrangement of colour bands repeated in an asymmetric pattern could also play a role in the perceived motion (Ming-Te Chi, 2008).
- High contrast colours make the illusion more effective, such as pairing black and white or blue and yellow. (Ming-Te Chi, 2008).
Throughout the course students will look at existing theory and models within Psychology, and be able to build their own views of human behaviour to understand why we behave the way we do. Please click on the hyperlinks to access knowledge organisers.
| Year 12 | Year 13 | |
|---|---|---|
| Term 1 |
Key Approaches Research Methods Memory Psychopathology |
Schizophrenia
Gender development
|
| Term 2 |
Social influence Attachment Research Methods Biopsychology |
Forensic Psychology Issues and Debates
|
| Assessment | Mock exams | Mock exams |
| Term 3 |
Research Methods Key approaches Biopsychology |
|
| Assessment | Assessment week/ resit mock exams | Resit mock exams |
Useful Websites
https://www.tutor2u.net/psychology
https://www.simplypsychology.org/
https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/psychology/as-and-a-level/psychology-7181-7182