Psychology

Studying Psychology at our school is a unique, challenging and rewarding experience where access to our ground-breaking centre for psychological research, the Mind Lab, provides students with super-curricular opportunities to work collaboratively with highly reputable, global renowned, Higher Educational institutions. Here, students take part in real-world research, help facilitate studies carried out in school and also carry out their own independent research. Significant funding from The Royal Society has enabled Sixth Form students to carry out cutting edge psychological research and present their findings at world renowned conferences in 2023 at a facility that is both unrivalled and unlike any other that exists in a school setting across the country.

Students studying A Level Psychology are challenged to apply scientific techniques to study a variety of human phenomena such as memory, gender and aggression. As such, the subject is a part of students’ everyday lives. Our teachers provide students with a rigorous academic and holistic understanding of the subject and students develop and demonstrate knowledge and skills of the scientific method, as well as competence and confidence in a variety of practical, mathematical and problem-solving skills. The sequencing of content is designed to enable students to learn and begin to develop fundamental psychological skills in the first year of the course, before building on these in an increasingly sophisticated way as their study progresses. An understanding of human behaviour is fundamental to many jobs in society and the study of Psychology at degree level remains the most popular choice at our school where students have continued their journey as psychiatrists, industrial-organisational and forensic psychologists and neuropsychologists.

Minimum Entry Criteria

Desired: 7 in Maths and English Language

Essential: 6 in Maths and English Language*

*Applicants who have taken the Foundation Mathematics paper and achieved a Grade 5 will be considered on a case by case basis provided the entry criteria has been met in the other subject(s) that are listed. Please see the website for over-subscription criteria.

Board

AQA

Outline of the Course

Paper 1

• Memory (eg why do we forget things? Can we trust eye-witness testimony?)
• Attachments (eg why do infants become attached to their parents?)
• Social Influence (eg why do we change our behaviour when part of a group?)
• Psychopathology (eg what are the most common mental disorders? Can they successfully be treated?)

Paper 2

• Approaches (eg which approach to Psychology is the most scientific?)
• Biopsychology (eg can we understand human behaviour solely in terms of biology?)
• Research Methods (ie how do psychologists collect and analyse data?)

Paper 3

• Issues and Debates in Psychology (eg what are the key issues faced by psychologists today?)
• Gender (eg is gender the product of genetic factors or upbringing?)
• Schizophrenia (eg why does schizophrenia develop and how can it be treated?)
• Aggression (eg why are some people more aggressive than others?)

Assessment

 Summer Assignment - PsychologySixth Form Programme of Courses