-LEVEL PSYCHOLOGY (AQA)
Paper 1: Introductory Topics in Psychology
We will cover the topics of:
Social Influence:
Where we will look at different types of conformity as well as explanations for conformity. We will also look at different explanations for obedience as well as variables affecting obedience. We will finish by looking at why some people can resist the pressure to obey.
Memory
Here we will cover two main models of human memory: The multi-store model of memory and the working memory model.
We will also look at explanations for forgetting and factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. We will then apply this to police work to see how such research can be used to improve the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.
Attachment
This topic investigates caregiver-infant interactions in humans including stages of attachment and multiple attachments including the role of the father. We will also cover animal studies of attachment and explanations of attachment.
Psychopathology
This topic focuses on mental health & disorders, including definitions of abnormality.
We will then move onto the behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias, depression and OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder).
We will analyse the cognitive approach to explaining and treating depression as well as the behavioural approach to explaining and treating phobias.
We will finish the topic by looking at the biological approach to explaining and treating OCD.
Paper 2: Psychology in Context
We will cover the topics of:
Approaches in Psychology
This general topic focuses on the origins of Psychology and the emergence of Psychology as a science.
It then moves on to look at the basic assumptions of three main approaches: Behaviourism, Social Learning Theory, Biological and Cognitive, (including the emergence of cognitive neuroscience)
Biopsychology
The purpose of this topic is for students to understand the biological processes that underpin behaviour. This includes the structure and function of the nervous system; the function of the endocrine system; and the flight or fight response.
Research Methods
This general topic focuses on the ways in which psychologists carry out research into behaviour. This involves you looking at the different methods used; the issues surrounding these methods; as well as how to analyses and present data from such research. As well as classroom content this topic will also involve you carrying out and analysing your own, small-scale, practical research activities
Paper 3: Issues & Debates & Options
Paper 3 you will learn about:
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Useful Resources for A-LEVEL YEAR 1
AQA Psychology for A Level Year 1 & AS – Student Book (2nd Edition) by Cara Flanagan, Dave Berry, Matt Jarvis, Illuminate publishing ISBN 978-1908682406 – Available from the 7th May 2020
The Complete Companions: AQA Psychology Year 1 and AS Student Book (Fourth Edition) by Mike Cardwell and Cara Flanagan, OUP Oxford Publishing, ISBN 978-0198338642
The Research Methods Companion for A Level Psychology Second
Edition by Cara Flanagan, OUP Oxford publishing, ISBN 978-0-19-835613-4
Psychology Review
Websites
AQA Psychology homepage: http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/psychology/as-and-a-level/psychology-7181-7182
http://www.psychlotron.org.uk/newResources/
British Psychological Society https://www.bps.org.uk/
Research Digest
What kind of psychologist might you be?
Tick the answer which apply to you: A, B, C, or D
When recruiting participants for your experiment would you:
When you design your experiment would you:
Would you tell people at the outset that they have a right to withdraw from the experiment at any time?
Would you keep people’s details confidential?
Would you protect your participants from physical or psychological harm?
Now add up your 1, 2, 3, and 4 totals to find out which psychologist you are…
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
What kind of psychologist might you be?
MOSTLY 1
You are most likely going to be like Professor Elizabeth Loftus. Elizabeth works on making Eyewitness Testimony better so that only the right people go to Prison. Her experiments show that Eyewitnesses are not very good at remembering details when under stress. She is a very professional and rigorous in ensuring that her methods are scientific and credible which is good practice for any aspiring psychologist!
MOSTLY 2
You are most like Professor Philip Zimbardo. He did the famous Stanford Prison Experiment to show how social roles change behaviour. He got so carried away with the experiment he lost sight of the effects on participants until his girlfriend, also a psychologist stepped in and stopped him. He is one of the main reasons, along with Milgram (below) that the British and American Psychological Societies had to draw up ethical guidelines for research! However, Dr Zimbardo is everywhere on the net so he did rather well out of it all, check out his website “prisonexp.org” and his book “The Lucifer Effect”.
MOSTLY 3
You are most like Stanley Milgram. His parents were Jewish Refugees during the war. He watched the trial of Adolph Eichmann whose defence for atrocities toward Jews was “I was only obeying orders” He set up an experiment to test this. He had to deceive participants but was uncomfortable about it. He has given us valuable understanding of human behaviour that still resonates to this day, but, he is one of the main reasons, along with Zimbardo that the British and American Psychological Societies had to draw up ethical guidelines for research!
MOSTLY 4
You would be most like Derren Brown. You are not really a ‘proper’ psychologist, but you know a lot about the application (some would say misapplication) of Psychology. You are highly intelligent, but your methods are more geared towards entertainment than academic practice. Also, because your laboratory is the TV and your audience will pay, you are not subject to the ethical codes that the rest of the psychological world is constrained to and your participant samples might be a little biased!
ETHICAL GUIDELINES IN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH
There are probably more major ethical issues in Psychology than in any other subject. There are a number of reasons for this:
The key ethical guidelines
Informed consent
Means researchers should tell potential participants exactly what is going to happen to them in the experiment, and ask them, without pressure of any kind, whether they are willing to take part.
Sometimes, researchers feel that they cannot tell participants what the experiment is about because they may show demand characteristics (work out what the study is about and change their behaviour). Children are often considered to be too young to give their own consent, and the consent of their parents or teachers is enough and should be gained.
Deception
Means lying to people and deceiving them about something to do with the study.
The BPS guidelines say that you should try to avoid intentionally deceiving participants about the purpose and nature of the investigation However in certain circumstances, deceiving to your participants is acceptable and can be justified when:
Observational Research
Studies that observe people in their natural environment must respect the privacy and psychological well-being of the individuals studied. Participants should either: (i) give their consent to being observed or (ii) be observed in a situation where they would normally expect to be observed by strangers e.g. in a public park or on a bus.
Check out Derren Brown’s ‘Trick or Treat’ episodes on YouTube and ask yourself if all of these guidelines have been followed…properly!
Year 11 into Year 12 Induction:
Summer Work
In Psychology you should be prepared to do lots of reading and independent research.
Complete the following 3 tasks on key pieces of research in Psychology.
Please hand this work in for marking after the summer holidays in the second week of term.
Maguire (2000)
Maguire investigated the changes in the brains of experienced London taxi drivers. London taxi drivers must undertake special training that takes about two years to complete during which time they must learn the roads and routes to the extent that they can reliably navigate their way around the central area without the aid of a map. This learning is referred to as being ‘on the knowledge’. On the basis of all this information, Maguire et al. predicted that fully licensed taxi drivers will have structural differences in their hippocampus as a result of learning experience.
To investigate this idea, the researchers used structural MRI scans of fully licensed male taxi drivers with a range of years’ experience driving and compared them with control subjects. The control subjects were not actual participants, but existing scans of healthy males who did not drive taxis.
They found that both the left and right hippocampi were significantly higher in volume in taxi drivers’ brains. In addition, the researchers found a positive correlation between volume of hippocampi and time spent as a taxi driver. Maguire et al. concluded that there has probably been a redistribution of grey matter in the hippocampi as a result of intense development and use of spatial memory skills.
Answer the following questions:
Loftus & Palmer
Loftus & Palmer is a very famous psychology study investigating the reliability of eyewitness testimony.
TIENARI (1994) Stretch & Challenge
Tienari, P. et al (1994) The Finnish adoptive family study of schizophrenia: Implications for family research. The British Journal of Psychiatry, Vol 164(Suppl 23), Apr 1994, 20-26
Background: There is a huge debate about whether schizophrenia (a mental illness where symptoms include hallucinations & delusions) is caused biologically or whether it is caused by environmental factors (the nature-nurture debate). This study was carried out to see the extent to which schizophrenia was caused by genetics (nature). In other words, whether the cause of schizophrenia is inheriting a gene from your parents, leading to the development of the mental illness.
The Study: Tienari studied a nationwide Finnish sample of children born to schizophrenic mothers and who were put up for adoption. He then compared them with a matched group of children born to non-schizophrenic mothers who had also been put up for adoption. There were 155 children in the schizophrenic sample and 186 in the non-schizophrenic sample. The adoptive families and biological parents were investigated using interviews and psychological tests. He found that there was a much higher incidence of severe mental disorder in the children in the schizophrenic sample compared to those in the non-schizophrenic sample. However, this was only really noticeable in the families rated as ‘disturbed’.
Conclusion: Tienari concluded that this finding provided clear support for the genetic hypothesis of schizophrenia.
TASK:
Read through the study again and think of why we may not agree with Tienari’s conclusion that schizophrenia is down to genetics only. Try and think of at least 2 points and explain these clearly.
Psychology Independent Study Guide
During the next two years you will be expected to complete some independent study that requires you to go above and beyond the content taught within the Psychology course, so it would be perfect for you to get a head start now! This development of your wider understanding is good practice for your life beyond 6th Form, whether at university or in the workplace. It will also develop your understanding of the course content by providing a clearer picture of the context in which the topics feature. This in turn, puts you in a better position to perform well in exams.
Some ideas to start you off are listed in this booklet. This is your opportunity to shape your studies to suit your areas of interest. Record which content you have focused on in the table at the back of this booklet and aim to complete a variety of tasks throughout your studies – reading, watching, and listening – so you develop a variety of skills.
Good luck and enjoy your first steps into Psychology!
General
Read | Watch | Listen |
Classic Case Studies in Psychology – Dr Geoff Rolls | A range of talks from the many fields of psychology https://www.ted.com/topics/psychology
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The Psychology Podcast – Dr Barry Kaufman |
Introducing Psychology – Nigel Benson | The Parkinson’s Drug Trial: A miracle cure? BBC Documentary | All in the Mind Podcast – https://www.bbc.co.uk/ programmes/b006qxx9/episodes/guide |
50 Ideas You Really Need to Know: Psychology – Adrian Furnham | 100 Humans (Netflix – Good for helping to understand research methods, a big part of Psychology!) | PsychCrunch Podcast |
A Beginner’s Guide to Being Mental: An A-Z – Natasha Devon | ‘Crash Course Psychology’ (YouTube) Fast paced bitesize overviews of psychology topics.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNo419yvwUDDuGEekLWgdlJPUA3WOVeig |
Mind Changers – Radio 4 |
Website for revision | Brain on Fire – Film (Netflix) | A fun but educational look at the psychology of characters in film https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/popcorn-psychology/id1367195038 |
Approaches
Read | Watch | Listen |
Opening Skinner’s Box – Lauren Slater | 3 ways to Make Better Decisions – by thinking like a computer – Tom Griffiths (TED Talk – Cognitive)
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The Psychology Podcast – Solving the Mysteries of Consciousness, Free Will and God |
Introducing Freud – Richard Appignanesi & Oscar Zarate (Psychodynamic) | The Sibling Bond – Jeffrey Kluger (TED Talk – Biological) | The Psychology Podcast – Humanism, Enlightenment and Progress |
Thinking Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman (Cognitive) | Supernanny, YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/user/officialsupernanny (Behaviourism – does it last?) | The Psych Files Podcast – Evolutionary Psychology |
Fantastic resources from the Freud Museum. https://www.freud.org.uk/learn/discover-psychoanalysis/ | A Dangerous Method (movie – Psychodynamic) | |
3 Identical Strangers – Netflix (documentary – Biological, genetics) |
Biopsychology
Read | Watch | Listen |
Behave – Robert Sapolsky (Thoroughly recommend this one!) | How your brain decides what is beautiful – Anja Chatterjee (TED Talk) | My Head – James Piercy (BBC Radio 4) |
Welcome to Your Brain – Sandra Aamodt & Sam Wang | What we’re learning from 5000 brains – Read Montague (TED Talk) | The Psychology Podcast – How DNA Makes Us Who We Are |
Born Liars – Ian Leslie | Know thyself, with a brain scanner – Ariel Garten (TED Talk) | TED Talk by V.S Ramachandran (Phantom Limb Syndrome) |
The Brain That Changes Itself – Norman Doige | Sleepwalkers – Secrets of the Night (Documentary) | |
Phantoms in the Brain – V.S Ramachandran |
Memory
Read | Watch | Listen |
Still Alice – Lisa Genova | How your ‘working memory’ makes sense of the world – Peter Doolittle (TED Talk) | All in the Mind Podcast – Memory and Identity |
Patient HM: A Story of Memory, Madness and Family Secrets – Luke Dittrich | How reliable is your memory? Elizabeth Loftus (TED Talk) | All in the Mind Podcast – A Highly Superior Memory |
Moonwalking with Einstein – Joshua Foer | Why eyewitnesses get it wrong – Scott Fraser (TED Talk) | TED talk – ‘The riddle of experience v’s memory. Daniel Kahneman |
Introducing Learning & Memory | Unlocking the secrets of our memory (Documentary) | |
50 First Dates (movie) |
Attachment
Read | Watch | Listen |
King Solomon’s Ring – Konrad Lorenz | The tragedy of orphanages – Georgette Mulheir (TED Talk) | The Psychology Podcast – The Latest Science of Attachment |
A review of attachment theory in the context of adolescent parenting – Flaherty & Sadler (2011)
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Child Full of Rage (Documentary) | |
Attachment in Common Sense and Doodles – Miriam Silver | From Romania with love. The effects of institutionalisation https://youtu.be/EU7vC3wUtMo | |
The Perils of Attachment Parenting – Emma Jenner (The Atlantic) | Babies, their wonderful world – BBC IPlayer | |
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/08/the-perils-of-attachment-parenting/375198/ | Secret Life of 4, 5 and 6 year olds – Channel 4 Documentary |
Social Influence
Read | Watch | Listen |
The Lucifer Effect – Philip Zimbardo | Derren Brown – Miracle/Sacrifice/The Push (Netflix) | The Dangerous History Podcast – The Psychology of Power and Obedience |
1984 – George Orwell | 12 Angry Men (movie) | The Psychology of Evil – Philip Zimbardo (TED Talk) |
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion – Robert.B Cialdini | BBC Prison Study (Documentary) | |
The Stanford Prison Experiment (Movie) |
Psychopathology
Read | Watch | Listen |
The boy who couldn’t stop washing – Judith Rapoport | Depressed dogs and cats with OCD – what animal madness means for us humans – Laurel Braitman (TED Talk) | All in the Mind Podcast – Preventing suicides |
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest – Ken Kesey | After Life – Netflix show with Ricky Gervais that tackles depression very realistically. | Therapy Lab Podcast – Learn about the various types of psychological therapy. |
Counselling for Toads – Robert de Board | The man who loved the number 12 (documentary) | |
Sybil – Flora Reita Schreiber | Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of a Manic depressive (documentary) | |
House Rules – Jodi Picoult | Social Anxiety: Afraid of People (documentary) | |
The curious incident of the dog in the night – Mark Haddon | Robert Sapolsky lecture on depression – (Technologynetworks.com) |
Cognition and Development
Read | Watch | Listen |
The Learning Brain – Uta Frith & Sarah Jane Blakemore | Child of our Time – Dr Robert Winston (documentary) | TED Talk ‘The linguistic genius of babies’ – Patricia Kuhl |
Many theories explained including Jean Piaget’s theory and stages of development. | TED Talk ‘The world needs all kinds of minds’ – Temple Grandin | TED Talk – Why our IQ levels are higher than our grandparents’. James Flynn |
Overview of Vygotsky https://www.verywellmind.com/lev-vygotsky-biography-2795533 | The Secret Life of 4, 5- & 6-year olds Channel 4 documentary programme | |
Autism: what we know (and what we don’t know yet) – Wendy Chung (TED Talk) |
Forensic Psychology
Read | Watch | Listen |
The Serial Killers: A Study in the Psychology of Violence – Colin Wilson & Donald Seaman | The neuroscience of restorative justice – Daniel Reisel (TED Talk) | Forensic Psychology Podcast – The Mind of a Serial Killer |
Criminal Shadows – David Canter | Exploring the mind of a killer – Jim Fallon (TED Talk) | |
The Jigsaw man – Paul Britton | Rachel Nickell: The Untold Story (Documentary) | |
The Science of Evil – Simon Baron-Cohen | The Ted Bundy Tapes (Netflix Documentary) |
Independent Study Log
Activity | Hours | Related topic | Summary/Notes in folder (tick box) | Date | |
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