AQA Psychology A Level at Parkstone Grammar School Handbook 1 Contents Page Why Choose AQA Psychology? 3 Course Content Overview 4 Assessment 4 Specification Details 5 Expectations 14 Psychology Recommended Reading List/Websites 15 Command Words 18 Glossary 20 Exam Questions 31 Help available in the Department 32 Staff in the Department 32 Library 33 2 3 This is a linear qualification which means that you will sit all the A Level exams at the end of the A Level course. Course Content Overview 1 Social influence 2 Memory 3 Attachment 4 Psychopathology 5 Approaches in Psychology 6 Biopsychology 7 Research methods 8 Issues and debates in Psychology Option 1 - Relationships Option 2 - Stress Option 3 - Forensic Psychology Assessments Paper Content Assessed Questions 1. Introductory Content 1-4 Written exam: Sections Topics in above 2hrs A/B/C/D: multiple Psychology choice, short 96marks in total answer and extended writing. 33.3% of A Level (24marks each) 4 2. Psychology in Content 5-7 Written exam: Sections A/B: Context above 2hrs multiple choice, short answer and 96marks in total extended writing. (24 marks each) 33.3% of A Level Section C: multiple choice, short answer and extended writing. (48 marks) 3. Issues and Content 8 and Written exam: Sections Options Options 1-3 2hrs A/B/C/D: multiple choice, short 96marks in total answer and extended writing. 33.3% of A Level (24marks each) Specification Details Paper 1 – Introductory Topics in Psychology 1 Social influence  Types of conformity: internalisation, identification and compliance. Explanations for conformity: informational social influence and normative social influence, and variables affecting conformity including group size, unanimity and task difficulty as investigated by Asch.  Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo.  Explanations for obedience: agentic state and legitimacy of authority, and situational variables affecting obedience including proximity, location and uniform, 5 as investigated by Milgram. Dispositional explanation for obedience: the Authoritarian Personality.  Explanations of resistance to social influence, including social support and locus of control.  Minority influence including reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility.  The role of social influence processes in social change. 2 Memory  The multi-store model of memory: sensory register, short-term memory and long- term memory. Features of each store: coding, capacity and duration.  Types of long-term memory: episodic, semantic, procedural.  The working memory model: central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and episodic buffer. Features of the model: coding and capacity.  Explanations for forgetting: proactive and retroactive interference and retrieval failure due to absence of cues.  Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: misleading information, including leading questions and post-event discussion; anxiety.  Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, including the use of the cognitive interview. 3 Attachment  Caregiver-infant interactions in humans: reciprocity and interactional synchrony. Stages of attachment identified by Schaffer. Multiple attachments and the role of the father.  Animal studies of attachment: Lorenz and Harlow.  Explanations of attachment: learning theory and Bowlby’s monotropic theory. The concepts of a critical period and an internal working model. 6  Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’. Types of attachment: secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant. Cultural variations in attachment, including van Ijzendoorn.  Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation. Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation.  The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships, including the role of an internal working model. 4 Psychopathology  Definitions of abnormality, including deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately, statistical infrequency and deviation from ideal mental health.  The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).  The behavioural approach to explaining and treating phobias: the two-process model, including classical and operant conditioning; systematic desensitisation, including relaxation and use of hierarchy; flooding.  The cognitive approach to explaining and treating depression: Beck’s negative triad and Ellis’s ABC model; cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), including challenging irrational thoughts.  The biological approach to explaining and treating OCD: genetic and neural explanations; drug therapy. Paper 2 – Psychology in Context 1 Approaches in Psychology Origins of Psychology: Wundt, introspection and the emergence of Psychology as a science. 7 The basic assumptions of the following approaches:  Learning approaches: the behaviourist approach, including classical conditioning and Pavlov’s research, operant conditioning, types of reinforcement and Skinner’s research; social learning theory including imitation, identification, modelling, vicarious reinforcement, the role of mediational processes and Bandura’s research.  The cognitive approach: the study of internal mental processes, the role of schema, the use of theoretical and computer models to explain and make inferences about mental processes. The emergence of cognitive neuroscience.  The biological approach: the influence of genes, biological structures and neurochemistry on behaviour. Genotype and phenotype, genetic basis of behaviour, evolution and behaviour.  The psychodynamic approach: the role of the unconscious, the structure of personality, that is Id, Ego and Superego, defence mechanisms including repression, denial and displacement, psychosexual stages.  Humanistic Psychology: free will, self-actualisation and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, focus on the self, congruence, the role of conditions of worth. The influence on counselling Psychology.  Comparison of approaches. 2 Biopsychology  The divisions of the nervous system: central and peripheral (somatic and autonomic).  The structure and function of sensory, relay and motor neurons. The process of synaptic transmission, including reference to neurotransmitters, excitation and inhibition.  The function of the endocrine system: glands and hormones.  The fight or flight response including the role of adrenaline. 8  Localisation of function in the brain and hemispheric lateralisation: motor, somatosensory, visual, auditory and language centres; Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, split brain research. Plasticity and functional recovery of the brain after trauma.  Ways of studying the brain: scanning techniques, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); electroencephalogram (EEGs) and event-related potentials (ERPs); post-mortem examinations.  Biological rhythms: circadian, infradian and ultradian and the difference between these rhythms. The effect of endogenous pacemakers and exogenous zeitgebers on the sleep/wake cycle. 3 Research methods Students should demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the following research methods, scientific processes and techniques of data handling and analysis, be familiar with their use and be aware of their strengths and limitations.  Experimental method. Types of experiment, laboratory and field experiments; natural and quasi-experiments.  Observational techniques. Types of observation: naturalistic and controlled observation; covert and overt observation; participant and non-participant observation.  Self-report techniques. Questionnaires; interviews, structured and unstructured.  Correlations. Analysis of the relationship between co-variables. The difference between correlations and experiments.  Content analysis.  Case studies. 9 3.1 Scientific processes  Aims: stating aims, the difference between aims and hypotheses.  Hypotheses: directional and non-directional.  Sampling: the difference between population and sample; sampling techniques including: random, systematic, stratified, opportunity and volunteer; implications of sampling techniques, including bias and generalisation.  Pilot studies and the aims of piloting.  Experimental designs: repeated measures, independent groups, matched pairs.  Observational design: behavioural categories; event sampling; time sampling.  Questionnaire construction, including use of open and closed questions; design of interviews.  Variables: manipulation and control of variables, including independent, dependent, extraneous, confounding; operationalisation of variables.  Control: random allocation and counterbalancing, randomisation and standardisation.  Demand characteristics and investigator effects.  Ethics, including the role of the British Psychological Society’s code of ethics; ethical issues in the design and conduct of psychological studies; dealing with ethical issues in research.  The role of peer review in the scientific process.  The implications of psychological research for the economy.  Reliability across all methods of investigation. Ways of assessing reliability: test- retest and inter-observer; improving reliability.  Types of validity across all methods of investigation: face validity, concurrent validity, ecological validity and temporal validity. Assessment of validity. Improving validity. 10