Teaching Staff and Responsibilities

MRs J Rothman – Teacher in Charge of Psychology

KS5/A Level (Y12-13)

How do we organise teaching groups at KS5?

At KS5, classes are taught in option groups which are all mixed ability.

Which A Level specification do we prepare pupils for?

AQA A Level Psychology: The course offers an engaging and effective introduction to psychology. Students will learn the fundamentals of the subject and develop skills valued by Higher Education (HE) and employers, including critical analysis, independent thinking and research.

Students will gain a better understanding of human behaviour, applicable to any situation, the workplace and any social interactions.   You can find more information at:

www.aqa.org.uk/psychology

What will my daughter learn at KS5?

Year 12

• Social influence: conformity, obedience, explanations for conformity and obedience, minority influence and social change.
• Memory: the nature of memory, two models of memory, types of memory, explanations of forgetting, eye-witness testimony, and cognitive interview.
• Attachment: types, explanations and consequences of attachments.
• Psychopathology: definitions of abnormality, explanations and treatment for phobias, depression and OCD.
• Approaches in Psychology: the Learning approach, the Cognitive approach, the Biological approach, the Psychodynamic approach and Humanistic approach of studying human behaviour.
• Research methods: experimental method, observational techniques, self-report techniques, correlations, psychology and the economy.

Year 13

• Biopsychology: the nervous system, the endocrine system, the fight or flight response, the brain, ways of studying the brain, sleep and biological rhythms.
• Research methods: content analysis, case studies, the scientific process, data handling and analysis and inferential testing (statistics)
• Issues and debates in Psychology: gender and culture, free will and determinism, nature-nurture, holism-reductionism, idiographic and nomothetic debates and ethical considerations in psychological research.
• Choice of three topics from: relationships, gender, cognition & development, schizophrenia, eating behaviour, stress, aggression, forensic psychology and addiction.

Are there any websites that will support my daughter’s learning?

www.bps.org.uk

Future pathways/careers

Past students have gone on to study Psychology, Neuroscience or Criminal/Forensic Psychology at a degree level.  Some continued with post- graduate degree in clinical, educational or occupational psychology.

Psychology is a very popular and interesting subject with wide applications; it can be combined equally successfully with arts and science subjects. It is particularly useful if you wish to study medicine, child development, occupational health or psychotherapy.  It is also useful in a career in Human Resources, advertising and media or any jobs that involve a lot of public relations.