Year 12;

Introductory topics in psychology (Paper 1) 

Social Influence 

• Describe and explain types of conformity, explanations for conformity and variable which affect conformity.  

• Describe and explain reasons for obedience, situational and dispositional variables which affect obedience. 

• Describe and explain reasons why individuals can resist social influence.  

• Explain how and why a minority or majority can bring about social change.  

Memory 

• Outline the features of the multi-store model of memory and the working memory model. 

• Explanations for forgetting including proactive and retroactive interference and retrieval failure due to absence of cues. 

• Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: misleading information and how to improve the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. 

Attachment 

• Features of caregiver-infant interactions in humans. 

• Development and stages of attachment identified by Schaffer and the role of the father. 

• Animal studies of attachment: Lorenz and Harlow. 

• Explanations of attachment: learning theory and Bowlby’s monotropic theory.  

• Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’ and cultural variations in attachment.  

• Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation.  

• Effects of institutionalisation.  

• The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships.  

Psychopathology 

• Definitions of abnormality. 

• The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). 

• The behavioural approach to explaining and treating phobias. 

• The cognitive approach to explaining and treating depression. 

• The biological approach to explaining and treating OCD. 

Psychology in context (Paper 2) 

Approaches 

• Origins of Psychology: Wundt, introspection and the emergence of Psychology as a science. 

• The basic assumptions of the following approaches: Learning, Cognitive, Biological, psychodynamic, Humanistic and the comparison of approaches. 

Biopsychology 

• The divisions of the nervous system and the structure and function of neurons. 

• The process of synaptic transmission. 

• The function of the endocrine system.  

• The fight or flight response including the role of adrenaline. 

• Localisation of function in the brain and hemispheric lateralisation. 

• Plasticity and functional recovery of the brain after trauma. 

• Ways of studying the brain. 

• Biological rhythms: circadian, infradian and ultradian and the difference between these rhythms. 

Research methods 

Explain the use and the strengths and limitations of the following techniques;

• Experimental method. Types of experiment, laboratory and field experiments; natural and quasi-experiments. 
• Observational techniques - naturalistic and controlled observation; covert and overt observation; participant and non-participant observation. 
• Self-report techniques - questionnaires and interviews 
• Correlations - analysis of the relationship between co-variables. The difference between correlations and experiments. 

Understand the following areas within the scientific process:  

• 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. 

Understand the following areas within data handling: 

• Quantitative and qualitative data; the distinction between qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques. 
• Primary and secondary data, including meta-analysis. 
• Descriptive statistics: measures of central tendency – mean, median, mode; calculation of mean, median and mode; measures of dispersion; range and standard deviation; calculation of range; calculation of percentages; positive, negative and zero correlations. 
• Presentation and display of quantitative data: graphs, tables, scattergrams, bar charts. 
• Distributions: normal and skewed distributions; characteristics of normal and skewed distributions. 
• Introduction to statistical testing; the sign test. When to use the sign test, calculation of the sign test. 

Year 13; 

Psychology in context (Paper 2) continued… 

Explain the use and the strengths and limitations of the following techniques: 

• Content analysis.  
• Case studies. 

Understand the following areas within the scientific process:  

• 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. 
• Features of science: objectivity and the empirical method; replicability and falsifiability; theory construction and hypothesis testing; paradigms and paradigm shifts. 
• Reporting psychological investigations. Sections of a scientific report: abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion and referencing. 

Understand the following areas within data handling: 

• Analysis and interpretation of correlation, including correlation coefficients. 
• Levels of measurement: nominal, ordinal and interval. 
• Content analysis and coding and thematic analysis.  

Knowledge and understanding of inferential testing and be familiar with the use of inferential tests: 

• Probability and significance: use of statistical tables and critical values in interpretation of significance; Type I and Type II errors. 
• Factors affecting the choice of statistical test, including level of measurement and experimental design. When to use the following tests: Spearman’s rho, Pearson’s r, 
• Wilcoxon, Mann-Whitney, related t-test, unrelated t-test and Chi-Squared test. 

Issues and options in Psychology (Paper 3) 

Issues and debates 

• Knowledge and understanding of the following issues and debates in psychology and are able to apply this to contexts from across the specification: 
• Gender and culture 
• Free will and determinism 
• The nature-nurture debate and interactionist approach 
• Holism and reductionism 
• Ethical implications of research studies and theory, including reference to social sensitivity. 

Relationships 

• The evolutionary explanations for partner preferences, including the relationship between sexual selection and human reproductive behaviour. 

• Factors affecting attraction in romantic relationships. 

• Theories of romantic relationships. 

• Virtual relationships in social media. 

• Parasocial relationships: levels of parasocial relationships, the absorption addiction model and the attachment theory explanation. 

Schizophrenia 

• Outline how schizophrenia is classified and diagnosed and the issues with reliability and validity. 

• Biological explanations and treatments for schizophrenia. 

• Psychological explanations and treatments for schizophrenia. 

• The importance of an interactionist approach in explaining and treating schizophrenia; the diathesis-stress model. 

Forensic psychology 

• Offender profiling: the top-down approach, including organised and disorganised types of offender; the bottom-up approach, including investigative psychology; geographical profiling. 

• Biological explanations of offending behaviour: an historical approach (atavistic form); genetics and neural explanations. 

• Psychological explanations of offending behaviour: Eysenck’s theory of the criminal personality; cognitive explanations; level of moral reasoning and cognitive distortions, including hostile attribution bias and minimalisation; differential association theory; psychodynamic explanations. 

• Dealing with offending behaviour: the aims of custodial sentencing and the psychological effects of custodial sentencing. Recidivism. Behaviour modification in custody. Anger management and restorative justice programmes.