Psychology

Course summary

In the Lower Sixth, students will be introduced to some of the key concepts in psychology as well as learning about some of the most (in)famous studies in the history of the field. The year is structured as follows: Term 1: Social Influence (e.g. conformity, obedience, social roles), Memory (e.g. the multi-store model of memory, explanations for forgetting) Attachment (e.g. maternal deprivation, care-giver infant interaction) Psychopathology (e.g. definitions of abnormality, phobias, the treatment of depression) Term 2: Approaches in Psychology (e.g. behaviourism, social learning theory, the psychodynamic approach) Research Methods (e.g. the experimental method, data handling and analysis) Term 3: Biopsychology (e.g. divisions of the nervous system, biological rhythms) Practical data gathering activities In the Upper Sixth, students will focus on developing their skills in psychology and also complete an ‘Issues and Debates in Psychology’ module. Having further developed their confidence in psychology, they then go on to study three key topic areas: ‘Cognition and Development’, “Schizophrenia’ and ‘Addiction’ in greater depth. Term 1: Issues and Debates in Psychology (e.g. bias, nature vs nurture, holism vs reductionism) Schizophrenia (introduction, explanations and treatments) Term 2: Cognition and Development (Piaget, Vygotsky, Baillargeon and Social Cognition) Addiction (introduction, risk factors, explanations, reducing addiction) Revision and exam preparation Term 3: Revision and preparation for final exams