Psychology

Course summary

‘The science of mind and behaviour’ The subject matter of psychology relates to the sciences, humanities and mathematics, so combines successfully with many subjects and provides good preparation for many university courses. As psychology is a science, it has the same requirement as other sciences for examination papers to have 10% of questions testing relevant mathematical skills. Aims of psychology: • To explore people’s thinking and behaviour. • To develop investigative skills and critical thinking in relation to theories and research. • To apply knowledge and understanding of psychology to the real world in areas such as eyewitness testimony in Year 12 and schizophrenia in Year 13. • To develop a thorough understanding of how psychologists conduct research, for example using experiments, of the skills needed to design and conduct effective investigations, and of ways to analyse results using a range of statistical techniques.