Advanced/Advanced Subsidiary GCE Psychology

Advanced/Advanced Subsidiary GCE Psychology

Entry Requirements
GCSE English at grade C or above.
And either GCSE Additional Science Grade C or above on the higher paper or GCSE Maths at grade C or above.

About the Course
You will follow the OCR specification.

In this course you will study many aspects of human behaviour and learn how psychologists attempt to understand and explain behaviour. You will look at a wide range of psychological investigations and theories.

We are all amateur psychologists, constantly trying to explain behaviour we see around us. In everyday life we use common sense to do this, but at advanced level a more scientific approach is used. You are introduced to psychological approaches to research and have the opportunity to carry out several small investigations.

AS Psychology

Unit 1 - Psychological Investigations (AS)

We consider the main four techniques used to collecting and analysing data. These are:

• Self-report
• Experiment
• Observation
• Correlation

We will carry out practical studies using these techniques, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and consider the reliability and validity of the measurements collected.

Unit 2 - Core Studies (AS)

In this unit, we will study 15 important studies in detail.

These include:

• The relation of eye movements during sleep to dream activity.
• The communication skills of a pygmy chimpanzee using a concept keyboard.
• Analysing why a child of five developed a phobia about horses.
• Under certain circumstances, why we obey orders to harm another person.
• Thinking processes and fruit machine gambling.

Unit 3 -

Options in Applied Psychology

In this section, we will study 2 areas:

Forensic Psychology

• Some of the influences that psychologists have used to explain criminal behaviour
• The investigative process - interviewing witnesses and suspects, creating a profile
• Behaviour in the courtroom
• How psychology can inform the penal system - imprisonment, alternatives to imprisonment, treatment programmes

Health and Clinical Psychology

• Factors that influence our healthy lifestyles
• Stress - causes, methods of assessing stress and techniques for managing stress
• Dysfunctional behaviour
• Psychological disorders and treatments

Unit 4 - Approaches and Research Methods in Psychology

This brings together the approaches, perspectives, methods, issues and debates covered throughout the course.

There will be 2 written exams in AS and 2 written exams in A2.