Psychology

Year 13 students continue with their psychological students by studying 5 new topic areas.

Autumn Term

Issues and debates: Students will investigate debates in psychology such as determinism and reductionism. They will also study the impact of gender and culture bias on research and theory. Students will be expected to demonstrate clear links to all the topic areas covered.
Biopsychology: This topic area looks at the physiology of the body and the impact this can have on behaviour. Students will be able to explain the fight or flight process during stressful situations as well as investigating the brain and and how it can be studied using technology.

Spring Term

Relationships: How are relationships formed? Students will study attraction and different explanations of partner preference and relationship formation. Virtual and parasocial relationships will also be investigated.
Schizophrenia: What is schizophrenia? Students will investigate the issues around diagnosing schizophrenia, as well as biological and psychological explanations of the disorder. Students will investigate the different therapies that can be used to treat schizophrenia.

Summer Term

Forensic psychology: Who commits crime and why? Students will investigate the different ways in which crime can be defined as well as the role of offender profiling in solving criminal investigations. Students will also study the different explanations of criminality as well as treatment programs available to offenders.
Revision: In addition to the new topics, we will also spend time in Year 13 revising the topics from Year 12 in order to prepare for the examinations.

There will be 3 examinations at the end of Year 13 which will examine all of the content from Year 12 and 13. Each examination will last 2 hours and will be a combination of short and extended written answers.

Catch up sessions are available EVERY Tuesday and Thursday in the pod. Students are encouraged to attend to aid their progress. In some cases, where students are making very slow progress, attendance will be made compulsory.

Useful Links

More information can be found at http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/sociology/as-and-a-level/sociology-7191-7192