AQA A-Level Psychology: Recent Episodes
Carla Dessi
Psychological explanations for obesity, including restraint theory, disinhibition and the boundary model.
Psychological explanations for anorexia: cognitive theory, including distortions and irrational beliefs.
Psychological explanations for anorexia: social learning theory, including modelling, reinforcement and media.
Psychological explanations for anorexia: family systems, including enmeshment, autonomy and control.
Biological explanations for anorexia nervosa, including genetic and neural explanations.
Neural and hormonal mechanisms involved in the control of eating behaviour, including the role of the hypothalamus, ghrelin and leptin
Explanations for food preferences: the role of learning in food preference including social and cultural influences.
Explanations for food preferences: the evolutionary explanation, including reference to neophobia and taste aversion.
Atypical gender development: gender dysphoria; biological and social explanations for gender dysphoria
Psychodynamic explanation of gender development, Freud's psychoanalytic theory, oedipus complex; Electra complex; identification and internalisation
Cognitive explanations of gender development. Kohlberg's theory, gender identity, gender stability and gender constancy
The role of chromosomes and hormones (testosterone, oestrogen and oxytocin) in sex and gender
Ethical implications of research studies and theory, including reference to social sensitivity.
Holism and reductionism: levels of explanation in psychology. Biological reductionism and environmental (stimulus-response) reductionism.
The nature-nurture debate: the relative importance of heredity and environment in determining behaviour; the interactionist approach.
Free will and determinism: hard determinism and soft determinism; biological, environmental and psychic determinism. The scientific emphasis on causal explanations.
Gender and culture in psychology - universality and bias. Cultural bias including ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.
Gender and culture in psychology - universality and bias. Gender bias including androcentrism and alpha and beta bias.
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.
Factors affecting the choice of statistical test, including level of measurement (nominal, ordinal and interval) 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.
Probability and significance: use of statistical tables and critical values in interpretation of significance; Type I and Type II errors.
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.
Introduction to statistical testing; the sign test. When to use the sign test; calculation of the sign test.
Presentation and display of quantitative data: graphs, tables, scattergrams, bar charts, histograms.
Distributions: normal and skewed distributions; characteristics of normal and skewed distributions.
Descriptive statistics: measures of central tendency - mean, median, mode; measures of dispersion - range and standard deviation; calculation of range.
Qualitative and quantitative data; the distinction between qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques.
Primary and secondary data, including meta-analysis.
Self-report techniques: questionnaires; interviews, structured and unstructured.
Questionnaire construction, including use of open and closed questions; design of interviews.
Pilot studies and the aims of piloting.
Observational techniques. Types of observation: naturalistic and controlled observation; covert and overt observation; participant and non-participant observation.
Observational design: behavioural categories; event sampling; time sampling.
Correlations. Analysis of the relationship between co-variables. The difference between correlations and experiments. Positive, Negative and zero correlations.
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.
Sampling: the difference between population and sample: sampling techniques including: random, systematic, stratified, opportunity and volunteer; implications of sampling techniques, including bias and generalisation.
Ways of studying the brain: scanning techniques, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); electroencephalograms (EEG’s) and event related potentials (ERP’s); post-Mortimer examinations.
Localisation of function in the brain: motor, somatosensory, visual, auditory and language centres; Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas.
The structure and function of sensory, relay and motor neurons. The process of synaptic transmission including reference to neurotransmitters, excitation and inhibition.
The divisions of the nervous system: central and peripheral (somatic and autonomic). The function of the endocrine system: glands and hormones. The fight or flight response including the role of adrenaline.
Humanistic psychology: free will, self-actualisation and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, focus on the self, congruence, the role of conditions of worth. The influence on counselling psychology.
The psychodynamic approach: the role of the unconscious, the structure of personality, that is I’d, ego and superego, defence mechanisms including repression, denial and displacement, psychosexual stages.
The biological approach: the influence of genes, biological structures and neurochemistry on behaviour. Genotype and phenotype, genetic basis of behaviour, evolution and behaviour.
The cognitive approach: the study of internal mental processes, the role of schema, the use of theoretical and computer models to explain and make inferences about mental processes. The emergence of cognitive neuroscience.
Learning approaches: ii) Social learning theory including imitation, identification, modelling, vicarious reinforcement, the role of mediational processes and Bandura’s research.
Learning approaches: i) The behaviourist approach, including classical conditioning and Pavlov’s research, operant conditioning, types of reinforcement and Skinner’s research
Origins of psychology: Wundt, introspection and the emergence of Psychology as a science.
The cognitive approach to treating depression: cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), including challenging irrational thoughts.
The cognitive approach to explaining depression: Beck’s negative triad and Ellis’s ABC model
The behavioural approach to treating phobias: systematic desensitisation, including relaxation and use of hierarchy, flooding.
The behavioural approach to explaining phobias: the two-process model, including classical and operant conditioning
The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder
Definitions of abnormality, including failure to function adequately and deviation from ideal mental health
Definitions of abnormality, including statistical infrequency and deviation from social norms
The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships, including the role of an internal working model
Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’. Types of attachment: secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant.
Explanations of attachment: Bowlby’s monotropic theory. The concepts of a critical period and an internal working model.
Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, including the use of the cognitive interview.
Factors affecting the accuracy of the eyewitness testimony, misleading information including leading questions and post-event discussion.
The working memory model: central executive, phonological loop, visio-spatial sketchpad and episodic bugger. Features of the model: coding and capacity.
The multi-store model of memory: sensory register, short-term memory and long-term memory. Features of each store: coding, capacity & duration
Short-term memory and long-term memory. Features of each store: coding, capacity and duration.
Explanations of resistance to social influence, including social support and locus of control.
Explanations for obedience: situational variables affecting obedience including proximity and location as investigated by Milgram, and uniform.
Types of conformity: internalisation, identification and compliance. Explanations for conformity: informational social influence and normative social influence.
Variables affecting conformity including group size, unanimity and task difficulty as investigated by Asch.