Psychology (Year 12)
See Year 12s Psychology ‘Schedule of Learning’ for the 2025/26 academic year:
| Topic | Sub-topic |
|---|---|
| Approaches | Introductory material |
| Approaches | Learning approaches: i) the behaviourist approach, including classical conditioning and Pavlov’s research, operant conditioning, types of reinforcement and Skinner’s research; ii) social learning theory including imitation, identification, modelling, vicarious reinforcement, the role of mediational processes and Bandura’s research. |
| Approaches | 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. |
| Approaches | The biological approach: the influence of genes, biological structures and neurochemistry on behaviour. Genotype and phenotype, genetic basis of behaviour, evolution and behaviour. |
| Approaches | The psychodynamic approach: the role of the unconscious, the structure of personality, that is Id, Ego and Superego, defence mechanisms including repression, denial and displacement, psychosexual stages. 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. |
| Psychopathology | Definitions of abnormality, including deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately, statistical infrequency and deviation from ideal mental health. |
| Psychopathology | The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). |
| Psychopathology | The behavioural approach to explaining and treating phobias: the two-process model, including classical and operant conditioning; systematic desensitisation, including relaxation and use of hierarchy; flooding. |
| Psychopathology | The cognitive approach to explaining and treating depression: Beck’s negative triad and Ellis’s ABC model; cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), including challenging irrational thoughts. |
| Psychopathology | The biological approach to explaining and treating OCD: genetic and neural explanations; drug therapy |
| Research Methods | Scientific processes, data handling & analysis |
| Research Methods | Scientific processes, data handling & analysis |
| Research Methods | Scientific processes, data handling & analysis |
| Research Methods | Scientific processes, data handling & analysis |
| Research Methods | Scientific processes, data handling & analysis |
| Memory | The multi-store model of memory: sensory register, short-term memory and long-term memory. Features of each store: coding, capacity and duration. Types of long-term memory: episodic, semantic, procedural. |
| Memory | The working memory model: central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and episodic buffer. Features of the model: coding and capacity. |
| Memory | Explanations for forgetting: proactive and retroactive interference and retrieval failure due to absence of cues. |
| Memory | Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: misleading information, including leading questions and post-event discussion; anxiety. Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, including the use of the cognitive interview |
| Social Influence | Types of conformity: internalisation, identification and compliance. Explanations for conformity: informational social influence and normative social influence, and variables affecting conformity including group size, unanimity and task difficulty as investigated by Asch. |
| Social Influence | Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo. Explanations for obedience: agentic state and legitimacy of authority, and situational variables affecting obedience including proximity and location, as investigated by Milgram, and uniform. Dispositional explanation for obedience: the Authoritarian Personality. |
| Social Influence | Explanations of resistance to social influence, including social support and locus of control. |
| Social Influence | Minority influence including reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility. • The role of social influence processes in social change. |
| Attachment | Caregiver-infant interactions in humans: reciprocity and interactional synchrony. Stages of attachment identified by Schaffer. Multiple attachments and the role of the father. Animal studies of attachment: Lorenz and Harlow. |
| Attachment | Explanations of attachment: learning theory and Bowlby’s monotropic theory. The concepts of a critical period and an internal working model. |
| Attachment | Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’. Types of attachment: secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant. Cultural variations in attachment, including van Ijzendoorn. |
| Attachment | Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation. Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation. The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships, including the role of an internal working model. |
| Biopsychology | The divisions of the nervous system: central and peripheral (somatic and autonomic). • The structure and function of sensory, relay and motor neurons. The process of synaptic transmission, including reference to neurotransmitters, excitation and inhibition. • The function of the endocrine system: glands and hormones. |
| Biopsychology | Localisation of function in the brain and hemispheric lateralisation: motor, somatosensory, visual, auditory and language centres; Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, split brain research. Plasticity and functional recovery of the brain after trauma. |
| Biopsychology | Ways of studying the brain: scanning techniques, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); electroencephalogram (EEGs) and event-related potentials (ERPs); postmortem examinations. |
Exam Board – AQA
What will you study?
– Approaches in Psychology
– Psychopathology
– Research Methods
– Research Methods
– Social Influence
– Attachment
– Memory
Useful tips and resources
– There are extended writing / essay questions worth 8 marks and 16 marks
– Psychology is scientific with the study of the brain; structure of the brain and function of different parts, nervous system, neurons, synaptic transmission etc. There are also detailed biological explanations and treatments for disorders and a biopsychology topic
– Psychology is heavily based on research methods which means learning about how experiments are designed and conducted, designing experiments, understanding the features of science
– The key assessment objectives are knowledge, application and evaluation
– You will have end of topic tests as well as termly assessments
– You will be provided with the log-on details for the digital textbook once you start the course
Tutor2u has brilliant course notes, revision videos, games, activities
Physics and maths tutor includes past exam questions, mark schemes, tips and advice
Simply Psychology has brilliant notes that go beyond the specification, it also has articles and information about Psychology in the wider context
Psych Boost has brilliant content videos
Uplearn is a revision website that uses questioning to check knowledge
What super curricular activities can KS4 students engage with outside of school?
Some of my favourite TED Talks:
Jon Ronson
Philip Zimbardo
Eleanor Longden
Ben Goldacre
Elizabeth Loftus
Brilliant books that cover a range of topics from the specification:
– The Psychopath Test – Jon Ronson
– Hidden Valley Road – Robert Kolker
– The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat – Oliver Sacks