Psychology A-level

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If you have ever wanted to explain other people’s behaviour (or even your own), if you are unsure about how we can know for sure what another person might be thinking, or if you are considering a career in counselling, social care, mental health or working with people in general, then this could be the course for you. This course provides you with a starting basis for the psychology sector by focusing on research, theories and including the knowledge, understanding, skills and attributes required to succeed.

What will I study in Psychology A-level?

When studying A-Level Psychology you will delve into the forces that drive and determine human behaviour. You will study important and interesting research from around the world. In your first year, you will look at a range of different areas helping to explain behaviour and apply what you have learned to real life situations; for example, how eyewitness testimony can be affected by the wording in a question, and factors that influence whether someone helps in an emergency situation. In your second year, you will have the opportunity to study issues in mental health such as psychological disorders, criminal psychology and one other elective module, either sport, child or environmental psychology. This page contains information on the child psychology module. In all topics, you will learn important transferable skills such as analysis and evaluation and have access to a range of different trips and activities, which will require you to apply your knowledge and develop your skills further.

There are three components/modules taught over two years. All of these modules are assessed by exams at the end of the second year.

Component 1 – Research Methods (30%, 2 hour exam)
Component 2 – Psychological Themes Through Core Studies (35%, 2 hour exam)
Component 3 – Applied Psychology (35%, 2 hour exam)

Component 1 – Research Methods

This module encourages students to become familiar with the main techniques for collecting and analysing data: self-report, experiment, observation, correlation and case study.

Component 2 – Psychological Themes Through Core Studies

This module allows students to explore different approaches to explaining behaviour including the physiological, cognitive and social approaches through studying ten pairs of key psychological studies.

Component 3 – Applied Psychology

This module involves the exploration of specific areas of Psychology that students may wish to specialise in. All students will study mental health and criminal psychology; students on the Crime and Child pathway study child psychology for 6-8 weeks in the second year.

Mental Health Psychology includes the history of mental health; categorising and diagnosing abnormal behaviour; as well as the medical, behaviourist, cognitive, and psychodynamic explanations and treatments of mental health disorders.

Criminal Psychology involves studying Psychology in application to the law including reasons why people turn to crime such as biology, the collection and processing of forensic evidence, factors that affect jury decisions, and the different ways to manage offenders.

Child Psychology focuses on areas such as brain development and the impact of risk taking behaviour, perceptual development in children, and how attachment develops in babies and the steps we can take to improve the quality of infant attachment.

Entry Requirements

5+ GCSEs at Grade 4 or above, from the core subjects, including English Language and Grade 5 in Maths.

How will I learn?

We use a wide range of strategies to get you involved and deepen your understanding. These include traditional lecturing and note-taking, research and presentation, mind-mapping, discussion, games, quizzes and peer learning.

Students are expected to complete “Flipped Study”, which involves preparing for lessons by reading ahead on the basics of a topic. This will help in lessons as you will be able to move to the more challenging and rewarding tasks quickly!

How will I be assessed?

Assessment is through an examination at the end of the course although you will be assessed through a variety of methods during the course (including recap tests, discussions and presentations) to prepare you for these exams.

Component 1 – Research Methods (30%, 2 hour exam)

Component 2 – Psychological themes through core studies (35%, 2 hour exam)

Component 3 – Applied psychology (35%, 2 hour exam)

Any trips?

You will have the opportunity to attend several trips, events and activities as an A-Level Psychology student. The trips are not compulsory but will help you to extend or apply the knowledge that you are gaining in the classroom. Our “usual” trips include:

- Life Behind Bars – a visit and talk from an organisation run by ex-offenders, talking about experiences of prison and their reasons for turning to crime

- Sleep Deprivation – a research task where students spend a night at college, staying awake and carrying out psychological testing to learn about the application of research skills

- Psychology and Science revision conferences – an event where a range of speakers talk about interesting ways in which they have applied their study of psychology into topics such as dance, motivation, addiction and magic

We also arrange other activities and guest speakers wherever possible – recent highlights include a trip to the Freud Museum in London and a trip to the musical Hamilton.

Are there any costs involved?

You should expect some small costs for course booklets and stationery.

FAQs

Do I need to have studied Psychology before?

No the syllabus includes an introduction to the topics, no prior knowledge is needed

Do I need to be good at maths?

Although Psychology is often considered a scientific subject, the maths element of the course is not too challenging, but it is preferable that you have gained a higher grade pass in GCSE Maths. The maths included is linked to data analysis.

If you are considering studying Psychology at degree level you should be aware that some universities require a grade 6 in GCSE Maths. You should check entry requirements with individual universities.

Would studying Core Maths alongside A-Level Psychology be helpful?

If you are not also studying A-Level Maths, taking L3 Mathematical Studies (Core Maths) could be a useful option to help support the work done in A-Level Psychology. This is a one-year course that you would take alongside your other 3 subjects, with exams at the end of your first year. Taking this would help to reinforce the data analysis work done in Psychology, giving you further practice in displaying and interpreting data in graphs such as histograms and scatter graphs, and calculating and comparing averages and measures of spread including standard deviation. You would also get further practice with the Normal Distribution, both to estimate probabilities and find confidence intervals of a population’s mean. Core Maths also looks at critical analysis, Fermi Estimation and personal finance.