Course Content – AQA Syllabus (8182)
Unit 1 – Course Introduction
- Introduction to Psychology
- About Paper 1 Cognition and Behaviour
- About Paper 2 Social Context and Behaviour
- Recommended Reading List
Unit 2 – Aided and Unaided Observations
- Processes of memory
- Encoding, storage and retrieval
- Long-term and short-term memory
- Structures of memory
- Memory as an active process
- Factors affecting memory
Unit 3 – Perception
- Processes of memory
- Perception and sensation
- Visual cues and depth perception
- Visual illusions and theories of perception
- Gibson’s direct theory and Gregory’s constructivist theory
- Factors affecting perception
- Culture, emotion, motivation and expectation
Unit 4 – Development
- Early brain development
- Piaget’s theory
- The theory of conservation and egocentrism
- Stages of cognitive development
- Application in education
- Effects of learning on development
- Dweck’s mindset theory of learning
- The role of praise and self-efficacy
- Learning styles
- Willingham’s learning theory
Unit 5 – Research Methods
- Designing data
- Starting out hypotheses and variables
- Extraneous variables
- Types of the experiment
- Experimental designs
- Sampling methods
- Ethical considerations
- Designing research
- Interviews and questionnaires
- Correlations
- Case studies
- Reliability and validity
- Types of data
- Descriptive statistics
- Interpretation and display of quantitative data
- Computation
Unit 6 – Social Influence
- Conformity
- Asch’s study
- Social and dispositional factors
- Obedience
- Milgram’s study
- Milgram’s agency theory (social factors)
- Adorno’s theory (dispositional factors)
- Prosocial behaviours
- Piliavin’s subway study
- Social and dispositional factors
- The crowd and collective behaviour
- Deindividualisation
- A case study
- Social and dispositional factors
Unit 7 – Language, Thought and Communication
- Language and thought
- Piaget’s theory
- The Sapir-Whorf hypotheses
- A review of the world
- Human and animal communication
- Von Frisch’s bee study
- Human versus animal communication
- Non-verbal communication
- Eye contact
- Body language
- Personal space
- Explanations of non-verbal behaviour
- Evidence of nature: Darwin’s evolutionary theory
- Non-verbal response: innate or learned?
- Evidence of nurture: Yoki’s study of emoticons
Unit 8 – The Brain and Neuropsychology
- Structure and function of the nervous system
- The structure of the nervous system
- The function of the nervous system
- The autonomic nervous system
- The James Lang theory of emotion
- Neuron structure and function
- neuron and electrical transmission
- Synapses and chemical transmission
- Hebb’s theory of learning
- Structure and function in the brain
- The localisation of function in the brain
- Penfield’s study of the interpretive cortex
- Introduction to neuropsychology
- Cognitive neuroscience
- Neurological damage
- Scanning techniques to identify brain functioning
- Tulving “gold” memory study
Unit 9 – Psychological Problems
- An introduction to mental health
- Effects of mental health problems
- Depression
- Types of depression and diagnosing depression
- Theories of depression: biological
- Theories of depression: psychological
- Therapies for depression: medication
- Therapies for depression: CBT
- Therapies for depression: Wiles study
- Addiction
- Characteristics of addiction and diagnosing addiction
- Theories of addiction: biological
- Theories of addiction: psychological
- Therapies for addiction: aversion therapy
- Therapies for addiction: self-management
Unit 10 – Preparing for the GCSE examination: Paper 1 & 2
- Paper 1 – Cognition and Behaviour
- Paper 2 – Social Context and Behaviour
- Revision tips
