Psychology
Curriculum vision
Intent
The intent of A- level Psychology is to provide young psychologists with a dynamic and challenging curriculum. The curriculum will ensure that pupils are equipped with skills and scientific knowledge required to enable them to have a greater understanding of human behaviour and the wider world. The psychology curriculum should spark curiosity amongst learners about the many factors that can influence behaviour, e.g. brain structure, attachment style and traumatic experiences. The curriculum should also provide students with the ability to understand that, behind all knowledge is research, and to value the importance of psychological research and enquiry to understand behaviour. The Psychology curriculum aims to enable students to evaluate a range of explanations for human behaviour, but also draw conclusions on research using their analysis of the explanations. Ultimately, the curriculum intent is to encourage students to become independent learners and apply their knowledge of Psychology to understand themselves and other individuals around them.
| Autumn Term | Spring Term | Summer Term | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Year 12 |
First Half Term: Research methods Can students understand the methods used in Psychological research and apply to multiple scenarios in preparation for evaluation of future topics learnt? Second Half Term: Social influence approaches (year 1) Can students outline explanations and factors that affect conformity in social influence? Can students outline and apply their learning of all approaches to different topic in psychology? |
Third Half Term: Social influence Biopsychology (year 1) Can students outline explanations and factors for obedience including resistance to social change in social influence? Can students outline the nervous system, neurons and the endocrine system? Fourth Half Term: Attachments, memory Can students outline the stages of attachments and the importance of animal studies? Can students outline and evaluate the models of memory including features of each model? |
Fifth Half Term: Attachments, memory Can students outline and evaluate the key features and theories in attachments? Can students outline and evaluate the explanations for forgetting and the cognitive interview as a way of improving accuracy of memory? Sixth Half Term Psychopathology approaches (year 2) Can students outline and evaluate definitions of abnormality and the explanations and treatments for phobias, OCD and depression? Can students outline and evaluate the Psychodynamic/ Humanistic approach and compare any approaches in Psychology? |
|
Year 13 |
First Half Term: Issues and debates Schizophrenia Second Half Term: Addiction Biopsychology (year 2) |
Third Half Term: Relationships Research methods (year 2) Fourth Half Term: Finishing off final topics and revising previous areas of specification |
Fifth Half Term: Preparation for final assessments
Sixth Half Term: Preparation for final assessments |
Impact
Through studying A- level Psychology, students will become critical thinkers and will demonstrate that they can plan, conduct, and critically evaluate research. Students will also be able to apply their psychological knowledge to exam questions which will be demonstrated through majority achieving their target grades or higher on assessments throughout the course. Students will demonstrate competence in multiple mathematical and statistical skills necessary to analyse research. Students will also demonstrate skills not only in identifying areas of strength, but also at identifying how to improve on weaker areas in the subject. This ambitious skill will be demonstrated through improvement in assessment throughout the course. These skills developed throughout the curriculum will aid students in achieving their post- sixth form goals whether it be university, apprenticeship or full time employment.