A Level Psychology

The test of learning psychology is whether your understanding of situations you encounter has changed, not whether you have learned a new fact – Daniel Kahneman (Psychologist) 

At Kew House we offer Psychology as an A Level subject for pupils in years 12-13.  AQA Psychology is a compelling and enriching subject, aimed at discovering and investigating human behaviour, asking the million dollar question, why do we do what we do? The A Level is divided into three separate exam papers:

Paper 1:  focuses on social influence, memory, attachment, and psychopathology. Social influence is aimed at understanding human obedience, conformity, resistance, and social change. Infamous studies like Milgram’s obedience experiment and Asch’ conformity research, are foundational in the study of social psychology and are fascinating to delve into and question. Psychopathology is one of the most relevant and insightful sections of the AQA course, Psychopathology aims to explain, diagnose, and treat various mental illness’ like depression, OCD and a verity other anxiety disorders.  The Memory topic teaches students two main memory models: The Multistore Memory Model and the Working Memory Model, both of which are extensive and captivating to analyse alongside studies and other forms of psychological research. Social resistance and social change are highly applicable branches of social psychology, especially relevant in the 21st century. The topic explores why and how social change can and has occurred through time, and why, in some cases, we resist social change. 

Paper 2:  includes approaches to psychology, research methods, and biopsychology. Approaches to psychology gives students an overview of the main framework that psychologists use to study and understand human behaviour: cognitive, behaviourist, biological, humanistic and famously, Freud’s psychodynamic approach. Students will learn how to critically assess these approaches to understanding human behaviour, providing them with key skills in critical thinking. Research methods is a central theme of the AQA course and can feature in all three exams, however paper two has a designated section towards this topic. Research methods are aimed at developing students understanding of how psychological studies are organised. For instance, what do psychologists have to consider ethically? How do they ensure that their study measures the correct behaviour? Biopsychology is concerned with understanding the biological roots of our behaviour and highlighting biology’s key role in explaining it.  Students will be exposed to groundbreaking studies including Maguire’s London Taxi driver study which illuminated how taxi drivers have a larger volume of grey matter in the mid-posterior hippocampus (Don’t worry this will make sense when you study psychology!)

Paper 3:  includes Issues and debates, and various optional topics. Issues and debates focusing on addressing key areas of discussion in the field of psychology, some discourses include: the prevalence of gender bias and androcentric research in psychology, the prevenance of culture bias in psychological research, (much of psychological research has been focused on western culture, thus there is a prevailing question as to whether psychological research is applicable and representative of humans globally), and key debates surrounding free will. The optional topics include aggression, schizophrenia, relationships, forensic psychology, gender, cognition and development, eating behaviour, stress, and addiction.

Psychology A Level requires the ability to write critically, fluently, and succinctly. These key skills will be honed and developed throughout students two years studying the course at Kew House School. Frequent essays and practice questions will help students grapple with the variety of essay and short answer questions they will need to answer. The course lends itself to those who are keen to become psychologists, lawyers, journalists, and teachers (just to name a few!).

This A Level course equips students with transferable critical thinking skills, which are relevant for a myriad of degrees and careers due to the research, analytical, and essay writing skills utilised throughout this course.