1. Welcome to A Level Psychology!
Miss Wood (Head of Department)
Mrs Pye

2. Objectives
Learn the names of everyone in the class and get to know each other
Define what is meant by psychology and the aims of psychological research
Outline the course structure and pattern of assessment
Issue textbooks, course guides, red/display books, marking policies, set up folders/dividers
Demonstrate Google Classroom, Twitter and psychologyrocks
Distribute psychologists for the History of Psychology Tea Party
Letters for Psychology Review

3. Defining Psychology
“Psychology is the science of mind, behaviour and experience” (Eysenck, M. 2005).

4. Defining Psychology
“Psychology is the science of mental life, both of its phenomena and of their conditions. The phenomena are such things as we call feelings, desires, cognition, reasoning, decisions and the like.” (William James,1890).

5. Defining Psychology
“For the behaviourist, Psychology is that division of Natural Science which takes human behaviour, - the doings and sayings, both learned and unlearned as its subject matter.”
(JB Watson, 1919).

6. Defining Psychology
“Psychology is usually defined as the scientific study of behaviour. Its subject matter includes behavioural processes that are observable, such as gestures, speech and physiological changes, and processes that can only be inferred, such as thoughts and dreams.” (K. Clark and G. Miller, 1970).

7. Defining Psychology
“The scientific study of behaviour and mental processes.” (Atkinson et al, 1990).

8. Aims of psychology
To describe, explain, predict and control or modify behaviour (thoughts, feelings, attitudes, goals, motivation, actions and reactions)
To apply this understanding in order to ameliorate the human condition

9. Possible careers in psychology
Clinical Wide range of client groups, clinical assessment and delivery of therapy, counselling and advice; mental health, children, elderly, learning disability
Educational Promote child development and learning mainly with children and young people aged 0-19.
Forensic Psychological aspects of the legal process in courts, crime investigation, understanding criminal behaviour, treatment, rehabilitation, modification of offender behaviour
Occupational Applying psychological understanding to the workplace to improve systems, job satisfaction, productivity etc.

10. Possible careers in psychology
Counselling Application of theory and techniques to help people improve their sense of well-being, alleviate stress and resolve crisis by increasing their own ability to solve problems and make decisions
Sport and exercise Help athletes to deal with psychological demands of competition and training; may work with managers, coaches and officials; exercise psychologist are involved with promotion of exercise, increasing motivation and participation and helping individuals to maximize the benefits
Health Promote changes in people’s attitudes, behaviour and thinking about health and illness
Neuropsychology Assessment and rehabilitation of people with brain injury or neurological illness

11. Course Structure Unit 1: Foundations in Psychology (9PS0/01) Social
Cognitive
Biological
Learning Theories
2 hour written exam (35%)
out of 90 marks
five sections; answer all questions

12. Paper 1 Foundations
Formulae and statistical tables are provided to help with mathematical questions; bring a calculator to the exam.
Sections A–D
assess topics 1-4
out of 70
mixed question types, including stimulus response and short answer questions 
Section E
assesses issues and debates which are taught throughout topics 1-4 and as a separate revision unit at the end of Year 2
out of 20 marks
two extended response questions

13. Unit 2: Applications of Psychology (9PS0/02)
Clinical and Criminological
2 hour written exam (35%)
out of 90 marks
two sections
formulae and statistical tables are provided to help with mathematical questions. You must bring a calculator to the exam.

14. Section A: Clinical Psychology
all questions are compulsory
out of 54
mixed question types, including data-response and short- answer questions and a 20- mark essay

15. Section B: Criminological Psychology
There are three options (criminal child and health psychology) and we will be studying option 6, criminal.
all option 6 questions are compulsory and pupils must not answer any questions from Option 7 or 8.
out of 36
mixed question types, including data, response, short-answer and extended response questions.

16. Unit 3: Psychological Skills (9PS0/03)
Methods
Synoptic review of studies
Issues and debates.
2 hour written exam (30%)
out of 80 marks
three sections
all questions are compulsory
formulae and statistical tables are provided to help with mathematical questions
You must bring a calculator to the exam.

17. Paper 3: 3 Sections Section A: Research methods Out of 24 marks
mixed question types, including data response and short-answer questions
Section B: Psychological studies from Topics 1–4
out of 24 marks
two extended response questions
Section C: Issues and Debates
out of 32

18. The Circle of Science

19. The Circle of Science
Psychologists are fascinated by the world around them.
They are inquisitive; they like to ask questions about how and why people experience the world in different ways, what caused this outcome or that outcome.
They create testable theories about why things occurred as they did and they use these theories to make predictions about what should happen in a given situation.
They then create that situation and look at what happens!
If the outcome is not as expected then theory is not quite right and needs adjusting
or maybe, the experiment was not constructed carefully enough and the real “truth” of the matter was temporarily obscured).

20. The link between theories and studies
Psychology curriculum includes several theories in each topic, much of our time will be spent learning to describe these theories in detail
Psychologists use research studies to “support” theories; if a theory is going to last (i.e. people will still be talking about it in years to come) then it should be able to predict outcomes accurately
studies are central to the success of a theory.
Imagine the guildhall roof is a theory, it is supported by many columns, these can be seen as research studies

21. Evaluating theories
When we evaluate a theory, i.e. check out whether it is any good or not, we consider three things,
Is it helpful in explaining real world events or helping to improve people’s lives in any way (Application to Real Life)
How does it compare with other theories that explain the same thing
the quality of the supporting evidence (research studies)
If the studies which support the theory are scientifically strong, the theory is well supported.
If the studies are scientifically weak, the theory is not well supported.

22. Guildhall Analogy
are the columns crumbling and cracked? If so bye, bye Guildhall roof!
If the columns are robust and well-constructed, the Guildhall roof is here to stay!
In your psychology essays you will be examining evidence or “looking for the crumbly bits and the cracks”
highlighting the weaknesses of the research findings on the one hand, but also demonstrating the scientific strengths of the studies and showing how the theory is supported.
the Guildhall analogy is central to your understanding of the link between theories and studies in Psychology

23. Approaches in Psychology
psychology embraces a variety of different approaches or perspectives
psychologists have differing beliefs about what should be focused upon and which methods should be used to conduct research, doubtless are affected by their own experiences of the world, the people they have been influenced by and so on
These differences affect their theories and their studies, and the ways in which they collect their data, e.g. qualitative versus quantitative.

24. Differing research methods
This helps to explain why there are so many different research methods in psychology
some are more scientific than others, all of them matter and are important
together they help us to explore and reveal the answers to our questions about why people do what they do!

25. Approaches/Perspectives/Schools (you could call them families)
there are about 6 or 7 major families/perspectives;
psychologists within those families share key beliefs that affect their research.
many psychologists don’t ally themselves to any one “school of thought” or family
we study four approaches called the FOUNDATIONS: social, cognitive, biological and learning
There a couple of other major schools of thought in psychology including psychodynamic and humanist

26. Developmental and Individual Differences
you will also often hear people talking about developmental psychologists and those interested in “individual differences”.
These sub-divisions usually are combined with one or more of the other schools of thought as well, they are just psychologists who are interested in..
how people differ from one another in ways which are consistent over time (individual differences)
ways in which individuals change over time (developmental).

27. The Citadel of Science Extending the buildings metaphor
different schools of thought or perspectives in psychology = the different styles of architecture that make up a city
there’s more than one way to hold a roof up! (support a theory)