PSYCHOLOGY OCR
What makes people behave the way they do? Studying psychology will help you to understand some of the many different views and explanations which have been put forward to answer this question.
Psychology is a very varied subject which spans both the arts and the sciences as it draws on many other disciplines including the natural sciences, philosophy, the social sciences and the media. It is a fascinating subject which is relevant to everyone’s daily life.
Content
We will explore a wide range of topics drawn from six very different theoretical areas of psychology.
• Social psychologists seek to understand behaviour in a social context including our relationships with others. We will study, obedience conformity and ‘personal space’.
• Behavioural psychologists believe that psychology should focus on the processes by which behaviours such as aggression and phobias are learned.
• Developmental psychology is concerned with the ways in which people change over their life span. This sub-section examines two aspects of development in infancy: emotional attachment and the development of thinking and the intellect.
• Individual differentiation is concerned with ways that individuals might differ from each other in terms of their morality and prejudices.
• Cognitive psychology aims to understand the mental processes involved in making sense of the world around us. We will study memory and perception.
• Bio-psychology is concerned with the role that physiology may play in psychological processes and behaviour. This sub-section looks at stress and the development of gender identity.
Note that a detailed knowledge of biological processes is not required.
Lessons will involve a mixture of theoretical and practical work.
Assessment
The scheme of assessment will require candidates to take a questioning approach to evidence and issues and develop the skills to acquire, select and handle information and interpret and evaluate it effectively.
Candidates sit two equally weighted question papers, each of 1 hour 15 minutes duration; together they carry 80% of the final mark allocation. One coursework task, which is internally assessed and externally moderated, carries 20% of the final mark allocation.
The qualification is available at two levels Higher A* to D and Foundation C to G.
Mrs M J Nash BA (Hons) PGCE
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