Psychology at MTS
Why study Psychology?
Psychology is a fascinating science concerned with the study of the mind and behaviour. It has links with a variety of disciplines such as the biological, computer and forensic sciences, as well as with the humanities such as sociology, philosophy and literature. The common factors linking people who study psychology are curiosity and the search for knowledge.
It is exciting, challenging, and useful.
Thinking of Studying Psychology?
If you are a current 5th Former, or hoping to come to the school at 16+ and study psychology, you will need to find out some information first.
The briefing for Psychology is on Wednesday 27th February at 1.30pm in the Lecture Theatre. Make sure you go. For your parents, and for a recap, here you can download the power point from the briefing.
Briefing Powerpoint
AS Booklet Psychology Entry
AS Outline:
The AS specification has 2 units: |
Unit 1: Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Research Methods
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• Cognitive psychology, including memory and eyewitness testimony
• Developmental psychology, including early social development, attachment and the effects of day care
• Research methods, in the context of the topic areas. |
| Unit 2: Biological Psychology, Social Psychology and Individual Differences |
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• Biological psychology, including stress, factors affecting stress, coping with stress and managing stress
• Social psychology, including majority and minority influence, obedience and independent behaviour
• Individual differences, including definitions of abnormality, approaches and therapies. |
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A2 outline
At A2, the specification offers a range of topic-based options which bring together explanations from different psychological approaches and engage students in issues and debates in Psychology. |
| Unit 3: Topics in Psychology |
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• Biological rhythms and sleep
• Perception
• Relationships
• Aggression
• Eating behaviour
• Gender
• Intelligence and learning
• Cognition and development. |
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Three essay-style questions chosen from the eight topics. |
| Unit 4: Psychopathology, Psychology in Action and Research Methods |
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• Biological approach, behaviourism, social learning theory, cognitive, psychodynamic and humanistic approaches
• Comparison of approaches
• Debates in psychology
• Methods in psychology, inferential statistics, issues in research |
What do Universities think of Psychology A-Level?
Cambridge University and LSE made a list of A-levels it said would ‘limit chances’ of students getting into their institutions if they had more than two subjects from the list. Psychology is NOT one of those subjects. You can read an article from the Telegraph which talks about this.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/07/nuni107.xml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7174848.stm
Psychology is certainly and justifiably considered to be academically rigorous enough to be accepted by all good Universities, and current Upper 6th Psychology students have first-choice offers from Cambridge, Nottingham, Warwick, Manchester, Newcastle and Birmingham in subjects including Psychology, Languages, History and Sociology to prove this.
Useful Websites
General Websites
www.aqa.org.uk/qual/gce/pdf/AQA-2180-W-SP-10.PDF
The specification is a bit wordy but you might want to have a look at it. We study AQA Specification A, and the exam for AS would be in 2009.
www.psyonline.org.uk
PsYonline is a complete web-resource for students and teachers of A-level psychology following the AQA(A) syllabus
http://www.learner.org/
Lots of videos on psychology topics that you can watch for free.
www.bps.org.uk
The British Psychological Society is the representative body for psychology and psychologists in the UK.
Websites for AS Level Psychology
Unit 1: Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Research Methods
Eyewitness Memory
www.youramazingbrain.org.uk/testyourself/eyewitness.htm
Face Recognition
http://Psychexps.olemiss.edu/Exps/demoold/aw5demo.htm
Imprinting
http://samiam.colorado.edu/%7emcclella/expersim/expersim.html
Classical Conditioning
http://www.uwm.edu/~johnchay/cc.htm
Operant Conditioning
http://www.uwm.edu/~johnchay/oc2.htm
Unit 2 : Biological Psychology, Social Psychology and Individual Differences
Stress
http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=350
http://www.stress.org.uk/
http://www.stressbusting.co.uk/
http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/common/standard/transform.jsp?requestURI=/healthatoz/Atoz/ency/general_adaptation_syndrome.jsp
Obedience
http://www.milgramreenactment.org/
http://www.prisonexp.org/
Individual Differences
http://www.mind.org.uk/
http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/
http://www.eating-disorders.org.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/mental_health/index.shtml
Coursework Research Websites
http://www.pubmed.gov
http://www.ingentaconnect.com
http://scholar.google.com
www.psychcrawler.com
www.scirus.com/srsapp
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca
