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Switching to AQA: from OCR

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Assessment structure

Paper 1

AQA – A-level Psychology

OCR – A-level Psychology

Introductory topics in psychology

Research methods

Written exam

Written exam

2 hours

2 hours

96 marks (33.3% of A-level)

90 marks (30% of A-level)

Paper 2

AQA – A-level Psychology

OCR – A-level Psychology

Psychology in context

Psychological themes through core studies

Written exam

Written exam

2 hours

2 hours

96 marks (33.3% of A-level)

105 marks (35% of A-level)

Paper 3

AQA – A-level Psychology

OCR – A-level Psychology

Issues and options in psychology

Applied psychology

Written exam

Written exam

2 hours

2 hours

96 marks (33.3% of A-level)

105 marks (35% of A-level)

Subject content

Paper 1

AQA – A-level Psychology

OCR – A-level Psychology

1. Social influence

  • 1.1 Types of conformity
  • 1.2 Conformity to social roles
  • 1.3 Explanations for obedience
  • 1.4 Explanations of resistance to social influence
  • 1.5 Minority influence
  • 1.6 Role of social influence in social change

2. Memory

  • 2.1 Multi-store model of memory
  • 2.2 Long term memory
  • 2.3 Working memory model
  • 2.4 Forgetting
  • 2.5 Factors affecting accuracy of eye witness testimony
  • 2.6 Improving the accuracy of eye witness testimony

3. Attachment

  • 3.1 Caregiver-infant interactions
  • 3.2 Animal studies of attachment
  • 3.3 Explanations of attachment
  • 3.4 Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
  • 3.5 Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation
  • 3.6 Influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships

4. Psychotherapy

  • 4.1 Definitions of abnormality
  • 4.2 Behavioural, emotion and cognitive characteristics of phobias, depression and OCD
  • 4.3 Behavioural approach to explaining and treating phobias
  • 4.4 Cognitive approach to explaining and treating depression
  • 4.5 Biological approach to explaining and treating OCD

1.1 Research methods and techniques

  • Experiment
  • Observation
  • Self-report
  • Correlation

1.2 Planning and conducting research

  • Aims and hypotheses and how to formulate
  • Populations, samples and sampling techniques
  • Experimental designs
  • Variables and how they are operationalised
  • Designing observations
  • Designing self-reports

1.3 Data recording, analysis and presentation

  • Raw data
  • Levels and types of data
  • Descriptive statistics
  • Inferential statistics
  • Methodological issues

1.4 Report writing

  • Sections and sub-sections of a practical report
  • Citing academic references
  • Peer review

1.5 Practical activities

  • Students are expected to conduct and analyse their own small-scale research practicals, including appropriate risk assessment and management.
  • In order to become fully familiar with the content of this component, it is suggested that students create a research portfolio using appropriate information communication technology and write-up the practicals they conduct.

1.6 How science works

  • Students should understand how society makes decisions about scientific issues and how psychology contributes to the success of the economy and society.

Paper 2

AQA – A-level Psychology

OCR – A-level Psychology

5. Approaches in psychology

  • 5.1 Learning approach
  • 5.2 Cognitive approach
  • 5.3 Biological approach
  • 5.4 Psychodynamic approach
  • 5.5 Humanistic psychology
  • 5.6 Comparison of approaches

6. Biopsychology

  • 6.1 Divisions of the nervous system
  • 6.2 Structure and functions of neurons and synaptic transmission
  • 6.3 Endocrine system
  • 6.4 Fight or flight response
  • 6.5 Localisation of function in the brain
  • 6.6 Ways of studying the brain
  • 6.7 Biological rhythms

7. Research methods

Research methods

  • Experimental method: lab and field, natural and quasi experiments
  • Observational techniques: Naturalistic, controlled, overt, covert, participant
  • Self-report: questionnaires and interviews
  • Correlations: analysis of the relationship between co-variables
  • Content analysis
  • Case studies

Scientific processes

  • Aims
  • Hypotheses: directional and non-directional
  • Sampling: random, systematic, stratified, opportunity, volunteer
  • Pilot studies
  • Experimental designs: Independent measures, repeated measures and matched pairs designs
  • Observational design: behavioural categories, time and event sampling
  • Variables: independent and dependent, extraneous variables, operationalisation of variables
  • Control: standardisation, counterbalancing and randomisation
  • Demand characteristics and investigator effects
  • Ethics
  • Peer review
  • Implications of psychological research for the economy
  • Reliability: across all methods; test-retest and inter-rater reliability
  • Validity: across all methods; face validity, concurrent validity, ecological validity and temporal validity
  • Features of science: objectivity, empirical method, replicability and falsifiability, theory   construction, hypothesis testing, paradigms and paradigms shifts
  • Reporting psychological investigations: abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion and referencing

Data handling and analysis

  • Quantitative and qualitative data
  • Primary and secondary data: including meta-analysis
  • Descriptive statistics: measures of central tendency, measures of dispersion, percentages and positive, negative and zero correlations
  • Graphs and charts
  • Distributions: normal and skewed
  • Correlation co-efficient
  • Levels of measurement: nominal, ordinal and interval
  • Content analysis and coding: thematic analysis

Inferential testing

  • Sign test
  • Probability and significance: Statistical tables and critical values, Type I and Types II errors

When to use the following tests:

  • Spearman's rho
  • Pearson's r
  • Wilcoxon, Mann-Whitney
  • related t-test
  • unrelated t-test
  • Chi-square test

Core studies

Ten key themes and the classic and contemporary core study located within each. For each core study:

  • areas and perspectives in psychology
  • methodological issues relating to the core studies
  • debates in psychology:
    • nature/nurture
    • freewill/determinism
    • reductionism/holism
    • individual/situational explanations
    • usefulness of research
    • ethical considerations
    • conducting socially sensitive research
    • psychology as a science

Themes and studies

  • Social
  • Cognitive
  • Developmental
  • External influences on children’s behaviour
  • Stages of moral development
  • Biological
  • Regions of the brain
  • Impact of early visual experience
  • Individual differences
  • Understanding disorders
  • Measuring differences

Paper 3

AQA – A-level Psychology

OCR – A-level Psychology

8.  Issues and debates in psychology

  • 8.1 Gender and culture in psychology
  • 8.2 Free will and determinism
  • 8.3 Nature-nurture debate
  • 8.4 Holism and reductionism
  • 8.5 Idiographic and nomothetic approaches
  • 8.6 Ethical implications and social sensitivity

Option 1 – choose one from:

9.  Relationships

  • 9.1 Evolutionary explanations for partner preference
  • 9.2 Factors affecting attraction
  • 9.3 Theories of romantic relationships
  • 9.4  Virtual relationships in social media
  • 9.5  Parasocial relationships

10. Gender

  • 10.1 Sex and gender
  • 10.2 Role of chromosomes and hormones
  • 10.3 Cognitive explanations of gender development
  • 10.4 Psychodynamic explanations of gender development
  • 10.5 Social learning theory as applied to gender development

11. Cognition and development

  • 11.1 Piaget
  • 11.2 Vygotsky
  • 11.3 Bailliargeon
  • 11.4 The development of social cognition

Option 2 – choose one from:

12. Schizophrenia

  • 12.1 Classification of schizophrenia
  • 12.2 Biological explanations of schizophrenia
  • 12.3 Psychological explanations of schizophrenia
  • 12.4 Drug therapy
  • 12.5 Cognitive behavioural therapy
  • 12.6 Interactionist approach

13. Eating behaviour

  • 13.1 Explanations for food preferences
  • 13.2 Neural and hormonal mechanisms involved in controlling eating behaviour
  • 13.3 Biological explanations for anorexia nervosa
  • 13.4 Psychological explanations for anorexia nervosa
  • 13.5 Biological explanations for obesity
  • 13.6 Psychological explanations for obesity

14. Stress

  • 14.1 The physiology of stress
  • 14.2 Role of stress in illness
  • 14.3 Measuring stress
  • 14.4 Individual differences in stress
  • 14.5 Managing and coping with stress

Option 3 – choose one from:

15. Aggression

  • 15.1 Neural and hormonal mechanisms in aggressions
  • 15.2 The ethological explanation on aggression
  • 15.3 Social psychological explanations of aggression
  • 15.4 Institutional aggression
  • 15.5 Media influences on aggression

16. Forensic psychology

  • 16.1 Problems in defining and measuring crime
  • 16.2 Offender profiling
  • 16.3 Biological explanations of offending behaviour
  • 16.4 Psychological explanations of offending behaviour
  • 16.5 Dealing with offending behaviour

17. Addiction

  • 17.1 Describing addiction: physical and psychological dependence
  • 17.2 Risk factors in the development of addiction
  • 17.3 Explanations for nicotine addiction
  • 17.4 Explanations for gambling addiction
  • 17.5 Reducing addiction
  • 17.6 Application of the theory of planned behaviour and Prochaska’s six-stage model of behaviour change

With reference to psychology, learners should be able to explain and exemplify the background and consider relevant issues and debates in relation to the topic area.

The assessment will require learners to apply these issues and debates across a range of topics, further developing the material in the specification and making links between the issues and debates and the content of this component.

Compulsory topic: Issues in mental health

  • The historical content of mental health
  • The medical model
  • Alternatives to the medical model

Any two from:

Child psychology

  • Intelligence (biological)
  • Pre-adult brain development (biological)
  • Perceptual development (cognitive)
  • Cognitive development and education (cognitive)
  • Development of attachment (social)
  • Impact of advertising on children (social)

Criminal psychology

  • What makes a criminal? (biological)
  • The collection and processing of forensic evidence   (biological)
  • Collection of evidence (cognitive)
  • Psychology and the courtroom (cognitive)
  • Crime prevention (social)
  • Effect of imprisonment (social)

Environmental psychology

  • Stressors in the environment (biological)
  • Biological rhythms (biological)
  • Recycling and other conservation behaviours   (cognitive)
  • Ergonomics – human factors (cognitive)
  • Psychological effects of built environment (social)
  • Territory and personal space (social)

Sports and exercise psychology

  • Arousal and anxiety (biological)
  • Exercise and mental health (biological)
  • Motivation (cognitive)
  • Personality (cognitive)
  • Performing with others (social)
  • Audience effects (social)