AQA A Psychology Road Map
Unit 2 (7181/2) of AQA A psychology has significant overlap between what you study at AS and what you study at A level and explaining this would be pretty confusing (I only barely got my head around it after carefully examining the specification). To simplify this difference anything in this purple color is what you study during A level in addition to the other topics for that section. This means you won’t need to study anything in this color at AS level unless you choose to study the full A level for psychology.
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Approaches In Psychology
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Covering the new AS and A level unit 2 (7181/2) specification – model essay answers for every question.
The origins of psychology: Wundt, introspection and the emergence of psychology as a science.
- Learning approaches: The behaviourist approach including classical conditioning, Pavlov’s research, operant conditioning, types of reinforcement and Skinner’s research: Social learning theory including imitation, identification, modelling, vicarious reinforcement, the role of mediational processes and Bandura’s research.
- The cognitive approach: The study of internal mental processes, the role of schema, the use of theoretical and computer models to explain and make inferences about mental processes. The emergence of cognitive neuroscience.
- The biological approach: The influence of genes, biological structures and neurochemistry on behaviour. Genotype and Phenotype, genetic basis for behaviour, evolution and behaviour.
- The psychodynamic approach: The role of the unconscious, the structure of personality, that is the ID, ego and superego, defense mechanisms including repression, denial and displacement, psychosexual stages.
- Humanistic psychology: Free will, self-actualisation and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, focus on the self, congruence, the role of conditions of worth. The influence of counselling psychology.
- Comparison of approaches
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Biopsychology
- The divisions of the nervous system: central and peripheral (somatic and autonomic)
- The structure and function of sensory, relay and motor neurons. The process synaptic transmission, including reference to neurotransmitters, excitation and inhibition.
- The function of the endocrine system: glands and hormones.
- The fight or flight response including the role of adrenaline.
- Localisation of function in the brain and hemispheric lateralisation: motor, somatosensory, visual, auditory and language centres; Broca’s Area and Wernicke’s area, Split brain research. Brain Plasticity and functional recovery of the brain after trauma.
- Ways of studying the brain: scanning techniques including functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI); electroencephalogram (EEG’s) and event-related potentials (ERP’s); post-mortem examinations.
- Biological rhythms: circadian rhythms, infradian rhythms and ultradian rhythms and the difference between them. The effect of endogenous pacemakers and exogenous zeitgebers on the sleep/wake cycle.
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Research Methods
- Experimental method. Types of experiments, laboratory and field experiments; natural and quasi-experiments.
- Observational techniques. Types of observation: naturalistic and controlled observation; covert and overt observation; participant and non-participant observation.
- Self-report techniques. Questionnaires; interviews, structured and unstructured.
- Correlations. Analysis of the relationship between co-variables. The difference between correlations and experiments.
- Content analysis.
- Case studies.
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Scientific Processes
- Aims: stating aims, the difference between aims and hypotheses.
- Hypotheses: directional and non-directional.
- Sampling: The difference between population and sample; sampling techniques including: random, systematic, stratified, opportunity and volunteer; implications of sampling techniques, including bias and generalisation.
- Pilot studies and the aims of piloting.
- Experimental designs: repeated measures, independent groups, matched pairs.
- Observational design: behavioural categories; event sampling; time sampling.
- Questionnaire construction, including the use of open and closed questions; design of interviews.
- Variables: manipulation and control of variables, including independent, dependent, extraneous, confounding; operationalisation of variables.
- Control: random allocation and counterbalancing, randomisation and standardisation.
- Demand characteristics and investigator effects.
- Ethics, including the role of the British Psychological Society’s code of ethics; ethical issues in the design and conduct of psychological studies; dealing with ethical issues in research.
- The role of peer review in the scientific process.
- The implications of psychological research for the economy.
- Reliability across all methods of investigation. Ways of assessing reliability: test-retest and inter-observer; improving reliability.
- Types of validity across all methods of investigation: face validity, concurrent validity, ecological validity and temporal validity. Assessment of validity. Improving validity.
- Features of science: objectivity and the empirical method; replicability and falsifiability; theory construction and hypothesis testing; paradigms and paradigm shifts.
- Reporting psychological investigations. Sections of a scientific report: abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion and referencing.
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Data Handling and analysis
- Quantitative and qualitative data; the distinction between qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques.
- Primary and secondary data, including meta-analysis.
- Descriptive statistics: measures of central tendency – mean, media, mode; calculation of mean, median and mode; measures of dispersion; range and standard deviation; calculation of range; calculation of percentages; positive, negative and zero correlations.
- Presentation and display of quantitative data: graphs, tables, scattergrams, bar charts, histograms.
- Distributions: normal and skewed distributions; characteristics of normal and skewed distributions.
- Analysis and interpretation of correlation, including correlation coefficients.
- Levels of measurement: nominal, ordinal and interval.
- Content analysis and coding. Thematic analysis.
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Inferential Testing
- Introduction to statistical testing; the sign test.
- Probability and significance: use of statistical tables and critical values in interpretation of significance; Type 1 and Type 2 errors.
- Factors affecting the choice of statistical test, including level of measurement and experimental design. When to use the following tests: Spearman’s rho, Pearson’s r, Wilcoxon, Mann-Whitney, related t-test, unrelated t-test and Chi-Squared test.
Saj Devshi
Jedi Master at Loopa
Since 2012 I've helped literally thousands of students achieve some amazing grades for A level Psychology and get into their chosen universities - Even schools across the UK now use my resources. If you're studying Psychology why not Follow me on Twitter, LIKE my Facebook page or subscribe to my YouTube channel and get tons of free resources and updates and see just how well you can do too.
- 4 months ago
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What books would you recommend for people doing their A2 exams this year under the new spec? The AS book by Cara flannagan I think goes into too much detail (I used it this year) and I need to remake notes for AS. It will be stressful but do very condensed notes exist with bullet points of what we should know. I thought about getting the new AS revision book by this website but I need to see what im purchasing. Thanks for your help.
Mahirul,
For A2 I plan to cover all the unit 3 topics with model essay answers first starting with Aggression which is due for release soon. These ebooks will cover everything you need to know to hit the top banding of marks concisely similar to my previous materials which students have found really useful.
As for units 1 and 2 which you will redo next year for A level (but with additional elements) – I think you will find my ebooks useful, especially for the essay style questions which will be worth up to 16 marks. I’ve broken down every topic between theory (AO1) and evaluation (AO3) so it literally is pure ready made answers you can source for your own essays. You can see the videos I’ve made for the ebooks on the product pages themselves too which gives you a bit more information.
Hope this helps,
Saj
Hi there,
I emailed you not long ago , but I just wanted to know are there any free resource available ?
Hi Ashia,
There will be yes on this page and others in the next few weeks. I’m just finishing writing the Schizophrenia ebook and then plan to upload some free content on the site. It will be an ongoing process so won’t all appear overnight (but gradually). If you keep coming back to the site you should notice is slowly populating with content; is there anything in particular you need help with?
-Saj
Hi Saj,
I’m doing Forensic Psychology, Gender and Stress as part of my unit 3 in this year (2nd year). When will you do these content?
Hi Anika,
Forensic psychology is coming after Xmas (I’m currently writing it, its a huge topic!) and then Gender is coming out January time – Stress will follow after that (I estimate end of January/early February for Stress).
Hope this answers your query – If you follow the Loopa revision facebook page you can get notified on its release too this way in your newsfeed :)
-Saj
Hi, I have both the Unit 1 and 2 guides which are great, I was just wondering if you had any notes for the Research Methods topic as I can’t find anything for it on your website. Thank you!