Curriculum Intent
Our ultimate aim is to produce students who are curious about the human condition and to nurture the next generation of Psychologists. Students will be provided with a variety of opportunities to understand and demonstrate how their work is applicable to the wider world.
A good psychologist has a clear understanding of the core concepts that underpin this scientific discipline and are able to use this knowledge to apply it to a wide range of situations both practically and written. Our curriculum promotes resilience, independent thinking and creativity. It encourages and facilitates further studies or potential careers in the subject, whilst empowering students to have a greater appreciation and awareness of Psychology related issues in the world around them.
As part of the A Level specification, students will be learning about all manner of interesting topics exploring human behaviour. This will include mental health (psychopathology unit, looking at phobias, depression, and OCD), attachment (including how your early childhood influences your future relationships, and what happens to children whose attachment is disrupted), social influence (why people follow orders, why you go along with a group even if you don’t agree etc.), memory (including eyewitness testimony in the criminal justice system), biopsychology (all about the human body and how it controls your actions, including what each part of the brain is responsible for and what happens if we damage our brain), and key approaches (what underpins all of psychology). This will be covered in year 1.
In year 2 we will also explore Forensics (including debates such as - are criminals born or made, and are prisons effective), relationships (who are you most likely to get into a relationship with), and schizophrenia (a much misrepresented mental health disorder). Across the two years, we will also be studying research methods – which underpins everything psychologists do, since it is only through research that we can conduct our experiments on people!
