Psychology is the study of the mind and this will be investigated in detail from all angles of psychology. There are 5 main areas of study. These are: social, developmental, cognitive, physiological and individual differences. These explore areas such as schizophrenia- can doctors detect who is and who isn’t mentally ill?; sign language- can a chimpanzee learn sign language just as well as humans do?; conformity- why do we go along with what everyone else does?; aggression- when put in uncertain situations why do we show personality characteristics we wouldn’t normally show?; and eye witness testimony- how does one simple question affect our memory so significantly?.

In total there are 15 core studies that you will have to learn.

G541 Psychological investigations allows you to carry out a series of mini experiments using difference psychological methods of investigation and are asked a series of questions about these experiments.

G542 Core studies will ask you about the 15 core studies you have learned. There will be a mixture of short answer questions testing your knowledge and some essay questions testing your understanding.

If you have studied Psychology at GCSE then a grade C is required. If you have not then a grade C in Maths, English and Science is required

As well as the AS Psychology qualification, you will be able to criticise many different studies and become much more aware of how unethical some people are! You will be able to have the confidence to conduct your own work and have the ability to analyse it. Your thinking skills will dramatically increase as you have to be able to use your imagination and begin to think outside the box. Your understanding of how a human behaves and thinks will increase with knowledge and psychological ability