Sir John Deane's Programme of Study 2019/20 Programme | Page 64

Psychology
Course Breakdown
Course Summary
• Exam board is OCR
Paper Content Marks Duration Weighting
Paper 1 Research Methods 90 2 hours 30%
Paper 2 Psychological themes through core studies 105 2 hours 35%
Paper 3 Applied psychology 105 2 hours 35%
Summary of Content Suggested Preparation for September
Research methods Psychology is a popular subject that can be studied
at University on its own or in combination with other
subjects. It is useful for many careers (e.g. Teaching,
Police, Social Work, Nursing, Personnel). Have a look
at the British Psychological Society website for more
information about the area of psychology you may be
interested in and to find out about different types of
psychologists roles. Additionally any reading you can
complete around the subject from a standard psychology
book will give you a head start on the course. For exam
board specific books please contact the psychology
department for suggestions.
You will become familiar with the four main techniques
for collecting and analysing data. These are self-report,
experiment, observation and correlation. You will also
need to be familiar with planning and conducting
research, data recording, analysis and presentation,
report writing and science in psychology. You will carry
out your own small scale practical activities and reflect
on your experiences.
Psychological themes through core studies
This section will assess your knowledge and
understanding of the core studies as well as your ability
to evaluate the studies both on their own and in relation
to the study they have been paired with. The core
studies are placed within a broad area of investigation.
Within each area, you are required to examine four core
studies. These core studies are paired together around
key themes. For each key theme, you need to examine
both a classic and a contemporary study. For example
when studying Social psychology, one key theme is
responses to people in authority so the classic research
by Milgram focuses on obedience and the contemporary
research by Bocchiaro et al focuses on disobedience and
whistleblowing.
Applied Psychology
This component is studied in year 2 of the course
and consists of one compulsory section: Issues in
mental health. You will also study two further applied
psychology options which are Criminal psychology and
Sports and exercise psychology. You will learn to apply
methodological issues and debates in psychology,
recognise the contribution the key research has made to
the topic, and apply your knowledge to suggest ways in
which improvements can be made to society.
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