Ever wondered why you went along with the crowd, even though you didn’t really agree with them?

Do you have a weird phobia that you cannot explain?

Are there things you can remember from when you were younger but you’ve forgotten what you got up to last week?

Psychology is all around us. Once you start studying it, you will notice it in your daily life. It can influence what we buy in the supermarket, which authority figures we obey, and what type of relationships we form.

Studying Psychology will give you an insight into your own and other people’s behaviour. The A level course will provide you with an understanding of what makes people who they are by considering genetics, thought processes and experiences.

For example, we will study Milgram’s famous electric shock study, where they tested obedience to authority. Participants had to give increasingly dangerous electric shocks to another person, showing what people are capable of when ‘just following orders’. Are some people more likely to hurt others when instructed to (like the Nazi’s under Hitler) or are we all capable of this truly terrible behaviour?

We will also find out what happens when individuals struggle to form an attachment during the critical period of their development. For example, Genie was exposed to extreme neglect from her parents and kept in a basement until she escaped at the age of thirteen. How do you think this would impact her in her adult life? Do you think she would be able to recover? Would she ever be ‘normal’?

Psychology is an extremely diverse subject, which can be applied to all areas of life; in other subjects, at home and in your future career. You’ll learn how to form an effective argument, analyse different theories and see how they work in the wider world.

Want to know more?

Study Psychology to really understand human kind.

In the past, students have visited the Crime Museum Uncovered and The Jack the Ripper Museum to see how forensic psychology has been applied in real life. There will be opportunity to visit lectures from current and leading psychologists and potentially opportunities to look at psychology in action.

Studying psychology at A level will open the door for further study at degree level and a range of employment opportunities. Graduates of psychology can choose to specialise in Clinical psychology, Educational psychology, Forensic psychology, Sports psychology or Counselling, to name a few. Careers in business, marketing, human resources, education and healthcare are among those that will appeal to students who have studied psychology at A level and beyond.

Paper 1: Introductory topics in psychology – Social influence, memory, attachment, psychopathology

Paper 2: Psychology in context – Approaches in psychology, biopsychology, research methods

Paper 3: Issues and options in psychology – Issues and debates, schizophrenia, gender, forensic psychology