Psychology – Year 1
Expectations
Be on time, equipped for class
Pay attention and contribute to the lesson Give your 100%
Take charge of your learning
Ask questions
Be respectful to yourself and others
Maintain a positive attitude
Provide a working email address and mobile number
Purchase a copy of the text book (Compulsory)
Psychology A Level Year 1 and AS: The Complete Companion ISBN
978-0-19- 833864-2 Read introduction
Staff contact information
Shereece.Harry@southfields.wandworth.sch.uk
Pauline.Okello@southfields.wandworth.sch.uk
Course outline
Year 1 -Social Influence, Memory, Attachment, Psychopathology, Approaches in psychology,
Biopsychology, Research Methods.
Year 2 – Option between Relationships, Gender, Cognition and Development, AND between
Schizophrenia, Eating Behaviour, Stress, AND between Aggression, Forensic Psychology, Addiction.
3 Exams to be completed at the end of Year 2 for all A Level content. For details of the new
specification see:
http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/psychology/specifications/AQA-7181-7182-SP-2015-V1-0.PDF
Summer task
We would like you to answer the questions looking at the five main approaches (schools of
thought/perspectives) of psychology; behavioural, cognitive, biological, psychodynamic &
humanistic. You may present your work in any way you wish. However, the quality and presentation
of work should be to A level standards and fully referenced.
Use the websites below.
Useful sites:
SimplyPsychology.org (check out the Perspectives link) this has lots of good information and can be used
for most questions. It would be a good idea to print the pages. Only focus on those directly related to the
approaches. There is a green tab button that makes printing easy, look out for it.
http://www.psychlotron.org.uk/
http://psychology.about.com/od/psychology101/u/psychology-theories.htm
Also, for some questions you will need to use Google and put in keywords related to the questions.
Behavioural Psychology
1. When was Behaviourism the primary paradigm in psychology?
2.
What do you think this means?
3. Watson (1913) stated that ‘psychology as a behaviourist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of
natural science. Its theoretical goal is ……..?
4.
What is behaviourism primarily concerned with?
5. Why are behaviourists not concerned with internal events like thinking and emotion?
6. According to behaviourists, what determines a person’s behaviour?
7. What is ‘tabula rasa’?
8. Why is the study of animals useful?
9. Behaviourists say ’behaviour is the result of stimulus– response.’ What do you think is meant by this?
10. Give 2 strengths and weakness of the behaviourist approach.
11. Behaviourists believe our biology influences our behaviour, for example our hormones.
True/False (circle)
12. Define Classical Conditioning
13. Define Operant Conditioning
14.
Behaviourists believe in Free Will. True/False
15. Behaviourism is the scientific study of observable behaviour working on the basis that behaviour can be
reduced to S-R (stimulus-response) units. True/False
The Cognitive Approach
1. Cognitive Psychology (CP) revolves around the notion that ……..?
2. Cognition is?
3. The cognitive approach views people as being similar to what?
4. When did CP first come into use?
5.
To understand how people tick we need to ‘understand the i___________ p__________ of their m_______.
6. Name 2 things CPs study.
7. Where do CPs typically study behaviour?
8. When did CP become of great importance?
9.
Piaget and Tolman created great interest in M__________ P_____________.
10. Give 3 Basic Assumptions of the cognitive approach.
11.
Give 2 strengths and 2 weaknesses of the cognitive approach.
The Biological approach
1. Who can we thank for demonstrating the idea that genetics and evolution play a role in influencing human
behaviour through natural selection?
2. What do people who study behavioural genomics consider?
3. Biological factors such as C___________, h___________, and the brain all have a significant influence on human
behaviour, for example gender.
4. Biological psychologists (BPs) believe behaviour is inherited and adaptive. What happens fathers of newly born
children? What is the evolutionary function of this?
5. What are neurotransmitters?
6. What are serotonin and dopamine used for? (Research the internet)
7. Briefly explain how serotonin affects; Sleep, Depression, Anorexia. Choose two of these and use an internet search
engine to help you gather information.
8. What are hormones?
9. What is testosterone used for?
The Psychodynamic approach
1. State 4 basic assumptions of the psychodynamic approach (PA)
2. Create 7 True False statements relating to this approach
3. Give 2 strengths and 2 limitations of the PA
4. Highlight 5 key words related to the PA.
(Create subheading in the space below for each of the four points above)
The Humanistic Approach
1. Humanism is a psychological approach that emphasises the study of the _______ _________.
2. Humanistic psychologists try to look at behaviour through the eyes of who?
3. For Rogers the focus of psychology is not behaviour (Skinner), the unconscious (Freud), thinking (Wudnt) or the
human brain but how….
4. Rogers is important because he redirected psychology towards the study of?
5. Both behaviourism and psychoanalysis are regarded as ________________ by humanistic psychologists.
6. When did the humanistic perspective begin to exert influence?
7. Humanistic psychologists (HPs) believe people have F_______ W________ to behave in whatever way they
choose and a person’s behaviour is not simply driven or determined by their environment or the stimulus in
front of them.
8. HPs believe people are basically …?
9. What did Rogers and Maslow regard as a basic human motive that people needed to fulfil?
10. Why do HPs reject the scientific psychology such as methods like experiments?
11. Give 3 assumptions of the humanistic approach
12. Give 2 strengths and 2 limitations of the humanistic perspective.