Topic:
Stress as a bodily
response
AS Psychology Scheme of Work
Autumn: 1st Term – 12 weeks: UNIT 2: Stress, Abnormality & Social Influence
Content of topic
Resources and learning ideas
Suggested lessons
Pg 149 – 152
2 lessons
 The body’s response to
stress, including the
pituitary-adrenal system
and the
sympathomedullary
pathway in outline.

Stress-related illness and
the immune system.
Pg 153 - 157
3 lessons

Life changes and daily
hassles.
Pg 157 – 163
2 lessons

Workplace stress.
Pg 163 – 164
1 lesson

Personality factors ,
including Type A
behaviour.
Pg 165 – 168

Distinction between
emotion-focused and
problem-focused
approaches to coping with
stress.

Psychological and
physiological methods of
stress management,
including Cognitive
Behavioural Therapy and
drugs.
Stress in everyday life
2 lessons
Pg 168 – 171
2 lessons
Pg 171 – 176
DVD: Stressed to the limit: Stress and
Health
4 lessons
1 lesson
End of topic revision
TEST
Spider diagram (pg 178-179), Q&A
Check your understanding (pg 177)
1 lesson
Formal mock exam &
go through exam
Total no. of lessons for Topic
2 lessons
20 (4 weeks)
Social Influence: 5 weeks
Social Influence

Types of conformity
including internalization
and compliance. Explain
what is meant by
conformity.
Pg 181 – 182
2 lessons

Explanations of why
people conform including
informational social
influence and normative
social influence.
Pg 182 – 190
4 lessons

Obedience including
Milgram’s work.
DVDs: Das Experiment
- show dvd and discuss
&
Short cuts: The Stanford Prison
Experiment
Pg 191 – 198
2 lessons
3 lessons
DVD: Short cuts: Milgrams experiments
on obedience

Social influence in
everyday life

Pg 199 – 202
1 lesson
least 2 explanations of WHY
people conform eg. gradual
commitment and personality
factors but do not need particular
explanation)
DVD: The Wave
2 lessons
Explanations of
independent behaviour
including how people
Pg 203 – 205
2 lessons
Explanations of why
people obey (must know at
resist pressures to
conform and pressures to
obey authority.
Pg 206 – 209

The influence of individual
differences on
independent behaviour
including locus of control.
2 lessons
2 lessons
Pg 209 - 213

End of topic revision
TEST
Implications for social
change of research into
social influence.
Spider diagram (pg 214-215)
Check your understanding (pg 213)
1 lesson
Formal mock exam &
go through exam
2 lessons
Total no. of lessons for Topic
20 (4 weeks)
Psychopathology (Abnormality)
Defining and
explaining
 Intro: what is ‘abnormality’
psychological
abnormality

Definitions of abnormality
including:
- deviation from social
norms
- failures to function
adequately
- deviation from ideal
mental health
Discuss limitations associated
with these.

Key features of the
biological approach to
psychopathology.

Key features of the
psychological approaches
to psychopathology
including:
- Psychodynamic
- Behavioural and
- Cognitive approaches.
DVD’S: Beautiful mind and One flew
over the Cuckoo’s nest: take notes
- discuss these
3 lessons
Pg 217 – 224
(classify schizophrenia into these
categories: relate films to definitions)
3 lessons
Pg 224 – 227
2 lessons
Pg 227 – 231
Pg 231 – 234
Pg 234 – 236
2 lessons
2 lessons
1 lesson
(HW:check your understanding pg236)
Treating abnormality

Biological therapies
including drugs and ECT.
Pg 237 – 239
2 lessons

-
Psychological therapies
including
psychoanalysis,
systematic
desensitization
and CBT (must be able to
Pg 240 - 246
3 lessons
Watch: Utube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3AgFXPoB2E
Biopolar treatment: Psychotherapy
describe and evaluate all three)
End of topic revision
TEST
Spider diagram (pg 248 - 249)
Check your understanding (pg 247)
Formal mock exam &
go through exam
1 lesson
2 lessons
20 lessons (4 weeks)
Spring & Summer: 2nd and 3rd Term – 12 weeks: UNIT 1: Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology and
Research Methods
Topic:
Content of topic
Resources and learning ideas
Suggested lessons
Cognitive Psychology – Memory: 4 weeks
Models of memory
Pg 79 – 90
4 lessons
 Muti-story model:
including concepts of
encoding, capacity and
duration. Strenths and
weaknesses of the model.
Memory in everyday
life

The working memory
model, including its
strengths and
weaknesses.
Pg 91 – 95
3 lessons

EWT and factors affecting
the accuracy of EWT,
including anxiety, age of
witness.
Pg96 – 103
4 lessons
DVD: Short Cuts: Elizabeth Loftus on
Eyewitness testimony
Pg104 – 107


End of topic revision
2 lessons
Misleading information
and the use of the
cognitive interview.
Strategies for memory
improvement
Pg 108 - 113
DVD: How to improve your memory (89
mins)
2 lessons
(+ 2 for dvd)
Spider diagrams, Q&A
(pg 114,115)
1 lesson
Check your understanding (pg 113)
TEST
Formal mock exam &
go through exam
2 lessons
Total no. of lessons for topic
20 (4 weeks )
Early Social development: 4 weeks
Attachment
 Explanations of
attachment, including
learning theory, and
evolutionary perspective,
including Bowlby.

Types of attachment,
including insecure and
secure attachment and
studies by Ainsworth.
Pg 117 – 122
4 lessons
Pg 123 – 125
DVD: Short Cuts: The Strange Situation
2 lessons
Pg 126 -128

Cultural variations in
attachment
2 lessons
Pg129 - 136
Attachment in
everyday life

Disruptions of attachment,
failure to form attachment
(privation) and the effects
of institutionalization.

The impact of different
forms of day care on
children’s social
development, including
the effects on aggression
and peer relations.
4 lessons
Pg 137 – 142
3 lessons

End of topic revision
Implication of research
into attachment and day
care for childcare
practices.
Pg 142 - 144
2 lessons
Check your understanding
pg 145
Spider diagram pg 146 - 147
1 lesson
Formal mock exam &
go through exam
2 lessons
Total no. of lessons for Topic
20 (4 weeks)
TEST
Research methods and techniques 3 ½ weeks
Experimental method
 Lab, field and natural
experiments
Pg 12 – 19

Correlation analysis
Pg 20 – 22

Observational techniques
Pg 22 – 25

Self-report techniques
including questionnaires
and interviews
Pg 25 – 31
Case studies
Pg 31 - 32

For all the methods above students
should be able to know when to
select it and be able to elaborate on 1
strength and 1 weakness of each
2 lessons
2 lessons
2 lessons
DVD
Revision
Spider diagram (pg 34 – 35)
Check your understanding (pg 33)
1 lesson
Test
Quiz and go through
Total no. of lessons for Topic
1 lesson
8 (1 ½ weeks)
Investigation design, data analysis and presentation
Investigation design
 Aims
 Hypotheses (directional
and non-directional)
 Experimental design
(independent groups,
repeated measures &
matched pairs)
 Designing naturalistic
observations
 Designing questionnaires
and interviews
 IV and DV
 Pilot studies
 Controlling extraneous
variables
 Reliability and validity
 BPS
Ethical issues and way in
which psychologists dela
with them
 Selection of participants
and sample techniques:
random, opportunity,
volunteer
 Demand characteristics
Data analysis &
presentation


Presentation and
interpretation of
quantitative data including
graphs, scattergrams and
tables.
Analysis and interpretation
PG 37 – 60
Check your understanding pg 61
4 lessons
DVD: obedience and ethics
1 lesson



Revision
Test
of quantitative data.
Measures of central
tendency: mean, median,
Pg 62 – 74
mode. Measures of
Check your understanding pg 75
dispersion: range and
standard deviation.
Analysis and interpretation
of correlational data.
Positive and negative
correlation and the
interpretation of
correlation coefficients.
Presentation of qualitative
data.
Processes involved in
content analysis.
Spider diagram (pg 76 – 77)
Quiz and go through
Total no. of lessons for Topic
TOTAL weeks for research methods
4 lessons
1 lesson
1 lesson
10 ( 2 weeks)
4 weeks