United Kingdom · National Curriculum Attainment Targets
Year 11 Psychology.
This Year 11 Psychology curriculum provides a comprehensive introduction to the fundamental principles of human behaviour and mental processes. Students will critically evaluate psychological theories, research methods, and real-world applications, preparing them for their GCSE examinations and further study.
01Memory and Cognition
An exploration of how the human mind encodes, stores, and retrieves information, including the evaluation of key memory models.
Students explore how information is encoded, stored, and retrieved in the human brain. They will differentiate between visual, acoustic, and semantic encoding.
An examination of the Multi-store model of memory, focusing on sensory, short-term, and long-term memory stores. Students will evaluate the capacity and duration of each store.
Students investigate Bartlett's theory of reconstructive memory and the concept of schemas. They will apply this to real-world scenarios such as eyewitness testimony.
02Development and the Brain
A study of cognitive development from early childhood through adolescence, examining the biological and psychological factors that shape learning.
An overview of how the human brain develops from early gestation through childhood. Students will learn about the autonomic nervous system and the functions of the cerebral cortex.
Students critically evaluate Piaget's stages of cognitive development and his concepts of assimilation and accommodation. They will explore the implications for educational practice.
An exploration of Dweck's Mindset theory and Willingham's learning theory. Students will consider how praise and self-efficacy influence a learner's development.
03Social Influence
An investigation into how individuals are affected by the presence and actions of others, covering conformity, obedience, and prosocial behaviour.
Students analyse why people conform to group pressures, examining Asch's research and the role of dispositional factors. They will differentiate between normative and informational social influence.
An investigation into obedience, focusing on Milgram's agency theory and Adorno's authoritarian personality. Students will discuss the ethical implications of obedience research.
Students explore the bystander effect and factors influencing prosocial behaviour. They will review Piliavin's subway study and the impact of deindividuation.
04Psychological Problems
An introduction to mental health, focusing on the diagnosis, biological and psychological explanations, and treatments for clinical depression and addiction.
An introduction to the concept of mental health and how it changes over time. Students will examine the social and cultural variations in defining psychological problems.
Students investigate the characteristics, biological explanations, and psychological explanations of clinical depression. They will evaluate treatments such as CBT and antidepressant medication.
An exploration of the characteristics of addiction, including biological and psychological explanations. Students will assess the effectiveness of aversion therapy and self-management programmes.
05Research Methods
A practical unit equipping students with the skills to design psychological research, handle data, and understand ethical guidelines.
Students learn how to formulate testable hypotheses and design psychological experiments. They will distinguish between independent, dependent, and extraneous variables.
An examination of different sampling techniques and the ethical guidelines set by the British Psychological Society (BPS). Students will evaluate the importance of informed consent and debriefing.
Students develop skills in quantitative and qualitative data analysis, including calculating measures of central tendency and interpreting graphs. They will learn to draw conclusions from raw data.