United Kingdom · National Curriculum Attainment Targets
Year 12 Psychology.
This Year 12 Psychology curriculum introduces students to the fundamental approaches, theories, and research methods in the discipline. Students will explore human behaviour, cognitive processes, and social interactions while developing critical evaluation and analytical skills required for A-Level study.
01Social Influence
Students explore the psychological explanations for conformity, obedience, and independent behaviour. The unit examines how social contexts and minority influence can drive broader social change.
An examination of Asch's research on conformity and Milgram's research on obedience. Students will evaluate situational variables and psychological explanations for why individuals yield to group pressure or authority.
Exploration of how individuals resist social influence, focusing on social support and locus of control. Students will analyse real-world examples of defiance against unjust authority.
Investigating how a minority can change the views of a majority through consistency, commitment, and flexibility. The topic connects these psychological principles to historical movements for social change.
02Memory
This unit delves into the cognitive processes of memory, including how information is encoded, stored, and retrieved. Students will also investigate theories of forgetting and the reliability of eyewitness testimony.
A detailed look at the Multi-Store Model and the Working Memory Model. Students will compare how these frameworks explain short-term and long-term memory capacities.
Students will explore why we forget information, focusing on proactive and retroactive interference, as well as retrieval failure due to the absence of cues.
An evaluation of the factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, including misleading information and anxiety. Students will also learn about the cognitive interview technique used by police.
03Attachment
Students examine the formation of early bonds between infants and caregivers. The unit covers animal studies, psychological explanations of attachment, and the long-term impacts of maternal deprivation.
An introduction to the development of attachment, focusing on reciprocity and interactional synchrony. Students will review Schaffer and Emerson's stages of attachment.
Reviewing the foundational animal research by Lorenz and Harlow. Students will debate the ethical implications and the generalisability of these findings to human attachment.
Exploring Ainsworth's Strange Situation and the resulting classifications of secure, insecure-avoidant, and insecure-resistant attachment. Students will also look at cultural variations in attachment types.
Analysing Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation and the effects of institutionalisation, drawing heavily on the Romanian orphan studies.
04Approaches and Psychopathology
This unit introduces the major theoretical approaches in psychology and applies them to the understanding and treatment of mental health disorders, specifically phobias, depression, and OCD.
Tracing the emergence of psychology as a science, from Wundt's introspection to the learning, cognitive, and biological approaches. Students will compare the core assumptions of each paradigm.
Evaluating the different ways psychologists define abnormal behaviour, including statistical infrequency, deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately, and deviation from ideal mental health.
Applying psychological approaches to specific disorders: the behavioural approach to phobias, the cognitive approach to depression, and the biological approach to OCD.
05Research Methods
Students develop a practical understanding of how psychological research is designed, conducted, and analysed. This unit covers experimental design, observational techniques, and basic data handling.
An overview of laboratory, field, natural, and quasi-experiments. Students will learn how to formulate hypotheses, identify variables, and select appropriate experimental designs.
Exploring non-experimental methods of data collection. Students will design questionnaires, structure interviews, and plan observational studies while considering ethical guidelines.
Introduction to quantitative and qualitative data analysis. Students will calculate measures of central tendency and dispersion, and learn how to present data using appropriate graphs and charts.