England · AQASyllabus
Psychology syllabus, dot point by dot point
Every dot point in the England Psychologysyllabus, with a focused answer for each one. Click any dot point for a worked explainer, past exam questions, and links to related dot points. Written by Claude Opus 4.8, Anthropic's latest AI.
4.5 Approaches in Psychology
Module overview →- How does the behaviourist approach explain behaviour?The behaviourist approach, including classical conditioning and Pavlov's research, operant conditioning, types of reinforcement and Skinner's research.10 min answer →
- How does the biological approach explain behaviour?The biological approach: the influence of genes, biological structures and neurochemistry on behaviour. Genotype and phenotype, genetic basis of behaviour, evolution and behaviour.10 min answer →
- How does the cognitive approach explain behaviour?The cognitive approach: the study of internal mental processes, the role of schema, the use of theoretical and computer models to explain and make inferences about mental processes. The emergence of cognitive neuroscience.10 min answer →
- How do the approaches in psychology compare on key debates?Comparison of approaches: the views of the behaviourist, social learning, cognitive, biological, psychodynamic and humanistic approaches on key debates such as nature-nurture, determinism and reductionism.10 min answer →
- How does humanistic psychology explain behaviour?Humanistic psychology: free will, self-actualisation and Maslow's hierarchy of needs, focus on the self, congruence, the role of conditions of worth. The influence on counselling psychology.10 min answer →
- How did psychology emerge as a science?Origins of psychology: Wundt, introspection and the emergence of psychology as a science.10 min answer →
- How does the psychodynamic approach explain behaviour?The psychodynamic approach: the role of the unconscious, the structure of personality (id, ego and superego), defence mechanisms (repression, denial, displacement), psychosexual stages.10 min answer →
- How does social learning theory explain behaviour?Social learning theory, including imitation, identification, modelling, vicarious reinforcement, the role of mediational processes and Bandura's research.10 min answer →
4.3 Attachment
Module overview →- What do animal studies tell us about the formation of attachment?Animal studies of attachment: Lorenz and Harlow.10 min answer →
- How do caregiver-infant interactions support the development of attachment?Caregiver-infant interactions in humans: reciprocity and interactional synchrony. Stages of attachment identified by Schaffer. Multiple attachments and the role of the father.10 min answer →
- How do attachment types vary across cultures?Cultural variations in attachment, including van IJzendoorn.10 min answer →
- How is attachment explained by learning theory and by Bowlby's monotropic theory?Explanations of attachment: learning theory and Bowlby's monotropic theory. The concepts of a critical period and an internal working model.11 min answer →
- How does early attachment influence later relationships?The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships, including the role of an internal working model.10 min answer →
- What are the effects of maternal deprivation according to Bowlby?Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation. Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation.11 min answer →
- What types of attachment did Ainsworth identify using the Strange Situation?Types of attachment: secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant. Ainsworth's Strange Situation. Research into types of attachment.10 min answer →
4.6 Biopsychology
Module overview →- What are biological rhythms and how are they controlled?Biological rhythms: circadian, infradian and ultradian and the difference between these rhythms. The effect of endogenous pacemakers and exogenous zeitgebers on the sleep/wake cycle.10 min answer →
- How are functions localised in the brain?Localisation of function in the brain and hemispheric lateralisation: motor, somatosensory, visual, auditory and language centres; Broca's and Wernicke's areas, split-brain research.11 min answer →
- How are the nervous and endocrine systems organised?The divisions of the nervous system: central and peripheral (somatic and autonomic). The function of the endocrine system: glands and hormones. The fight or flight response including the role of adrenaline.10 min answer →
- How do neurons transmit information?The structure and function of sensory, relay and motor neurons. The process of synaptic transmission, including reference to neurotransmitters, excitation and inhibition.10 min answer →
- How does the brain change and recover after damage?Plasticity and functional recovery of the brain after trauma. Ways of studying the brain. (Plasticity, synaptic pruning, axonal sprouting and recruitment of homologous areas.)10 min answer →
- What methods are used to study the brain?Ways of studying the brain: scanning techniques including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalogram (EEGs) and event-related potentials (ERPs), and post-mortem examinations.10 min answer →
4.8 Issues and debates in Psychology
Module overview →- What are the ethical implications of psychological research?Ethical implications of research studies and theory, including reference to social sensitivity.10 min answer →
- Do we have free will or is our behaviour determined?Free will and determinism: hard determinism and soft determinism; biological, environmental and psychic determinism. The scientific emphasis on causal explanations.10 min answer →
- How do gender and culture bias affect psychological research?Gender and culture in psychology: universality and bias. Gender bias, including androcentrism and alpha and beta bias; cultural bias, including ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.10 min answer →
- Should behaviour be explained by breaking it down or studying it as a whole?Holism and reductionism: levels of explanation in psychology; biological reductionism and environmental (stimulus-response) reductionism.10 min answer →
- Should psychology study individuals or seek general laws?Idiographic and nomothetic approaches to psychological investigation.10 min answer →
- Is behaviour the product of nature or nurture?The nature-nurture debate: the relative importance of heredity and environment in determining behaviour; the interactionist approach.10 min answer →
4.2 Memory
Module overview →- Why do we forget information stored in long-term memory?Explanations for forgetting: proactive and retroactive interference and retrieval failure due to absence of cues.10 min answer →
- What factors reduce the accuracy of eyewitness testimony?Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: misleading information, including leading questions and post-event discussion; anxiety.11 min answer →
- How can the cognitive interview improve eyewitness testimony?Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, including the use of the cognitive interview.10 min answer →
- How does the multi-store model explain the structure of memory?The multi-store model of memory: sensory register, short-term memory and long-term memory. Features of each store: coding, capacity and duration.11 min answer →
- What are the different types of long-term memory?Types of long-term memory: episodic, semantic and procedural.10 min answer →
- How does the working memory model explain short-term memory?The working memory model: central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and episodic buffer. Features of the model: coding and capacity.11 min answer →
4.4 Psychopathology
Module overview →- How does the behavioural approach explain and treat phobias?The behavioural approach to explaining phobias: the two-process model, including classical and operant conditioning. The behavioural approach to treating phobias: systematic desensitisation and flooding.11 min answer →
- How does the biological approach explain and treat OCD?The biological approach to explaining OCD: genetic and neural explanations. The biological approach to treating OCD: drug therapy.11 min answer →
- How does the cognitive approach explain and treat depression?The cognitive approach to explaining depression: Beck's negative triad and Ellis's ABC model. The cognitive approach to treating depression: cognitive behaviour therapy, including challenging irrational thoughts.11 min answer →
- How can we define what counts as abnormal behaviour?Definitions of abnormality, including deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately, statistical infrequency and deviation from ideal mental health.11 min answer →
- What are the characteristics of phobias, depression and OCD?The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.10 min answer →
4.7 Research methods
Module overview →- What are correlations and how do they differ from experiments?Correlations: analysis of the relationship between co-variables. The difference between correlations and experiments. Positive, negative and zero correlations.10 min answer →
- How is data described and analysed in psychology?Quantitative and qualitative data, primary and secondary data. Measures of central tendency and dispersion. Presentation of quantitative data, distributions, and the analysis of qualitative data.11 min answer →
- What are the experimental designs and how are their problems controlled?Experimental designs: independent groups, repeated measures and matched pairs. Design of investigations, including control of variables, randomisation and counterbalancing.11 min answer →
- What are the different types of experiment and their variables?Experimental method: laboratory, field, natural and quasi-experiments. Aims, hypotheses, independent and dependent variables, operationalisation, extraneous and confounding variables.11 min answer →
- How do psychologists test whether their results are significant?Introduction to statistical testing; the sign test. Probability and significance, the use of statistical tables and critical values, type I and type II errors, choosing a statistical test.11 min answer →
- What are the main types of observation and how are they designed?Observational techniques: naturalistic and controlled, covert and overt, participant and non-participant. Observational design: behavioural categories, event and time sampling.10 min answer →
- What sampling methods do psychologists use?Sampling: the difference between population and sample; sampling techniques including random, systematic, stratified, opportunity and volunteer; implications of sampling techniques, including bias and generalisation.10 min answer →
- How are questionnaires and interviews designed and used?Self-report techniques: questionnaires; interviews, structured and unstructured. The design of questionnaires, including the use of open and closed questions.10 min answer →
4.1 Social influence
Module overview →- How do social roles influence conformity, as shown by Zimbardo?Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo: the Stanford prison experiment, the power of social roles and situational factors such as deindividuation and loss of personal identity.10 min answer →
- What are the types of conformity and why do people conform?Types of conformity: internalisation, identification and compliance. Explanations for conformity: informational social influence and normative social influence, and variables affecting conformity including group size, unanimity and task difficulty as investigated by Asch.10 min answer →
- What psychological explanations account for obedience to authority?Explanations for obedience: agentic state and legitimacy of authority, and the dispositional explanation of the Authoritarian Personality as proposed by Adorno.10 min answer →
- How does a minority influence the majority to change its views?Minority influence including reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility; the role of minority influence in social change.10 min answer →
- Why do people obey destructive authority, as shown by Milgram?Obedience as investigated by Milgram, including the baseline procedure and findings, and the situational variables affecting obedience: proximity, location and uniform.10 min answer →
- What factors help people resist social influence?Explanations of resistance to social influence, including social support and locus of control.10 min answer →
- How do social influence processes bring about wider social change?The role of social influence processes in social change, including minority influence, internalisation, snowball effect, social cryptomnesia and the role of conformity and obedience.10 min answer →