England · Pearson EdexcelSyllabus
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.
Paper 2: Applications of Psychology - Child psychology option
Module overview →- How do early attachments shape development, and what happens when they are disrupted?Child psychology: attachment theory (Bowlby) and types (Ainsworth's Strange Situation), the role of the father, deprivation, privation and institutionalisation, day care, cross-cultural research into attachment, autism, and the named studies for the chosen application option.15 min answer →
- How does psychology explain criminal behaviour or health behaviour, and how can it be applied?Criminological or health psychology: explanations of the chosen application (offending or health behaviour), biological and social factors, treatments or interventions, and the named application studies.14 min answer →
- How do psychologists decide whether a result is significant, and how do they analyse qualitative data?Inferential statistics and qualitative analysis: probability and significance, the five Edexcel inferential tests, Type 1 and Type 2 errors, the normal and skewed distributions, and the analysis of qualitative data through thematic analysis and grounded theory.15 min answer →
- What are the major issues and debates that run through psychology?Issues and debates: nature-nurture, free will and determinism, reductionism and holism, ethics and social control, gender and cultural bias, and the use of psychology in the real world.14 min answer →
- What are the key classic studies, and how are studies evaluated and reviewed?Key studies and classic research: the named classic studies across topics, how to evaluate studies methodologically and ethically, and reviewing and synthesising research evidence.14 min answer →
Paper 1: Foundations in Psychology - Biological psychology
Module overview →- How do the brain, neurotransmitters, hormones and genes shape human behaviour?Biological psychology: the structure and function of the brain and neurons, neurotransmitters and synaptic transmission, the influence of hormones, genes and evolution, and key biological studies.14 min answer →
- What biological factors explain human aggression, and how do they interact with learning?Biopsychology and aggression: brain structures, neurotransmitters, hormones and genes in aggression, evolutionary and learning explanations, and the named aggression studies.14 min answer →
- How is behaviour learned through association, consequences and observation?Learning theories: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, social learning theory, and their application to explaining and treating behaviour, with key learning studies.14 min answer →
Paper 2: Applications of Psychology - Clinical psychology
Module overview →- What causes depression and anxiety disorders, and how are they treated?Depression or anxiety: symptoms and diagnosis, biological and cognitive explanations, drug and psychological treatments, and the named studies for the chosen second disorder.14 min answer →
- How are mental disorders defined and diagnosed, and how reliable and valid is diagnosis?Diagnosis of mental disorders: definitions of abnormality, the DSM and ICD classification systems, reliability and validity of diagnosis, and cultural and ethical issues.14 min answer →
- What are the symptoms, causes and treatments of schizophrenia?Schizophrenia: symptoms and diagnosis, biological explanations (dopamine, genetics) and psychological explanations, biological and psychological treatments, and the named schizophrenia studies.14 min answer →
- How does the medical model explain and treat mental disorders, and how does it compare with psychological approaches?Treatments and the medical model: the assumptions of the medical model, drug therapies, the role of biochemistry, and a comparison with psychological treatments and their effectiveness.13 min answer →
Paper 1: Foundations in Psychology - Cognitive psychology
Module overview →- How is memory structured, and why does it sometimes fail?Cognitive psychology: the multi-store model, the working memory model, the reconstructive nature of memory, theories of forgetting, and key cognitive studies.14 min answer →
- How reliable is eyewitness memory, and how can the police improve it?Eyewitness testimony: the reliability of memory, the effect of leading questions, post-event information, anxiety and weapon focus, the named contemporary study (Loftus and Palmer), the cognitive interview, and the types of long-term memory.14 min answer →
- How do psychologists design studies, analyse data and decide whether results are significant?Research methods: experiments and other methods, sampling, experimental design, variables and hypotheses, descriptive and inferential statistics, and the chosen inferential tests.15 min answer →
- Why do ordinary people obey authority and hold prejudiced attitudes towards others?Social psychology: obedience (Milgram and agency theory), prejudice (social identity theory and realistic conflict theory), individual and situational explanations, and key social studies.14 min answer →