SQA Higher Psychology Individual Behaviour: a complete overview of sleep and dreams, memory, stress and depression

What this area actually demands

The Individual Behaviour area asks the same kinds of question about every topic: what is the behaviour, what theories explain it, what does the research show, and how good is the evidence. The examiners reward precise knowledge of theories and studies and, above all, the ability to evaluate that evidence rather than just describe it.

This guide walks through the mandatory topic and the three common optional topics, then sets out the patterns the SQA repeats. Each topic has a matching dot-point page with practice questions; this overview ties them together.

Sleep, dreams and sleep disorders (mandatory)

This is the guaranteed topic, examined in its own section of the paper. You need the stages of sleep (NREM stages into REM, the roughly $90$-minute cycle, EEG patterns), at least one theory of why we sleep (restoration or evolutionary), at least one theory of why we dream (activation-synthesis or Freud's wish-fulfilment), and the sleep disorders (insomnia, narcolepsy, sleepwalking), all backed by research such as sleep-deprivation studies.

Memory (optional)

The memory topic covers the processes of encoding, storage and retrieval, the multi-store model, the working memory model and the levels-of-processing approach, and theories of forgetting (decay, interference, retrieval failure). Key evidence includes the cases of HM and KF and the serial-position effect.

Stress (optional)

The stress topic covers the physiology of the stress response (fight-or-flight, the HPA axis and cortisol, Selye's general adaptation syndrome), the sources of stress, the effects on health, and methods of coping (physiological such as drugs and biofeedback, psychological such as stress inoculation and reappraisal).

Depression (optional)

The depression topic covers symptoms and diagnosis, biological explanations (low serotonin, genetic vulnerability) and psychological explanations (Beck's cognitive triad, learned helplessness), and the matching treatments (antidepressant drugs and CBT). Evaluation usually concludes that biological and psychological factors interact.

How this area is examined

A typical SQA profile for an Individual Behaviour topic:

• Describe questions. Setting out a theory, a model, a stage of sleep or a set of symptoms accurately.
• Explain questions. Showing how a theory accounts for the behaviour, or how a treatment works.
• Evaluate questions. Weighing the research evidence for and against an explanation and reaching a judgement.
• Research-handling. Using named studies and commenting on their methods, for example whether evidence is correlational.

Check your knowledge

A mix of recall and explanation questions covering the area. Attempt them, then check against the solutions.

1. Name the stages of sleep in order and state which one involves the most vivid dreaming. (3 marks)
2. Explain the difference between restoration and evolutionary theories of sleep. (4 marks)
3. Describe the working memory model. (4 marks)
4. Explain one effect of long-term stress on health. (3 marks)
5. Name one biological and one psychological treatment for depression. (2 marks)