A comprehensive set of revision notes covering the topic of Approaches for AQA Psychology. Includes AO1 (knowledge) and AO3 (evaluation) content. Origins of Psychology: Wundt, introspection and the emergence of Psychology as a science. The basic assumptions of the following approaches: • Learning approaches: the behaviourist approach, including classical conditioning and Pavlov’s research, operant conditioning, types of reinforcement and Skinner’s research; social learning theory including imitation, identification, modelling, vicarious reinforcement, the role of mediational processes and Bandura’s research. • 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. • The Biological approach: the influence of genes, biological structures and neurochemistry on behaviour. Genotype and phenotype, genetic basis of behaviour, evolution and behaviour. • The Psychodynamic approach: the role of the unconscious, the structure of personality, that is ID, ego and superego, defence mechanisms including repression, denial and displacement, psychosexual stages. • 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. • Comparison of approaches. Total of 19 pages. Useful for teachers and students as part of AQA A Level Psychology. Can be used as part of a revision lesson, exam question planning or flashcard design.

A comprehensive set of revision notes covering the topic of Schizophrenia for AQA Psychology. Includes AO1 (knowledge) and AO3 (evaluation) content. • Classification of schizophrenia. Positive symptoms of schizophrenia, including hallucinations and delusions. Negative symptoms of schizophrenia, including speech poverty and avolition. Reliability and validity in diagnosis and classification of schizophrenia, including reference to co-morbidity, culture and gender bias and symptom overlap. • Biological explanations for schizophrenia: genetics, the dopamine hypothesis and neural correlates. • Psychological explanations for schizophrenia: family dysfunction and cognitive explanations, including dysfunctional thought processing. • Drug therapy: typical and atypical antipsychotics. • Cognitive behaviour therapy and family therapy as used in the treatment of schizophrenia. Token economies as used in the management of schizophrenia. • The importance of an interactionist approach in explaining and treating schizophrenia; the diathesis-stress model. Total of 36 pages. Useful for teachers and students as part of AQA A Level Psychology. Can be used as part of a revision lesson, exam question planning or flashcard design.

A comprehensive set of revision notes covering the topic of Forensic Psychology for AQA Psychology. Includes AO1 (knowledge) and AO3 (evaluation) content. • Offender profiling: the top-down approach, including organised and disorganised types of offender; the bottom-up approach, including investigative Psychology; geographical profiling. • Biological explanations of offending behaviour: a historical approach (atavistic form); genetics and neural explanations. • Psychological explanations of offending behaviour: Eysenck’s theory of the criminal personality; cognitive explanations; level of moral reasoning and cognitive distortions, including hostile attribution bias and minimalisation; differential association theory; psychodynamic explanations. • Dealing with offending behaviour: the aims of custodial sentencing and the psychological effects of custodial sentencing. Recidivism. Behaviour modification in custody. Anger management and restorative justice programmes. Total of 41 pages. Useful for teachers and students as part of AQA A Level Psychology. Can be used as part of a revision lesson, exam question planning or flashcard design.

A comprehensive set of revision notes covering the topic of Cognition & Development for AQA Psychology. Includes AO1 (knowledge) and AO3 (evaluation) content. • Piaget’s theory of cognitive development: schemas, assimilation, accommodation, equilibration, stages of intellectual development. Characteristics of these stages, including object permanence, conservation, egocentrism and class inclusion. • Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development, including the zone of proximal development and scaffolding. • Baillargeon’s explanation of early infant abilities, including knowledge of the physical world; violation of expectation research. • The development of social cognition: Selman’s levels of perspective-taking; theory of mind, including theory of mind as an explanation for autism; the Sally-Anne study. The role of the mirror neuron system in social cognition. Total of 21 pages. Useful for teachers and students as part of AQA A Level Psychology. Can be used as part of a revision lesson, exam question planning or flashcard design.

A comprehensive set of revision notes covering the topic of Gender for AQA Psychology. Includes AO1 (knowledge) and AO3 (evaluation) content. • Sex and gender. Sex-role stereotypes. Androgyny and measuring androgyny including the Bem Sex Role Inventory. • The role of chromosomes and hormones (testosterone, oestrogen and oxytocin) in sex and gender. Atypical sex chromosome patterns: Klinefelter’s syndrome and Turner’s syndrome. • Cognitive explanations of gender development, Kohlberg’s theory, gender identity, gender stability and gender constancy; gender schema theory. • Psychodynamic explanation of gender development, Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, Oedipus complex; Electra complex; identification and internalisation. • Social learning theory as applied to gender development. The influence of culture and media on gender roles. • Atypical gender development: gender identity disorder; biological and social explanations for gender identity disorder. Total of 32 pages. Useful for teachers and students as part of AQA A Level Psychology. Can be used as part of a revision lesson, exam question planning or flashcard design.

A comprehensive set of revision notes covering the topic of Issues and Debates for AQA Psychology. Includes AO1 (knowledge) and AO3 (evaluation) content. • Gender and culture in Psychology – universality and bias. Gender bias including androcentrism and alpha and beta bias; cultural bias, including ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. • Free will and determinism: hard determinism and soft determinism; biological, environmental and psychic determinism. The scientific emphasis on causal explanations. • The nature-nurture debate: the relative importance of heredity and environment in determining behaviour; the interactionist approach. • Holism and reductionism: levels of explanation in psychology. Biological reductionism and environmental (stimulus-response) reductionism. • Idiographic and nomothetic approaches to psychological investigation. • Ethical implications of research studies and theory, including reference to social sensitivity. Total of 14 pages. Useful for teachers and students as part of AQA A Level Psychology. Can be used as part of a revision lesson, exam question planning or flashcard design.

A very comprehensive set of revision notes covering the topic of Research Methods for AQA Psychology. Includes AO1 (knowledge) and AO3 (evaluation) content. Includes: 53 pages of full specification content.

A comprehensive set of revision notes covering the topic of Psychopathology for AQA Psychology. Includes AO1 (knowledge) and AO3 (evaluation) content. • Definitions of abnormality, including deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately, statistical infrequency and deviation from ideal mental health. • The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). • The behavioural approach to explaining and treating phobias: the two-process model, including classical and operant conditioning; systematic desensitisation, including relaxation and use of hierarchy; flooding. • The cognitive approach to explaining and treating depression: Beck’s negative triad and Ellis’s ABC model; cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), including challenging irrational thoughts. • The biological approach to explaining and treating OCD: genetic and neural explanations; drug therapy. Total of 19 pages. Useful for teachers and students as part of AQA A Level Psychology. Can be used as part of a revision lesson, exam question planning or flashcard design.

A comprehensive set of revision notes covering the topic of Social Influence for AQA Psychology. Includes AO1 (knowledge) and AO3 (evaluation) content. • 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. • Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo. • Explanations for obedience: agentic state and legitimacy of authority, and situational variables affecting obedience including proximity, location and uniform, as investigated by Milgram. Dispositional explanation for obedience: the Authoritarian Personality. • Explanations of resistance to social influence, including social support and locus of control. • Minority influence including reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility. • The role of social influence processes in social change. Total of 15 pages. Useful for teachers and students as part of AQA A Level Psychology. Can be used as part of a revision lesson, exam question planning or flashcard design.

A comprehensive set of revision notes covering the topic of Memory for AQA Psychology. Includes AO1 (knowledge) and AO3 (evaluation) content. • The multi-store model of memory: sensory register, short-term memory and long-term memory. Features of each store: coding, capacity and duration. • Types of long-term memory: episodic, semantic, procedural. • The working memory model: central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and episodic buffer. Features of the model: coding and capacity. • Explanations for forgetting: proactive and retroactive interference and retrieval failure due to absence of cues. • Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: misleading information, including leading questions and post-event discussion; anxiety. • Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, including the use of the cognitive interview. Total of 13 pages. Useful for teachers and students as part of AQA A Level Psychology. Can be used as part of a revision lesson, exam question planning or flashcard design.

A comprehensive set of revision notes covering the topic of Biopsychology for AQA Psychology. Includes AO1 (knowledge) and AO3 (evaluation) content. • The divisions of the nervous system: central and peripheral (somatic and autonomic). • The structure and function of sensory, relay and motor neurons. The process of synaptic transmission, including reference to neurotransmitters, excitation and inhibition. • The function of the endocrine system: glands and hormones. • The fight or flight response including the role of adrenaline. • 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. Plasticity and functional recovery of the brain after trauma. • Ways of studying the brain: scanning techniques, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); electroencephalogram (EEGs) and event-related potentials (ERPs); post-mortem examinations. • 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. Total of 18 pages. Useful for teachers and students as part of AQA A Level Psychology. Can be used as part of a revision lesson, exam question planning or flashcard design.

A comprehensive set of revision notes covering the topic of Attachment for AQA Psychology. Includes AO1 (knowledge) and AO3 (evaluation) content. • Caregiver-infant interactions in humans: reciprocity and interactional synchrony. • Stages of attachment identified by Schaffer. Multiple attachments and the role of the father. • Animal studies of attachment: Lorenz and Harlow. • Explanations of attachment: learning theory and Bowlby’s monotropic theory. • The concepts of a critical period and an internal working model. • Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’. Types of attachment: secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant. • Cultural variations in attachment, including van Ijzendoorn. • Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation. Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation. • The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships, including the role of an internal working model. Total of 23 pages. Useful for teachers and students as part of AQA A Level Psychology. Can be used as part of a revision lesson, exam question planning or flashcard design.