Psychology — Year 11

The brain has a key role to play in understanding thinking and behaviour. In this unit of work students will study the structure & function of the nervous system, the role of the autonomous nervous system, the James-Lange theory of emotion, how the brain has plasticity, Hebb’s theory of learning, localisation of brain functions, Penfield's study of the cortex, and the evolving scientific field of cognitive neuroscience.

The people around us can have an affect on our behaviour. In this unit students will learn about Asch’s study of conformity and the social/dispositional factors affecting conformity, Milgram’s study of obedience and his agency theory, Adorno’s theory of authoritarian personality, Piliavin’s subway study and the factors affecting prosocial behaviour, crowd behaviours and the role of deindividuation, Reicher’s study of the Bristol riots

A key part of understanding how our psychology develops is the study of language, thought and communication. In this unit students learn about Piaget’s theory of language and thought, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of language and thought, cultural influences on language & thought, animal communication and Von Frisch’s bee study, non-verbal communication such as eye contact, body language, and use of personal space. Students also study whether non-verbal communication is learned or innate.

In the final section of research methods students develop their numerical skills by learning when to use different graphical displays, how to use calculations such as ratios, fractions and percentages in Psychology. They also learn how to use descriptive statistics such as the mean, median, mode and range. Students practice using these numerical skills to evaluate research.

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