Introductory topics in psychology

This unit is part of the A-Level Psychology and has the following learning outcomes and assessment criteria:

1. Social influence
   1. Types of conformity: internalisation, identification and compliance.
   2. 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.
   3. Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo.
   4. Explanations for obedience: agentic state and legitimacy of authority, and situational variables affecting obedience including proximity, location and uniform, as investigated by Milgram.
   5. Dispositional explanation for obedience: the Authoritarian Personality.
   6. Explanations of resistance to social influence, including social support and locus of control.
   7. Minority influence including reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility.
   8. The role of social influence processes in social change
2. Memory
   1. The multi-store model of memory: sensory register, short-term memory and long-term memory.
   2. Features of each store: coding, capacity and duration.
   3. Types of long-term memory: episodic, semantic, procedural.
   4. The working memory model: central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and episodic buffer. Features of the model: coding and capacity.
   5. Explanations for forgetting: proactive and retroactive interference and retrieval failure due to absence of cues.
   6. Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: misleading information, including leading questions and post-event discussion; anxiety.
   7. Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, including the use of the cognitive interview
3. Attachment
   1. Caregiver-infant interactions in humans: reciprocity and interactional synchrony. Stages of attachment identified by Schaffer. Multiple attachments and the role of the father.
   2. Animal studies of attachment: Lorenz and Harlow.
   3. Explanations of attachment: learning theory and Bowlby’s monotropic theory. The concepts of a critical period and an internal working model.
   4. Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’. Types of attachment: secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure resistant. Cultural variations in attachment, including van Ijzendoorn.
   5. Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation. Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation.
   6. The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships, including the role of an internal working model.
4. Psychopathology
   1. Definitions of abnormality, including deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately, statistical infrequency and deviation from ideal mental health.
   2. The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
   3. 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.
   4. 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.
   5. The biological approach to explaining and treating OCD: genetic and neural explanations; drug therapy.