St Catherine's Catholic School
Psychology
Head of Department (HOD): Miss M. Nadeem
Teacher name(s): Miss N. Darkowa
The study of psychology aims to enhance our understanding of how humans think and develop. Students studying Psychology will explore various personality types and their influence on our cognitive and emotional experiences. Students will also discover whether human behaviour has a genetic component or whether it is governed by the environment. Acquiring this knowledge will enable students to show empathy towards diverse viewpoints. Additionally, students will gain insight into how their surroundings influence and impact their behaviour.
KS4
For GCSE Psychology we will be following the OCR specification. This follows a clear and straightforward structure and includes exciting subject content helping students explain everyday social phenomena. There is a balance between classic and modern psychological theories, an emphasis on research studies and a focus on mental health.
Students will be sitting two exams in Year 11. Psychology Paper 1 and Psychology Paper 2. Students may get a variety of questions such as multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks, maths-based questions, short and medium tariff questions, and the long question will be a 13-mark question.
Paper 1:
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Content overview |
Assessment overview |
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Criminal Psychology |
90 marks Written paper 1 hour 30 mins |
50% of total GCSE |
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Development |
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Psychological problems |
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Research methods |
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Paper 2:
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Content overview |
Assessment overview |
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Social influence |
90 marks Written paper 1 hour 30 mins |
50% of total GCSE |
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Memory |
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Sleeping and dreaming |
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Research methods |
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The specification can be found using the following link: https://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/gcse/psychology-j203-from-2017/
Further Reading & Career Information
Studying GCSE Psychology could lead to a multitude of careers. Below are some examples:
- Counselling
- Psychiatrist
- Psychologist
- Social work
- Journalism
- Lawyer
- Teacher
How to Support your daughter in this subject
Students will be assessed on A01, A02 and A03 content. To help support your daughter, the best place to start is by testing her on the A01 content that is at the beginning of every booklet that has been provided to her. A01 content is worth 33-37% of the exam. Once she can recall this knowledge then she can access A02 and A03 questions by practising exam questions.
All assessment material can be found using this website: https://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/gcse/psychology-j203-from-2017/assessment/
