Psychology ♡

UNIT 1: AOS1 - The complexity of psychological development - the interactive influences of hereditary and environmental factors on a person’s psychological development - the biopsychosocial approach as a model for considering psychological development and mental wellbeing - the process of psychological development (emotional, cognitive and social development) over the course of the life span - the role of sensitive and critical periods in a person’s psychological development UNIT 1: AOS 2 - Role of the brain in mental processes and behaviour - different approaches over time in understanding the role of the brain in behaviour and mental processes - the roles of the hindbrain, midbrain and forebrain, including the cerebral cortex, in behaviour and mental processes UNIT 2: AOS 1 - Social cognition - the role of person perception, attributions, attitudes and stereotypes in interpreting, analysing, remembering and using information about the social world, including decision-making and interpersonal interactions - the avoidance of cognitive dissonance using cognitive biases - the positive and negative influences of heuristics as mechanisms for decision-making and problem-solving - the influence of prejudice, discrimination and stigma within society on a person’s and/or group’s mental wellbeing and ways to reduce it UNIT 2: AOS 2 - Perception (p1 = attention, p2 = distortions of perception) - the role of attention (sustained, divided, selective) in making sense of the world around us - the role of perception in the processing and interpretation of sensory information, as demonstrated through top-down and bottom-up processing - the influence of biological, psychological and social factors on visual perception and gustatory perception