You do not have to study all the elements of the A2 course, and in fact it is highly unlikely you would be able to cover it all in one year anyway.
You are now in a position, after your AS studies, to have some idea about what areas of psychology are of interest to you and what areas you find less exciting. This may help in guiding your choices for A2.
We have also helped with the decision making in producing A2 Psychology: Key Topics. We sent out hundreds of questionnaires to teachers in schools and sixth form colleges all over the UK to ask them which topics they taught and therefore find out which ones were the most popular.
The results showed that some topics were widely taught and others were avoided, so we decided to publish A2 Psychology: Key Topics which reflects the findings and covers those topics you like best.
There is still scope for choice as we include:
- twice as many sections as you need for the Unit 4 Options exam paper,
- the majority of the Unit 5 Synoptic exam paper
- full coverage of the Unit 6 compulsory coursework section
However, by leaving out those sections that are rarely covered in class we were able to produce a lighter, smaller book which we hope you will find much easier to carry around!
The A2 examination consists of:
Unit 4: The options paper (30% of the A2 mark)
Three questions to be answered in 1 1/2 hours. You must select your questions from at least two different sections of the exam paper. Within each section there will be three questions, one drawn from each of the areas listed in brackets.
- Section 1: Social psychology (Social cognition; Relationships; Pro- and anti-social behaviour).
- Section 2: Physiological psychology (Brain and behaviour; Biological rhythms: Sleep and dreaming; Motivation and emotion).
- Section 3: Cognitive psychology (Attention and pattern recognition; Perceptual processes and development; Language and thought).
- Section 4: Developmental psychology (Cognitive development; Social and personality development; Adulthood).
- Section 5: Comparative psychology (Determinants of animal behaviour; Animal cognition; Evolutionary explanations of human behaviour).
The areas highlighted in italics comprise the topics covered in A2 Psychology: Key Topics. As you will see, there is still plenty of choice as we have provided six topics and you only have to answer questions on three of these.
Unit 5: The synoptic paper (40% of the A2 mark)
Three questions to be answered in 2 hours, one from each section:
- Section A Individual Differences - Choose one question from three: Issues in the classification and diagnosis of psychological abnormality; Psychopathology; Treating mental disorders.
- Section B Perspectives: Issues and Debates - Choose one question from four:
Two questions set on Issues: Gender bias; Cultural bias; Ethical issues; The use of non-human animals in psychological research.
Two questions set on Debates: Free will and determinism; Reductionism; Psychology as science; Nature-nurture. - Section C Perspectives: Approaches - Choose one question from two. See chapter 12 of A2 Psychology: Key Topics for a description of this question.
Again, the areas in italics comprise the topics covered in A2 Psychology: Key Topics. We cover two of the three topics in Section A, and all of the material which makes up Section B and Section C.
Unit 6: Coursework (30% of the A2 mark)
You are required to conduct one piece of coursework, and write a report of your study. This is discussed in chapters 13 and 14 of A2 Psychology: Key Topics
