Honest review of Psychology A-Level? Difficulty? Is it Interesting? Is it worth it?

I'm only in year 10 (nearing the end) but after a careers fair, I'm just considering psychology, bc it has soooo much various reviews on it, my best friend's sister hates it and advised me against it, some others love it. What kind of topics do you look upon? And, also, what's the diff between sociology and psychology? I was thinking of doing those two as a temporary combo, along side something else (haven't decided yet- what would be a good subject along side them?)
THANK YOU 🥰

Reply 1

lucasthewalrus

Psychology is the study of the mind and sociology is the study of wider society.

They go very well together in combo and have a lot of crossovers such as research methods and criminology.

I know a lot of people that struggle with Psychology and before I started, I had a lot of people tell me I'd regret it too but I'm in year 13 now and I can say that it's a really wonderful course, especially if you have a personal connection to Psychology.

There's a lot of course content to remember but it's soo interesting, even the biopsychology stuff is good and I typically don't enjoy science-related stuff as much.

In AQA Psychology we cover:

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Social influence (conformity, obedience, and social change)

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Memory (types of memory, forgetting and effects on eye witness testimonies)

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Attachment (stages of attachment, role of father, attachment types and Effects of Institutionalisation)

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Psychopathology (phobias, depression and OCD)

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Different approaches to psychology

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Research methods (the maths and methodology stuff - least favourite part of the course)

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Issues and debates (free will v determinism, nature v nurture, social sensitivity, etc)

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Biopsychology (the nervous system, localisation, split brain research, and biological clocks)

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Schizophrenia (diagnosing, treatments and explanations - honestly my favourite topics tbh)

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Relationships (self disclosure, attraction, investment, breakdown and parasocial relationships)

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Forensics (profiling, genetic, cognitive and social explanations of crime, sentencing and behaviour modification)

The alternative topics your school might teach instead of schizophrenia, relationships and forensics are gender, aggression and eating behaviours I think but you'll have to ask what they choose to cover.

Overall, Psychology is by far my favourite A level subject and despite it being challenging in places, the way in which it is so interesting is 100% worthwhile if you have an interest in it. Good luck with your GCSEs next year and I hope you enjoy Psychology as much as I have if you do it 🙂

(edited 1 year ago)

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