Psychology

Higher Psychology will enable learners to:

·         acquire knowledge and understanding of psychological concepts, theories, approaches and terminology

·         develop research and data analysis skills

·         enhance key skills in the areas of thinking, health and wellbeing, reasoning, communication and evaluation.

 

Pupils will study three units.

Research – this covers the stages of the research process, experimental and non-experimental research methods, ethical guidelines and their use in psychological research, sampling methods and descriptive statistics.

Individual Behaviour – this includes explaining sleep, dreams and sleep disorders in addition to another a topic using psychological approaches and theories. It encompasses evaluating the use of approaches and theories to explain the individual behaviour and discovering how psychological knowledge can be applied.

Social Behaviour – this covers conformity and obedience and an additional topic and includes the explanation of concepts and theories, evaluating psychological research evidence and applying understanding of social psychology to everyday behaviour.

 

Higher Psychology has both internal and external and external assessments.

Internal assessment

Each unit has a mandatory assessment. Learners must pass each of these assessments to gain the Higher qualification.

External assessment

1.      Research assignment – marked by the SQA, which is worth 40% of the final grade.

Final examination – marked out of 100 and makes up 60% of the final grade.

 

Skills that will be developed include thinking, analysing, evaluating, health and wellbeing, numeracy, information handling, literacy and writing.