Once students have an understanding of genetic and neural explanations for OCD, they are ready to complete the stepping stones activity. Either working alone or in pairs, students have to negotiate a path from the start stone to the end stone moving from stone to stone along the way. Any route is allowed as long […]
Read moreAuthor: Rosalind Geillis
In this post I’m going to look at ideas for introducing mental disorders. The AQA specification states students need to know and understand behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias, depression and OCD before considering each of the named disorders from a specific perspective: behavioural approach (phobias explanation and treatment), cognitive approach (depression explanation and treatment) […]
Read more
Here are some ideas for getting your students thinking about definitions of abnormality. Getting students thinking Ask students to draw and label a ‘normal’ student. After students have shared their images with each other as a class discuss the following questions: Were there any common features in the drawings? If so, why? Where does our […]
Read more
Two key animal studies are named by the AQA specification: Lorenz’s research with goslings and Harlow’s study of infant rhesus monkeys. Here’s a lesson plan for the topic. Introducing the topic Enter the phrase, ‘unusual animal friends’ into a search engine to find lots of examples of unlikely animal attachments. Either show the class a […]
Read more
Schaffer and Emerson’s research into attachment enabled them to construct an explanation of how attachment develops. Starter: In explaining the behaviour seen at each stage of attachment a number of key terms are used which students need to be aware of. Before beginning the main activity students need to familiarise themselves with the following vocabulary and […]
Read more
These activities concentrate on knowledge and understanding of research into caregiver-infant interactions. Starter: Non-verbal communication skills. Students sit in pairs facing each other. Seating is important here: one student (student A) needs to be sitting with their back to the whiteboard while the other (student B) sits opposite them so they are able to see […]
Read more
This topic contains a lot of vocabulary that students may not have previously encountered. I find it useful to take time in the lesson to discuss the meaning of key words to help students understand the function or location of different aspects of the nervous system. Please note, a version of a lesson PowerPoint has been […]
Read moreIn my experience the most effective way of helping students understand the experimental method is through carrying out an experiment with the class. The Teacher’s Companion (handouts 137 and 138) contains resources to conduct a class memory experiment or you could run a simple Stroop test as explained below. The following activities could be used […]
Read moreStarting the course with a brief focus on approaches provides students with a better understanding of what psychology actually is and allows links to be made to the concept of psychology as a science. The approaches will then be revisited later in the course when studying Approaches in Psychology (Paper 2 AS / Paper 2 […]
Read moreIt is important students gain a secure understanding of the concept of psychology as a science, not only because it is named on the specification but because it can really help students develop their evaluation of research. When I ask my students ‘what is science?’ they often respond with a list of scientific subjects rather […]
Read more