Starting AS Psychology

by Admin Wed Sep 10, 2008 4:08 pm

Starting AS level psychology

The difference between GCSE and AS level

Study skills you need to learn

For AS Psychology there is a good deal of content to learn and lots of new psychological terms that you need to be able to use appropriately. You will also need to understand how to evaluate concepts and apply them appropriately.

The study skills you need to develop for module 1 include:

· Making notes on key features of the approaches.

· Summarising the approaches so that you show you understand all the main details of each of the approaches.

· Identifying strengths and weaknesses of the approaches and research methods they use.

· Understanding key psychological terms such as ecological validity, reliability and validity and knowing when to use them

· Writing balanced arguments in essay form, stating strengths and weaknesses, giving appropriate examples from psychological studies.

Focus your skills effectively

Your psychology folder needs to be kept organised. Each of the approaches should have their own section in your folder.

Keep a separate folder for Research methods but be sure to know which research method each approach uses.

After each lesson you should summarise what you have learned. Use different methods to do this so that you improve your study skills (for example you could use mindmaps, charts, bullet points etc). Sometimes try a method you don’t usually like.

Make sure you know the format of the exam and the types of question you are likely to be asked and practise timing yourself answering them.