Park Hall Academy

Transition Booklet: BTEC

Applied Psychology 2020-21

Name:__________________ 1
 What will I be studying?
Psychology is the study of the relationship between behaviour, performance and mental processes. Applied psychology is the
application of this knowledge to the real world. This will help you to understand events that occur, treat mental health issues,
aggression, buying behaviour and how to treat criminals. There is a wide range of possible employment opportunities following
further study at degree level.
The Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Certificate in Applied Psychology is equivalent in size to 1 A level and will allow you to
progress on to many university degrees. Please see some examples below:
• BSc in Education and Child Psychology if taken alongside, for example, a Pearson BTEC Level 3 Extended Certificate in Health and
Social Care and an A level in Biology
• BSc (Hons) in Sport Psychology if taken alongside, for example, a Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Diploma in Sport and Exercise
Science
• BSc in Forensic and Criminal Psychology if taken alongside, for example, a Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Diploma in Forensic and
Criminal Investigation.
Everyone taking this qualification will study four units covering the following content areas:
During unit one, Application of Psychological Approaches, you will focus on:
You will develop an understanding of how psychological research and concepts can explain gender, aggression and consumer
behaviour:
• Social psychology explains how human behaviour occurs in a social context and how people, society and culture can affect
behaviour. Cognitive psychology focuses on human information processing and how it can influence, and be influenced by,
perception and memory. The learning approach in psychology explains how behaviour is learned from the world around us –
through association, the consequent rewards and punishments or through the imitation of role models. The biological approach
to psychology takes the opposite view to the learning approach and explains how internal biological processes, such as genetic
inheritance, brain structure and chemistry, can affect human behaviour and how these processes can be explained by evolution
• This unit is assessed by an examination set and marked by Pearson. The examination will last for 1 hour and 30 minutes. The
number of marks for the paper is 72. The paper will consist of a variety of question types, including: extended open-response
questions relating to psychological approaches to understanding and explaining human behaviour; scenario- based questions
relating to vocational contexts.
During unit two, Conducting Psychological Research, you will focus on:
• In this unit, you will learn about the importance of research in psychological inquiry and about the types of research that take
place. You will gain an understanding of the research process and the key methods used extensively by researchers to test theories
and provide information about the ways in which people think and behave. You learn how to plan a pilot study exploring a current
psychological topic, using qualitative and quantitative methods, and taking account of issues, such as ethics, that researchers need
to consider when conducting research on human individuals. You will conduct your planned pilot study, selecting and applying
knowledge gained in this unit to a chosen area, drawing on key psychological approaches. You will gather and analyse your
research findings in order to present them to an audience. Finally, you will reflect on your own learning of the research process as
well as drawing on feedback from others and consider implications on practice and provision and your own future professional
development.
• This unit is assessed by series of assignments set at school. You will provide practice assignments to help you prepare for the final
assessment. You will need to check that your work first meets all the pass criteria before moving on to merit and then finally
distinction criteria.
During unit three, Health Psychology, you will focus on:
• How is stress linked to illness? Why do people become addicted to behaviours or substances? Which factors influence whether
people engage in healthy or unhealthy behaviours? These are the questions addressed by health psychologists, who are interested
in how psychological and physiological factors affect health and ill health. Health psychology explores the motivation behind
healthy and unhealthy behaviours, and the factors that might persuade individuals to finally change a behaviour or to follow the
advice given by medical professionals.
• This unit is assessed by an examination set and marked by Pearson. The examination will last for 1 hour and 30 minutes. The
number of marks for the paper is 72. The paper will consist of a variety of question types, including: extended open-response
questions relating to psychological approaches to understanding and explaining human behaviour; scenario- based questions
relating to vocational contexts.
During unit 4, Criminal and Forensic Psychology, you will focus on:
• Criminal and forensic psychology is a specialist branch of psychology that uses psychological theories to explain criminal behaviour,
and examines the research generated by these theories.
• In this unit, you will explore psychological approaches to criminal behaviour and learn how offender profiles are created using
different techniques. You will examine different psychological methods for modifying and punishing criminal behaviour, and
investigate their effectiveness. This will include their impact on both the rate of reoffending and on the individual and society.
• This unit is assessed by series of assignments set at school. You will provide practice assignments to help you prepare for the 2final
assessment. You will need to check that your work first meets all the pass criteria before moving on to merit and then finally
distinction criteria.
 Babies I am a Killer Mindhunter The Mind Explained

The Creative Heal

Brain Inside the Criminal Mind 100 Humans

Sex Explained Brain on Fire Black Mirror Pandemic: How to

prevent an outbreak

Recommended Watching for Applied Psychology 3

 The Happiness
Reaching Down the Elephants on Mistakes were made (But Hypothesis:
Rabbit Hole: David Burrell Acid: Alex Boese not by me): Carol Travis Johnathan Haidt

The Private Life The Little Book of The Lucifer Effect: The Psychopath
of the Brain: Psychology: Emily Ralls Philip Zimbardo Test: Jon Ronson
Susan Greenfield

Recommended Reading for Applied Psychology 4

 Psychology FREE Online Courses
There are a range of different platforms online which allow you to access free
online courses. However, I have listed on this document the ones I feel would be
most useful to deepen and broaden your Psychological knowledge beyond the A
level specification. However, this list is not exhaustive so please do free to explore
the websites and see if there are other courses available which interest you.
Name Outline Course Length Link
https://www.open.edu/open
Introduction to Child Considers questions such 8 hours learn/education-developme
nt/childhood-youth/introduc
Psychology 'What influences children's tion-child-psychology/conte
development?' and 'How do nt-section-0?active-tab=cont
psychologists study the ent-tab
physical and cognitive
changes that occur during
childhood?'

https://www.open.edu/open
Social Psychology and Explores the role of identity, learn/health-sports-psycholo
gy/social-psychology-and-pol
Politics personality and culture for 8 hours itics/content-section-0?activ
political action. The course e-tab=description-tab
introduces a critical
perspective considering how
psychologists themselves
can be activists and
interrogating the norms of
‘good citizenship’ in Western
societies.

Considers the dilemmas https://www.open.edu/open

Challenging Ideas in of diverse perspectives in 18 hours learn/health-sports-psycholo
gy/health/challenging-ideas-
Mental Health the field of mental mental-health/content-secti
health. Explores the on-0?active-tab=description-
importance of service tab
users/'survivors'
experiences

Explore the influence of https://www.open.edu/open

Exploring Sport Coaching coaching and psychology learn/health-sports-psycholo
gy/exploring-sport-coaching-
and Psychology through the lens of sports 24 hours and-psychology/content-sect
people and teams who have ion-overview?active-tab=des
been successful. You will cription-tab
focus on coaching practices
used with young people and
adults, including research
and advice of leaders in their
fields.

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Psychology FREE Online
Courses
There are a range of different platforms online which allow you to access free online
courses. However, I have listed on this document the ones I feel would be most useful
to deepen and broaden your Psychological knowledge beyond the A level specification.
However, this list is not exhaustive so please do free to explore the websites and see if
there are other courses available which interest you.
Name of Course Outline Number of Start Date Link
Hours/Weeks

Forensic Discover how 3 hours per week Monday 20th April https://www.futurel
Psychology: forensic for 8 weeks earn.com/courses/
Witness psychology helps forensic-psycholog
y
Investigation obtain evidence
from eyewitnesses
in police
investigations and
prevents cases
of injustice

Explore some of
the current https://www.futurel
Psychology and challenges and 3 hours per week Available now earn.com/courses/
Mental Health: debates in the for 6 weeks mental-health-and
area of diagnosis -well-being
Beyond Nature
and Nurture and treatment.
You will gain new
perspectives on
the “nature vs
nurture” debate,
and understand
how we are
affected by life
experiences.

Introduction to Consider the 4 hours per week 27th April https://www.futurel

Cognitive psychology of for 3 weeks earn.com/courses/
Psychology: Learn thinking and an-introduction-to-
cognitive-psycholo
how to conduct, reasoning. You will gy-as-an-experime
analyse and learn how to run ntal-science
understand an experiment,
cognitive how to collect
psychology data, and
experiments understand the
science behind
memory and
behaviour through
experiments.

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Psychology FREE Online
Courses
There are a range of different platforms online which allow you to access free online
courses. However, I have listed on this document the ones I feel would be most useful
to deepen and broaden your Psychological knowledge beyond the A level specification.
However, this list is not exhaustive so please do free to explore the websites and see if
there are other courses available which interest you.
Name Outline Course length Start date Link

https://www.cours
Fundamental Introduces the 8 hours Started 15th April – era.org/learn/neur
Neuroscience for basic principles of can join now oscience-neuroim
aging#about
Neuroimaging neuroimaging
methods as
applied to human
subject’s research
and introduce the
neuroscience
concepts and
terminology
necessary for a
basic
understanding of
neuroimaging
applications

https://www.cours
Sleep: Considers the Available now era.org/learn/sleep
Neurobiology, neurobiological 16 hours
Medicine and basis of sleep
Society control and how
sleep deprivation,
jet lag, and
substances such
as alcohol,
caffeine and
nicotine alter sleep
and wakefulness.

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Psychology in
the Media
Task: It is important to raise public awareness about issues which are prevailing
in society relating to psychology. One way in which public awareness is raised
about psychology in general and issues that exist within the health care sector
is through the media.
Your task is to pick…
➢ x2 Films
➢ x1 Book
➢ x2 Documentaries
You will then be asked to write an essay with the following title: ‘Discuss the
portrayal of psychology within the media’

You must watch/read the some of the examples on the previous slides you
have picked and create notes to help with your essay. Consider the following:
• What issues, if any, are being raised in the stimulus?
• How does the stimulus present psychology?
• Is the stimulus informative/helpful and why?
• Are there any quotes/scenes etc that stand out to you and why?
• How effective is the stimulus in raising public awareness about psychological
Issues?

This list is NOT exhaustive there may be other questions/ideas you wish to
consider as you watch or read.

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 Learning Log
Record here any additional reading/viewing you are undertaking in order to
show what you have been completing in order to prepare you for the course. Use
the reading list on the previous slides you have been given for guidance on what
you could you watch/read/

Date Title Summary of content My thoughts

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 Task: Research and define the following words which are central to the Approaches in Psychology Unit.
Then, draw a symbol to summarise the term and help you remember it.

Term Definition Symbol

Nature

Nurture

Evolution

Schema

Operant Conditioning

Classical Conditioning

Cognitive Bias

Conformity

Vicarious
Reinforcement

Hostile Attribution 10
Bias
Task: Research a list of Psychology related jobs/ terms for each letter
of the alphabet

A N
B O
C P
D Q
E R
F S
G T
H U
I V
J W
K X
L Y
M Z 11
 The History of Psychology

Task: You need to create an A4 Psychological History timeline. On

your timeline you should include a number of features such as the
ones below (but not necessarily ONLY these).

To make a high quality timeline, you will need to do some additional

research into what each of the events actually refers to – and why it
might have been important to the development of Psychology.

The Curious Case of Phineas Gage, Wilhelm Wundt’s Psychology

Lab, foundation of the American Psychological Association, Sigmund
Freud publishes “The Interpretation of Dreams”, Pavlov’s Dog
Studies are published, Carl Rogers publishes “Counselling and
Psychotherapy”, the first use of a brain scan in Psychological
research.

This will be the focus of the first topic we will study next year. A
great link for this task is https://allpsych.com/timeline/.

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Approaches in Psychology:
Task: There are some core approaches to Psychology that you
need to know for your course next year – they are different ways
of explaining human behaviours.

Some of these are listed below: your job is to do some research

on them using the internet (Wikipedia, while sometimes
untrustworthy, is very good for this! There are also plenty of great
videos on YouTube you can watch).

You should find out: what does this word mean? How might it
explain human behaviour? Identify one key researcher from this
area – and why are they famous?

1. The Behaviourist Approach

2. The Social Learning Theory Approach
3. The Cognitive Approach
4. The Biological Approach 13
Approaches in Psychology:

What does this Approach mean? How does this approach explain human
behaviour?

One Key Psychologist in this approach? Why is this person famous?

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 Research task

Chose a professional from the following:

• Clinical Psychologist
• Couselling Psychologist
• Educational Psychologist
• Forensic Psychologist
Create a fact file for your chosen job role
You could include:
• A day in the life of……
• General roles and responsibilities
• Routes into the role/ qualifications required
• Skills & qualities
• Average pay
• Where they work
• Who they work with
And anything else you think may be suitable

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Psychology Today:

Task: Psychology is still a developing subject, with new research and

information being revealed every single day. As keen young
Psychologists, you need to keep abreast of new information. Twitter
is seen by some to be the future of social science – it is used by
researchers, academics and other social scientists alike to share
news and information as well as discuss issues. I would advise that
you create yourselves Twitter accounts as soon as possible and
follow the below users for information and news:

@ParkHallSocSci (Park Hall Academy Social Science Department)

@PsychToday (Psychology Today magazine)

@tutor2uPsych (Tutor2U’s Psychology feed)

@ResearchDigest (The British Psychological Society’s Research

feed)

@Psychmag (The Psychologist magazine)

Your second task is to keep an eye on these Twitter accounts (as

well as wider sources – the news and shows on TV, newspapers and
others – there are loads of fantastic movies and documentaries that
you can watch for Psychology!) now and over the Summer holidays
and make a note of any particularly interesting news that is relevant
to Psychology.

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Lockdown is the world's biggest psychological experiment
- and we will pay the price
Currently, an estimated 2.6 billion people – one-third of the world’s
population – is living under some kind of lockdown or quarantine.
This is arguably the largest psychological experiment ever
conducted.

The Psychology of a Pandemic:

Task:

1. Pick one of the following lines of enquiry:

• Conformity: Clapping for our NHS
• Dis/Obedience: Following Lockdown Policies
• Minority Influence: How might the UK government
convince the majority to’ Stay Home’ using psychological
techniques
• Consumerism: Panic buying Toilet Roll
• Mental Health: Long Term and Short Term Psychological
Effects of Quarantine

2. Research your chosen line of enquiry

3. Write an article for Park Hall Academy Newsletter titled ‘COVID -

19 and Lockdown – from the Perspective of a Psychologist’
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 INSERT HEADLINE
Author:

Introduction:

INSET IMAGE

Main Article:

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If you have any further questions while you are enjoying
Working From Home and your Summer holiday, my email
address can be found below :

Miss Vaughan
cvaughan@parkhall.org
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