Psychology

Description

Psychology enables students to explore how people think, feel and behave . The study explores the connection between the brain and behaviour, the interplay between genetics and environment, individual differences and group dynamics, sensory perception and awareness, memory and learning, and mental health.

Unit Topics

Unit 1 – How are behaviour and mental processes shaped?

Unit 2 – How do external factors influence behaviour and mental processes?

Unit 3 – How does experience affect behaviour and mental processes?

Unit 4 – How is wellbeing developed and maintained?

Skill Development

Psychology requires a reasonably large amount of theory and research. Students will learn to navigate a range of resources and to locate key information and use that to answer sets of questions on given topics. Students will learn to carry out research using proper scientific methods and they will learn to report on their findings using the conventions for writing scientific reports, often presenting their findings as a scientific poster.

Possible Assessment Tasks

Topic tests, assignments, will be used as assessment tasks for most areas of study. Each student will need to complete an individual research investigation presented as a scientific poster.

Activities/Camps/Excursions

Psychology is largely based around class and homework. Practical work takes the form of student investigations into various areas of the topics covered.

Career Options

The study of psychology can lead to opportunities in a range of careers that involve working with individuals, couples, families, large groups, organisations or even communities. For example, opportunities exist in industry, community mental health services, within government departments in the public service, in schools, courts, prisons, the defence forces, emergency services, with sports teams or in a university as a lecturer and/or researcher.