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AQA A-level Psychology Essay Plans

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Struggling with A-Level Psychology essays? These A*-standard approaches essay plans will help you structure your answers perfectly and secure top marks. Each plan is clear, concise, and packed with evaluation points, key studies, and critical analysis to impress examiners. Designed for maximum efficiency, these plans follow AQA mark schemes, ensuring you hit all assessment objectives. Plus, they are aesthetically laid out with neat formatting to make revision more engaging and effective.

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Behavioural + SLT
S: NOMETHETIC

BEHAVIOURAL:
• large scale animal experiments providing general laws for behaviour
• Operant - skinner
• classical conditioning - Pavlov

SLT:
• experimental method in determining general laws
• BANDURA

D: EXTENT TO WHICH DETERMINISTIC

BEHAVIORIAL:
• environmental determinism
• The belief that behavior is caused by features of the environment that we cannot control e.g. reward and punishment

SLT:
• soft determinism
• mediational processes + choose what to attend to

S: NURTURE

BEHAVIOURAL
• all beh learnt from environment
• no innate behaviours - born as “blank slate”

SLT:
• shaped by observing role models in environment
• Observation + imitation
Behavioural + psychodynamic
S: BOTH DETERMINISTIC
BEHAVIOURAL:
• environmental determinism
• The belief that behavior is caused by features of the environment that we cannot control e.g. reward and punishment

PSYCHODYNAMIC:
• Psychic determinism
• the belief that behavior is caused by unconscious processes or conflicts that we cannot control

D: SCIENTIFIC METHODOLOGY
BEHAVIOURAL:
• experimental method, studying objectively measurable SR mechanism

PSYCHODYNAMIC:
• un scientific - Uses case studies and introspection and concepts are untestable
• unfalsifiable

S: PRAC APPLICATIONS
• Beh - flooding
• Psycho - psychodynamic therapy - anxiety + depression- unc conc - unresolved childhood conflicts

, Behavioural + Biological

S: HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC
• empirical methods
• Beh - observable behaviour + controlled lab experiments
• SKINNER - light , noise , temperature
• Bio - lab experiments, obj emprical methods
• F or f response - blood tests for hormone lvls - unaffected by SDB


NATURE VS NURTURE:
• behavioural nurture: Role reward and punishment and associations created in the environment
• biological: jeans hormones neurotransmitters




S: PRAC APPLICATIONS: SUCCESS TREATMENTS
• beh - phobias - flooding - full direct , immediate exposure
• Counter condition
• Cure phobia

• bio - antipsychotics
• Typical antpsychotics bind to dopamine receptors w/o stimulating
• Alleviating symptoms of depression.




Behavioural + cognitive

S: HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC
• empirical methods of investigation
• Beh - only obs behaviour
• PET scans + fMRI scans




D: HOLISM VS RED
• beh - red - lower level
• Observable behaviours and environmental influence
• Cog - hol - higher level
• Interaction of internal mental processes and environmental factors - schemas


S: DETERMINSITIC
• environmental determinism - behavior is caused by features of the environment that we cannot control e.g. reward and
punishment

• Soft determinism - human action has a cause, but that people have conscious mental thoughts over the way they
behave
• innate schemas + developed through int w/ environment + choose what info to attend to
• interactionist view - more plausible when expl complex behaviours e.g: schizophrenia

, SLT + biological

S: DETERMINIST
• Bio - genes , hormones , neurotransmitters

• soft determinism - human action has a cause but ppl have cons mental thought over way they act
• e.g: who identify with , who to pay attention to


D: NATURE + NURTURE
• learning role models in environment
• Bandura : aggression learnt from obs agg role models
• internal bio factors: Genetics , hormones , neurotransmitters
• Dopamine hyp for schizophrenia


D: HOLISM VS RED
• red - focuses on bio mechanism - internal causes - NTs
• Hol - considers interaction between cognitive and environmental factors (mediation al proc + observation of RMs)
• Higher level explanation - more plausible for exp complex behaviours




SLT + psychodynamic

S: DETERMINISTIC
• psychic determinism
• unc conflict between id + superego creates anxiety - ego defense mechanisms - distort reality
• Soft deter:
• Choose what RMs to pay att


D: SCIENTIFIC CREDIBILTY
• observable beh
• Psych : unfalsifiable


S: NURTURE
• observation + imitation
• unc drives + childhood experiences

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Uploaded on
June 6, 2025
Number of pages
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Written in
2024/2025
Type
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Grade
A+
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