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AQA A-level Psychology Biopsychology Essay Plans (for 16 Markers)

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Struggling with A-Level Psychology essays? These A*-standard Biopsychology 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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FIGHT OR FLIGHT
AO1
• endocrine + NS act together to deal with stressor

• sense organs perceive stressor
• Hypothalamus stimulates SNS + msg to pit gland
• Secretes ACTH into blood stream
• Msg to adrenal medulla
• Release of adrenaline into bloodstream (activates SNS)
• Bodily arousal: inc breathing , sweating, shaky hands

• inc HR - more o2 to muscles for movement
• Dilates bronchi - more gas exchange more O2 for aerobic resp
• Decreases digestion (vasoconstriction) - highest volume of blood w/ O2 sent to skeletal muscles + brain

• once no longer exposed to stressor body returned to normal by PNS




AO3
S: HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC
• objective empirical evidence
• Levels of hormones - cannot be affected by social desirability bias

W: HIGHLY RED
• complex psychological behaviour down to simple comp
• Hypothalamus and hormones
• Overlook, important psychological and emotional factors

W: BETA BIAS
• reduces gender differences and stress response
• TAYLOR - tend + befriend



S: PRAC APPL
• understanding negative effects of stress - heart disease + immune system weakened
• More aware - workplace strategies
• Motivate ppl live in healthy way

, LOCALISATION
AO1
Each part of the brain carries out a specific function
• motor cortex - voluntary muscle movements
• Rear of frontal lobe
• Damage may become paralysed and find motor control lost on opposite side of body

• Broca's area - speech production
• frontal lobe , left hem
• Damage - diff speaking full fluent set

• wernicke's area - lang comprehension
• Temp lobe most left hem
• Damage - speak fluently but meaningless

• auditory cortex - auditory info
• Temp lobe
• damage - gearing loss




AO3

S: BROCA + WERKICKE
• post-mortems
• Damage to part area in - led to inability to -

S: HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC
• empr objective methods
• Post - mortems , brain scans

W: LANG LOC QUESTIONED
• Only 2% of modern researchers
• FMRI - lang holistically dist - lang streams

W: PLASTICITY
• MAGUIRE - brain function can develop and change depending on environment

Document information

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Subject
Uploaded on
June 6, 2025
Number of pages
9
Written in
2024/2025
Type
Essay
Professor(s)
Unknown
Grade
A+
$5.62

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