QCAA Psychology EA study guide
QCAA Psychology EA · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The QCAA Psychology External Assessment is the Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority's externally set and externally marked examination for senior secondary Psychology, taken by Year 12 students working towards a Queensland Certificate of Education and, for many, an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank. It forms part of the external assessment component of the new QCE system, complementing the internal assessments schools design and mark. The Authority publishes a dedicated External assessment section covering what external assessment is, how to prepare, the timetable, administration arrangements, invigilation and variation to venue, alongside related pages on academic integrity, access arrangements and reasonable adjustments (AARA), quality assurance and results. This independent study guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the QCAA; candidates should always confirm details against the Authority's own pages and their school. The QCAA Psychology EA study guide has 4 sections and about 1,335 words.
01Individual Development
Individual development in the QCAA course centres on how psychological change occurs across the lifespan and how it is studied. You need to distinguish physical, cognitive and social-emotional development , and to know the difference between continuous (gradual, cumulative) and discontinuous (stage-based) accounts of change.
357 words, about 2 min02Individual Behaviour
This domain examines why individuals act as they do and how behaviour is measured, explained and modified. You must understand the behaviourist tradition - classical conditioning (Pavlov: neutral stimulus, unconditioned and conditioned responses, extinction, spontaneous recovery) and operant conditioning (Skinner: reinforcement, punishment, schedules of reinforcement, shaping).
320 words, about 2 min03Individual Thinking
This domain concerns how people process information, solve problems and make judgements - and how these processes systematically fail. You need to understand the information-processing model (encoding, storage, retrieval; sensory, short-term/working and long-term memory) and the distinction between automatic and controlled processing.
332 words, about 2 min04The Influence of Others
This domain examines how the presence, expectations and actions of others shape individual cognition and behaviour. You must understand social cognition (person perception, attribution, the fundamental attribution error, self-serving bias, attitudes and cognitive dissonance).
326 words, about 2 min