BSEH SS Psychology study plan

Define the concept of abnormality and distinguish the four Ds (deviance, distress, dysfunction, danger) using three original case vignettes you write yourself

Compare the classification approaches (DSM and ICD) at the level of purpose and structure without memorising diagnostic codes

Outline the biopsychosocial model and explain how biological, psychological and social factors interact in one disorder of your choice

Map the historical approaches to psychology (structuralism, functionalism, gestalt, behaviourism, psychoanalysis, humanistic, cognitive) onto a one-page timeline with one defining claim each

List the major subfields of psychology and match each to a realistic applied setting

Describe the clinical features and course of schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders in your own words

Distinguish among the personality disorder clusters by describing the core interpersonal difficulty in each

Explain the purpose of ethical safeguards (informed consent, debriefing, confidentiality, protection from harm) and apply them to a hypothetical study you design

Compare experimental, correlational and case-study designs on control, causality and generalisability

Identify sources of bias (sampling, demand characteristics, observer bias) and propose one control for each

Distinguish descriptive from inferential statistics and state what each can and cannot establish

Interpret a correlation coefficient's sign and magnitude and explain why correlation does not imply causation

Compare the Atkinson–Shiffrin multi-store model with levels-of-processing and working-memory accounts

Describe encoding, storage and retrieval processes and give one real-world example of each

Explain the serial position effect, primacy and recency, and what each reveals about memory systems

Distinguish sensory, short-term and long-term memory stores by capacity, duration and coding

Explain forgetting through trace decay, interference, retrieval failure and motivated forgetting, and match each to an example

Describe the constructive nature of memory and the conditions under which eyewitness recall is unreliable

Contrast classical and operant conditioning, defining unconditioned, conditioned and neutral stimuli precisely

Apply the schedules of reinforcement and the concepts of shaping, extinction and spontaneous recovery to a behaviour-change scenario

Outline the stages of prenatal and infant development and identify the reflexes present at birth

Compare Piaget's stages on the basis of what the child can and cannot do at each stage

Explain attachment types and the role of temperament and caregiving in their formation

Distinguish sensation from perception and describe the Gestalt principles of organisation

Explain depth perception cues and the role of attention (selective, divided, sustained) in perception

Define thinking, problem solving and decision making, and distinguish convergent from divergent thinking

Describe common obstacles to problem solving (mental set, functional fixedness, confirmation bias) with one example each

Explain the components of language and the relation between language and thought

Distinguish intrinsic from extrinsic motivation and compare need-based and arousal-based theories

Explain the James–Lange, Cannon–Bard and cognitive-appraisal theories of emotion and how they differ

Compare psychoanalytic, behaviour, cognitive, humanistic and biomedical therapies on goals, methods and assumed mechanism of change

Explain the role of the therapeutic relationship and the concept of empirically supported treatment

Define attitude and describe its components (cognitive, affective, behavioural) with an example

Explain how attitudes are formed and changed, including the elaboration likelihood model and cognitive dissonance

Describe social cognition concepts such as schemas, stereotypes and attribution biases

Retrieve the diagnostic features of the highest-weight disorder categories without notes, then correct against your own earlier notes

Re-derive the key distinctions in conditioning and memory from blank paper

Work through missed questions from earlier weeks and write the reason for each error

Sit one full-length timed practice paper under exam conditions

Build a one-page final revision sheet of the ten most confusable concept pairs