Hey everyone, bringing over a post I wrote on the original website for the current psych study design. This is something I still get asked about in lectures, tutoring etc. so here you go!
1. Research methods
- key science skills (pages 11-13 of the study design)
- practical investigation (page 31)
Note that although the practical investigation will be at a specific time, research methods can be tested in all assessments (for me it was).
This should be your focus over the other psych things you might want to look at / catch up on
2. Biopsychosocial model
- basically this just means that you we can't accurately describe the phenomena we investigate using just biology, just social factors etc. Psych requires a holistic approach where all of these things are taken into consideration.
Eg, if someone has an anxiety disorder, this may be contributed to by a GABA (neurotransmitter/signalling chemical in the brain) deficiency [biology], classical conditioning (type of learning) [psychology] and their job [social]
this is less about learning content and more about adopting a mindset and way of categorising things which you'll use throughout the year
3. Neurons and neural communication
- Structure of neurons, divisions of the nervous system, neural signalling etc. page 24. The last 2 dot points aren't covered in units 1&2
- neural plasticity (dot point on page 26)
- heaps of YouTube videos about this, which is probably a good way to learn given the usefulness of diagrams in this topic
Your whole class will probably recap this, which is why I've put it low on the list
Bonus: 4. Attachment in infants
this comes up a little bit in the mental health section, but you don't need to know the level of detail required in units 1&2 (different types of insecure attachment, specifics of what tells you whether it's secure or not etc.). Basically:
secure attachment: had a trusted adult who they felt safe around and took care of their needs
disorganised attachment: not secure attachment (maybe abusive family? maybe ignored? maybe they didn't have adults around who could take care of their needs? (comfort, food, warmth etc) )
having secure attachment is, as you might guess, good - and it has impact far beyond infancy. If a person didn't have a trusted adult they formed secure attachment with, they are more likely to develop a mental health disorder, even as an adult).
