Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and behaviour. Psychology is a research-based subject, and provides the opportunity to conduct practical research. This includes working with human participants in accordance with ethical standards.
This course develops your ability to analyse psychological explanations for individual and social behaviour. You will learn about some of the ways that thoughts and emotions can affect how we feel and behave.
Knowledge of human behaviour is a useful subject for your personal development as well as being relevant to many career paths, including education, medicine and law.
Career Pathways
To see what career areas this subject could lead to and the routes to get there, download and view these career pathways:
Arts, Social Sciences and Languages
Social, Caring and Advisory Services
Uniformed and Security Services
Entry is at the discretion of the school or college, but you would normally be expected to have achieved:
The course consists of three areas of study.
Individual behaviour
You will:
Social behaviour
You will:
Research
You will:
The course assessment has two components totalling 100 marks:
For the assignment component, you will research a topic you have studied and produce a psychological report.
Both the question paper and the assignment are set and externally marked by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).
The grade awarded is based on the total marks achieved across course assessment.
The course assessment is graded A-D.
If you complete the course successfully, it may lead to:
Further study, training or employment in:
Your school will give your parents an Options or Choices information booklet, which has detailed information on the curriculum and the individual subjects or courses you can study. It will also invite them along to a Parents’ Information Evening.
They can also read the information leaflet(s):