GCSE Psychology (Edexcel)
38 free revision lessons in 11 units. Open the course or go straight to a lesson.
Development
How you grew from a developing brain to a thinking learner — early brain structures, Piaget's stages of cognitive development, mindset and praise, Willingham's learning theory and the development of morality.
- Early Brain Development
- Piaget's Theory and the Three Mountains Task
- Mindset and Praise: Dweck and Gunderson
- Willingham's Learning Theory and Morality
Memory
How your memory works as an active process — encoding, storage and retrieval, the features of short- and long-term memory, amnesia, the multi-store model, and Bartlett's reconstructive memory.
- The Structure and Process of Memory
- The Multi-Store Model and Peterson & Peterson
- Reconstructive Memory: Bartlett and the Reductionism–Holism Debate
Psychological Problems
Mental health in context — the symptoms, incidence and impact of depression and addiction, the genetic, cognitive and learning explanations, and the use of CBT and drug treatments.
- Depression and Addiction: Symptoms and Impact
- Explaining Depression: Genes and Cognitive Theory
- Explaining Addiction: Genes and Learning Theory
- Treating Depression and Addiction: CBT and Drugs
The Brain and Neuropsychology
The biology of behaviour — the structure and function of the brain, lateralisation of the hemispheres, neurons and synapses, and the impact of neurological damage on cognition and behaviour.
- The Structure and Function of the Brain
- Lateralisation and Sperry's Split-Brain Study
- Neurons, Synapses and the Central Nervous System
- Neurological Damage and Phineas Gage
Social Influence
How other people change what we do — conformity, obedience, deindividuation and the bystander effect, the factors behind them, Piliavin's subway study and Zimbardo's prison study.
- Conformity, Obedience and Deindividuation
- Bystander Behaviour and Piliavin's Subway Study
- Crowd Behaviour and Zimbardo's Prison Study
Criminal Psychology
Why people become criminals — learning theories of criminality, Eysenck's biological personality theory, the effect of punishment on reoffending, and treatments to reduce criminal behaviour.
- Learning Theories of Criminality
- Biological Explanations and Eysenck's Personality Theory
- Punishment, Rehabilitation and Reducing Crime
The Self
What makes you who you are — self-concept and self-esteem, the humanistic theory of self, identity and free will, and how personality can be measured through trait theory.
- The Self and Self-Concept
- Humanistic Theory, Identity and Free Will
- Measuring Personality: Trait Theory
Perception
How you interpret the world around you — monocular and binocular depth cues, visual illusions and constancies, Gibson's and Gregory's rival theories, and the factors shaping perceptual set.
Sleep and Dreaming
Why you need to sleep and dream — the stages and functions of sleep, the internal and external influences on it, sleep disorders, and Freudian and Activation Synthesis theories of dreaming.
- Sleep: Stages, Cycles and Influences
- Sleep Disorders: Insomnia and Narcolepsy
- Theories of Dreaming: Freud and Activation Synthesis
Language, Thought and Communication
How you communicate with others — the relationship between language and thought, how language shapes worldview, human versus animal communication, and verbal and non-verbal communication.
Research Methods
How psychologists carry out research — variables, hypotheses and controls, sampling and designs, the range of research methods, reliability, validity and ethics, and handling and analysing data.
- Variables, Hypotheses and Controls
- Sampling and Research Designs
- Research Methods and Data Collection
- Reliability, Validity and Ethics
- Data Analysis and Descriptive Statistics