A Level Psychology Topics by Exam Board: Full List

Though A Level Psychology topics vary across exam boards, students cover similar core areas, such as cognitive psychology and research methods.

AQA (opens in a new tab), Pearson Edexcel (opens in a new tab), OCR (opens in a new tab) and WJEC (Eduqas (opens in a new tab) in England and CBAC (opens in a new tab) in Wales) all offer A Level Psychology. This article includes an official and complete breakdown of all A Level Psychology topics by exam board. We’ll show you exactly what you need to know for the exam, and how you can use topic lists for effective revision.

Key Takeaways

• Each A Level Psychology exam board has different topics

• Avoid revising unnecessary content by only looking at your exam board’s specification

• Use topic lists to create a revision plan and identify named psychologists

Why It's Important to Know Your Exam Board

Although subject content often overlaps, each exam board has a different syllabus. The same subject can therefore be taught very differently from one exam board to another, with varying topics, skills and assessments.

Knowing which topics your exam board covers means you can create a focused revision plan. You’ll only cover content you could be tested on, and you'll know what to expect in the exams.

If you’re not sure which exam board you’re using, check with your Psychology teacher.

AQA A Level Psychology Topics (7182)

AQA A Level Psychology consists of compulsory and optional topics:

Compulsory Topics

• Social influence

  • Types of conformity

  • Explanations for obedience and resistance to social influence

  • Minority influence

• Memory

  • Multi-store model

  • Working memory

  • Explanations for forgetting

  • Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

• Attachment

  • Animal studies

  • Explanations

  • Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’

  • Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation

  • Influence of early attachment

• Clinical psychology and mental health

  • Definitions in mental health

  • Behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

  • Behavioural, cognitive and biological approaches to explaining and treating phobias, depression and OCD respectively

• Approaches

  • Comparison of the following approaches: 

    • Learning

    • Cognitive

    • Biological

    • Psychodynamic

    • Humanistic

• Biopsychology

  • Divisions of the nervous system

  • Structure and function of sensory, relay and motor neurons

  • Function of the endocrine system

  • Fight or flight response

  • Ways of studying the brain

  • Localisation of brain function and hemispheric lateralisation

• Research methods

  • Experimental method

  • Observational and self-report techniques

  • Correlations

  • Content analysis

  • Case studies

• Issues and debates: 

  • Gender and culture

  • Free will and determinism

  • Nature-nurture debate

  • Holism and reductionism

  • Idiographic and nomothetic approaches to investigations

  • Social sensitivity in research

Option 1

• Relationships

  • Theories and factors affecting attraction in romantic relationships

  • Online and parasocial relationships

• Gender

  • Role of chromosomes and hormones in biological sex

  • Gender identities and incongruence

  • Biological, cognitive and social learning theory explanations of gender development

• Cognition and development

  • Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories of cognitive development

  • Baillargeon’s explanation of early infant abilities

  • Development of social cognition

Option 2

• Schizophrenia

  • Positive and negative symptoms

  • Biological and psychological explanations

  • Cognitive behaviour, family and drug therapy treatments

  • Importance of an interactionist approach 

• Eating behaviour

  • Explanations for food preferences

  • Neural and hormonal mechanisms controlling eating behaviour

  • Biological and psychological explanations for anorexia nervosa and obesity

• Stress

  • Physiology and role in illness

  • Sources, measures and individual differences

  • Managing and coping with stress

Option 3

• Aggression

  • Neural and hormonal mechanisms

  • Ethological and social psychological explanations

  • Institutional aggression and media influences on aggression

• Forensic psychology

  • Offender profiling

  • Biological and psychological explanations of offending behaviour

  • Dealing with offending behaviour

• Addiction 

  • Descriptions and risk factors

  • Explanations for nicotine and gambling addictions

  • Reducing addiction and applying Prochaska’s six-stage model of behaviour change

See the specification (opens in a new tab) for more information.

The table below shows what comes up in each paper:

Pearson Edexcel A Level Psychology Topics (9PS0)

Pearson Edexcel A Level Psychology consists of compulsory (topics 1–5 and 9) and optional (topics 6–8) topics. The table below highlights key elements of each topic:

Topics 1–8 also include a contemporary study, practical investigation, and psychological skills. See the specification (opens in a new tab) for more details.

The table below shows what comes up in each component:

OCR A Level Psychology Topics (H567)

OCR A Level Psychology topics are split across three areas:

Research Methods

• Research methods and techniques

• Planning and conducting research

• Data recording, analysis and presentation

• Report writing

• Practical activities

• How science works

Psychological Themes Through Core Studies

• Core studies: social, cognitive, developmental, biological areas and individual differences; individual studies; core studies in their pairs; methodological issues; key themes and areas

• Areas: social, cognitive, developmental, biological areas and individual differences

• Perspectives: behaviourist and psychodynamic

• Debates: nature/nurture; free will/determinism; reductionism/holism; individual/situational explanations; usefulness of research and conducting socially sensitive research; ethical considerations; psychology as a science 

• Practical applications: recognising psychological content in and making evidence-based suggestions from a source; considering strengths and weaknesses of your suggestions

Applied Psychology

• Issues in mental health

  • Historical context

  • Medical model and alternatives to it

The table below is a summary of the options for applied psychology:

See the specification (opens in a new tab) for more information, including key research.

The table below shows what comes up in each component:

WJEC Eduqas A Level Psychology Topics (A290QS)

WJEC Eduqas splits its topics across three components:

Component 1

The table below is a summary of the content for Component 1:

Component 2

• Social and developmental psychology

• Deciding on a research question and location of research

• Methodologies, participants and experimental design

• Levels of measurement and graphical representation

• Descriptive and inferential statistics

• Reliability, validity and ethics

• Role of the scientific community in validating new knowledge

Component 3

The table below includes examples of behaviour/condition explanations for Component 3. You’ll study at least two biological, individual differences and social psychological explanations, and at least two methods of modifying behaviour:

You’ll also study controversies for Component 3, including cultural bias and non-human animals. See the specification (opens in a new tab) for more information.

The tables below show what comes up in each component:

WJEC CBAC A Level Psychology Topics (1290QS) 

WJEC CBAC splits its topics across four units:

Unit 1 (AS Level)

The table below is a summary of the content for Unit 1:

Unit 2 (AS Level)

• Contemporary debates: ethics of neuroscience; the mother as an infant’s primary caregiver; using conditioning techniques to control children’s behaviour; reliability of eyewitness testimony (including children); relevance of positive psychology in today’s society

• Principles of research and application of research methods: social and developmental psychology; deciding on a research question and location of research; methodologies, participants and experimental design; levels of measurement and graphical representation; descriptive and inferential statistics; reliability, validity and ethics

Unit 3 (A Level)

The table below includes examples of behaviour/condition explanations for Unit 3. You’ll study at least two biological, individual differences and social psychological explanations, and at least two methods of modifying behaviour:

You’ll also study controversies for Unit 3, including cultural bias and non-human animals. See the specification (opens in a new tab) for more information.

Unit 4 (A Level)

• Personal investigations: research methods: hypotheses; variables; methodology (including experimental design if appropriate); sampling; descriptive and inferential statistics; graphical representations; reliability; validity; ethics

• Application of research methods to novel scenarios: methodologies; assessing reliability and validity; graphical representation; inferential statistics

The table below shows what comes up in each unit:

How to Use Topic Lists for Revision

Create a revision plan

Print or write out your topics into a checklist. Use the traffic light system (opens in a new tab) to prioritise weaker areas, and tick each area off as you revise. Seeing progress is motivating, and it helps with feeling prepared for all A Level Psychology papers.

Identify named psychologists

Your topic lists will feature classic and contemporary case studies by well-known psychologists, such as Elizabeth Loftus and John Bowlby. Create a mind map for each psychologist, including their research methods, findings, and their experiments’ strengths and weaknesses. This will make it easier to critique and analyse different psychological theories.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are these topics the same across all exam boards?

No. Core topics like social psychology are similar, but each exam board is distinct. Make sure you only revise content on your exam board’s specification.

How do I know which topics I struggle with most?

Check which past paper questions you find the hardest. You can then use the traffic light system to prioritise revising whichever areas you’re least confident in.

Do all topics come up in every exam paper?

No. Each exam board instead has distinct and clearly defined topics for each paper. AQA’s Paper 1, for example, only tests you on half of the compulsory topics.

Final Thoughts

Using topic lists to structure your A Level Psychology revision means you'll know exactly what to revise.

Bookmark or print this page, and use it as your roadmap. Work through your exam board’s topics, tick them off as you go, practise answering past paper questions, and persevere to improve your knowledge and skills for the exams.

References

• How to Use the Traffic Light System to Improve Your Marks (opens in a new tab)

• AQA A Level Psychology (opens in a new tab)

• Pearson Edexcel A Level Psychology (opens in a new tab)

• OCR A Level Psychology (opens in a new tab)

• WJEC Eduqas A Level Psychology (opens in a new tab)

• WJEC CBAC A Level Psychology (opens in a new tab)