Psychology Resources

Explaining Milgram: sixty years with consensus: Jason Turowetz and Matthew Hollander take a new look at why research participants in the infamous study say they obeyed. This article will help your study of Social influence.

Exam eye: explaining Milgram: Cara Flanagan provides some exam-based advice to support Jason Turowetz and Matthew Hollander’s exploration of Milgram’s results.

Matt’s maths: ratios, fractions and percentages: Matt Jarvis helps demystify the mathematical requirements for psychology A-level. In this issue, Matt discusses ratios, fractions and percentages.

Student mental health: Stephen Eccles explores some of the reasons for student mental health issues, as well as discussing his own research on the topic. This article will help your study of Psychopathology.

A day in the life: educational psychologist: Karen O’Farrell outlines a typcial day in her working life as an educational psychologist.

Ways of dealing with offender behaviour: A revision guide to the definitons, processes and aims of custodial sentencing, behaviour modification in custody, anger management and restorative justice. This article will help your study of Forensic psychology.

Head injuries and criminal behaviour: my brain made me do it: Ashok Jansari and Lewis Philippe consider the possible role of childhood head injuries on criminal behaviour and reoffending. This article is followed by a Challenge Yourself section where you can complete activities to check and extend your understanding of this article.

In focus: my recovery from brain damage: lost in the fog and found again: This article presents a personal account of functional recovery from serious brain damage.

Recent brain injury research: A range of factors appear to impact recovery from Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs).

An app for OCD patients: Recent research involves patients using a smart phone app that showed short video recordings. This article will help your study of Psychopathology.

The university experience for black students: Lateesha Osbourne tells us about her research on how black students experience university life.

Qualitative research: A-level and undergraduate psychology courses have always been rather dominated by quantitative research. But perhaps we don’t spend enough time looking at qualitative methods. This article draws on research studies mentioned in other articles in this issue.

Disordered eating behaviour in men: Mohammed Malik explroes the under-studied topic of disordered eating behaviour and body image problems in men.

Does smiling make injections less painful? Injections are never fun to have and can sometimes be downright painful. But could it be the case that our facial expression determines how painful we find it?

Sanity and insanity, truth and lies: Phil Banyard considers the validity of Rosenhan’s classic study.

Loneliness and ambient temperature: It is well established that people on their own take long baths and spend more time snuggling under blankets, and that they report that these behaviours alleviate both physical cold and loneliness.

The development of social cognition and humour: Lucy James looks at humour, empathy and social cognition in general. This article supports your study of social cognition in your unit on Cognition and development.

In focus: learning styles? A nice idea that unfortunatley does not work: Philip Newton explores the facts and myths surrounding learning styles

Exam focus: AQA research methods: getting it right: Rachael Bell-Walker looks at what can go wrong in student answers.

Understanding obedience: A revision poster that supports your study of obedience in your unit on Social influence.

Stress and life changes: Juliet Wakefield explores how the social identity approach has criticised our traditional understanding of the life changes approach to stress, and how group memberships can help us to cope with the stress caused by life changes. Following this article you can challenge yourself and complete activities to check and extend your understanding.

Interview: the mind room for footballers: Cara Flanagan talks to Dr Bruno Demichelis, who spent 20 years as the chief sports psychologist for AC Milan football club.

Misattribution in memory: It is well known that memory is an active and reconstructive process and that what we remember happened may not always be what actuall happened. This brief article supports your unit on memory.

Ethical issues in socially sensitive research: Belinda Winder considers the challenges of conducting research with people who have committed a sexual offence. This article supports your study of ethics in your unit on Research methods and your unit on Forensic psychology.

Collecting information from criminal suspects: Kai Li Chung discusses suspect interviews and the challenges of implementing best practicses in Malaysia.

The psychology of contemporary issues: influencers: Julia Russell looks at how psychology can help us understand the phenomenon of ‘influencers’.

The cheerleader effect: The cheerleader effect is the idea that people seem more attractive when viewed with others than when viewed alone.

Working memory: a theoretical map: Alan Baddeley outlines the background to his working memory model and considers how it is more of a map than a ‘law’. This article supports your unit on Memory and your study of working memory; multistore model of memory; phonological loop; developing a theory. Look out for the quiz to check your understanding of working memory and the activities to check and extend your understanding of the article.

Just enough essential parts: holism: In this issue, we give you ‘just enough essential parts’ to understand this key issue. This article supports your unit on Issues and debates in psychology.

What’s all that stuff on your desk? Gregory Laurence looks at the meaning behind the way people personalise their work spaces.

In focus: cultural bias and ethnocentrism: Lauren Kwok looks at cultural bias and ethnocentrism in psychological research. This article supports your unit on Issues and debates in psychology.

Using mind-mapping as a revision tool

Helping athletes boost wellbeing and performance: Filip Boen and Katrien Fransen look at how illness can be turned to wellness when ‘I’ becomes ‘we’, a social identity approach.

Individual and social approaches to stress: In her article on stress and wellbeing (page 28), Anne Beckham takes an individual approach to stress.

Exam focus: yes, you can be really good at research methods: Sheila Thomas makes the case for why research methods matter in psychology and gives some advice about how to improve in this area. This article supports your unit on Research methods.

How cognitive psychology challenged behaviourism: In the 1960s the cognitive approach took over from the behaviourist approach. Hugh Coolican looks at these two paradigms. This article supports your unit on Approaches in psychology.

Cognitive load and lying: The concept of cognitive load was used to explain why people may mimic another person when they are lying.

Interview: into the grey zone: Cara Flanagan interviews Adrian Owen about his extraordinary research communicating with people in a minimally conscious state. This article is followed by Exam Eye: interview with Adrian Owen where Cara provides some exam based advice to support the issues raised in Adrian’s interview.

In focus: why wouldn’t I eat? An A-level psychology teacher tells us about her personal experience of anorexia nervosa (AN).

Exam focus: AQA evaluation and discussion skills (AO3): Munveen Bhandal talks us through the skills that students find most difficult to get their heads around.

Why psychology matters: Richard Wiseman presents a brief overview of some of the reasons why psychological research should be valued.

In focus: your UCAS statement: Felicity Morgan and the killer personal statement.

Psychological disorders: key characteristics: This article discusses behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias, depression and OCD. This article supports  your unit on Psychopathology.

The psychology of conspiracy beliefs: Darel Cookson explores the social psychological processes that may cause people to believe in conspiracy theories. Check the link in this article for an online quiz to check your understanding.

Cultural bias in diagnosis: Recent research suggests that there are cultural differences in the way English and Italian speakers are affected by dementia-related language problems.

Exam focus: Edexcel: every mark counts: Hugo Wilson explains how you can maximise your marks using the Es (elaborate with examples).

Restorative justice: Sophy Irwin shows us that there is more to restorative justive than you might imagine. This article supports your unit on Forensic psychology.

Repressed memory: actively seek disconfirming evidence: Lawrence Patihis explains why you should question this concept of repressed memory. This article supports your unit on Memory. Check the link in the article for a presentation to aid your understanding of repression.

Reading dogs’ emotions: Different cultures have very different attitudes towards dogs. One study explores whether these cultural differences alter how people interpret dogs’ emotions.

In focus: motivation: tackling brain laziness: Lauren Burns uses psychology to combat the human tendency to be lazy.

Masking our emotions: There is little doubt that masks have been, quite literally, life savers during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, many people have found wearing them an uncomfortable experience. One reason for this may be that masks restrict our ability to read facial expressions.