Psychology

Head of Department:  Mrs C Charman

The Team: Mrs C Charman, Mr J Charman

Psychology is the study of the thought processes and behaviour of humans and other animals in their interaction with the environment.

Why Study it?

Psychology is an exciting and dynamic discipline.  Psychology allows us to understand the motivations, feelings and desires of the most complex organisms in existence; human beings.  Psychology is a science, although rather than directly observing the changes that are happening, psychologists make inferences about the workings of the mind through direct observation.  Unlike the pure sciences such as physics, psychology is constructed of a variety of different theoretical paradigms that try to understand behaviour in multiple ways.  For example, the development of a mental illness such as OCD or depression, can be manifested through faulty neurotransmission, cognitive biases, via operant or classical conditioning or through conflict in our unconscious drives.  All these different views can be used to gain a holistic understanding of human behaviour.

Look at how interesting Psychology can be by clicking on the images below:

What our students say about the course and teaching of Psychology at Collingwood College:

"I've really enjoyed the range of content in the A Level course, and the fact it offers a solid basis for further psychology studies as well as for outside reading."   Jenny Benson