AQA Psychology A Level Paper Three: Issues and Debates

The Extending Knowledge and Skills series is a fresh approach to A Level Psychology, designed for greater demands of the new AQA specification and assessment, and especially written to stretch and challenge students aiming for higher grades.Dealing with the compulsory topic of AQA’s Paper 3: Issues and Debates, this book is deliberately laid out with the assessment objectives in mind, from AO1: Knowledge and understanding material, followed by AO2: Application material, to AO3: Evaluation and analysis material. Providing the most in-depth, accessible coverage available of individual topics in Paper 3, the text is packed full of pedagogical features, including: Question Time features to ensure that the reader is consistently challenged throughout the book. New research sections clearly distinguished within each chapter to ensure readers have access to the most cutting-edge material. A clear focus on the assessment objectives for the Paper topic to ensure readers know when and where to apply knowledge. The use of example answers with examiner-style comments to provide greater insight into how to/how not to answer exam questions. An engaging, relevant and challenging text that broadens student understanding beyond that of the average textbook, this is the essential companion for any student taking the AQA A level Paper 3 in Psychology.

"This series of books offers invaluable help to all students studying AQA A level Psychology, but is especially beneficial to those aiming for higher grades. The assessment objectives are clearly identified thus allowing students to fully appreciate how to answer questions in a way that maximises their marks.The questions that are posed throughout the book ensure that the students are engaged with the material and make the task of answering them interesting as well as informative. Students will enjoy these books and there can be no greater recommendation than that!"- Diana Jackson-Dwyer taught in Further Education for 20 years. She is also an experienced examiner at GCSE and A-level, and has written psychology books and revision guides for a wide range of courses."The Extending Knowledge and Skills series of textbooks is a great additional resource for teachers and students aiming for A*-B. The books contain lots of activities to engage students and ensure they really understand and can apply and evaluate the material they are learning. The introduction of some contemporary research is also a welcome addition. I particularly liked the focus on the assessment objective of AO1, AO2 and AO3, too often students focus all their revision on AO1 and forget to practice application and evaluation. The inclusion of examination style questions and specimen answers with commentary is very helpful to both teachers and students to enable them to understand where marks are awarded, and more importantly what is not credit worthy material.I fully recommend this series of books to you, whether for your own practice as a teacher or an extra resource for your high achieving students."- Deborah Gajic (CPsychol) On behalf of The Association for the Teaching of Psychology (The ATP) www.theatp.uk"I fully recommend these as extension or super-curricular reading to A Level students. The texts provide a detailed yet concise account of key curriculum content and have a range of more up-to-date research which would really add to exam responses. Furthermore, the ‘Interleave me now’ sections are engaging stimulus to deeper thinking and provide new ways of understanding classic studies such as the consideration of Milgram in the culture bias topic. Similarly the link between cannabis and psychosis is explored in the biological explanations of schizophrenia topic. The embedding of debates within topic also offers another opportunity for deeper understanding. In sum these offer a fantastic summary of key content whilst also providing opportunities to extend your understanding beyond the confines of the specification."- Mrs C. E. Charles, Teacher of Psychology and Deputy Head of Sixth Form, Stamford High School

Phil Gorman is an experienced psychology teacher and Assistant Principal Examiner for Paper 3 of the AQA A Level Psychology specification. He has been teaching this subject at A Level for over 25 years and examining for roughly the same amount of time. His examining experience has, in the past, taken him to the position of Chief Examiner for Edexcel A Level Psychology.