Year 12 - Psychology (ATAR)
Learning outcomes
13 outcomes
- PSY12-SI-1 Understand and apply ethical guidelines and practices for psychological research, including the role of ethics committees, guidelines for human participants (protection from harm, informed consent, withdrawal rights, deception, confidentiality, privacy, voluntary participation, debriefing), and the use of animals in research (replacement, reduction, refinement). Science inquiry apply
- PSY12-SI-2 Formulate research by identifying aims, variables (independent, dependent, control, extraneous, confounding) and hypotheses/inquiry questions, and analyse methodology including research designs, sampling and allocation of participants, and methods to minimise the effects of extraneous and confounding variables. Science inquiry analyze
- PSY12-SI-3 Collect, process and analyse qualitative and quantitative data, including methods of data collection, constructing and interpreting data displays (scatterplot, column, line, histogram; summary and frequency tables), calculating mean and median, and interpreting Pearson's correlation coefficient. Science inquiry apply
- PSY12-SI-4 Draw evidence-based conclusions and evaluate research using the concepts of validity (internal, external) and reliability (test-retest, inter-rater), assess generalisability, suggest improvements and ethical implications, critically evaluate scientific sources, and communicate using appropriate psychological terminology and referencing. Science inquiry evaluate
- PSY12-U3-1 Explain the roles of sensation and perception in memory, including the processes of sensation (reception, transduction, transmission) and perception (selection, organisation, interpretation). Psychological knowledge and understanding understand
- PSY12-U3-2 Describe and apply models for explaining memory, including the processes of memory (encoding, storage, retrieval), the multi-store model (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968) and the working memory model (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974; Baddeley, 2000). Psychological knowledge and understanding understand
- PSY12-U3-3 Explain memory formation in terms of the roles of brain structures (the hippocampus, including the Henry Molaison case study; the cerebellum; and the amygdala) in the formation and storage of memory. Psychological knowledge and understanding understand
- PSY12-U3-4 Analyse the processes of remembering and forgetting, including recall/recognition/relearning, the levels of processing model (Craik and Lockhart, 1972; Craik and Tulving, 1975), rehearsal strategies, Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve, types of forgetting, and causes of memory loss (CTE, Alzheimer's disease, Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome). Psychological knowledge and understanding analyze
- PSY12-U3-5 Explain and apply theories of learning — classical conditioning (Pavlov, 1902; Watson and Rayner, 1920), operant conditioning (Thorndike, 1898; Skinner, 1938) and social learning theory (Bandura, 1977; Bandura, Ross and Ross, 1961) — and their application to behaviour modification (systematic desensitisation, token economies). Psychological knowledge and understanding apply
- PSY12-U4-1 Analyse sources of motivation (physiological, cognitions, emotions, social) and the theories of self-determination (Deci and Ryan, 2000) and the hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1954, 1970), including their characteristics, strengths and limitations, and real-world application. Psychological knowledge and understanding analyze
- PSY12-U4-2 Describe models of wellbeing, including the model of subjective wellbeing (Diener, 1984) and the six-factor model of psychological wellbeing (Ryff, 1989). Psychological knowledge and understanding understand
- PSY12-U4-3 Analyse stress as defined by Selye (1936), types of stress and stressors, and models of stress — the General Adaptation Syndrome (Selye, 1936, 1983), stress as a stimulus (Holmes and Rahe Social Readjustment Scale, 1967), and the Transactional Theory of Stress and Coping (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984) — and the health-related consequences of stress. Psychological knowledge and understanding analyze
- PSY12-U4-4 Explain the purpose of sleep, the sleep–wake cycle as a circadian rhythm (NREM and REM stages, measured by EEG), the causes and effects of acute and chronic sleep deprivation, and techniques to improve sleep hygiene (He et al., 2020). Psychological knowledge and understanding understand