2. Understanding Standards: An overview of course assessment
Psychology National 5
An overview of course assessment
RGB colours for text
Purple = R204 G153 B209 & Dark Blue =R0 G51 B102

3. What this Presentation Covers
Overview of the revised Psychology National 5 course
What has changed, and what hasn’t
Hints and tips

4. Overview The revised National 5 Psychology course will have:
Three areas of study: Individual Behaviour, Social Behaviour and Research
Two assessment components: question paper worth 70 marks and an assignment worth 30 marks

5. An overview of what is changed and/or what is unchanged
Candidates are no longer required to undertake unit assessments in order to attain the course award.

6. Component 1 – question paper What has changed?
Marks have increased from 50 to 70 marks
Timing increased from 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours
Candidates will choose 1 of 2 optional topics for both the Individual and Social areas of study
Optional topics for Individual Behaviour: personality or phobias
Optional topics for Social Behaviour: altruism or non-verbal communication (NVC)
The marks range for the question paper is now 2 – 8 marks per question

7. Changes to the structure of the question paper: Four sections/questions
20 marks for Individual Behaviour: mandatory content
15 marks for Individual Behaviour: optional content
20 marks Social Behaviour: mandatory content
15 marks for Social Behaviour: optional content OR
15 marks for Individual Behaviour: mandatory content
20 marks for Individual Behaviour: optional content
15 marks for Social Behaviour: mandatory content
20 marks for Social Behaviour: optional content

8. Component 2 – assignment What has changed?
Section C: Describe an aim for research on this topic is now worth 1 mark (formerly worth 2)
Section D: Give an experimental/alternative hypothesis for the proposed research study, which is now worth 2 marks (formerly worth 1 mark)

9. An overview of what is changed and/or what is unchanged
What has not changed:
the mandatory topics are still Sleep and Dreams (Individual Behaviour area of study) and Conformity (Social Behaviour area of study) but there are changes to the content – see Course Specification
there are still 3 areas of study: Individual Behaviour, Social Behaviour and Research
the assignment (with the exception of the marks allocated to sections C and D, outlined on previous slide)

10. Hints and tips Skills: Skills candidates must develop: describe
explain
apply
How marks are awarded will differ in terms of which skill is being asked for.

11. Hints and tips Extended response
Candidates will benefit from learning how to structure a response to an extended response question, which will now be worth 8 marks.

12. Hints and tips Assignment:
encourage your candidates to be Responsible Citizens by planning ethical research
a good way of doing this is to have candidates discuss the potential impact of their procedure on their participants, being empathic in the process

13. Hints and tips Questions about strengths and weaknesses
These questions will involve the skill of ‘explain’, encourage your candidates to extend their response beyond ‘describe’ which will not allow access to the full marks available for such a question.

14. WWW.sqa.org.uk│0303 333 0330 RGB colours for text
Purple = R204 G153 B209 & Dark Blue =R0 G51 B102
Arial 20 font black
Line spacing 4.8pt before single line spacing