Psychology Notes for AS & A2

AQA Specification A

Book List

These books I have found extremely helpful, for various reasons. They are all available through most good bookshops such as:

Methvens - in Worthing. Excellent hot chocolate in the coffee shop :o) They also offer a service whereby you can order a book in the morning and pick it up in the afternoon (subject to availability blah blah..).
Waterstones - I can spend countless hours in there - friendly staff, large selection. This link takes you to the Waterstones / Amazon web site, but they have stores in Brighton, Crawley and a huge one in Bluewater Shopping Centre in Dartford.
Amazon - if your nervous about using your credit card over the internet you can place your order via the website then pay over the phone.

If you are a skint student, or want to "try before you buy", you can always try that good old fashioned system called the library - they don't always have titles in stock but you can have them ordered in for you and borrowing is free (unless you go overdue!).

I have included the price I paid for them (where I can remember) and my own personal comments, for what they're worth.

AS / A2 Specific

AQA (and other) Specification

	*Psychology for A Level, 2nd Edition - Cardwell, Clark & Meldrum - Collins - ISBN 000 3224740 - £22-99* This book was recommended by our tutor for our course - covers just about everything you will need, but a little hard going in places, I thought.
	Psychology, a new introduction for A Level, 2nd Edition - Gross, McIlveen, Coolican, Clamp & Russell - Hodder & Stoughton - ISBN 0 340 77689 7 - around £20-00 Similar to the book above, but laid out into smaller sections - I found the inclusion of lots of extra diagrams helpful to remember certain figures.
	A-Z Psychology Coursework Handbook - Mike Cardwell & Hugh Coolican - Hodder & Stoughton - ISBN0 340 79063 6 - £6-99 I have only just got this one, will review at a later date.

Exam Preparation / Revision

Do Brilliantly, AS Psychology - Mike Cardwell, Claire Meldrum & Jane Willson - Collins - ISBN 000 710747 1 - £5-99 (£4-79 from Amazon)
Takes you through exam-type questions and gives examples of good & bad answers. Tips on how to get the full marks for each question, mistakes to avoid, how to understand exactly what is required for each question. The proof will be in the pudding, if I get a good grade, so will this book ;o)

A Level Psychology through diagrams, Oxford Revision Guides - Grahame Hill - Oxford University Press - ISBN 019 913422 7 - £10-99 RRP
So far so good: laid out into easy to digest sections covering the specification for AQA and other awarding bodies. Personally I find the diagrams really help - by remembering them, they can prompt the facts. My only problem with this book is its size - although only 288 pages, its bigger than A4 and doesn't fit on any of my shelves!

Other Psychology Books

	*Psychology, The Science of Mind and Behaviour, Fourth Edition - Richard Gross - Hodder & Stoughton - ISBN 0 340 79061 X - around £22* This book goes into some real depth for most topics, but does not necessarily follow the specification for A Level Psychology - excellent reading if you want to learn more about a topic than is necessary for the exams.
	The complete A-Z Psychology Handbook, 2nd Edition - Mike Cardwell - Hodder & Stoughton - ISBN 0 340 77215 8 - £9-99 This is a fantastic mini-encyclopaedia aimed specifically for AS / A2 students - invaluable, and unlike some other textbooks, you will not require the use of a fork-lift truck to transport it :o)
	Experiment, Design and Statistics in Psychology, New Edition - Colin Robson - Penguin - ISBN 0 14 01.7648 9 - £7-99 Handy little number, takes you through the first steps in designing your study right through to the statistical analysis, in plain English. Excellent for the coursework (Module 6) of the A2 specification.
	Introducing Psychological Research, 2nd Edition: Revised and Expanded - Philip Banyard & Andrew Grayson - Palgrave - ISBN 0 333 91251 9 - £16-99 Fabulous book, I have not come across one quite like it. Explanations of many well-known (and some not so well-known) studies carried out in Psychology. Each study is reviewed in detail, with examples, diagrams and results, then evaluated by the authors.
	An Introduction to Child Development, Second Edition - G. C. Davenport - Collins - ISBN 000 322 3558 - £ early xmas pressie from my Nan, its rude to ask how much :o) I requested this book after our tutor read a couple of passages out in class, and I'm not disappointed. If you are thinking of going into Developmental Psychology, this is an excellent, well-written, plain English introduction.