Updated for AQA 2025 Spec – Teaching from SEPTEMBER 2025 onwards

This resource is designed for teaching Characteristics of Phobias under the AQA A-Level Psychology (2025 Specification). It has been fully updated to meet the revised requirements, which expect students to describe, apply, and evaluate the behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias, and to distinguish between normal fear responses and phobic disorders using DSM-5 diagnostic criteria.

If you’re looking for the 2019 specification version of this topic, please visit my shop.

This fully editable lesson introduces students to the key clinical characteristics of phobias. Students are supported in developing strong AO1, AO2 and AO3 skills through clinical case studies, DSM-5 diagnostic tasks, applied examples, and guided evaluation discussions.

What’s Included:

• Fully Editable Lesson Slides – Covers all characteristics in detail (behavioural, emotional, cognitive), with clear explanations, real-life clinical examples, and DSM-5 criteria. Includes retrieval questions, consolidation tasks, case file activities, and structured AO3 prompts aligned with 2025 expectations.

• Think, Pair, Share Activities – Interactive prompts help students explore key concepts, such as distinguishing fear from phobia, understanding irrational beliefs, and recognising unreasonable emotional responses.

• Case Study Application Tasks – Students apply the DSM-5 criteria to clinical scenarios involving specific phobias (e.g. arachnophobia, social phobia, agoraphobia), supporting development of AO2 application skills.

• Consolidation Worksheet – Printable resource allowing students to summarise behavioural, emotional, and cognitive characteristics, and compare fear vs phobia definitions.

• Exam Practice Questions – Includes a 2-mark short answer exam-style question with clear mark scheme and model answer focused on behavioural characteristics.

• Plenary & Review Tasks – Recaps key concepts, encourages retrieval practice and consolidates knowledge of phobia characteristics in preparation for assessment.

How This Resource Reflects the 2025 Specification Changes:

• Fully aligned with AQA 2025 content under Clinical Psychology and Mental Health

• Covers updated sub-topic: The Characteristics of Phobias

• Supports AO1, AO2 and AO3 skills with clear application, description and evaluation opportunities

• Includes DSM-5 diagnostic criteria application as required in the 2025 specification

• Provides ready-to-teach content for classroom delivery, independent study, revision, or cover lessons