Psychology

Course offered:

Psychology (HL) Psychology (SL)

1. What is the nature of Psychology at IB level?

Psychology at IB begins with the exploration of human behaviour through the biological, cognitive and sociocultural levels of analysis. Students will recognize that most human behaviour needs to be explained at each of these levels for our understanding to be complete.

2. What will be the approach to learning?

The approach to learning will be student led with most lessons including activities where students can explore their own responses to psychological theories, research or practical demonstrations. Students will be encouraged to think deeply about the implications of their learning and will quickly enjoy applying what they have discovered to their own lives and the world about them.

3. What will be the subject content?

Core (paper 1)

The Approaches within Psychology (SL and HL)  Biological Approach  Cognitive Approach  Socio-Cultural A p p ro a c h

HL Only

HL students will study an extension topic for each approach

Applied Psychology (paper 2)

SL students study ONE of the following, HL students study BOTH

 Abnormal Psychology  Psychology of Human Relationships

Research Methods (HL paper 3)

Both HL and SL students will explore a variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods through the exploration of research studies in Paper one and Paper two as well as through their internal assessment. However, HL students will complete and additional examination - Paper 3, which will focus on application of Research Methods understanding to a new stimulus. This will require a more detailed review of experimental design and qualitative methods such as interviews, observations and case studies.

Internal Assessment (SL and HL)

Students will be required to replicate a psychological experiment including the manipulation of a simple independent variable (within the limits of ethical and realistic research parameters). Students will be expected to demonstrate understanding of experimental research including directional and non-directional hypotheses, control of confounding variables, experimental design, sampling and data analysis, (including simple inferential statistics). They will be required to write the experiment up following the guidelines for a formal scientific research report.

4. What will be the nature of assessment?

Assessment consists of a minimum of two papers and an Internal Assessment.

Paper 1 (SL &HL):  2 hours  3 compulsory questions based on the Core Syllabus  1 essay question from achoice of 3 titles  Weighting –50% (SL), 40% (HL)

Paper 2 (SL & HL):  1 hour (SL), 2 hours (HL)  1 essay question (SL) or two questions (HL) from achoice on the applied psychology options topics. Weighting - 25% (SL) 20% (HL),

Paper 3 (HL only):  1 hour  3 standard questions in response to an unseen research scenario Weighting - 20% (HL)

Internal assessment:

 Weighting - 25% (SL), 20% (HL)  Students conduct and then write up a psychological experiment following the conventions of a formal psychological research report.