blindpet

Hey, I'm doing my EE on this same topic and these were some of the websites I had:

http://www.ncbi.nlm....les/PMC2206247/

http://www.ajol.info...ile/52682/41286

http://dare.ubn.kun....527/1/73527.pdf

Good Luck

http://www.ibsurviva...distinguished/

http://www.ibsurviva...-question-well/

I LOOOOOOOOOOVE IB Psych! And English! lol. To me, HL Psych isn't any different from AP Psychology, except the questions on papers require a lot of writing from memory. In your case, Bio and Chem HL don't really require you to do any analytical writing as do Psych and A1 English HL. So if you're a REALLY strong writer AND reader, go for A1 English. If you REALLY want to do indepth study on the brain, obviously take Psych. I'm in both HL English and HL Psych, plus HL History of the Americas so obviously I have to do a lot of writing.

In my case, even though English was always my BEST subject, English A1 was MUCH more challenging than Psych--it still is! You do SO SO much analytical writing for English although not really for Psych cuz it just depends on how much you study the info. Don't worry, I never knew anything about Psych until my first year and it's a breeze. I recommend doing English HL, that way it doesnt seem crammed into one year if you do SL, because Psych SL is, like I said, oh so easy (lots of my friends got 7's!). So if you do HL Eng A1, you'll have 2 years to really get used to everything (oh, by the way, you have to be a really good speaker, too--oral component is part of the IB Eng A1 grade). I also highly recommend talking to students who have taken those classes and see how much they like the teacher and all that, because you don't want to study something you're not really sure about and have a useless teacher for 2 years.

I hope this helps! Good luck

I sat my IB Psych SL exam last year (anticipated yay!) and I have a fairly good understanding of how to structure a good response to P1 (which is pretty much the same for P2 as well). I thought I'd share.   

Before I start, I think it is imperative that you get in to the habit of planning your response - it doesn't take long, and it will save you!! It will make you organise your ideas logically and certainly improve the quality of your language. You will be forced to be prudent in your evaluation, and examiners will totally see that you know what you are talking about!

The concise and general steps to planning and answering questions

1. Read the Q twice (or as many times depending on your need)
2. Highlight or underline the key words
3. Annotate the Q and break it down
4. Plan your response, including what you know as relevant to the question
5. Brainstorm evaluative points & ensure it is balances (for 22-mark questions)

PLAN for 8-mark Qs

• Expect low/medium command terms (CTs) and so LEARN what they mean!! A good flash card game can be found here

• Define, Describe, Outline, State, Discuss, Contrast, Compare, Explain, Distinguish, Apply

• Break down your response in the same way as the CT can be broken down

• What is the topic?

• What did the CT ask?

• What is my assertion?

• What study am I going to use to support my claim?

• 1-2 study is enough to illustrate each concept

• Did the CT ask for my opinion at the end?

• Be concise (you don’t have much time!)

PLAN for 22-mark Qs

• Expect medium/higher order CTs

• Describe, Discuss, Contrast, Compare, Explain, Distinguish, Apply, Analyse, Compare and Contrast, Evaluate, Examine, To what extent

• Break down your response in the same way as the CT can be broken down

• What is the topic?

• What did the CT ask?

• What is my assertion? Should have multiple!

• What study am I going to use to support my claim?

• multiple study is enough to illustrate each concept

• What study am I going to use to evaluate my claim?

• 22 marker always require  some form of evaluation

• What happens to my original claim now?

• Did the CT ask for my opinion at the end?

• Structure it to have broad idea at the start which funnel down into narrower ideas

• Good to have an introduction that clearly states your scope, what you will be focusing about so that the examiners know exactly what you are doing.

• Good structured response should have intro-body-conclusion format

• Be concise (you don’t have time!!)

Sentence work/structure using example!!  

Example: To what extent does genetic inheritance influence behaviour?

First, give a nice and short intro and state your opinion.

• Define the relevant terms very briefly and give your opinion if the command term asks you

• Example: Genetics, defined as ................ , is believed to play significant role in human behaviour. There are many debates on this topic and some psychologists assert their own claim to the most accurate approach, but I believe that this debate cannot be resolved. Genetic inheritance does influence our behaviour, but only to an extent. Some behaviour is very much shaped from our social constructions.....

• Include the points that you are going to make and the studies that you will use to demonstrate your points

• Example: In order to examine to what extent genetic inheritance influence behaviour, this essay will focus on the explanation towards depression through discussing the Bouchard et al.’s study (year) and Seligman et al.’s (year).

Then, start your body paragraph

• Start with your key point – thesis

• Example: Genetic inheritance does play a significant amount in shaping our behaviour. This can be clearly seen through correlation studies that specifically look at depression of monozygotic twins.

• Give details on your key point

• Include studies to back up your claim. Make sure you give significant amount of depth to your answers

• Example: Monozygotic twins share 100% same genes. Thus, if genetics do influence behaviour, both should exhibit the same behaviour. On the other hand, dizygotic twins only share 30% of the same gene and thus have less correlation to each other.  Bouchard et al’s study explicitly employs this concept of correlation, and looks into depression between twins. In their study, they analysed twins that are monozygotic and dizygotic and found that x% of monozygotic twins had correlation of depression while y% of dizygotic twins had correlation of depression. This suggests that genetics do play a role in human behaviour, as the more biologically similar you are to someone, the more similar your behaviours are to them...

• Synthesise your key point to answer what the question is asking

• Example; Hence (Thus, In light of this, In conclusion) through ........’s study we can see that there is a direct correlation between the genetics and our behaviour.

Give another paragraph with the same format. But be careful what you write! Since this question is a to what extent question, you have to give a counter argument of what you just wrote on the previous paragraph.

• Start with a linking sentence that gives a contradiction to the first body paragraph

• Use words like;

• However

• Nevertheless

• Contrastingly

• On the other hand

• Suggest that not all the cases support your claim in body 1.

• Then go on and give details on why you think so

• Contradicting studies

• Studies from different areas of psychology is often good

• Example; Although Bouchard’s study revealed that depression is related to genetics, psychologists from other areas give a different explanation towards explaining depression. For example, Seligman’s study suggested that depression can be a learned behaviour rather than what we inherit from birth. In Seligman’s study, he..................(goes on to explain the experiment). Hence, Seligman concluded that depression is not necessarily what we are predisposed to, but what we can adapt to and learn from society. This directly refutes the idea that depression is genetically inherited and questions the whole concept the extent to which genetics can be applied to explaining human behaviour.

• Some up your claim just like how you did for the last paragraph

Then, give a short conclusion that addresses the question and brings everything together. Include your personal opinion as this question is a ‘to what extent’ question, and say that through the studies that you explored, you came to decide that genetic influence does/doesn’t/to an extent does/doesn’t influence behaviour.

Hope you guys find this helpful!

Hi all, thought I would just upload the IB Psychology HL revision guide I made for my CAS Major.

This guide isn't perfect but from the feedback I got from my teacher and people that are using it I feel that it is a very solid revision guide. There is generally evaluation for most of research and I have lots of supporting and counter research provided.

I hope this helps you guys revise because I know Psychology is a pain in the ass to revise for. Please don't take this work and say its your own, I spent a lot of time on it.

By the way, in case your interested the major sources I used are the Pearson Baccalaureate Psychology textbook, the IB course companion and the oxford a level psychology revision guide and some class notes.

P.S. I may upload the health one in a few days if you guys want it.

EDIT: You can download it from this link too. http://www.ibsurviva...ion-guide-2011/

EDIT EDIT: I've added the Health one too.

Please do not reupload this onto any other site, these three documents were reuploaded onto scribd without my permission. I don't mind if you reupload but please ask me before you do so.

Hello all

I believe we are all studying hard for the May exam! I am sharing the same pain as well.  

However, I read the rubric for psychology's essays and I have to say that marks are easily obtained if you follow a certain structure in writing your essay. I wish we can all share essay structure techniques here and get feedbacks from others as well.

Here are my techniques:

- KNOW THE COMMAND TERM. I can't stress this enough. Every mark scheme will stress that, 'The answer satisfy the command term.' If you missed this step I don't think you will do well at all. How you break down the question and plan your essay are base on the command term.

- Always plan before you write. I found bullet points break it down for me really well. I would outline what should go in introduction, a thesis, the 3-4 body paragraph and conclusion.

- I always include 1 or 2 researches or studies in each paragraph. And I also list them as I plan my essay.

- Transitional and topic sentences are essential. Because most psychology essay are argumentative, such as the command term "discuss." It is crucial for me to make a clear shift in the answer from one's point of view to the next. Otherwise I tend to get lost in my writing.

- Reread your plan, make sure you include all the points you wish to make. Check that the plan satisfy the command term e.g. have a research to back up your reasons in "explain" command term and give balanced point of view AND a conclusion in "discuss"

- WRITE!!

I usually spend 3 minutes to plan for each 8 marks question. But around 10 minutes for 22 marks questions. It is better to spend time planning a coherent structure than to jump right to writing and run out of things to say on the way.


Please give me feedbacks to my techniques and add yours as well! I hope my techniques will aid some of you. It would be really nice if someone could give me how they tackle 8 marks and 22 marks question differently cause I tend to approach them the same way.

Good luck everyone!  

It's the theory that people boost their self-esteem through their personal achievements and/or by affiliating themselves with groups of people who are successful. By doing this, a person feels importance and social belonging. The social identity theory is based on social categorization (people categorize themselves into groups- in group vs. out-group- in order to feel a sense of belonging).

Does that make sense?