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Questions about IB Psychology


RainDodger

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Hi all!

Im planning to take psychology HL next year. Could someone give me an overview of the course? For example, what are studied in the course and what students learn/do.

In addition, this is a niche question but what are your thoughts and opinions on taking Psychology HL online? Is the subject too gruelling to be taken online and for people who have actually done Psychology HL online, what are your thoughts and opinions?

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I am done with one year of Psychology HL, and I have to say that it is a VERY interesting course. You will first learn about research methods that psychologists use to collect data to explain their observations of human behavior. Then, you will learn about biological correlates of behavior (effects of certain hormones, neurotransmitters or pheromones on human behavior). The next topic is the cognitive approach to understanding human behavior which deals with cognitive processes such as memory and how it works and also how it is prone to many biases. The next topic is the sociocultural approach to understanding behavior and it deals with the influence of society and culture on human behavior (topics such as racism and stereotyping). The next part of the course is the Options part. This part of the course deals with applications of psychology. The four options in the IB psychology course are- Health psychology, Abnormal psychology, Developmental psychology and Psychology of Human Relationships. Out of these four options,  two are studied for HL. 

As for the online course, I have no comments as I have not done it.

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Hi,

I'm also studying Psychology HL, and I'd like to add that the course involves a lot of essays. Initially it might seem overwhelming, but towards the end of year 1 you will have understood what makes a good Psychology essay. The difference between SL and HL is not very large, it's just a couple of extra topics and Paper 3, where you'll have to analyse research methods used in a random qualitative study, but it's easier than it sounds.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

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