IB Psychology SL study guide
IB Psychology SL · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
IB Psychology SL is the Standard Level course in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme's Individuals and Societies group, offered through the IB's four-programme continuum for students aged 3 to 19. The IB describes its programmes as challenging, high quality international education, and psychology sits alongside other individuals and societies subjects in the DP curriculum. The course is built around three approaches to understanding behaviour: the biological approach, the cognitive approach, and the sociocultural approach. Candidates learn to explain behaviour through biological factors such as the brain, neurotransmitters, and genetics; through cognitive processes such as memory, thinking, and decision-making; and through social and cultural context such as groups, culture, and social identity. Topics on this exam: Biological approach to behaviour, Cognitive approach to behaviour, and Sociocultural approach to behaviour. The IB Psychology SL study guide has 3 sections and about 1,104 words.
01Biological Approach to Behaviour
The biological approach explains behaviour through physiology: brain structure and localisation, neurotransmission, hormones, genes and evolutionary adaptation. In SL exam questions you are expected to describe biological variables, use specific research as evidence, and evaluate methods and causality-not just name a brain region. Localisation vs distributed processing: functions can be linked to areas (e.g., hippocampus and memory), but complex behaviour usually involves networks. HM's surgery (Milner) showed the hippocampus is critical for consolidating new explicit memories while procedural memory can remain.
368 words, about 2 min02Cognitive Approach to Behaviour
The cognitive approach explains behaviour through mental processes-memory, attention, schemas, thinking and decision making-often using models and laboratory experiments. SL questions test whether you can describe a model, support it with research, and evaluate the evidence, especially ecological validity and the reductive nature of models. Multi-store model (Atkinson & Shiffrin): sensory register → short-term store → long-term store, linked by attention, rehearsal and retrieval. Glanzer and Cunitz's serial position curve supports separate stores: primacy (LTM) and recency (STM); a filled delay reduced recency.
381 words, about 2 min03Sociocultural Approach to Behaviour
The sociocultural approach explains behaviour as shaped by social groups, culture and interaction. SL questions ask you to apply social identity theory, social cognitive theory, stereotyping, conformity and obedience, and cultural variation, then evaluate research and its cultural assumptions. Social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner): social categorisation, identification and comparison make group membership part of self-esteem. Tajfel's minimal group experiments showed in-group favouritism with trivial groupings, but the tasks were artificial and "minimal" groups may not be truly minimal.
355 words, about 2 min