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The IB Psychology course can seem overwhelming if you are unsure what it contains. This post is here to provide you with a detailed IB Psychology guide to help you navigate your way through the course. In this post, we'll discuss key elements of both internal and external assessments of the IB Psychology course, as well as tips for the Extended Essay, should you choose to complete your EE in Psychology.
IB Psychology Guide
General Overview
Syllabus – IB Psychology is designed to help students understand the biological, cognitive, and sociocultural factors influencing human behaviour. The course blends theory with research, encouraging students to learn psychological concepts and apply them to real-world contexts such as health and well-being, human development, human relationships, and learning and cognition. This integrated approach aims to develop psychological literacy and critical thinking skills. For a full overview of the IB Psychology syllabus and the topics covered in each section, check out this post.
Key concepts – The IB Psychology course is centred on six fundamental concepts: bias, causality, change, measurement, perspective, and responsibility. These key concepts provide a framework for exploring psychological content and research across varied real-world contexts. To learn more about the IB Psychology key concepts, click here.
Contexts – In IB Psychology, students explore four major contexts: health and well-being, covering holistic mental and physical health; human development, studying behaviour changes across the lifespan; human relationships, investigating social influences and group dynamics; and learning and cognition, examining how humans acquire knowledge. For a more detailed look at the IB Psychology contexts, check out this guide.
Grade boundaries – Although the IB Psychology grade boundaries change from session to session, it is important that you are familiar with what the approximate range of values can be. This can help you, especially when practicing past papers, as it can show you what grade category you fall into depending on the number of marks you obtain. The latest IB grade boundaries can be found here.
General difficulty – IB Psychology is considered a moderately challenging individuals and societies course, as it requires less pure data manipulation than Economics but carries a heavier reading and essay-writing load than Business Management. For a more in-depth view into how hard IB Psychology is, check out this guide.
Getting the maximum score – The ultimate goal of any IB student is to get the highest score possible. To ensure your success in IB Psychology, we have compiled some tips to help you get a 7. You can read our suggestions in this post.
Assessment overview – The IB Psychology course consists of both external exams and internal assessments, which will be outlined in more depth in the section below. For a summary of the IB Psychology paper weighting, click here.
External Assessments - Exams
Paper 1 – This 90-minute exam integrates concepts, content, and contexts. Section A features compulsory short-answer questions on the core approaches. Section B requires applying content to unseen situations within specific contexts. Finally, Section C asks students to write one concept-based extended response. It accounts for 35% of the total grade at SL and 25% at HL. More information about the structure, time limit, weighting, and differences between SL and HL for Paper 1 can be found here.
Paper 2 – Also lasting 90 minutes, Paper 2 focuses on applying psychology to research contexts. Section A contains four compulsory questions specifically about the class practicals that students conducted during the course. Section B tasks students with evaluating an unseen research study using designated concepts. This paper carries a 35% weighting for SL and 25% for HL. More information about the structure, time limit, weighting, and differences between SL and HL for Paper 2 can be found here.
Paper 3 - This 1-hour and 45-minute paper is dedicated to the HL extensions: culture, motivation, and technology. Students are provided with a resource booklet containing quantitative and qualitative findings from several sources. They must answer four source-based questions that test their ability to interpret graphs, analyze data, discuss research considerations like credibility or bias, and synthesize information to evaluate a claim. More information about the structure, time limit, and weighting for Paper 3 can be found here.
Command terms – To succeed in the exams, you must understand what each question type is asking you to do. Command terms such as "Evaluate", "Discuss", "To what extent", and "Explain" all have different meanings and require you to structure your answer in a certain way. Browse through our list of command terms to understand what each one means.
Internal Assessment (IA)
Topic ideas – The Psychology IA allows you to explore a certain research question in depth. The IA is a written report where students design a hypothetical research proposal to investigate a population of interest. Unlike previous syllabi, students do not actually conduct the experiment. Instead, they must justify their methodological choices, such as using an experiment, interview, observation, or survey to address a real-life problem. It is worth 30% for SL and 20% for HL. Many topics can be explored in the Psychology IA. For a detailed list of topic ideas and examples, read our post here.
Criteria – The Psychology IA is scored against 4 main criteria, such as introduction, research methodology, data collection, and discussion. For a detailed list of the IB Psychology IA criteria and a checklist of what to include to maximize your chances of a 7, check out our guide here.
Format and word count – Psychology IAs should include sections such as an introduction, exploration, analysis, and evaluation. For a full guide to the format and structure of a Psychology IA, including what each section should contain, see this guide. The Psychology IA should be a maximum of 2200 words. For a guide on how many words each section should be, read this post here.
Extended Essay (EE)
Topic ideas – The EE is a 4000-word investigation that allows you to explore a certain research question in depth. Most often, a Psychology EE involves conducting a literature-based review using secondary sources to analyze a specific human behaviour. There is a wide variety of topics you can choose to investigate for your Psychology EE. For a detailed list of topic ideas and associated examples, read our post here.
Criteria – The EE is scored against 5 criteria that target different aspects of your investigation, such as critical thinking, analysis and evaluation. For a detailed list of the IB Psychology EE criteria and a checklist of what to include to maximize your chances of an A in the EE, check out our guide here.
Format – A well-presented EE can drastically improve your score. Psychology EEs should include sections such as an introduction, methodology, analysis, evaluation, and conclusion. For a full guide to the format and structure of a Psychology EE, including what each section should contain, see this guide.
Comparison to Other Individuals & Societies Subjects
Economics – IB Economics and Psychology are two of the more analytical subjects in Group 3. However, the analysis in IB Psychology focuses on human behaviour and study evaluation rather than market models. IB Psychology is more essay-heavy, while IB Economics relies more on diagrams and quantitative data. For a detailed overview of IB Economics and IB Psychology, including a comparison of course content, who should take these courses, and applicable university majors, read this guide.
History – IB History is considered more factual and memorisation-based compared to IB Psychology, which relies on scientific studies and evaluation. IB History is often considered to have a heavier writing volume, while IB Psychology is more structured around specific scientific criteria. Both subjects place a strong emphasis on source evaluation. For a detailed overview of IB History and IB Psychology, including a comparison of course content, who should take these courses, and applicable university majors, read this guide.
We hope this post has helped you learn more about IB Psychology. For more useful materials associated with the IB, check out the wide variety of IA, EE and TOK exemplars available at Clastify and other guides available on our blog.
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