And here is another Psychology Sorted review sheet. This Abnormal Psychology review sheet on major depressive disorder will help you to match the studies and arguments to the questions, in time for your May 2024 revision. I’ve started completing it just to give you the idea, and of course it can easily be adapted to fit other disorders. More to follow soon!
Holding my Breath – for anyone who wants to know the back story of substance abuse
While this book is not a traditional psychology textbook, it is of interest to relatives and loved ones of those with substance misuse problems. It also gives a personal insight for anyone working with the many people who suffer like this. It would be a useful addition to a high school library. All proceeds go to the Open Road charity … Read More
Overlaps between cognition and health
There are several overlaps between the cognitive approach and the health option. For example, cognitive psychology can explain stress through the theory of cognitive appraisal: how we appraise our level of stress can affect the level that we experience. The theory of planned behaviour can explain addictive behaviours and the varying success of health promotion programmes, mainly through its concept … Read More
Planning your course effectively – the sociocultural approach and health
The sociocultural approach is increasingly used in health psychology, as it became obvious that not all disorders could be explained through a biological etiology. For example, addiction can be caused and sustained through our position in social groups, and treated through the support of social networks. Pegg et al. (2018) conducted a survey that investigated social identity and alcohol use … Read More
Social networks are good for your health.
One of the options in IB Diploma Psychology is Health – how to stay healthy, the relationship between biology, cognition and health, and of course, how social factors affect our health. More and more psychologists are concluding that social support is one of the main factors in maintaining good mental and physical health. A recent longitudinal study conducted into the effect … Read More
Agonists – what are they?
Biological psychology has come to the fore over the past years. The mapping of the human genome combined with improved brain-scanning techniques has meant that the biological correlation to psychological conditions is more easily identifiable, and it is clear that many mental disorders like major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders and schizophrenia are explainable through a gene x environment interaction. This … Read More
Cognitive Dissonance theory explains a lot.
Cognitive dissonance theory was developed by Leon Festinger in 1957, and, for an old-ish theory is in very good health today. Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort we feel when trying to reconcile our beliefs with our actions and cognitive dissonance theory explains how we try and reduce this. An excellent example to illustrate this is teenage smoking. We all have … Read More
Social media ‘addiction’ – the evidence.
While most of us think of addiction as the physical and psychological dependence on a substance such as alcohol, cigarettes or any kind of drugs, the word has also been used for psychological dependence on behaviours like shopping, eating, gambling, and now screen time – especially the time that adolescents spend on social media. But what is the evidence for … Read More