IB Psychology — Concepts, Methods and Key Studies flashcards
10 of 78 cards free to study here · 8 topics · the whole deck is built into Willys
The course concepts applied to research, experimental and qualitative methods, sampling, validity and ethics, and the classic studies used as evidence across the biological, cognitive and sociocultural approaches and the contexts.
Learn deck · part of IB Psychology · written against: IB Diploma Programme IB Psychology current subject guide; SL and HL in one deck, HL-only cards under subtopic tags starting HL. Updated 2026-10-10.
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Applying the concept of causality: some studies link depression with lower serotonin activity. Why would such a link not show that low serotonin causes depression?The link is a correlation: depression could lower serotonin activity, or a third factor such as chronic stress could drive both. A causal claim needs a manipulated variable with other factors controlled.Concepts
Watch out: this 'direction of the relationship' problem is called bidirectional ambiguity. -
Applying the concept of bias: how does researcher bias differ from participant bias, and how does a double-blind design deal with both?Researcher bias is the investigator's expectations shaping how data are collected or interpreted; participant bias is participants changing their behaviour because they guess the aim or want to look good. If neither side knows who is in which condition, neither set of expectations can steer the result.Concepts
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How does a laboratory experiment differ from a field experiment, and what trade-off does the choice involve?Both manipulate an independent variable, but a lab experiment runs in a controlled, artificial setting and a field experiment in participants' natural environment. The lab gives tighter control of confounds; the field gives more natural behaviour at the cost of that control.Research Methods › Experiments
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What distinguishes a natural experiment from a true experiment?In a natural experiment the independent variable changes because of an event the researcher does not control — for example, a community receiving television for the first time — and participants cannot be randomly allocated, so causal conclusions are weaker.Research Methods › Experiments
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What did Maguire et al. (2000) find in the hippocampi of London taxi drivers, and why is it taken as evidence for neuroplasticity?MRI scans showed larger posterior hippocampi (and smaller anterior regions) than in matched controls, and posterior volume correlated with years of taxi driving — suggesting the brain changed with extensive spatial navigation.Biological Approach
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What did the case of HM show about short-term and long-term memory?After much of both medial temporal lobes was removed in 1953, HM kept a normal short-term memory span but could form almost no new long-term declarative memories (anterograde amnesia) — evidence that the two stores depend on different brain systems.Cognitive Approach
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Summarise the procedure of Milgram's (1963) obedience study.Forty men recruited by newspaper advert and direct mail acted as 'teachers' told to give a 'learner' (a confederate) shocks rising in 15-volt steps up to 450 volts for each wrong answer; the shocks were fake, and the experimenter used standard prods when they hesitated. 26 of the 40 went to the maximum.Sociocultural Approach
Watch out: archival studies of Milgram's files suggest those who doubted the shocks tended to give stronger ones and the prods were not always used as scripted, so the size of his effects is debated. -
What did Rosenhan's (1973) pseudopatient study suggest about the validity of psychiatric diagnosis?Eight healthy people who reported hearing voices saying words like 'empty', 'hollow' and 'thud' were all admitted to psychiatric hospitals and most were discharged with schizophrenia 'in remission' despite behaving normally — suggesting diagnoses were shaped by context and labels.Health and Well-being
Watch out: later archival work has raised serious doubts about how Rosenhan collected and reported his data, so the study is now contested. -
In Baron-Cohen, Leslie and Frith's (1985) Sally–Anne test, which result supported a theory of mind deficit in autism?Most autistic children (about 80%) said Sally would look where the marble actually was, while most typically developing children and children with Down syndrome correctly said she would look where she left it — despite the autistic group's higher verbal mental age.Human Development
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In Sherif's Robbers Cave study, what produced hostility between the two groups of boys, and what reduced it?Competition for prizes produced intergroup hostility; superordinate goals that needed both groups to cooperate, such as restoring the camp's water supply, reduced it — supporting realistic conflict theory.Human Relationships
Watch out: archival research suggests the staff steered events, and Sherif's 1953 camp study failed to produce the same conflict, so the study is contested.
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About these cards
Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.
Checked against:
- Checked against the published reports or standard accounts of the studies named on the cards (reference only; no text copied).
- IB Diploma Programme Psychology guide, first assessment 2027 (topic outline only; no text copied).
- APA Dictionary of Psychology (dictionary.apa.org), NIH and MedlinePlus pages and the original studies, consulted as references; no text copied.
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