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Psychology textbook (2025)

  • Psychology textbook (2025)

This section of the site serves as a textbook for the IB psychology curriculum, with the first exams in May 2027. The textbook includes videos, vocabulary resources, quizzes, and full references.  Please note that the new curriculum encourages students to explore areas of their own interest.  Students are not required to learn all that is in this textbook.

The focus of the curriculum

Concept-based: You will also see that the textbook contains less research. This is because the new curriculum does not require students to memorize studies to answer questions. They will never be assessed on recall of the details of a study. Instead, students may use examples and discuss concepts related to specific contexts.

Inquiry-driven: The curriculum offers a lot of choices. Teachers and students should develop units based on curiosity.

Learning by doing.  Students will carry out four practicals to develop an understanding of research methods.

Psychological literacy: The curriculum is skill-focused. This includes evaluating research, data analysis, applying theory to real-world problems, and employing ethical research methodology.

 

Chapter 1: Concepts in Psychology

An introduction to the field of psychology and the key concepts that are the foundation for the DP Psychology course.

Image courtesy of KROMKRATHOG at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Chapter 2:  Research methods and critical thinking

An explanation of the core research methods in psychology.  This chapter also provides a critical thinking toolkit for evaluating research.

Chapter 3: Learning and Cognition

This chapter focuses on cognition.  The cognitive processes are memory, thinking and decision-making, attention, perception, and language. Students must study thinking and decision-making and one other cognitive process. There is also a set of core content for the cognitive approach that may be assessed on Paper 1a.

Chapter 4: The Biological Approach

This chapter focuses on biological factors in behavior and cognition. The biological approach has a core content that may be assessed on Paper 1a. This content is also present in all of the contexts.

Chapter 5: Human relationships

This chapter focuses on group behavior and interpersonal relationships. Interpersonal relationships may focus on social relationships or on conflict/aggression. The sociocultural approach also has a set of core content that may be assessed on Paper 1a.

Chapter 6: Health and well-being

This chapter examines factors that may affect our mental and physical health. You must study one clinical disorder (major depressive disorder, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorders, or anxiety disorders) and one health problem (obesity, drug misuse or abuse, or social media addiction).

Chapter 7: Human Development

Students must learn one model of development (cognitive, social, moral, or language development). This chapter also focuses on the development of self, looking at the enculturation of social norms, attachment, peer influence, and the role of childhood experiences.

Chapter 8: Assessment

This chapter explains how you are assessed on Papers 1, 2, and 3. In addition, it explains the assessment of the internal assessment. Sample papers are available in the student resources section of the site.

Selected Pages

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