Practice IB Psychology (First Exam 2027) Topic 3. Contexts with authentic exam-style questions for both SL and HL students. This question bank focuses on the exact syllabus content for 3. Contexts and mirrors Paper 1, 2, 3 style where relevant.
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In the context of human relationships, evaluate explanations of prejudice and discrimination.
Aron and colleagues investigated whether interpersonal closeness can be deliberately generated through structured self-disclosure. Pairs of previously unacquainted students were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In the closeness condition, partners worked through a set of questions that gradually escalated in personal depth, taking turns to answer and disclosing increasingly personal information and feelings. In the control condition, partners answered small-talk questions of similar length. After about 45 minutes, participants in the escalating self-disclosure condition reported feeling significantly closer to their partner than those in the small-talk condition. The researchers concluded that mutual, escalating self-disclosure can rapidly increase feelings of closeness between strangers, highlighting the role of reciprocal disclosure in the formation of relationships.
References: Aron, A., Melinat, E., Aron, E. N., Vallone, R. D. and Bator, R. J., 1997. 'The experimental generation of interpersonal closeness: a procedure and some preliminary findings.' Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23(4), pp. 363 to 377. source adapted.
Discuss the following study with reference to two or more of the following concepts: bias, causality, measurement, and/or responsibility.
In the context of health and well-being, evaluate biological treatments of one mental disorder.
Brown and Harris investigated the social factors that make depression more likely in women. They interviewed a large sample of women in a district of London about recent stressful life events and their social circumstances, and assessed who had become depressed. Depression was much more common in women who had experienced a severe life event or major difficulty. Certain 'vulnerability factors' increased the risk that such events would lead to depression: lacking a close confiding relationship, having several young children at home, not working outside the home, and the loss of one's own mother in childhood. The researchers concluded that depression in women arises from an interaction between provoking life events and social vulnerability factors.
References: Brown, G. W. and Harris, T., 1978. Social Origins of Depression: A Study of Psychiatric Disorder in Women. London: Tavistock. source adapted.
Discuss the following study with reference to two or more of the following concepts: bias, causality, measurement, and/or responsibility.
In the context of health and well-being, evaluate sociocultural explanations of one mental disorder.