Embedded Files
To help you transition seamlessly into the rigours of the IB Diploma or Career-related Programme, this subject page houses your essential preparatory resources. Beyond the required Summer Task, designed to prime your analytical and subject-specific skills, you will find curated Recommended Reading and Recommended Viewing lists. These selections are handpicked by your future teachers to broaden your perspective, ignite your curiosity, and provide the cultural and academic context necessary for high-level inquiry. Engaging with these materials now will not only ease the step up from Grade 10 but will also give you a distinct advantage as you begin your two-year journey.
Summer Task/Project
Thinking Like a Psychologist
Thinking Like a Psychologist
Welcome to DP Psychology. Psychology is not simply about opinions, emotions, or “common sense.” It is the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes. This summer task is designed to help you begin thinking like a psychologist by questioning assumptions, using evidence, and connecting psychological ideas to real life.
Task 1: Psychology Documentary / Video / Podcast Response
Task 1: Psychology Documentary / Video / Podcast Response
Choose one documentary, video, or podcast episode linked to psychology.
You may choose from one of the following areas:
Memory and the Brain
Memory and the Brain
Possible focus areas:
memory
false memories
eyewitness testimony
brain development
trauma and memory
forgetting
Suggested options:
The Mind, Explained: Memory
Elizabeth Loftus TED Talk: How Reliable Is Your Memory?
TED-Ed or short educational videos on false memory, memory distortion, or eyewitness testimony
Social Behaviour
Social Behaviour
Possible focus areas:
conformity
obedience
helping behaviour
bystander effect
group pressure
social media influence
Suggested options:
videos on the bystander effect
videos on conformity and group pressure
short documentaries on social media and behaviour
educational videos on why people follow the crowd
Mental Health
Mental Health
Possible focus areas:
depression
anxiety
stigma
treatment
stress
resilience
Suggested options:
short documentaries on mental health
podcast episodes about anxiety, depression, stigma, or therapy
educational videos explaining mental health from a biological, cognitive, or sociocultural perspective
Your written response
Your written response
Answer the following questions in full sentences.
What human behaviour or mental process was explored?
What explanation was given for this behaviour?
Was the explanation mainly biological, cognitive, or sociocultural? Explain your answer.
What evidence was used in the documentary, video, or podcast?
Was the evidence convincing? Why or why not?
What questions do you still have?
How could this topic connect to real life?
What did this source teach you about psychology?
Task 2: Psychology Myth-Buster
Task 2: Psychology Myth-Buster
Choose one popular psychology claim and investigate whether it is true, false, or partly true.
Choose one claim:
Choose one claim:
Eyewitness memory is reliable.
Teenagers make bad decisions because they do not care about consequences.
People learn best when taught in their preferred learning style.
Social media causes depression.
Punishment is the most effective way to change behaviour.
People behave the same way in groups as they do alone.
Mental illness is easy to recognise.
People who are confident in their memories are usually accurate.
Your response should include:
Your response should include:
The claim you chose.
Whether you think the claim is true, false, or partly true.
Evidence from at least one credible source.
An explanation of why people might believe this claim.
A final judgement: what should we understand more carefully?
Suggested length: 250–300 words
Recommended Reading
Give details of recommended reading/essential booklist
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat — Oliver Sacks
Thinking, Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman
Predictably Irrational — Dan Ariely
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion — Robert Cialdini
The Psychopath Test — Jon Ronson
An Unquiet Mind — Kay Redfield Jamison
Reasons to Stay Alive — Matt Haig
The Body Keeps the Score — Bessel van der Kolk
Quiet — Susan Cain
The Lucifer Effect — Philip Zimbardo
The Social Animal — Elliot Aronson
Moonwalking with Einstein — Joshua Foer
Make It Stick — Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III and Mark A. McDaniel
Mindset — Carol S. Dweck
Coming of Age: How Adolescence Shapes Us — Lucy Foulkes
The Teenage Brain — Frances E. Jensen and Amy Ellis Nutt
Recommended Viewing
General Psychology
General Psychology
Crash Course Psychology — Hank Green
The Mind, Explained — Netflix
Brain Games — National Geographic
The Secret Life of the Brain — PBS
Memory and Cognition
Memory and Cognition
The Mind, Explained: Memory — Netflix
How Reliable Is Your Memory? — Elizabeth Loftus, TED Talk
What Is a False Memory? — TED-Ed
The Illusion of Memory — TED-Ed
Memory Hackers — PBS NOVA
How Your Memory Works — and Why Forgetting Is Totally OK — TED-Ed
Social Behaviour
Social Behaviour
The Bystander Effect — Heroic Imagination Project / educational videos
The Stanford Prison Experiment — documentary clips or selected educational extracts
A Class Divided — Jane Elliott / PBS Frontline
Conformity and the Asch Experiment — educational videos
Obedience and the Milgram Experiment — educational videos
The Social Dilemma — Netflix
Mental Health and Abnormal Psychology
Mental Health and Abnormal Psychology
The Mind, Explained: Anxiety — Netflix
Inside Our Autistic Minds — BBC
Roman Kemp: Our Silent Emergency — BBC
Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive — BBC
My Depression: The Up and Down and Up of It — HBO
The Anonymous People — addiction and recovery documentary
Brain, Development and Behaviour
Brain, Development and Behaviour
The Teenage Brain Explained — educational videos / TED-Ed
The Mysterious Workings of the Adolescent Brain — Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, TED Talk
How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime — Nadine Burke Harris, TED Talk
The Brain with David Eagleman — PBS
Babies — Netflix
Good Optional Films for Discussion
Good Optional Films for Discussion
Inside Out — emotion and memory
Memento — memory and identity
A Beautiful Mind — schizophrenia and stigma
The Truman Show — conformity, identity, reality, ethics
The Perks of Being a Wallflower — trauma and mental health
Good Will Hunting — therapy, trauma, relationships
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