Meet our teachers: Deborah Sutherland

Please tell us about yourself My name is Deborah Sutherland and I grew up in New York City where I was lucky enough to get my film education at my parents’ movie theatres. I worked in the film business for many years before becoming an advertising copywriter, which I...

The IB Psychology Subject Report – May 2019

Each year, following the May and November examination sessions, the IB publishes a subject report. This report provides the grade boundaries for all components of the course, as well as a review of candidate performance on each examination question. It also provides...

Psychology blog: The need for personal space

Psychologists, especially those taking a sociocultural approach, have investigated social and cultural differences in interpersonal space. Four categories of personal space have been identified: public, social, personal, and intimate. Hall (1966) argues that cultural...

Teacher retention: problem or progress?

Teacher retention has been a focus for educational bodies and news reporters for some time. It’s a global issue, with the same story seen around the world: class sizes have grown (and continue to do so). Paperwork and marking are increasing. Lastly, the...

Psychology blog: The significance of different cultural groups

Researchers investigating cultural groups and differences between these groups have adopted various approaches. These include in-depth studies of single cultures, cross-cultural studies of more than one cultural group, or studies of bicultural groups (e.g. Chinese...

Psychology blog: In two minds? The dual processing model

The dual processing model assumes that we think in two ways across several tasks. These can be understood as intuitive (automatic) thinking and rational (controlled) thinking. Kahneman (2001) called intuitive thinking System 1 thinking. This type of thinking is...