IB Diploma Psychology SL · One Option (Abnormal / Developmental / Health / Human Relationships)
Mini-Lesson
The option — Abnormal psychology
The options apply the three approaches to a real-world field. There are four options — Abnormal, Developmental, Health and Human relationships psychology. At SL you study ONE option, assessed by essay on Paper 2. This mini-lesson uses Abnormal psychology as the worked example.
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Option · structure
How the option works
Each option has three topics. In Abnormal psychology these are:
Factors influencing diagnosis — how disorders are classified and diagnosed, and what can go wrong.
Etiology (causes) — biological, cognitive and sociocultural explanations of a disorder.
Treatment — biomedical and psychological therapies, and their effectiveness.
Good answers draw on the three approaches and evaluate studies using the research-methods toolkit.
Diagnosis
Normality, abnormality and classification
Defining "abnormal" is not simple. Common criteria include:
Statistical infrequency, deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately, and deviation from ideal mental health — each has limitations.
Clinicians use classification systems: the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association) and the ICD-11 (WHO).
Quick check
Which is right?
?Which of these is a standard classification system used to diagnose mental disorders?
Diagnosis
Factors influencing diagnosis
Diagnosis must be reliable (consistent) and valid (accurate), but biases threaten both.
Rosenhan (1973), "On being sane in insane places", sent healthy pseudopatients to psychiatric hospitals reporting a single symptom. All but one were admitted (mostly with schizophrenia) and, once labelled, normal behaviour was reinterpreted as symptomatic; they were discharged as "in remission". This exposed problems with the validity of diagnosis and the power of labelling.
Quick check
Which is right?
?Rosenhan’s (1973) "On being sane in insane places" study mainly demonstrated problems with:
Diagnosis
Cultural and gender bias in diagnosis
Diagnosis can be distorted by culture and gender:
Cultural bias — symptoms and their expression vary across cultures; using one culture’s norms as the standard (an etic imposition) risks misdiagnosis.
Gender/reporting bias — differences in help-seeking and clinician expectations affect diagnosis rates (e.g. depression is diagnosed more often in women).
Quick check
Which is right?
?Symptoms of a disorder being expressed differently across cultures is an example of:
Etiology
Etiology of depression
Depression is best explained by combining approaches:
Biological: genetic vulnerability and serotonin. Caspi et al. (2003) found the short 5-HTT allele raised depression risk after stressful life events — a gene-environment interaction.
Cognitive:Beck’s cognitive triad — persistent negative views of the self, the world and the future, driven by negative schemas.
Sociocultural: stressful life events and low social support.
Quick check
Which is right?
?Beck’s cognitive triad describes persistent negative views of the:
Treatment
Treatment of depression
Biomedical:SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) block reuptake, increasing serotonin availability at the synapse.
Psychological:cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) challenges the negative cognitions in Beck’s triad and changes behaviour.
Effectiveness: often best combined; culture and individual factors influence outcomes.
Quick check
Which is right?
?SSRIs are thought to reduce depression by:
Sort it
Sort each item to its topic
Tap an item, then tap the Abnormal-psychology topic it belongs to.
🧐 Factors in diagnosis
🧬 Etiology
💊 Treatment
Match it
Match each researcher or therapy to its idea
Tap an item on the left, then its matching idea on the right.
Researcher / therapy
Idea
Evaluation
Evaluating explanations and treatments
Strong option answers evaluate:
The biopsychosocial model integrates biological, cognitive and sociocultural causes — no single explanation is complete.
Treatments are often most effective when combined (e.g. SSRIs plus CBT).
Consider cultural validity of diagnosis and treatment, and the ethics of research and care.
Recap
The big ideas to know
Option structure: four options; SL one / HL two; three topics each; Paper 2 essay
Diagnosis: DSM-5/ICD-11; Rosenhan (validity & labelling); cultural & gender bias
Etiology: Caspi (5-HTT x stress); Beck (cognitive triad); life events
Treatment: SSRIs (serotonin availability); CBT; often combined