Triple A Learning IB Blogs » Psychology

Confusion over Cultural Dimensions

Peter Anthony — Tue, 08 May 2012 00:55:36 +0000

Students generally find the concept of cultural dimensions quite fascinating especially the characteristics of collectivism and individualism. However there does appear to be some confusion over what constitutes a dimension. The Learning Outcomes concerned is “Examine the role of two cultural dimension.” The question is whether individualism and collectivism are considered one or two cultural dimensions. While Crane and Hannibal see them as two, Law, Halkiopoulos and Bryan-Zaykov see them as one. Your comments would be most welcome.

Professional development with Triple A Learning’s cost-effective online workshops

Paul Clark — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:38:25 +0000

There is still time to take advantage of Triple A Learning’s cost-effective online workshops. Over the last three years we have trained over 4000 IB teachers on our IB authorised workshops, at both category 1 and category 3.

Follow the links below to see the range on offer. Our next session begins on May 28th. Do not miss out on these…book now to update your professional training. Our interactive workshops and resources will help take your career to the next level and support your classroom practice. Our courses cover subject-specific and whole-school topics and make the in-service training budget go further.

We also have an exciting new range of Triple A Learning workshops to supplement our IB-approved offering.

Artists using Art: looking at transcription & appropriation to enhance art teaching and learning
Assessing 20th century world history topics: the Cold War
Business & Management: Tackling the pre-seen case study (Paper 1)
Business & Management: Teaching Accounting and Finance
Developing and extending CAS in your learning community
Extended Essays – roles, responsibilities, research and resources
Introduction to Higher Education counselling
Language A: Meaningful Study and Assessment in Part 4 – Options
Music Prescribed works: analysing, comparing and contrasting Prokoviev and Xian
Supporting student inquiry in the DP
Teaching International Economics workshop
What makes an IB Library?

All our workshops are developed and mentored by highly experienced practitioners – many of whom have been senior examiners.

Workshops available…

Follow the links below (or select the IB Workshops tab at the top of the page) for details of all workshops running from 28th May 2012

IB-approved DP Workshops (Scroll down and select Diploma Programme)

These workshops count towards a school’s IB authorization process and, depending on the category chosen, are fully recognised as part of the IB authorization process
All workshops require 4-6 hours commitment per week to satisfy the certification requirements. Workshops cost from (GBP) £150 to £395 depending on the length of workshop

Triple A Learning Workshops (Scroll down and select Triple A Learning IB Workshops)

Our own Triple A Learning workshops are designed with you in mind. They are both subject specific and whole-school related. They have been developed to to support excellent classroom teachers by providing both strategies for delivery and shared resources. These workshops are not recognised by the IB for school authorization and evaluation purposes.

We also offer an extensive number of IB-approved MYP workshops.

To register and find out more…

Already have an account with us? Go to our Workshop Booking System Not registered before? Go to Registration Guidance If you have any queries, please contact us at workshops@triplealearning.com.

Emic and Etic Concepts

Peter Anthony — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:08:41 +0000

The terms etic and emic originate in linguistics. Linguistics studies both universal sounds common to all languages as well as sounds unique to one language. When applied to social sciences like psychology, it highlights differences in approach between research that aims to uncover what is common to all humans and studies that investigate what is unique to one culture.

Etic approaches typically employ cross-cultural studies. On the other hand, emic approaches investigate culture-specific behavior to discover behavior that is distinctive to that culture.

This article highlights these approaches.

Tajfel’s Study of In-Group and Out-group Behaviour

Peter Anthony — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:44:05 +0000

Though the SCLOA relies heavily on qualitative methods, experiments are also used and Tajfel’s (1971) study of in-group and out-group behavior is a good example to remind students of the diversity of the methods used.

The central hypothesis of Tajfel’s social identity theory is that group members of an in-group will seek to find negative aspects of an out-group, thus enhancing their self-image. Therefore people tend to divide the social world into “them” and “us” through complex processes of social categorization. The idea that groups convey a sense of social identify is one that usually resonates with adolescents and they can readily find examples of people who try to enhance the status of the groups they belong to. An interesting class discussion could be held on whether it is often the case that the in-group will discriminate against the out-group in order to enhance their self-image.

These resources provide additional information about Tajfel’s social identity theory:

Why Groups and Prejudices Form So Easily: Social Identity Theory and Mind Changers: Henri Tajfel’s Minimal Groups.

Zimbardo and The Lucifer Effect

Peter Anthony — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 07:59:44 +0000

Decades after Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment, news agencies like the BBC reported cases of torture and the humiliation of Iraqi inmates at the hands of the American military. Images of these young Americans mistreating prisoners shocked the world.

This event, and other cases of “good people doing bad things,” prompted Zimbardo to write The Lucifer Effect.In this text, he explores the fundamental questions about aspects of human nature, and asks the question: How is it possible for ordinary, average, even good people, to become perpetrators of evil? Students can read the overview of his book here.

The Psychology of Doomsday Predictions

Peter Anthony — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:47:05 +0000

Students are always fascinated by doomsday predictions. One prophet of doom gathered a large following last year and news stories about his movement is a way to introduce the SCLOA and qualitative methodology.

You might have followed the stories about a prediction of the end of the world made by Harold Camping. This article, Harold Camping ‘Bewildered’ After Apocalypse Comes and Goes Quietly reports on events immediately after the date and time he thought was designated for the end of the world, came and past.

Leon Festinger, a famous social psychologist, was interested in similar end of the world prophecies made by members of a cult in the 1950s. To understand how members of this cult reacted when their prophecy failed, Festinger used covert observation. His famous study, When Prophecy Fails (1956), is discussed in the IB Psychology Course Companion.

Students could be assigned an activity where they imagine themselves following in the footsteps of Festinger to investigate this modern example.

The Innocence Project

Peter Anthony — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:52:25 +0000

Memory is such a controversial topic in psychology that the debate over issues associated with this cognitive process have been called the “Memory Wars”.

The Innocence Project is dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustices. In particular they focus on how eye-witness testimony can lead to innocent people being imprisoned for crimes they did not commit.

Elizabeth Loftus

Peter Anthony — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:59:56 +0000

Elizabeth Loftus gained world-wide renown for her experiments showing that memory is not an accurate record, and is subject to various biases. Her studies revealed that witness reports of the same incident varied according to the wording used by the questioner and, as a result, the way witnesses are dealt with throughout the legal system has changed. Loftus later went on to show that it is possible to implant a whole false memory, as demonstrated by the ‘Lost in the Mall’ and ‘Bugs Bunny’ studies.

This episode of Mind Changers: Elizabeth Loftus has an excellent radio podcast on her contributions to our understanding of the CLOA.

Professional development with Triple A Learning’s cost-effective online workshops

Paul Clark — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:41:58 +0000

Follow the links below to see the range on offer. Our next session begins on FEBRUARY 20th. Do not miss out on these…book now to update your professional training. Our interactive workshops and resources will help take your career to the next level and support your classroom practice. Our courses cover subject-specific and whole-school topics and make the in-service training budget go further.

We also have an exciting new range of Triple A Learning workshops to supplement our IB-approved offering.

Extended Essays – roles, responsibilities, research and resources
Teaching International Economics workshop
Assessing 20th century world history topics: the Cold War
Language A: Meaningful Study and Assessment in Part 4 – Options
Language A: Literature Part 1 – Literature in Translation
Artists using Art: looking at transcription & appropriation to enhance art teaching and learning
Business & Management: Teaching Accounting and Finance
IB Music Prescribed works: analysing, comparing and contrasting Prokoviev and Xian
What makes an IB Library?
Introduction to Higher Education counselling

All our workshops are developed and mentored by highly experienced practitioners – many of whom have been senior examiners.

Workshops available…

Follow the links below (or select the IB Workshops tab at the top of the page) for details of all workshops running from 20th February

IB-approved DP Workshops (Scroll down and select Diploma Programme)

These workshops count towards a school’s IB authorization process and, depending on the category chosen, are fully recognised as part of the IB authorization process
All workshops require 4-6 hours commitment per week to satisfy the certification requirements. Workshops cost from (GBP) £150 to £365 depending on the length of workshop

Triple A Learning Workshops (Scroll down and select Triple A Learning IB Workshops)

We also offer an extensive number of IB-approved MYP workshops.

To register and find out more…

Already have an account with us? Go to our Workshop Booking System Not registered before? Go to Registration Guidance If you have any queries, please contact us at workshops@triplealearning.com.

The Media and Memory

Peter Anthony — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:11:48 +0000

Psychology is a very diverse science and issues related to psychology are present all around us. There are many opportunities to link what is being covered in the course with what students read, listen to and watch. Memory in particular is a source of great interest to writers, songwriters and filmmakers.

An interesting class discussion could be undertaken where students share a song, book or movie that relates to memory. As students learn various psychological theories related to memory they can evaluate how accurate these media portrayals are.