IB Psychology (First Assessment 2027)

What is psychological literacy?

2025-09-09T18:01:49+03:00

Psychological literacy refers to the ability to apply psychological knowledge and skills to personal, professional, and societal challenges in everyday life. In IB Psychology students shouldn’t just learn psychological contents, terms and theories per se, but also learn how to use them meaningfully in real-world scenarios.

Psychological literacy includes:

(1) Understanding Core Psychological Concepts

Six basic concepts (bias, causality, change, measurement, perspective and responsibility) and knowledge of major psychological theories, principles, and research findings (e.g., cognitive biases, learning, development, mental health, personal relationships).

(2) Critical Thinking and Scientific Reasoning

Ability to evaluate evidence, understand research methods, and think critically about claims (e.g., distinguishing correlation from causation).

(3) Application to Real-World Contexts

Using psychological insights to improve communication, decision-making, well-being, education, work, and relationships.

(4) Ethical and Social Responsibility

Awareness of ethical issues in applying psychology and sensitivity to cultural and individual differences.

(5) Self-Awareness and Reflective Thinking

Understanding one’s own behavior, emotions, and thought processes, and using that insight for personal growth.

(6) Communication Skills

Effectively conveying psychological ideas to different audiences, both in writing and speaking.

About This Website

2025-11-20T09:39:56+02:00

THIS WEBSITE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

This peda.net website is consturcted and administered by Jyväskylän Lyseo Upper Secondary School IB Psychology teacher Markus Lajunen. All the possible materials covered in Markus' IB Psychology lessons are stored here. Please note, this website is only meant for sharing teacher's materials. No student work will be uploaded here.

Our school's MS O365 and ManageBac are used for uploading student works.

The primary communication channel is our school's Wilma. In addition to communication, all the topics covered during the lessons and possible homework are updated to Wilma under "Lesson diary" or "Tuntipäiväkirja". Students should actively keep track of the lesson diary.

Jyväskylän Lyseo Upper Secondary School uses Kognity as a primary study material. All suplementary materials can be found from this website.

Basic principle in Markus' teaching philosophy is that there should be as little as possible of any kind of formal homework. Everything should be done during the lessons. This does not mean that the students of IB Psychology should not study outside classes. As said above, all the teacher's materials are stored here in this peda.net website and all the lesson topics will be updated into Wilma's lesson diary. The students are encouraged to skim through the study materials in peda.net BEFORE each lesson and review the contents with the help of the lesson diary AFTER each lesson. According to psychological research on learning, this strategy is very effective study method.

Jyväskylän Lyseo Upper Secondary School offers IB Psychology in both Standard Level (SL) and Higher Level (HL).

Markus Lajunen, Teacher of TOK And Psychology

2023-05-25T16:30:11+03:00

Markus Lajunen
markus.lajunen@gradia.fi
040 3414703

The IB Psychology Guide

2025-02-10T09:45:56+02:00

IB Psychology Guide (First Assessment 2027, Revised Version from December 2025): IB Psychology Guide (First Assessment 2027, Revised Version from December 2025)
IB Psychology Guide (First Assessment 2027, Original Version from February 2025): IB Psychology Guide (First Assessment 2027, Original Version from February 2025)
Changes to The IB Psychology Syllabus: Changes to The IB Psychology Syllabus
Psychology Teacher Support Material for The First Assessment 2027 Syllabus: Psychology Teacher Support Material for The First Assessment 2027 Syllabus
Specimen Papers for The First Assessment 2027 IB Psychology Guide: Specimen Papers for The First Assessment 2027 IB Psychology Guide

Useful Links for All IB Psychology Students

2025-02-10T10:43:22+02:00

English-Finnish Psychology Dictionary
Extremely useful website for checking psychological vocabulary

List of psychological theories
A Wikipedia page. You don't need to know all the theories in psychology, there are a lot of them, but this wikipedia page can help you to understand something about the scope of psychology.

How theories are used in psychology?
A summary of theories in general and the nature of theories in psychology

Psychology wizard
This is not an IB Psychology site, but contains some good info on psychology

25 famous psychological studies
Summary of famous psychological studies

IB Psychology Unit Plan in Jyväskylä Lyseo Upper Secondary School

2026-04-07T15:26:43+03:00

IB1 Year

Term 1: What is IB Psychology? Review of the pre-IB course. Introduction to the six concepts of the IB Psychology syllabus. Learning and cognition context with all the concepts and contents (biological, cognitive and sociocultural approach with research methodology).
Assessment: Paper 1 Section A and Section B for both HL/SL

Term 2: Class practical: Experiment and report.
HL Extension: The role of culture, motivation and technology in the context of Learning and cognition + data-analysis for Paper 3.
Human development: Models of development context with all the concepts and contents.
Assessment: Paper 1 Section C for both HL/SL

Term 3: Human development: Development of self context with all the concepts and contents.
HL Extension: The role of culture, motivation and technology in Human development + data-analysis for Paper 3.
Class practical: Observation and report
Assessment: Paper 2 section A for both HL/SL based on experiment and observation

Term 4: Health and well-being context with all the concepts and contents.
Assessment: Full Paper 1 based on the contexts of Human development: Development of self and Health and well-being as a whole

Term 5: Class Practical: Interview and report.
HL Extension: The role of culture, motivation and technology in Health and well-being + data-analysis for Paper 3.
Human relationships context with all the concepts and contents.
Assessment: Paper 2 Section B for both HL/SL

IB2 Year

Term 1: Human relationships context with all the concepts and contents.
HL Extension: The role of culture, motivation and technology in Human relationships + data-analysis for Paper 3
Class Practical: Survey and report
Assessment: Full Paper 2 for both HL/SL

Term 2: Internal assessment task and data-analysis for HL.
Assessment: Predicted grade of the internal assessment

Term 3: HL extension: data-analysis for HL
Assessment: Paper 3 for HL

Term 4: Review of the whole IB Psychology syllabus and final mocks (all papers at least once).