What’s on the IB Psychology Exam?

The IB Psychology exam assesses students by combining results on 3 or 4 assessments, depending on if a student is taking SL or HL. These parts are Paper 1; which assesses biological, cognitive, & sociocultural approaches, Paper 2; which assesses applications … Read More

Why Study Psychology?

If you’re just getting started studying psychology, you may ask why this field is worth your time and energy. Why study psychology? What will studying psychology do for you and what purpose does it serve? In my opinion, psychology is … Read More

Can I Get a 5 on the AP Exam?

From day one, I had a rule in my classes, and that rule was that throughout the entire school year, students were never allowed to ask me some variation of “Can I get a 5 on the AP exam?” or … Read More

Finding Freud’s Legacy in Neuroscience?

This is a link to an interesting article from Discover Magazine which looks at the intersection of Freudian psychoanalysis and modern-day neuroscience research. It covers quite a lot of ground along the way, considering cases of brain damage, anosognosia, Damasio’s … Read More

Hallucinations

I recently finished reading Oliver Sacks’ book Hallucinations. It’s a fascinating look at different types of hallucinatory experiences, from the visual scenes of Charles Bonnet Syndrome to hearing voices and feeling mystical religious ecstasy. In one chapter, Sacks also describes his … Read More

Amy Cuddy on Power Posing

This is one of my favorite TED talks from a few years ago and I just realized that I never posted it here. In this video, Amy Cuddy discusses her research (and personal experience) in how our body language influences … Read More

Tali Sharot on Optimism Bias

In this video Tali Sharot discusses how, for better or worse, optimism can bias our views of the world, particularly when it comes to assessing our own likelihood of experiencing negative events. She also mentions how it influences our self-assessment … Read More

Alzheimer’s Simulation

This ABC news segment shows two people undergoing a simulation to represent the difficulties that Alzheimer’s sufferers face. While Alzheimer’s is often mentioned in intro psych classes and textbooks in the context of acetylcholine function in learning, concentration, and memory, … Read More