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CBT and the treatment of depression

Psychology, Blog | April 3, 2014
Cognitive-behavioural therapy is the most common psychological treatment for MDD. It emerged from Beck’s theory as to the causes of depression. Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is a term that encompasses numerous specific treatment approaches. As the name suggests,...

Tajfel and Social Identity Theory

Psychology, Blog | February 20, 2014
Social identity theory was first proposed by Henri Tajfel (1971). He argued that the groups to which we belong are an important source of pride and self-esteem. We can feel good about ourselves by boosting the status of any group we belong to. Age-groups, sporting...

HM’s Brain

Psychology, Blog | February 2, 2014
Born in 1926, Henry Molaison had been hit by a cyclist when he was seven and from the age of 10 then started to have epileptic seizures that subsequently started to worsen as he neared adulthood. By the time he was 27, these seizures were so crippling that he...

The Malleability and Reliability of Eyewitness Testimony

Psychology, Blog | January 6, 2014
In a provocative article, John Wixted and Laura Mickes argue that eyewitness memory is a lot more reliable than previously considered. They make a distinction between malleability and reliability. While there is evidence that memory is malleable that does not...

Epigenetics

Psychology, Blog | December 15, 2013
Research has indicated that the genes in our DNA are not all active at the same time and can in fact be ‘silenced’ or ‘de-silenced’, i.e., switched on or off.  This process is called gene regulation and leads to differences in gene expression.  In other words,...

Gender considerations

Psychology, Blog | December 1, 2013
Gender considerations are an important element of IB Psychology. As the authors of 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology, Lilienfeld, Lynn, Ruscio and Beyerstein point out, one of the most enduring myths concerning gender is that men and women communicate in completely...