The following are a list of practice exam questions for IB Psychology’s Health Option in Paper Two. This list contains past exam questions and some written with our best guess as to what the probable exam questions may look like. You could watch this as a video here.
READ MORE IB Psychology Exam Question Banks
- Paper 1: Biological approach (Link)
- Paper 1: HL Ext Bio Animal Studies (Link)
- Paper 1: Cognitive approach (Link)
- Paper 1: HL Ext Cog Technology & Cognition (Link)
- Paper 1: Sociocultural approach (Link)
- Paper 1: HL Ext Soc-cult Globalization (Link)
- Paper 2: Human Relationships (Link)
- Paper 2: Abnormal Psychology (Link)
The exam questions will be based on the topic and content headings as shown above. This page is taken from our revision guide for IB Health Psychology (Available here).
Exam Questions
#From past papers.
| TOPIC | Content | Essay Questions |
Determinants of Health |
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Biopsychosocial model of health and well-being |
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Dispositional factors and health beliefs**Although these may be taught together, assessment questions may be formulated by separating these pairings. For example, a question could be set on dispositional factors, or health beliefs, or dispositional factors and health beliefs” (IB Guide, pg 39). |
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Risk and protective factors |
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| Exam tip: If you study the topic “Health Problems” you could use that content to cover most of the “Determinants of health” topics as well. | ||
Health Problems
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Explanations of health problem(s) |
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Prevalence rates and of health problem(s) |
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Promoting Health |
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Health Promotion |
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Effectiveness of health promotion programmes |
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| Exam tip: The “Promoting health” topic is the hardest to prepare for. Imagine being asked about the cognitive approach to promoting health. Stick to health problems and determinants of health. | ||
Approaches (Bio, Cog & Soc-cult)
If questions about the three core approaches are asked they will be based on the three “topics” for the Health Psychology option: determinants, problems and promotion.
Determinants of Health
- Discuss the sociocultural approach to understanding determinants of health.
- Contrast one biological and one cognitive determinant of health.
- Contrast two approaches to understanding the determinants of health.
Health Problems
- Discuss the biological approach to understanding one or more health problems.
- To what extent does the cognitive approach explain one or more health problems.
- Evaluate the sociocultural approach to understanding one health problem.
Promoting Health
- Discuss the biological approach to promoting health.#
- Discuss one or more sociocultural factors in promoting health.#
- Evaluate the biological or cognitive approaches in promoting health.
- Contrast two approaches (biological, cognitive or sociocultural) in promoting health.
Research Methods & Ethical Considerations
Questions about research methods and ethics will be based on the three “topics.”
Research Methods
Essay Questions
- Evaluate the use of one research method used to study determinants of health.
- Discuss approaches to research in the study of health problems.
- Evaluate the use of two research methods used to study health problems.
- Note: In May 2021 the IB asked about two research methods in abnormal psychology, so it is possible to be asked about two methods.
- Evaluate one or more research methods used to study the determinants of health.
- Evaluate one research method used to study the effectiveness of one or more health promotion programmes.
The phrase “approaches to research” is used in the official IB Psychology guide and it means “research methods” (e.g. true experiments, correlational studies, etc.) Students should be prepared for this phrasing, but hopefully the IB exam team will use the phrase “research methods” so as not to get confused with the three approaches (bio, cog & socio-cult).
FAQ: Are different types of experiments separate research methods? No, according to the IB for Paper 1 and 2. So if you’re asked to write about “two” research methods, you can’t choose true experiments and quasi experiments. These count as “one” method.
Ethical Considerations
Essay Questions
- Discuss one or more ethical considerations related to research on determinants of health.
- Discuss one or more ethical considerations related to research on health problems.
- Discuss one ethical considerations related to research on health problems.
- Discuss one or more ethical considerations relevant to one study on the treatment of disorders.
Notes
- Paper Two is essay questions only.
- SL students write one essay for one option, HL students write two essays on two options.
- There are three topics in the abnormal psychology option and there will definitely be one question per topic, which means you can safely study only one topic per option. HOWEVER, if you’re doing this then you need to be prepared to answer any possible question on that topic, including the three approaches, research methods and ethical considerations in relation to that topic.
Got a question or noticed a mistake? Always feel free to let me know in the comments.
Travis Dixon is an IB Psychology teacher, author, workshop leader, examiner and IA moderator.