Sociocultural Approach SAQsExam Question Bank

This post explains what sociocultural approach SAQs to expect in Paper One.

Jump to…

• IB’s Example SAQs
• Practice SAQs
• Revision Tips
• Some Examples
• Study Tips
• Teacher Tips

The Topics

The short answer questions (SAQs) in Paper 1, Section A are based on the three approaches. You will be asked two SAQs. One of these might be from the sociocultural approach. The possible topics exam topics are:

• Cognitive dissonance
• Compliance techniques*
• Conformity
• Cultural dimensions*
• Emic approach
• Enculturation
• Etic approach
• Models of acculturation*
• Social identity theory
• Social learning theory 

*For these topics you can study one or more – I recommend one.

Read more:

• The biological approach SAQs (Link)
• The cognitive approach SAQs (Link)
• Paper One Overview (Link)

IB’s Example SAQs

Practice SAQs

IB Version

Based on the IB’s Psychology Guide, this is how they might phrase the SAQs:

• Cognitive dissonance: Explain the role of cognitive dissonance in one human behaviour.
• Compliance techniques: Explain the role of one compliance technique in changing human behaviour.
• Conformity: Explain the role of conformity in understanding one human behaviour.
• Cultural dimensions: Explain the role of one cultural dimension in one human behaviour.
• Emic approach: Explain the use of the emic approach in researching one or more human behaviours.
• Enculturation: Explain the role of enculturation in one human behaviours.
• Etic approach: Explain the use of the etic approach in researching one or more human behaviours.
• Models of acculturation: Describe one model of acculturation.
• Social identity theory: Describe social identity theory.
• Social learning theory: Describe social learning theory.

Mr Dixon’s Version

The IB loves the phrase “the role of.” Personally, I don’t like it. I find it too abstract. So here’s how I’d phrase SAQs for each of these topics:

• Cognitive dissonance: Explain the effect of cognitive dissonance on one behaviour.
• Compliance techniques: Explain the effect of one compliance technique on one behaviour.
• Conformity:* Explain how conformity can influence human behaviour.
• Cultural dimensions: Explain the effect of one cultural dimension on human behaviour.
• Emic approach: Explain the use of the emic approach in researching one or more human behaviours.
• Enculturation: Explain the effect of enculturation on one human behaviour.
• Etic approach: Explain the use of the etic approach in researching one or more human behaviours.
• Models of acculturation: Describe one model of acculturation.
• Social identity theory: Describe social identity theory.
• Social learning theory: Describe social learning theory.

*Conformity is a tricky one. The IB Guide suggests we’re explaining how conformity affects human behaviour. However, we often study what causes conformity as well. Reviewing both would prepare you for either question.

Remember you must include an example in your answer. That could be a real or hypothetical situation or study. Hopefully the IB will add a phrase in the question to make this clear, but currently the specimen papers do not.

Teacher tips:

• To make the questions clearer, you could add the following phrase to each question:  “Use one example to support your answer.”
• You can use the above questions as learning outcomes in your planning.

Two Step Revision Method

The following two-step method can be used for all SAQ topics in the three approaches.

1. What is…?
2. How and why does…?

What is…?

Simply put this phrase in front of every topic:

What is…

• …cognitive dissonance?
• …a compliance technique?
• …conformity?
• …a cultural dimension?
• …an emic approach?
• …enculturation?
• …an etic approach?
• …acculturation?
• …social identity theory?
• …social learning theory?

If you can define or summarise each of the topics in 1-2 sentences then you’re ready for Phase 2: How and why…?

How and Why…?

It’s not enough to define each key term. You have to explain them. What you’re explaining depends on what type of topic it is. All the SAQ topics fall into three categories:

1. Cause-effect
2. Theories/models
3. Research 

You can read more about the three types of SAQs in this blog post.

Cause-Effect: For these topics you need to explain how and why something is influencing cognition or behaviour.

• Cognitive dissonance: How and why does cognitive dissonance influence behaviour?
• Compliance technique: How and why does one compliance technique influence behaviour?
• Conformity: How and why does conformity influence behaviour?
• Cultural dimension: How and why does one cultural dimension influence behaviour?
• Enculturation: How and why does enculturation influence behaviour?

Research: For these topics you need to understand how and why these different strategies are used.

• Emic approach: How and why is an emic approach used to study behaviour?
• Etic approach: How and why is an etic approach used to study behaviour?

Theories/Models: For these topics you need to summarise how the theory or model explains behaviour. While you could add a “why” for the theory (e..g why the theory was proposed), it’s not as important as being able to summarise the theory in full.

• Social identity theory: How does social identity theory explain behaviour?
• Social learning theory: How does social learning theory explain behaivour?
• Acculturation model: How does one acculturation model describe the acculturation process?

Some Examples

The following examples are provided to give you a general understanding of the kinds of topics you could write about.

• Cognitive dissonance: Cognitive dissonance and divorce.
• Compliance technique: The authority principle
• Conformity: Conformity’s effect on group think.
• Cultural dimension: Individualism/collectivism influence on conformity.
• Emic approach: Emic approaches to studying mate preference.
• Enculturation: Enculturation influences on self-control.
• Etic approach: Etic approaches to studying mate preference.
• Models of acculturation: Berry’s model of acculturation.
• Social identity theory: Social identity theory’s explanation for BIRG-ing (Basking in Reflected Glory).
• Social learning theory: Social learning theory explanations of substance abuse.

Study Tips

1. T-REX SAQs
2. Plan with Infographics
3. Beware the SAQ Pitfall

T-REX: This acronym can help plan your answers ahead of time. You can read more about it here.

Plan with Infographics: This blog post includes a series of infographics that might help plan your answers.

Beware the SAQ Pitfall: For every SAQ you need to have two parts: the topic and the example. They should be related but different. It’s easy to blend the two and lose marks. You can read how to avoid falling into this trap here.

Teacher Tip

Content through Contexts: The approaches don’t need to be taught separately from contexts. The above topics can be embedded easily into the four contexts. Where possible, it helps to cover the same topic in two different contexts. This allows revision and repetition. For example, you can use individualism/collectivism as a cultural factor in a cognitive process (Learning and Cognition) and also as an explanation for conformity (Human Relationships).