1.1.3—Change
- Syllabus
- First assessment 2027
- Objective
- 1.1.3
- Level
- HL
Change can reflect intervention, development or context
Change is a difference in behaviour, health, learning or development across time or conditions. It may be gradual or sudden, planned or unplanned, and may arise from deliberate intervention, natural maturation, experience or changing circumstances.
Psychologists examine change with evidence across time or repeated conditions and ask what mechanism produced it. Interventions, prevention and health-promotion strategies may alter behaviour, but motivation, opportunity, social context and barriers can affect adoption, resistance and maintenance.
If anxiety scores fall after a school programme, the change could reflect the intervention, maturation, another event, measurement effects or selective dropout. A comparison condition, repeated measurement and evidence of the proposed mechanism make the intervention explanation stronger.
A before-and-after difference does not by itself prove treatment effectiveness. Distinguish natural development from purposeful change, consider agency and context, and check whether the change is valid, sustained and meaningful rather than merely statistically detectable.