Practise IB Psychology SL 3.1.9 questions by discussing prevention, coping and health promotion, then evaluating treatments and programmes.
Discuss two strategies to build resilience.
Refer to the paper 2 assessment criteria when awarding marks.
The command term "discuss" requires candidates to offer a considered and balanced review that includes a range of arguments, factors or hypotheses of two strategies building resilience, which is the ability to overcome adversity.
Candidates may refer to factors associated with resilience such as caring and supportive relationships within the family, skills in communication and problem-solving, the capacity to make realistic plans and take steps to carry them out, education, and relationships with pro-social adults.
Strategies may include, but are not limited to:
- social programmes for youth such as Head Start or the Big Brothers Big Sisters programme (Tierney et al., 1985)
- programmes dealing with parental education (for example, social learning theory) (Sanders et al., 2002)
- developing skills to protect and promote well-being, for example, CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) and social skills training
- stress inoculation training
- programmes to develop psychological strengths (for example, anger management).
Relevant discussion may highlight that:
- resilience is a complex concept and it is important to put forward multiple ways of promoting it
- strategies building resilience should consider that a child's ability to build resilience is dependent on their age and stage of development
- these programmes may reflect cultural differences: a person's culture might have an impact on how he or she communicates feelings and deals with adversity
- being resilient does not guarantee that young people will always have happy and productive lives.
If a candidate discusses more than two strategies, credit should be given only to the first two. However, candidates may address other strategies and be awarded marks for these as long as they are clearly used to evaluate one or both of the two main strategies addressed in the response.
If a candidate discusses only one strategy, the response should be awarded up to a maximum of [5 marks] for criterion A, knowledge and comprehension, up to a maximum of [4 marks] for criterion B, critical thinking, and up to a maximum of [2 marks] for criterion C, organization.