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IB DP Psychology — Sociocultural Approach / Technology Unit | SL & HL | Paper 1
🎯 Learning Intentions By the end of this note, you will be able to:
- Define self-concept, digital identity, and attachment in the context of technology use using IB-aligned terminology.
- Explain how online environments shape and sometimes distort an individual's sense of self.
- Describe the role of social media and digital platforms in the formation and maintenance of identity.
- Evaluate research evidence for the relationship between technology use and self-concept using supporting and opposing studies in ACAS format.
- Explain how attachment theory applies to human–technology relationships, including parasocial relationships and device attachment.
- Apply concepts of self and attachment to a real-world case study from the sociocultural perspective.
- Discuss the extent to which technology use provides a complete explanation of changes in self-concept and attachment behaviour.
- Analyse research on technology, self, and attachment using relevant concept areas: Bias, Causality, Change, and Perspective.
Introduction & Context
Think about the last time you carefully chose a profile picture, edited a caption, or decided not to post something because it did not represent the version of yourself you wanted others to see. These small, everyday decisions reveal something profound: the way we present ourselves online is not accidental. It is a deliberate act of identity construction. For the first time in human history, billions of people are managing two simultaneous selves — one that exists in physical space and one that exists in digital space.
Psychologists have long been interested in how the self develops through social interaction. The sociocultural approach argues that our sense of who we are is not formed in isolation — it is shaped by the people around us, the groups we belong to, and the cultural norms we absorb. Digital technology has not replaced this process; it has amplified and complicated it. Social media platforms, messaging apps, and online communities have become powerful environments in which identity is formed, tested, and sometimes fractured. At the same time, researchers have begun to ask whether our emotional bonds — our attachments — are also being redirected toward devices, avatars, and online personas.
🪞 Analogy — The Hall of Mirrors Imagine walking through a hall of mirrors at a fairground. Each mirror reflects a slightly different version of you — taller, wider, distorted. You know none of them is perfectly accurate, yet you cannot help but look and compare. Social media platforms work similarly: each platform is a different mirror, reflecting back a curated, filtered version of the self. Over time, the question becomes — which reflection do you believe?
Core Concepts
Before we can understand how technology affects the self, we need to understand what psychologists mean by "the self." When you describe yourself — your values, your personality, your roles in different relationships — you are drawing on a mental structure that psychologists call the self-concept. It is not fixed from birth; it develops gradually through experience, feedback from others, and cultural context. The sociocultural approach emphasises that this development is deeply social: we come to know ourselves partly by seeing how others respond to us.
📖 Key Definition — Self-Concept Self-concept refers to the collection of beliefs an