It’s a popular study to replicate for the IA, but Glanzer and Cunitz’s 1966 study on the serial position effect is filled with danger when you’re not careful. If you’re doing this study for your IA, read this post carefully! Read more: Key Study: Multi-store Model and The Primacy and Recency Effects Key Studies for the IA These famous psychologists …
How to avoid the biggest mistake in IAsLink your investigation to the background theory
The most common mistake I’ve seen in IAs with the new curriculum is the lack of focus on the background theory or model. Students spend all their time and energy on the original study they’re replicating, that they completely overlook this crucial element. In this blog post (and video), (and in the video below) I want to show you an easy …
Key Study: Social status and stress in Olive Baboons (Sapolsky, 1990)
An interesting finding in the field of stress and health psychology is that people with higher social status are generally in better health: they have lower rates of heart disease, are less obese and live longer. Why? One reason could be because they are less stressed. A lot of our knowledge about stress and health comes from animal studies, particularly those …
10 ways to stress a monkeyFindings from studies on primate stress and social rank
Why would you want to stress a monkey? Hopefully you don’t. But learning about stressed monkeys can help us explain stress problems in humans. Decades of animal research has shown that social status is connected with stress. Typically speaking, monkeys with a higher rank in their group are less stressed and have lower levels of stress hormones like cortisol. Low-ranking …
Over 2200 words? 5 tips to help
It’s a great problem to have, but it’s still a problem. Hard-working students lament over having to cut out aspects of their IA to get under the 2200 words. But there’s always the fear that you’ll lose something important and that will cost you marks. Here’s 5 ways you can reduce your word count without losing marks. Firstly, remember that …
Is demand-withdraw a cross-cultural phenomenon?
One of the most commonly studied communication styles in married couples is “demand-withdraw.” It’s often called the “wife demand, husband withdraw” because this is the common trend. However, this phenomenon has mostly been reported in Western countries. This raises the question if it has the same negative effect on marriages across cultures or even if the same pattern even exists. …
Key Study: Why do people get divorced? (Scott et al. 2013)
Understanding what makes some marriages work and others fail is the life’s work of many psychologists. This simple study uncovers at least 5 common reasons why couples might divorce. It’s no surprise that getting divorced has massive negative consequences – psychological, physical, emotional and even financial. Divorced individuals are more at risk for substance abuse, depression and poor overall health. …
These famous psychologists would fail their IAs!
I can barely get through a psychology TED™ Talk by a psychologist these days without sighing at the blatant manipulation being presented. In class, I can’t help but pause the video and comment. My students know what’s coming and I’m sure I annoy the heck out of them. But I think it’s important. Here’s why these psychologists would fail their …
Example SAQ – How agonists affect behaviour
The “additional terms” that have been added to Paper 1 SAQs in IB Psychology can be a nuisance. However, there are ways to address the potential questions without adding too much content to your course. This post shows you an example SAQ that uses Passamonti et al.’s study on neurotransmission for a potential answer on agonists and behaviour. An agonist …
3 Examples of how to write excellent EE questions
The key to writing an excellent EE research question isn’t to begin with the perfect question in mind. Far from it. You have to begin broad and continually work on evolving your question so it gets more and more focused. In this post we look at three examples of how a broad topic can evolve into an excellent research question. …