The IB Psychology IA gives you the opportunity to become a real psychologist. You’ll work in a group to plan, prepare and conduct a psychological experiment on actual participants. Let’s start at the end… The Final Report Your final IA is 1,800 – 2,200 word report summarizing your experiment. It will have four major sections: Introduction Exploration Analysis Evaluation The …
What if you get the “wrong results?”
Your IA experiment didn’t work? You were hoping to “prove” your theory right and have the same results as the original weren’t you? Never mind, this can teach you a few valuable lessons and it won’t affect your marks. Here’s what you need to do. You’ll still need to conduct your descriptive and inferential statistics. You’ll also need to explain …
How to write your IA evaluation
If you miss one important detail you could lose marks. Read carefully so you can score 6/6 in the IA Evaluation. Of the four sections in the IA (Introduction, Exploration, Analysis and Evaluation), the Evaluation is the hardest to write. Fewer students score in the top mark band (5-6 out of 6) for this than any other section. In fact, …
Two-tailed or one-tailed test?
I can almost guarantee you’ll need a one-tailed test for your inferential statistics in the IB Psychology IA. Let’s see why. It’s one of the most common mistakes made in the analysis, but it’s so easy to avoid. Do you need a one or two-tailed inferential statistics test (e.g. MWU or Wilcoxon)? The Easy Answer If you have a one-tailed …
Correlational studies on PTSD
Correlational studies are one of the most commonly used research methods in the study of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In this post we’ll review WHAT correlational studies are, HOW they’re used to study PTSD and WHY they’re used. We’ll also review three key studies that can support this explanation. Research methods essays are the hardest to write, but that also …
Example Essay: Research methods (case studies) in the biological approach
Essays on research methods and ethical considerations are the hardest to write in IB Psychology exams. Here is an example essay on the use of case studies in the biological approach. Notice how the essay has a good balance between explaining the method (central argument), using studies (supporting evidence) and explaining limitations (counter-arguments). Read More: Example Essay: Technological Techniques 10 …
Quizlet – The SAQ Additional Terms
There are 17 possible “SAQ only” terms. At first these might seem daunting, but nearly all of these can be easily combined to the existing topics. One of the best ways to show knowledge of these topics (and earn marks in exams) is to offer precise and concise definitions of these terms. More Resources: Example SAQs and studies or all …
IA Graph: How to create the perfect graph for your IB Psychology IA
Your graph must be accurate and “address the hypothesis.” In this post we’ll look at how you can create the perfect IA graph for the IB Psychology IA. Your research hypothesis will be based on the effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable. To test this hypothesis you created two conditions (I hope) in your experiment to see …
Mean, median or mode? How to apply descriptive statistics for the IA.
Read carefully so you’ll know how to apply descriptive statistics for the IA PROPERLY! (Or watch the video explanation here). I will freely admit, that I can’t explain it any clearer than what’s included on this excellent post on MyIB. Perhaps the most value I can offer is to make people aware of this resource. Before we look at what you have …
How to describe the theory or model in your IA Introduction
Here I explain how to describe the theory or model in your IA Introduction for IB Psychology. WARNING: This post is only for those aiming for 7s. (Henceforth I will just say “theory” to make things easier but know that I mean theory or model) There are three things I would recommend including to have a full description of your …