Lesson Idea: Understanding Observation Methods (HL – Qualitative)

Travis DixonQualitative Research Methods

What you need to know… In order to complete this activity you need know about the different observation methods. You can read more about those observations here. It is important for Paper 3 answers that you can apply your knowledge to examples of research. This is a difficult critical thinking skill and is what separates good answers from excellent ones. …

HM and his Hippocampus

Travis DixonUncategorized

Here’s an example SAQ that explains HM’s Case Study. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHrmiy4W9C0&w=560&h=315] You can find more information here… Here’s a wonderfully melo-dramatic re-creation video that tells the story of HM from before his operation to the conclusions of the case study on HM: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mvx-mAUJL8&w=560&h=315] Here is a link to a website that you might find interesting. It is to do with …

Lesson Idea: Understanding the Approaches

Travis DixonCurriculum, Revision and Exam Preparation, Themantics

This post is adapted from an earlier post. If you’re adopting a thematic approach to the IB Psychology course, you might be wondering: “won’t students get confused about what studies go with each topic?” It’s easy to think this since at first glance the thematic approach appears to be jumbled. But in this post I’ll outline a couple of very …

Exam Tips: Research methods in the biological approach

Travis DixonBiological Psychology

Understanding research methodology in psychology can be difficult. Hopefully this post will help make things a little clearer.  When understanding any topic in psychology, I like to use a basic “What-How-Why” approach. This works particularly well for research methods. Read more: Exam Tips: How to write a research methods essay Lesson idea: Understanding research methods (with worksheet) Biological Approach Research …

Genetics and Ethics

Travis DixonBiological Psychology

Make sure you have the key questions, learning targets and glossary for this topic. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS Whenever you are asked to discuss ethical considerations of any study, you should first remember the APA guidelines we covered during our research work. These are ethical issues when studying humans such as: deception, informed consent, debriefing, confidentiality and right to withdraw. (For genetics …

The Evolution of Attraction

Travis DixonBiological Psychology

See Chapter 5 of “IB Psychology: A Student’s Guide” for more information. This topic requires you to explain one evolutionary theory of a specific behaviour. One behaviour we look at in my course is sexual attraction because humans have evolved to find certain characteristics of the opposite gender attractive. The characteristics or traits, that are attractive, are those that will …

An Introduction to Brain Imaging

Travis DixonBiological Psychology, Cognitive Psychology

Discuss the use of brain imaging technologies in investigating the relationship between biological factors and behaviour. Three of the important brain imaging technologies you should know about are: MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) PET (Positron Emission Tomography) Discuss the use of, means you can write about a range of issues relating to the use of technology. For example …