The purpose of this activity is to help you learn about design choices experimenters have and to think about the benefits and limitations of using each design. You will also learn about terminology for extraneous variables and other controls. It is designed to be studied during the Quantitative Methods unit (Chapter 6, 6.1b). It should take about 15-20 minutes. Key …
Clinical Drug Trials, PTSD and SSRIs
This post is designed to be used in lesson 4.6 in the PTSD unit plan. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of drug therapy using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to treat PTSD, we need to consult the research. The most common way the effectiveness of drugs are tested is through a carefully controlled experiments. These experiments are also known …
Lesson Idea: Psychology in Popular Media
This would be a particularly good TOK lesson. Activity One: Watch a TED Talk Watch this TED Talk by Molly Crockett, one of the researchers in the Passamonti et al.’s experiment on trytophan depletion and its effects on the prefrontal cortex. In this talk she explains why we should be wary of “neurobunk.” [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b64qvG2Jgro&w=560&h=315] After the video, discuss what …
What is an “experiment?”
If you’re reading this it’s probably because your teacher has assigned this as homework because you’ve called a study an “experiment” when it wasn’t an experiment at all. So this post is to help you know exactly when to use the term “experiment”, and when it’s safe just to say “study.” But before we get to that, let’s first clarify …
What makes an experiment “quasi?”
One key characteristic of a quasi-experiment is that one or more conditions of a true experiment cannot be met. This often includes the fact that there is no random allocation to the treatment or control conditions in the experiment. So if there is no random allocation, but there is still an IV hypothesized to have an effect on a DV, the …
Lesson Idea: Thinking critically about correlations
When looking at correlational studies and quasi-experiments it’s important, I think, to allow students to make the obvious conclusion first, which is generally one of causation. But a big part of the IB Psychology course is helping them to understand the mantra: correlation does not mean causation. This activity idea works well as a follow-up to the other activity about causation …
Lesson Idea: Explaining the difference between causation and correlation
This lesson works well with in the introductory unit, topic 1.2, lesson (d) “correlation.” The following TED Talk by Adam Grant is really interesting for a number of reasons and it’s well worth a watch. I like to show students the short segment from 8:25 to 10:30 where he talks about how mozilla firefox and google chrome browser users outperform …
Demand characteristics: What are they REALLY?
I was reading another research methods chapter in a new psychology textbook the other day and despite it’s excellent content in research methodology, it still (I think) mis-defined demand characteristics. The most common definition of demand characteristics out there goes something like, “demand characteristics are when participants are aware of the aim of the research and change their behaviour in a …
Lesson Idea: Understanding IVs and DVs
This lesson accompanies section 1.2(a) in IB Psychology: A Student’s Guide. Hook As a class, watch this clip from the BC documentary “Human Instincts” to show the replication of the MHC gene study. After this, I like to use the introduction slideshow to explain the definitions of an IV and a DV and how they were shown in this particular study …
Teaching Tip: Research Methods
When I first started teaching IB Psychology I followed the syllabus pretty much as it was laid out in the guide, beginning with the biological level of analysis. I even taught the LOs as they appear as well. But after a couple of years I realized that teaching the ethics, principles and research methods first in a unit (as they …
Internal Validity: And why I don’t teach it…
I’d love to hear how you feel about my rationale for not teaching students how to evaluate studies based on internal validity. There is one exception, however: their IA. I only introduce the concept of internal validity during the analysis of their IA results and procedures, as this is the only study I expect them to be able to make …
Rememberol
I like to use a basic, fictional study when introducing students to the concepts behind research in psychology. For this purpose, I pretend that I’ve designed a drug called “Rememberol” and that it helps students increase what they remember after they study. It’s a basic concept and the fact that it’s a pill enables me to use it to demonstrate …
Lesson Idea: Inferential Statistics
With 20 hours allocated for the IA and a lot to get done, I only have time in my course to plan one lesson for inferential statistics. In this time I want students to get a basic understanding of: how inferential stats differ to descriptive ones how to choose which inferential statistical test to use and most importantly, why inferential statistical tests …
Paper Three Questions 1a,b,c: Details
NOTE: THIS IS FOR THE NEW SYLLABUS! Remember that all three questions from Question 1 will be asked, so you need to be prepared to answer all three. There are 9 possible marks available for Question 1, which accounts for 37.5% of Paper One. The following is an overview of these three questions. 1a. Identify the method used and outline …
Sample Stimulus Material (Paper Three)
The most important thing to remember with Paper Three responses is that you know exactly what the questions might be. This makes it really easy to prepare. The difficulty is that you don’t know what the research stimulus will be, so it’s important that you get lots of practice at answering these questions with practice research summaries. Remember that the …
Evaluating Psychological Studies (Quantitative)
Introduction An evaluation requires the explanation of strengths and limitations. Thus, in order to evaluate anything we need to first understand its purpose or what it’s trying to do. So before you can evaluate a study in psychology you must first know and understand what the study is trying to do! Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour and mental …
Evaluating Psychological Theories
Updated Aug 2020 Remember that before you can begin to evaluate a psychological theory you must first know and understand the theory in question. Once you know and understand the theory, including what it is a theory of (i.e. what it’s attempt to explain and how) and the key components of the theory, you can then begin your evaluation. Read More: …
Biological Research Methods Example Essay (ERQ)
The following is an example essay about research methods used in the biological approach. It is by no means a perfect essay, but it would score well (14-16/22). The use of a human study instead of Rosenzweig would be one improvement, for example. Example Essay: Research Methods Biological Approach to Understanding Behaviour Paper One. Part B: Discuss how and why …
What are the design types in experiments?
Choosing the best research design for your experiment is an important part of the planning process. When conducting an experiment for the IB Psychology IA, you must think very carefully about which design is best for your purposes. Experimental Designs (MP, IS, RM) There are three design types of experiments: Independent Samples Repeated Measures Matched Pairs Independent Samples is when the …
What is a “controlled variable?”
A controlled variable is a variable that’s kept constant between the conditions of the experiment so that the only difference between the groups is the independent variable. Imagine you’re doing an experiment on yourself to see if drinking coffee in the morning gives you energy. On Monday you wake up, do yoga and then have a cup of coffee. At …
Operational DefinitionsHow to operationally define IVs and DVs
Updated May 2020 Operational definitions became important in Psychology when psychologists wanted to establish that psychological experimentation is truly scientific in nature. In this blog post, we’ll look at exactly what is an operational definition is and how to do it. This is a common error in IB Psychology IAs. Hopefully after reading this post, students will be able to …
Hypotheses
Updated June 2020 Writing good hypotheses in IB Psychology IAs is something many students find challenging. After moderating another 175+ IA’s this year I could see some common errors students were making. This post hopes to give a clear explanation with examples to help with this tricky task. Null and Alternative Hypotheses Null Hypothesis (H0) The term “null” means having …
Single and Double Blind Designs
How are single blind and double-blind techniques used in experiments? Before understanding about single and double-blind techniques, it is important that you understand the amazing power of the placebo effect. This is an interesting film about placebos and their effect. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfRVCaA5o18&w=560&h=315] Single Blind: A single-blind design is when the participant doesn’t know if they are in the “treatment group” or the “control …
Confounding Variables
Sometimes factors other than the IV may influence the DV in an experiment. These unwanted influences are called confounding variables. In laboratory experiments, researchers attempt to minimize their influence by carefully designing their experiment so all conditions are exactly the same – the only thing that’s different is the independent variable. Here are some confounding variables that you need to …
Independent and Dependent Variables
What are independent, dependent variables? The DV is what is being measured. It is the effect in other words. The IV is what is being manipulated by the researcher. In other words, it is the factor that changes in the different conditions of the experiment. The aim of an experiment, therefore, is usually to investigate the effect of the IV on the DV. Take this …