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 …