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Crafting an Internal Assessment (IA) for IB Psychology plays a key role in your academic path. This guide breaks down each criterion offering helpful tips to boost your IA performance. By sticking to this plan, you’ll have the tools to create a top-notch assessment that shows off your grasp of psychology concepts and research methods.
Criterion 1 – Introduction (6 Marks)
Your introduction has a big impact on your essay. It needs to cover what you’re saying or the main theory of your essay. You should include a quick overview of the problem you’re tackling, why it matters, what sparked your interest in this problem, or which books or ideas led you to work on it. Explain how you aim to solve it and give a short summary of your research method. But don’t give everything away in the introduction. Here’s how to write a strong introduction:
- State the aim: Make your study’s purpose clear and explain why it matters in psychology. Your aim should be exact, something you can measure, and tied to the psychology concept you’re looking into.
- Talk about the theory or model: Give a brief but full explanation of the psychology theory or research model you’re using. Tell us the main idea of the theory, including its rules, the people who worked on it, and a quick look at important research papers about it, if they matter to your study.
- Connect to your research: Show how your study ties in with the theory or model you picked. Make clear links between the theory and your research question.
- Point out variables and what you think will happen: If your research essay uses qualitative methods, you need to mention the dependent and independent variables.
Example:
Aim: The aim of the research was to examine the effects of background music on memory recall in high school students, more specifically, how the different generic types of music are involved in short-term memory.
Theory: This study is based on the Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) proposed by John Sweller in 1988. CLT states that working memory has a certain limited capacity and where this capacity is exceeded, learning is impeded. Background music could act as extraneous cognitive load and, as such is competing with limited cognitive resources and therefore affecting memory performance.
Studies by Salamé and Baddeley (1989) found that while the vocal music caused the most interference towards memory task performance, instrumental music or silence caused the least. However, there have been other studies that propose for mixed results, such as studies by Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky (1993), where a certain type of music (like Mozart’s sonatas) may also help the increase of spatial-temporal reasoning ability and thereby cognitive performance.
This research aims to build on what has been discussed before. It will be therefore hypothesized that different music genres would have different influences on memory recall, making classical music compared to pop and heavy metal music, as well as a silent condition.
Variables:
– Independent Variable: Background auditory conditions: silence, classical music, pop music, heavy metal music.
– Dependent Variable: Number of words correctly recalled in a short-term memory task.
Hypotheses:
– Null Hypothesis (H0): There will be no significant difference in memory recall scores between participants exposed to different background auditory conditions (silence, classical music, pop music, heavy metal music).
– Research Hypothesis (H1): Participants exposed to classical music will show much higher memory recall scores compared to those exposed to silence, “pop or heavy metal music.”
Criterion 2 – Exploration (4 Marks)
The exploration section outlines your research methods. To get a high score in this criterion:
- Break down the research design: Explain why you picked your experimental design (such as repeated measures or independent samples). Talk about how this design fits your research question best.
- Outline your sampling approach: Tell how you chose your participants and why. Discuss the good points and possible drawbacks of your sampling method.
- Back up your participant selection: Explain why the participants you picked suit the study. Think about things like age, education, and any specific traits that matter to your research question.
- Clarify controlled variables: Talk about how you managed confounding variables. This shows you understand potential threats to internal validity and how to address them.
- Support your material choices: Explain why you chose certain materials or tools for your study. This might include psychological tests, surveys, or experimental stimuli.
- Spell out the procedure: Give a step-by-step account of how you did the study. Make it detailed enough so another researcher could do your study again.
Example:
Research Design: This study uses a between-subject design to avoid practice effects and minimize the influences of individual differences such as musical preferences and memory abilities. Each participant will be assigned randomly to any one of four conditions; silence, classical music, pop music, or heavy metal music.
Sampling: Participants shall be selected from their different grades (the9thth to 12thth grades) and would include males and females through stratified random sampling. That way, the sampling would be better representative of the high school population while offering the advantages of random selection.
Participant Justification: High school students aged between 14 and 18 were chosen because this is the age group predominantly known for studying with background music. This age group has fully developed working memory capabilities permitting study within this type of cognitive task.
Controlled Variable:
- Time of day: All sessions will occur between 9 AM and 11 AM to control for potential effects on cognitive performance by time.
- Testing Environment: The subjects will be tested in the same quiet classroom environment, controlling for environmental factors.
- Music Volume: For all the four study conditions, the volume of music will be adjusted to as much as 60 dB to control for differences due to loudness.
- Task difficulty: All students will take the same memory task with equal length and frequency of words in the English language.
Materials:
- Memory Task: The memory task would consist of a list of 20 unrelated words, each with a medium frequency about 5-7 letters in length, as drawn from the MRC Psycholinguistic Database, so that the properties of words are matched.
- Musical Selections:
– Classical: Mozart Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K.448
– Popular: “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran
– Heavy Metal: “Enter Sandman” by Metallica
These selections have been chosen to represent different genres while controlling for things such as popularity and pace.
- Audio Equipment: High-quality noise-cancelling headphones will be used to ensure consistent audio delivery across all music conditions.
Procedure:
1. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the four conditions upon arrival.
- They will be seated in a quiet room and given instructions for the memory task.
- Participants in the music conditions will put on headphones, and the assigned music will begin playing.
- The list of 20 words will be presented on a computer screen, one word at a time, for 2 seconds each.
- Immediately after the presentation, participants will be given 2 minutes to write down as many words as they can remember, in any order.
- Following the recall task, participants will complete a brief questionnaire about their musical preferences and study habits.
- Participants will be debriefed and thanked for their participation.
Criterion 3 – Analysis (6 Marks)
You are required to present and interpret your findings in the analysis section.
- Data collection method description: You must describe how you collected your data, including scoring procedures for the memory task, if any.
- Presenting the results: Using appropriate statistical tests and appropriate graphical and tabular aids, present your findings. Ensure both descriptive and inferential statistics are used.
3.Interpret Results: Explain in your own words what your results mean in the light of your hypothesis and the background theory. Mention whether your result supports or fails to support the hypotheses.
- Analyze unexpected outcomes: If you found unexpected results, propose some explanations about the reasons for this outcome.
Criterion 4 – Evaluation (6 Marks)
Critically assess your study.
- Discuss findings: Link your findings to background theory or model. Explain how your findings support or challenge existing theories.
- Analyze strengths and limitations: Carefully evaluate your study design, sample and procedure. Include internal and external validity.
- Suggest modifications: Propose improvements to address the limitations you’ve identified. Describe in specific detail how these changes will improve research.
4.Discuss implications: For example, in the context of education or study, practical implications of the results are discussed.
5.Suggest future research: Based on your findings and limitations, propose directions for future studies in this area.
6.Conclude: Make a definitive statement about whether your hypothesis was supported, considering the limitations and broader context of your study.
Presentation
Presentation is paramount to guaranteeing that your IA is also professional and easily readable. Here are some key points to consider:
- Maintain clear, academic language throughout your paper.
- Adhere to APA formatting guidelines consistently.
- [Title page with Research Question, Name of the Author, and Word Count].
- Provide a table of contents to facilitate easy navigation.
- Should be given a thorough and careful exploration by experts.
- Include a reference list that cites all sources in APA format.
- Include any relevant material in the appendix (e.g., consent, raw data).
- When connected to the world, children face a unique psychological challenge.
- Use page numbers throughout the document.
- That the font and spacing should be uniform throughout the paper.
Bonus Tips for Scoring High on Your IB Psychology IA
Extension Advice for Achieving a High IB Psychology IA Mark.
- Choose a topic that you find naturally interesting and keep the interest high during the process.
- Get started early and create a schedule for the completion of each part of your IA.
- Conduct a literature review to make sure your study is not an unexplored territory in existing literature.
- Please take note of your methodology section as this is where many students often lose marks.
- Select suitable statistical methods and explain your choices.
- Engage in critical thinking during your evaluation section—don’t just list limitations; explore their implications.
- Discuss your work carefully and solicit feedback from peers and instructors.
- Having a coherent narrative through the introduction to the conclusion is essential.
- Employ visuals, for example, graphs and tables, in a convincing manner to present your data.
- Link your results to real-world applications to demonstrate their impact.
FAQs on How To Write An IB Psychology IA
1. How to get a 7 in IB Psychology?
- While challenging, getting a 7 is achievable with:
- Meet all criteria to the highest standard
- Demonstrate in-depth understanding of psychological concepts and theories
- Show strong critical thinking in your evaluation
- Present a well-structured, coherent report
- Use appropriate academic language and APA formatting
- Ensure your research question is focused and manageable
- Provide a detailed, replicable methodology
- Use sophisticated statistical analysis where appropriate
- Offer insightful interpretation of your results
- Discuss the broader implications of your findings
2. Is it hard to get a 7 in IB Psychology HL?
- While challenging, getting a 7 is achievable with:
- Consistent effort throughout the course
- Thorough understanding of theories and studies
- Strong essay-writing and critical thinking skills
- Effective time management
- Regular practice with past papers
- Active engagement in class discussions and activities
- Seeking feedback and clarification from teachers
- Developing strong research and analytical skills
- Staying updated with current psychological research
- Applying psychological concepts to real-world scenarios
3. How much time should I dedicate to each section?
- A rough guide for a 2000-word IA:
- Introduction: 400-450 words (20-22.5%)
- Exploration: 350-400 words (17.5-20%)
- Analysis: 500-550 words (25-27.5%)
- Evaluation: 600-650 words (30-32.5%)
- Conclusion: 100-150 words (5-7.5%)
Author
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Yatharth is the co-founder of Rostrum education. He pursued a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Mathematics and Statistics from London School of Economics and Political Science. He has worked with leading educational consultancies in the UK to tutor students and assist them in university admissions.
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