IB Psychology Internal Assessment (IA) What is a Psychology IA? You will find an existing psychology experiment that manipulates an Independent Variable (IV) and replicate it. It is essential that your research is based on an experiment that has been published. You should not invent something of your own. You are not creating a ground-breaking, new theory--but you will modify a published study. You are demonstrating a solid design and coherent, in-depth understanding of the results. Then write a typed report according to the IB guidelines and format listed here. This is an outline for the stages of your research as well as what to do at each stage. Be sure to pay attention to the due dates for each section. Getting Started The first step is to choose a SIMPLE experiment to replicate. Don’t suffer from Parsimoniophobia: the fear of simplicity. The success of your experiment depends on finding appropriate study for your research. Find the experiment first. Do not choose a topic and then spend hours looking for experiment. Do not choose a study that is too obscure. Find a simple study that interests you. Don’t let the dry, boring titles fool you. The actual experiment may be more fun that it sounds. You can find your experiment online as well as in textbooks, journals, articles, and databases (DDC# 150 in PMHS or WFU library). Avoid too many Internet sources. You can “tree” backwards to other sources once you find your study (through Wikipedia, books, journal articles, etc). Consider databases such as the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Smithsonian Info Exchange, National Science Foundation, PsychINFO (), PsychARTICLES. There are hundreds of psychology departments to investigate including major universities (Yale, Harvard, Princeton). Consider magazines such as: Discovery, SCIAM, Scientific American, American Journal of Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Psychology Today (). If you cannot find at least a few sentences in a standard psychology text about the research you plan to replicate, then think about using a different study. Locate a copy of the original experiment (researcher, year, date, description) Find 3-5 other studies (researcher, year, date, description). These could also be animal studies to compare to your human study. Analyze all of these studies by breaking them down into research design elements (aim, IV, DV, method, theory, results, conclusion, etc).
IB Psychology Internal Assessment (IA) What is a Psychology IA? You will find an existing psychology experiment that manipulates an Independent Variable (IV) and replicate it. It is essential that your research is based on an experiment that has been published. You should not invent something of your own. You are not creating a ground-breaking, new theory--but you will modify a published study. You are demonstrating a solid design and coherent, in-depth understanding of the results. Then write a typed report according to the IB guidelines and format listed here. This is an outline for the stages of your research as well as what to do at each stage. Be sure to pay attention to the due dates for each section. Getting Started The first step is to choose a SIMPLE experiment to replicate. Don’t suffer from Parsimoniophobia: the fear of simplicity. The success of your experiment depends on finding appropriate study for your research. Find the experiment first. Do not choose a topic and then spend hours looking for experiment. Do not choose a study that is too obscure. Find a simple study that interests you. Don’t let the dry, boring titles fool you. The actual experiment may be more fun that it sounds. You can find your experiment online as well as in textbooks, journals, articles, and databases (DDC# 150 in PMHS or WFU library). Avoid too many Internet sources. You can “tree” backwards to other sources once you find your study (through Wikipedia, books, journal articles, etc). Consider databases such as the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Smithsonian Info Exchange, National Science Foundation, PsychINFO (), PsychARTICLES. There are hundreds of psychology departments to investigate including major universities (Yale, Harvard, Princeton). Consider magazines such as: Discovery, SCIAM, Scientific American, American Journal of Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Psychology Today (). If you cannot find at least a few sentences in a standard psychology text about the research you plan to replicate, then think about using a different study. Locate a copy of the original experiment (researcher, year, date, description) Find 3-5 other studies (researcher, year, date, description). These could also be animal studies to compare to your human study. Analyze all of these studies by breaking them down into research design elements (aim, IV, DV, method, theory, results, conclusion, etc).
ib_psychology_internal_assessment.docx