IB Psychology Internal Assessment (IA) is an interesting subject that takes you from knowing little to nothing about cognitive, biological, and sociocultural issues to understanding how psychologists conduct scientific research.
If you choose to study IB Psychology IA over subjects such as IB Biology IA or the IB Math IA, you ‘ll learn what it is like to conduct in-depth studies on your own and easily answer questions about human behavior.
We’ve researched the IB Psychology IA topic widely. And while there isn’t enough information on the topic available on the internet, what we have so far should be sufficient to point you in the right direction.
The goal of this guide is simple.
You’ll learn how to write your IB Psychology Internal Assessment without feeling overwhelmed with the information.
Let’s get started.
What is IB Psychology IA?
Taught in Standard and Higher Levels, the IB Psychology IA is an individual assignment worth 25% of the total score for SL and 20% for HL. In HL, you’ll do an extra Paper 3, which contains three short response questions on research methodologies.
According to the IB criteria, you can only repeat a study with one independent and one dependent variable. You’re welcome to modify the original research provided it focuses on a single dependent or independent variable.
The IB Psychology IA requires you to conduct experimental investigation in a group of no more than five students. While the group will collaborate on technique, materials list, and data collection and compilation, you should write reports independently.
Additionally, the curriculum guide for Psychology IA specifies which factors are unsuitable for research, and they are dependent on the individuals' pre-existing characteristics, which you shouldn’t include in your research.
How Long is IB Psychology IA?
Before we look at how to work on an IB Psychology IA assignment, it’s important to know how long the work should be in the first place.
Many students have the tendency to make their assignments longer because they have a lot of information to share. However, internal assessments have word limits that you shouldn’t exceed, or you risk losing important marks that you shouldn’t in the first place.
The word limit for this task in the Standard Level is 1,500 words. For the Higher Level, your teacher expects you not to exceed the 2,000 words mark.
How to Write an IB Psychology Internal Assessment: The Complete Guide
Writing an IB Psychology IA assignment may be challenging, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. You just have to understand the assessment criteria and you’re good to go. So in the following section, we look at the four criteria used as the assessment instrument for the assignment.
Criterion 1: The Introduction (6 Marks)
It’s important to have a solid introduction. It’s the first section your teacher will read and the part that can make or break the report.
A solid introduction provides context. It highlights the context’s theory and gives a detailed explanation. It defines the key terms used in the study, and it highlights the purpose, methods, and results of the duplicate of the original study.
Your introduction needs to make a connection between your inquiry and the duplicate theory. There has to be a clear definition of the purpose of your experiment, and your readers have to know what you wish to accomplish in your study. Make sure your emphasis is on the dependent and independent variables.
Criterion 2: Exploration (4 Marks)
The term "exploration" refers to the manner in which one conducts an investigation. This criterion looks at how you do your study, the materials you use and their rationale, and so forth. It requires you to defend the choices made by your group during the study.
Identify, mention, and explain the design and sample procedure used in the study. It is preferable to have good arguments for selecting a certain design method.
Similarly, discuss and justify your choice of sampling strategy for your study. Although the Opportunity Sample is the most often utilized sampling strategy for IA research, it is critical to defend your choice of sampling technique in any instance.
Exploration also looks at how you chose your study’s participants. Make sure you describe the confounding and controlled factors as well as their significance on the study. You can write techniques in bullet points or as a paragraph, but make sure you describe each step.
The evidence that your study was ethical is the most important section of your report that examiners look for. It is preferable to state explicitly how participants completed the Informed Consent Form and to refer to the appendix with identical copies.
Criterion 3: Analysis (6 Marks)
This criterion examines how you interpreted data. To score all the marks, you’ll have to demonstrate your proficiency in descriptive and inferential statistics.
You should provide one measure of central tendency (mean, median, or mode) and one measure of dispersion in Descriptive Statistics (standard deviation, variance, range, semi-interquartile range).
While descriptive statistics is used to arrange data, inferential statistics is used to deduce information about the study/theory and to draw conclusions. The statistics you utilize must have a verbal expression and relate to the hypothesis.
Also, you need to provide a properly labeled graph and emphasize the significance of your results in relation to the hypothesis.
Criterion 4: Evaluation (6 Marks)
The conclusions of the investigation should focus on the background theory/model, not just the hypothesis. It is not as critical to connect the results to the repeated research, as it is to connect them to the Theory.
A thorough evaluation of your study includes a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the study. As such, the advantages and shortcomings of research design, samples, and procedure used should be clear.
While discussing the research design's strengths and weaknesses, be careful not to mistake them with the experiment's process.
Discuss the time your group spent doing the study, the materials utilized, and the technique (including if it was standardized). In no instance should you reveal substantial errors in your technique. If you believe there are any such inaccuracies, attempt to correct them rather than stating them.