Avoid this biggest mistake in your IB Psychology Exams!

There is one mistake that students still make on the IB Psychology examinations. Continue to learn what it is and how to prevent making the same error. Let's begin by asking a straightforward question: what is the most crucial component of every study? Say your memory was limited to only one of the following:

• Your aim
• your method
• Your results

Understand what is the key component:

The outcomes of research are its most significant component. So, let's move on to a new inquiry: Why are the outcomes significant? So that we may use them in some way.

Over 90% of students still make the same error of starting their essays with a study's findings. They don't elaborate on how the study relates to the subject they are writing about or how it supports their thesis. Therefore, the conclusion is the most crucial section of a study.

For example, the results of the study of Buchanan and Lovella’s investigation on the impact of cortisol on memory would read as follows:

These findings demonstrate the potential influence of hormones like cortisol on human behavior.

If the query is related to hormones and behavior, then yes. However, if the topic were the dependability of memory, the conclusion may be as follows:

These results show that the reliability of our memory could be affected by biological factors like hormones (e.g., cortisol)

These findings suggest that biological elements like hormones may impact our memories' accuracy (e.g., cortisol). Some memories, especially negative emotional content, may be more reliable when cortisol is present.

Activating schema:

What have you learned in English class?

Although, students’ inexperience in psychology explains why this tendency continues. So, let's choose a topic in which you have far more experience writing essays: English. What do you use as proof while writing a literary analysis essay? It should be quotes, details from the novel, supporting evidence, proofs, and claims from the textbook.

The same procedure is followed in psychology. You have to support your arguments with the studies. The ending paragraph with the study results is like the novel's ending with the quotes.

PEEL

As we are following the English acronym, have you learned about paragraph structure? Putting on my English teacher hat. PEEL? PETAL? SEX? PEE or SEE? We are using here PEEL

• Point
• Explanation
• Example
• link

When you close with the results but don't explain them, the LINK to the topic or thesis is absent. A straightforward tactic is to check if you have referenced your primary argument at the end of each paragraph. In the last phases of editing, you may also accomplish this.

EXAMPLE:

Here's a typical illustration of Loftus and Palmer's summarization.

In Loftus and Palmer's study, 45 college students were split into five groups and shown a film about a car accident. When the automobiles collided, the participants were questioned: "about how fast were the cars driving when they... each other." Five distinct verbs were distributed to the five groups. A group was instructed to "hit," another was asked to "smash," etc. The findings revealed that the group asked contacted the lowest speed estimations while the group asked crushed had the highest.

The essay has two issues. There is no L in the first one, which we have already discussed. There isn't a Link. So, what are the outcomes? What argument are they advancing? A second error exists with a point to the topic sentence and returning to the PEEL acronym. In the example that follows, it is fixed. Do you see it?

Summary

It is concluded that adding the results of the studies always introduces the point of study before summarizing it.

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