IB Psychology Extended Essay

The extended essay is a piece of the diploma program puzzle that IB candidates at Broughton High School work on during their junior and senior years. A psychology extended essay is a research-based, independent work of about 4,000 words, which formats similarly to a literature review.

After deciding on a psychology EE, students will want to narrow their focus and develop their research question. First, decide on a field of psychology to examine-- neuroscience, health, sport, organizational, or maybe clinical. Then look into debates within the field and begin to zero in on a good research topic. Stay away from pop psychology topics, which do not lend themselves to psychological research or scientific discoveries. These topics would include dream analysis, self-help books, astrology, or psychics.

Helpful links:

• Loom video from Dr. Brooks on using databases from the Wake County Public Library. This is a great way to the access full text of articles in psychology journals. If you click on the "AskUs" box on the right side of the LibGuide, you'll be connected in a chat window to one of the Adult Service Librarians who can help to refine a search result in real time!

• Example papers from the IBO for psychology.

• Archive of EE blog posts from Thematic Education includes entries on using APA formatting, examples of excellent EE questions, tips for the reflection component.

• LibGuide from Concordian International School in Thailand.