“What’s missing?” This is the simplest way I can explain how to answer Question 1 in Paper 3. If you figure that out, the rest is easy.
Paper 3 has four questions. For Question 1, you’ll be given a graph relevant to a claim. But there’s an issue – something’s missing from the graph. This limits its value in assessing the claim. What’s missing? If you can find it, you’ll write an excellent answer.
Disclaimer: At the time of writing only one past paper exists. This makes it difficult to test my advice. The following is my best attempt to help students answer this question. Also, there are lots of other ways to answer this question. My advice here is best for pre-exam practice so you’ve got something to start with.
Step 1: Understand The Claim
The most important thing in Paper 3 isn’t the data – it’s the claim. Paper 3 will have 5 or more sources relevant to a central claim. The claim will be about the influence of culture, technology or motivation on behaviour. The behaviour will be from one of the four contexts (relationships, development, health or learning). Here are some examples:
- Playing violent video games can increase rates of aggression. (Technology and relationships)
- Psychological therapy works better if the therapist is from the same culture as the patient. (Culture and health)
- Intrinsic motivation has a bigger influence on academic achievement than extrinsic motivation. (Motivation and learning)
- A growth mindset has a positive effect on learning. (Motivation and learning)
Before you look at the graph, analyse the claim. Make sure you fully understand it. What’s the suggested influence of tech/culture/motivation on behaviour/cognition? Is it a causal claim? Is it a correlational claim?
Tip: The Teacher Support Material says the sources will reflect the “role of culture…motivation….(or)…technology in shaping behaviour.” This suggests the claim should be directional. For example, technology’s influence on behaviour. This is consistent with the one and only past paper produced to date.
Step 2: Understand the Graph
Graphs are visual representations of results. What is your graph saying about the findings? Look at it carefully. Write some notes. For example, what conclusions would you draw from the graph below?
These findings from Li and Bates’s study suggest that mindset doesn’t influence grades. Now remember what I said earlier about the claim? Without a claim in mind, the analysis is much harder.
Step 3: What’s missing?
There’s something missing from the graph. Look at the claim and compare it to the graph – there’s something missing that prevents us from drawing a solid conclusion in relation to the claim.
Let’s use the growth mindset example. The claim is that a growth mindset has a positive effect on learning. There’s a key word in that claim – effect. This claim is about cause-and-effect. The graph above is showing differences in grades across time. But there’s nothing there that allows us to conclude cause-and-effect. In order to do that, we’d need to know how mindset was experimentally manipulated – did they randomly allocate people to different mindset groups and control all other factors? It doesn’t seem so. It looks like they might have just measured mindset and correlated that with grades over four years of university. But we don’t know that either – we have to assume this. That’s a big issue that limits our interpretation of the data regarding the claim that mindset has a positive effect on learning.
Tip – Distortions: You might be tempted to look for an error in the graph. For example, look at the y-axis in the mindset graph. It starts at 50, whereas you could argue this distorts the data. However, in this particular case it actually doesn’t affect the interpretation because the graph is showing minimal difference. If the distorted axis was designed to magnify differences, then you’re right, this would be an issue. This is something to look for.
Step 4: The Plan
Now you know the claim and what’s missing from the graph, you can put it together in a plan.
Here are five sentences you can use to practice your graph interpretations.
- One issue that limits the interpretation of the data in source 1 is …
- The central claim in the paper is that the …
- The graph is showing …
- However, the graph is missing …
- This limits the interpretation of this data because…
Tip: Every answer should start with the first sentence – restate the question and state the issue. The rest, however, you don’t need to memorise for exam day. I have included these here for practice purposes so you’ve got something to start with. That said, you’ll see below how they help you score top marks.
Example Answer
Let’s use the IB’s Past Paper to test this structure. The graph below is reproduced from that exam. The central claim is “…the use of technology in education may have a negative effect on the mental health of students.”
Analyse and Plan
Before I write my answer, I’m going to plan my answer by following the three steps I listed above.
- The Claim: Ed tech –> mental health. Directional claim of tech on mental health.
- The Graph: Shows a higher % of students with an unhealthy work-life balance have mental health problems (anxiety/depression) than those with a health balance.
- What’s missing? The graph says nothing about technology. We’re assessing the claim that EdTech affects mental health – this saysa work-life balance affects mental health. Where’s the technology?
Now I’ve got a plan for my answer.
Mr Dixon’s Answer
Examiner Comments
The marking rubric examiners use is below. You should get 1 mark for the first sentence – identifying the relevant issue. This is why I recommend starting every answer by restating the question and stating the issue.
The sentence beginning “However…” is the description of the issue.
The sentence “This limits the interpretation of this data because…” is clearly explaining the issue. By hitting these three points, the above answer, in this examiner’s opinion, would score 3/3.
The best way to prepare for Paper 3 is to see lots and lots of graphs and practice analysing them in relation to a claim. I’m going to get to work right now making those resources for you.
Teacher tip: The framework I’ve provided encourages students to (a) understand a psychological claim, (b) analyse a graph and (c) use the graph to assess the claim. That’s exactly what Paper 3 is assessing. Similarly, the ability to analyse claims and graphs this way is the foundation of Question 2 and Question 3.
Travis Dixon has been teaching for over 20 years and is an experienced IB Psychology, History and English teacher, author, workshop leader and examiner