Psychology EE: Lots of different topics

[TS14101]

The following are potential topics for my Psychology EE:

Influence of culture and language on cognition (or education)

Is there a genetic predisposition to obesity?

Are first impressions a good judge of character?

The Stroop Effect and gender differences (or cultural or age differences)

Exercise and brain health

An evaluation of the Catharsis Theory (is venting your anger good, or does it just make you more angry?)

Videogames and violence in children

I tend to pick the most difficult topics, so I need some help picking the easiest one. Thanks in advance.

[Sandwich]

Have you tried generating a small outline for each of them? Some essays lend themselves very well to analytical argument and ease/flow of movement through them If you plan them (like literally, headings) you might be able to determine which is going to be easiest for you to write. Of course the other criterion to consider is interest! EEs take aaages to write and research, all things considered, and you'll do a better job if you like what you're doing

I didn't take Psychology to be able to really give you anything helpful on those topics, but I'd advise against #2! For a start it'd probably be a Biology EE, and secondly the answer is already clearly 'yes' and it's been extremely heavily researched (down to the very last codon ). It's not really psychological in nature. I did quite an in-depth course on it (obesity) at one point and I really can't think of a way to fit it in. That's where the outline comes in handy, you see. If you looked up all the info, I think you'd reconsider #2 as a title/idea because it just wouldn't really work. It's probably worth giving it a go for the others, too, and seeing what you come up with

Also, if you haven't already, really do check over the Extended Essay Guide for 2009 (google those as key words). They have subject specific sections which are very clear about what you ought to aim for, and what you ought to avoid within a subject. That guide really helped me write mine. The other excellent resourse would be 50 Excellent Extended Essays (also google that), which is a site with a load of exemplar essays, as chosen by the IB people themselves, for most subjects.

Good luck with it, anyway.

[Vvi]

Videogames and violence in children has lots of evidence for it, but is probably an overdone topic. I think your Catharsis Theory EE sounds interesting, I've never heard of it before. You could monitor heart rate in individuals/blood pressure before, while and after they vent their feelings versus when they keep it bottled up inside. Pretty basic measuring instruments required (that bracelet that measures pulse/heart rate) but it would give you a good opportunity to collect your own evidence (which is hard to do for the other titles, although I can't remember if collecting primary evidence is a requirement of a Psychology EE).

Are first impressions a good judge of character= too general. How would you measure this? And the answer can go any way, depending on what the person is doing then/acting like/what kind of a day they're having.

Influence of culture and language on cognition (or education) neds to be focused more. What aspect of education, and what specific part of language? What part of the brain is involved in this?

The Stroop Effect and gender differences (or cultural or age differences) would be interesting if you linked it to a disease, and how effective the test is at detecting symptons of it e.g. dementia. If you read the last paragraph under teh subheading "Clinical use" in this Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroop_effect , you'll get an idea of the diseases I mean.

Exercise and brain health sounds more science-orientated. And it would have to be focused more e.g. What effects do moderate exercise have in the prevention of dementia in adults aged 65+?