IB Psychology Class Practicals: Methods, Samples and the IA

By Michael Thompson · Education Specialist; 10 years teaching the IB at Bromsgrove School · Published 4 October 2026

IB psychology class practicals are a structured set of four hands-on research activities, one for each context in the new DP Psychology course first taught from August 2025. Each practical introduces a different research method - interview, observation, survey, and experiment - with a specified minimum sample size set by the IB. Together they form the practical backbone of the course: Paper 2 Section A asks four compulsory questions directly about them, and the internal assessment research proposal must use one of the same four methods. Understanding what each practical demands, and why it is designed that way, puts you in a much stronger position for both the exam and the IA.

Key Takeaways

In This Article

  1. What the New IB Psychology Course Looks Like
  2. What Is a Class Practical in IB Psychology?
  3. The Four Class Practicals: Methods, Samples and Experimental Design
  4. Ethical Considerations in Each Class Practical
  5. Operationalising Variables and Descriptive Statistics in Your Practical Records
  6. How Class Practicals Connect to Paper 2 and the Research Proposal IA
  7. What to Do Next

1. What the New IB Psychology Course Looks Like

The new DP Psychology course was first taught in August 2025, with first assessment in May 2027. If you sat or will sit in November 2026 or earlier, you followed the previous structure, which was built around core approaches and optional topics. The course described here, and the IB psychology class practicals that sit at its centre, applies only to students on the 2025 syllabus.

The course is organised around three components: concepts, content, and contexts.

Six concepts run through every part of the course:

Content covers three psychological approaches (biological, cognitive, sociocultural) plus research methodology. Research methodology is listed as part of the content alongside the three approaches, and you put it into practice through the class practicals, which sit within the contexts and are assessed directly in Paper 2 Section A.

All students, SL and HL alike, study all four contexts:

HL students study two additional extension areas: the role of culture, motivation and technology in shaping human behaviour (45 hours), and data analysis and interpretation (45 hours). Total teaching hours are 150 at SL and 240 at HL.

2. What Is a Class Practical in IB Psychology?

A class practical is a small-scale psychological investigation carried out in class using a specified method. ManageBac notes that practicals can be teacher-led or student-led, so you may not design every one yourself. Class practicals are entirely new to DP Psychology - they did not exist in the previous course guide, and students sitting assessments in November 2026 or earlier will not have done them. The International Baccalaureate introduced them as part of the 2025 course redesign, with first teaching from August 2025 and first assessment in May 2027.

The course requires one practical per context, meaning a minimum of four across Health and Well-being, Human Development, Human Relationships, and Learning and Cognition. Each practical uses the research method assigned to that context - you do not choose the method freely. Across the practicals, the IB allocates 30 teaching hours.

The purpose is twofold. First, the practicals build the research-methods skills examined in Paper 2 Section A, which contains four compulsory questions focused specifically on the class practicals. Second, they prepare you to design the Internal Assessment, a research proposal using one of the same four methods. One counter-intuitive point: because the IA is a proposal rather than a conducted study, the practical experience of actually running an investigation in class carries more weight than it might appear - it is the only time in the course you gather real data.

The six course concepts - bias, causality, change, measurement, perspective, and responsibility - run through every practical rather than being confined to theory lessons. Working out, for example, how measurement choices affect what you can claim about causality is something you are expected to engage with during the practical itself, not just on paper.

3. The Four Class Practicals: Methods, Samples and Experimental Design

Each of the four contexts in the new DP Psychology course has a fixed research method assigned to it, along with a minimum sample size. Per the IBO, the four practicals together are allocated 30 teaching hours across both SL and HL. The method assigned to each context is not arbitrary: it reflects the type of data most suited to the questions that context raises, and it maps directly onto the methods available for the IA research proposal.

Here is what each practical requires.

Health and Well-being: Interview

One counter-intuitive point: a focus group lets you hear three to eight people in a single session, but it introduces a different methodological challenge. Participants may moderate their answers in front of peers, particularly on sensitive health topics, which can reduce the candour you would get in a one-on-one semi-structured interview.

Human Development: Observation

The choice of variant has direct consequences for ecological validity and ethics. A naturalistic, covert, non-participant observation maximises ecological validity but raises consent issues. A controlled, overt, participant observation is far easier to run ethically in a school context, but the observer effect (participants behaving differently because they know they are being watched) is a documented limitation worth naming in your records.

Human Relationships: Survey/Questionnaire

Ten is the floor, not the target. ManageBac suggests sampling techniques could be taught as part of preparing for a class practical, which is useful here: a convenience sample of ten classmates produces a very different dataset from a stratified sample of ten drawn from different year groups, even though both meet the minimum. Question design also matters for reliability: closed-format Likert-scale items produce data you can summarise numerically; open-ended items generate richer responses but are harder to compare across participants.

Learning and Cognition: Experiment

This is where experimental design in IB Psychology becomes most technical. A true experiment requires random allocation of participants to conditions, which is what allows you to make causal claims. A quasi-experiment uses pre-existing groups (for example, two different classes, or participants who already differ on some variable), which means confounding variables are harder to rule out and causal language needs to be qualified. In practice, random allocation in a classroom setting is achievable with five participants, so a true experiment is worth attempting if the design allows it.

The method you practise here is the one you can propose in your IA. Each of the four methods from the class practicals is eligible for the research proposal, so the practical is also an early rehearsal of the design decisions you will need to justify in writing.

4. Ethical Considerations in Each Class Practical

Ethical guidelines apply to all four IB psychology class practicals, regardless of the method used. The core principles are familiar from any introductory research methods course: informed consent, the right to withdraw, confidentiality, and protection from harm. What the new course adds is an explicit conceptual frame. Responsibility is one of the six named concepts underpinning the revised IB Psychology curriculum, and ethical conduct in research is one of its clearest expressions.

Each method carries its own specific tensions.

One practical detail worth getting right: write your ethical decisions down in your practical record, not just enact them in the room. ManageBac notes that students are encouraged to write a brief summary of each practical to help with Paper 2, where Section A contains four questions that focus on the class practicals. A record written after the fact from memory is far weaker than one completed at the time.

5. Operationalising Variables and Descriptive Statistics in Your Practical Records

Operationalising variables means defining exactly how an abstract concept will be measured in your study, and it sits at the heart of the course's measurement concept.

For the learning and cognition experiment, this is most explicit. You need to state your independent variable (IV) and dependent variable (DV) in precise, measurable terms. "Memory" is not operationalised. "The number of words recalled correctly from a 20-item list after a 30-second delay" is. You also need to identify extraneous variables, such as participant fatigue or noise level, and note how you controlled or acknowledged them.

For the human relationships survey, operationalising looks different. An abstract construct like relationship satisfaction cannot go straight onto a questionnaire. You must break it down into specific, observable items, for example a five-point rating scale asking how often a participant feels listened to by a close friend. Each item is a measurable proxy for the construct.

One non-obvious practical point: students sometimes write their IV and DV only in the method section of their records, then struggle to connect them to their results. Writing an explicit operationalisation statement at the top of every practical record forces that connection and makes later reflection far easier.

On the results side, descriptive statistics (means, medians and frequency counts) suit the numerical data from the experiment and closed survey items; interview and much observation data are qualitative and are better summarised as themes or coded categories. Per the IBO, data analysis and interpretation is a 45-hour HL-only extension, and only HL students are directly assessed on it.

Keep each practical record structured: sampling method, procedure, operationalised variables, results with descriptive statistics, and a brief reflection. Paper 2 Section A asks four questions specifically on the class practicals, and clear records are what you revise from.

6. How Class Practicals Connect to Paper 2 and the Research Proposal IA

The four class practicals are not standalone exercises. They feed directly into two assessed components: Paper 2 and the Internal Assessment (IA). Understanding that connection changes how seriously you treat the practical records you keep along the way.

Paper 2: Section A is built around your practicals

Paper 2 runs for 1 hour 30 minutes and is worth 35 marks. Section A contains four compulsory questions that focus on the class practicals, so you need to know the method, sample, procedure and findings of each practical your class completed. There is no choice here: all four questions must be answered.

Section B shifts focus. Students evaluate an unseen research study with reference to two or more of the six concepts (bias, causality, change, measurement, perspective, responsibility). The practical experience you have with research design is the background that makes this evaluation possible rather than speculative.

Paper 2 is weighted at 35% at SL and 25% at HL. HL students also sit Paper 3 (1 hour 45 minutes, 30 marks, 30%), a source-based paper on interpreting and analysing research data, with questions focused on one of the HL extensions. Full Paper 3 format details are in the subject guide on the IB Programme Resource Centre, accessible via school IBO credentials.

The IA: designing without running

The IA is a research proposal worth 24 marks, allocated 20 teaching hours. Students design a study using one of the four practical methods to investigate a population of interest. Critically, you do not need to run the study - the proposal itself is the assessed product. This is a significant difference from the previous course, where students assessed November 2026 or earlier had to conduct an experiment, collect real data, and write it up as an individual report. That replication format no longer applies.

The IA is internally assessed by your teacher and externally moderated by the IB. It counts for 30% of the final grade at SL and 20% at HL. Full assessment criteria are in the subject guide on the IB Programme Resource Centre - your school's IB coordinator has access.

A non-obvious implication worth noting: because the IA method must come from the four practicals, a weak practical record for, say, the survey or observation makes it harder to write a convincing proposal using that method later. The practical you find least interesting may be exactly the one that suits your IA topic best.

7. What to Do Next

Your first practical is likely already scheduled, and the method variant your teacher has chosen for each context determines exactly what skills you need to build before you sit Paper 2 Section A or draft your research proposal.

One concrete step to take this week: ask your teacher which variant of each method your class will use, for example whether the health and well-being practical uses a structured interview or a focus group, and what consent and ethics steps that variant needs. Your teacher can also show you the class practicals section of the DP Psychology subject guide, which sits on the IB Programme Resource Centre.

The variants matter more than most students realise early on. The same context can require different sampling logic, different consent procedures, and different write-up conventions depending on which method variant your teacher chooses. Check now, not the week before the practical runs.

FAQ

Is IB Psychology a practical subject?

Yes - the new DP Psychology course (first assessment May 2027) includes four compulsory class practicals, one per context, giving students direct experience of interviewing, observing, surveying and experimenting.

How do IB psychology class practicals work?

Each practical uses a specified research method matched to one of the four contexts; students carry out the activity with a minimum sample size set by the IB, then reflect on findings, ethical considerations and limitations, building skills examined in Paper 2 Section A.

Do IB psychology class practicals count toward the final grade?

They are not directly graded, but Paper 2 Section A (four compulsory questions) is built around them, and the IA research proposal must use one of the four practical methods - so they have significant indirect weight.

What is the minimum sample size for each IB psychology class practical?

Health and well-being interview: one participant individually or three to eight in a focus group; human development observation: one participant; human relationships survey: ten participants; learning and cognition experiment: five participants.

What is the IB psychology internal assessment for the new course?

The IA is a research proposal (24 marks, 20 teaching hours) in which students design - but do not run - a study using one of the four practical methods; it is worth 30% at SL and 20% at HL, marked by the teacher and moderated by the IB.

Is psychology a science in the IB?

IB Psychology sits in Group 3 (Individuals and Societies), not Group 4 (Sciences), but the new course emphasises scientific research methodology throughout, including four class practicals and a research proposal IA grounded in empirical methods.

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