First

I plan to pursue my career in the field of Psychology, so I was clear that I will choose Psychology as my subject for the extended essay. But Psychology is a vast subject. So choosing a particular topic was confusing. I was very fascinated by the topic of ‘dreams’ and wanted to do something about it but then my supervisor suggested not to take up this topic because dreams have no absolute proof. So I began looking for topics that were relatable to me and which I could actually witness in real life. As a teenager I have seen people being bullied and how deeply it affects them. So this was something I could relate to and hence I chose bullying. The relation between eating disorders and bullying intrigued me so that helped me decide my topic for the extended essay.

Second

Overall my research was successful. I was able to find information from some really good and reliable sources. I got adequate information from sources like JAMA Psychiatry, Jstor and Psychology Today but I could not get a lot of studies done on bullying and anorexia nervosa, probably because these two variables are studied together less. So finding relevant studies was a challenge and was also time-consuming. Throughout the process, I understood that research gives a holistic view of an issue. Like, before researching about bullying I used to believe that only the victim gets harmed but after reading a lot about it I got to know that even the bullies have a negative impact on them. So that made me look at the topic from a different perspective. Another skill that I feel is needed to undertake a research is patience. As mentioned above, in the beginning, I could not find relevant studies so if I had not been patient, I would have probably ended up changing the topic of the essay.

Third

If I were to undertake this research again, I would have not changed a lot of things. Firstly, I would have worked more on the planning process. Another thing that I would have done differently would have been that now in the essay I have used only psychological perspective so, I would have included the biological perspective of anorexia nervosa too. That could give multiple perspectives on the topic. The setback that was faced was that there was not enough information and I overcame it by referring to a vast range of resources like books, journals and websites. Throughout the research as well as the writing process, the ATL skills that I developed are research skills because I had to be a responsible researcher by using reliable sources, self-management skills as organizing and following the timeline was important, and thinking skills as creativity, risk taking, decision making and being reasonable were required throughout the essay. I was able to use the conceptual learning of research methodologies here while critically analyzing the information used in the essay.