Extended Project Qualification (EPQ)

Former Member

Hey guys!

Unfortunately, I'm now going into Year 13 (Scary stuff) and the time has come to start making decisions about scary future things and my EPQ title. For those of you who don't know, Extended Project is a qualification run by AQA and OCR where you have to write a 5,000 word report or make a 'product' and write a 1,000 word report (It's basically a mini dissertation, Uni's LOVE them) on a subject that you decide.

HOW LOVELY DOES THAT SOUND, all you have to do is write a report on something that YOU want to write about, and from that you get another grade for your Alevels that any university will love. This is another chance to set yourself apart from all the other University applicants. The problem is, this is completely my decision. I can write this report on ANYTHING I want, which is rather tough.

I know that in University I want to study Psychology and therefore have decided that my EPQ should be psychology based, but it's such a big subject area (I mean someone wrote about the mental health of their favourite comic book villains...) I was wondering if any of you guys could help me find an interesting title?

So far, I have these as Ideas, but I want to make sure I've looked at as many possibilities as I can, so any suggestions or opinions is totally appreciated!

• "What age shall a child be put into care?"
• "Examine the link between school pressure and mental illness in teenagers"
• "are psychopaths a product of nature or nurture"
• "Assess the psychological causes of prejudice and discrimination in individuals and society"
• "is PTSD only common in soldiers?"
• "How does Childhood abuse affect the psychological development of a child?"
• "Examine the impact of society on the individual, who i am, how i am and why i am."
• "Assess effects on mental health of children in war torn countries"

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE<3

Former Member

I did something like this the other year in college, I did mine about Whether the internet can impact mental health, was an interesting subject to do.

Former Member

That sounds good, Thanks Hiccup

Former Member

Was going to suggest what hiccup said, or perhaps link between exposure to e.g. Thinspo or self harm images and prevalence of those behaviours (did looking at this material trigger the behaviour, or was that something they were already engaging in? (you could look at it from an either learning that you could do that from the Internet, or whether they were already engaging in the behaviour before looking at the material))
You could also look at the link between mental health and introverted/extroverted personalities?
The effects of teenage rom com films on teenagers mh (e.g. Pressures to date, be popular)
I'll have a think in case I thinking any more!

Former Member

Hi HannahMarie

I worked a bit as a tutor for a student doing an EPQ last year. All your titles are really interesting subjects. I think the main thing I would say from going through the process is that structure (which you get a lot of guidance on) and clarity are very important. So it's good to have a subject where you can present some clearly different arguments, assess with evidence, and come to a conclusion about which is strongest. 5000 words isn't as much as it sounds to address a subject, so I would aim for something relatively specific.

So, "Examine the link between school pressure and mental illness in teenagers, or something like "is there such a thing as a 'psychopath'" can lead to you to a clear structure and answer.

Let us know what you decide on

Former Member

Thanks so much for the replies guys! I havent made a decision yet, it's really difficult.

I really like the introverted and extroverted personalities idea Plugitin!

Hey Danny, yeah structure is massive, thank you!

Former Member

Hiccup wrote: »

I did something like this the other year in college, I did mine about Whether the internet can impact mental health, was an interesting subject to do.

I was thinking of doing my EPQ on this but found that most articles were biased because the author filled it with their opinion. Any tips?

Former Member

Hi @lostangel, :wave:

Thanks for your post on this thread. As this thread is pretty old now, the last post on it was August last year we're going to close it now but feel free to start your own thread about this if you want to talk more about it and you might get more responses this way too.