Presentation TOK Presentation on the Placebo Effect?

[Albus]

Hi guys, for my Tok presentation I wanted to focus on the Placebo effect, but I have been struggling to come up with a good knowledge issue for it.

Some attempts:

How do our beliefs and emotions about ourselves affect who we are/what we become?

How do we know the cause of what happens to us?

Any help/tips are appreciated

[CkyBlue]

It is essential that you keep in mind that TOK is about knowledge and what you know, not explaining why things happen. This is crucial as you carry out your presentation. Your first KI lends itself to an off-topic sort of analysis. From my perspective, you should be discussing the implications of the ways/areas of knowing/knowledge and evaluating them in a way such that you are able to acquire knowledge from them, instead of explaining what they are about or what they do. The placebo effect is interesting I would say, but I am having trouble thinking of how you could approach it from a TOK perspective. Certainly, it plays a role into many areas:from self-confidence in living, to the medicine patients receive. Hope I helped you get started there.

I feel that your second knowledge issue is too broad, and has no kind of focus at all. Perhaps you should introduce a real-life situation first and try to focus your KI on that? Sometimes it's difficult coming up with a KI from the start, eventually when you develop your ideas things should come easier. Above all, read the rubric, presentation guides and any relating criteria if you wish to do well. I also recommend the guides on our TOK section of the forum. Good luck!