27. Reporting on Psychological Investigations Flashcards
Structure of Reports on Psychological studies
- Title
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Aim & Hypotheses
- Method
- Results
- Discussion
- References
- Appendices
Title
- The first thing a report needs
- Should say what the study’s about & include the IV & the DV.
- For eg, ‘An investigation into the effect of hunger on reaction times’.
Abstract
- The abstract is a concise summary of the report (no more than 120 words), telling reader abt the research & findings w/o them having to read the whole report.
- It should include brief descriptions of the aims, hypotheses, method & results).
- Should also contain conclusions of the results & any significant limitations in the study.
Introduction
- The introduction is a general overview of the area being studied, including existing theories.
- It should also discuss a few pre-existing studies closely related to the current study.
- It should BEGIN broadly & then become more specific until the aims & hypotheses are presented.
Aim & Hypotheses
- The aim is a sentence stating the purpose of the study.
Eg. ‘To investigate whether reactions times are affected by hunger levels’. - The hypothesis is what’s actually going to be tested, & should include the IV & the DV.
Eg. ‘Hunger will have no significant effect on reaction times’.
Method
- The method describes how the research was carried out.
- Someone should be able to replicate the study by following the method, so it needs to be detailed. Should include info about:
- The design of the investigation: research method used (interview, etc), research design (repeated measures, etc), control of variables, ethical issues.
- The procedure use: account of what happened each time a P took part, what was said to P’s, how P’s were debriefed, how data was recorded.
- The use of participants: no. of P’s, demographics of the P’s (age, gender), sampling method, how P’s were allocated conditions.
- The resources used: materials used (questionnaires, pictures, word lists) & apparatus used.
Results
- The results of the study can be reported as descriptive or inferential statistics.
- Descriptive statistics include tables, graphs & charts.
- Inferential statistics involve doing statistical tests on the data.
- The results section needs to include explanations of why certain tests were chosen (eg. bc the study was looking for correlation).
- Should also include the results of the test - the observed value, c.r & level of significance.
Discussion
- Covers a range of things including:
- An explanation of the findings - summarising the results & relating them to the aim & hypothesis. It should be stated whether or not the null hypothesis is rejected. Any unexpected findings should also be addressed & explained here.
- The implications of the study - eg. whether the study relates to real-life situations.
- The limitations & modifications of the study - any problems need to be explained, along w how to improve study.
- The relationship to background research - the results need to be related to the background research covered in the introduction. The data should be compared to other data & comments made on whether or not the findings support the findings of other studies.
- Suggestions for further research - some ideas for further research should be included.
References
- The references section contains a list of all the books, articles & websites that have been used for info during the study.
- It allows the reader to see where the info on the research & theories mentioned in the report (introduction) came from.
- References should be presented in alphabetical order of first author’s surname.
Appendices
- Any materials used (eg. questionnaires or diagrams) can be put in the appendix.
- Raw data & statistical test calculations also go here.
General tips
- Report should be written in the 3rd person (eg. ‘the P’s were asked to recall numbers’ rather than ‘I asked the P’s to recall numbers’.
- The language used should be formal (eg. the P’s in the stud were an opportunity sample’ rather than ‘the P’s were basically anyone we could get a hold of’.
