L23 - Reporting Psychological Investigations

Question 1

what are some GENERAL POINTS about WRITING PSYCHOLOGICAL REPORTS?

Answer 1

1) write the report in THIRD PERSON (‘a study was carried out’ rather than ‘I carried out a study’)
2) the report SHOULD BE CLEAR so that EXACT REPLICATION WOULD BE POSSIBLE

Question 2

what are the STAGES in WRITING A PSYCHOLOGICAL REPORT?

Answer 2

1) TITLE
2) ABSTRACT
3) INTRODUCTION
4) METHOD
5) RESULTS
6) DISCUSSION
7) REFERENCING

Question 3

1) TITLE

Answer 3

• CLEAR FOCUS OF THE STUDY
• SHOULD INVOLVE KEY VARIABLES BEING INVESTIGATED
• NOT TOO VAGUE OR TOO SPECIFIC

Question 4

2) ABSTRACT

Answer 4

• SUMMARY OF MAIN CONCEPTS
• CLEAR AND CONCISE SUMMARY
• BRIEF OUTLINE of EVERYTHING

Question 5

3) INTRODUCTION

Answer 5

• JUSTIFIES THE NEED for CONDUCTING RESEARCH
• CLEAR RATIONALE ABOUT WHY YOU WISH TO STUDY THIS TOPIC AREA
• GENERAL DISCUSSION of the RESEARCH TOPIC
• STATE THE AIM and maybe HYPOTHESES

Question 6

4) METHOD

Answer 6

• HOW RESEARCH WAS CARRIED OUT PRECISELY
• SO THAT SOMEONE COULD REPLICATE THE STUDY
• EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
• EXACT VARIABLES and CONTROL FOR EVs
• SAMPLE, how they were SAMPLED AS WELL and from WHAT POPULATION
• APPARATUS/MATERIALS NEEDED
• PROCEDURE CLEARLY OUTLINED
• ETHICS (DECEPTION, DEBRIEFING ETC)
• NO RESULTS.

Question 7

5) RESULTS

Answer 7

• THE RESULTS
• perhaps in the form of DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS (tables, graphs, measures of CT and D)
• INFERENTIAL STATISTICS (SIGNIFICANCE TESTS)
• state whether the NULL HYPOTHESIS is REJECTED/ACCEPTED

Question 8

6) DISCUSSION

Answer 8

• INTERPRET THE RESULTS OF THE STUDY USING FORU KEY AREAS:
• SUMMARY OF RESULTS
• RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER RESEARCH in the SAME AREA
• LIMITATIONS of the METHODOLOGY and POTENTIAL MODIFICATIONS
• IMPLICATIONS and SUGGESTIONS, REAL LIFE APPLICATIONS, SUGGESTIONS for FUTURE REPLICATIONS

Question 9

7) REFERENCE

Answer 9

• the FULL DETAILS of any JOURNALS or BOOKS that have been MENTIONED IN THE REPORT must be PROVIDED IN THE REFERENCE SECTION

Question 10

HOW TO REFERENCE - EXAMPLE (JOURNALS)

Answer 10

Author’s NAME(s), DATE of PUBLICATION, TITLE of ARTICLE, JOURNAL TITLE, VOLUME (issue no.), PAGE NUMBERS

Smith, M (1991) “Effects of time of day and personality on intelligence and test scores” Personality and Individual Differences, 12(11). Pages 112-119

Question 11

HOW TO REFERENCE - EXAMPLE (BOOKS)

Answer 11

Author’s name(s) (in alphabetical order), date of publication, title of book, place of publication, publisher

Birring, A. and White,D. (2016) A Level Psychology. Cheltenham: Illuminate Publishing