Reporting Psychological Investigations Flashcards
What are the six sections of a scientific report?
Abstract, introduction, method results, discussion, referencing, appendix.
What is the purpose of an abstract? What does it allow the researcher E.G.a student or another psychologist to do?
Gain an overview of the study and help them decide if they want to read on
What goes in an abstract?
of the study covering the aims, hypotheses, method, results and conclusions. Is the first part of the psychology report.
How long is an abstract?
A paragraph of 150 to 250 words
What goes in an introduction?
A description of previous research in the area. Links with previous research or it is made clear how the current research will add to the previous research. Ends with the researcher stating the aims and hypothesis of the research.
What is the purpose of an introduction
Gives background on relevant theories and studies to explain how aims and hypothesis developed.Explain project area and define key terms.
What is the purpose of a method?
Gives a detailed description of what the researcher did -they should provide enough detail for replication of the study.
What is the acronym to remember what goes in a method?
Speed
What’s the first part of a method?
Sampling method, how many took part and information about participants, ages, occupations, gender etc
What is the second part of a method?
Procedure, exact order of events including any standardised instructions.
What is the third part of a method?
Equipment details of any materials and apparatus used
What is the fourth part of a method?
Ethics, significant ethical issues mentioned as well as how they were dealt with.
What is the final part of a method?
Design E.G.repeated measures or covert observation. Design decisions should be justified
What is the purpose of the results section?
Present the overall summary of the findings to the reader rather than reviewing the raw data.
What goes in the results section? What kinds of statistics?
Descriptive statistics-tables and graphs sharing references and measures of central tendency and dispersion E.G.mean, median, mode, standard deviation, range.
Inferential statistics-start to Tessa reported in calculating values and significant levels of detail.
For any qualitative research-categories and themes are described along with examples
What is the purpose of the discussion section?
Discuss the findings and possible uses for future areas of research.
What goes in the discussion section? What are the four things?
Summary of results
Compare with other results
Limitations and modifications
Implications and future research
What goes in a summary of results?
Written description of the statistical results focusing on whether the hypothesis was supported. Results from tables and graphs are discussed along with any atypical data. Also discuss any type one or Type II errors
What goes in a compare with other results?
Explain whether the findings support the results of the study in the introduction
What goes in the limitations modification section?
Evaluate present research methods and procedures and explain how this could be improved if repeated
What goes in an implications in future research?
Explain how findings could be used in any potential follow up studies that could be conducted
What is the purpose of a reference?
Give details of any other articles or books that are mentioned in the research. Readers can locate resources and helps avoid plagiarism.
How do you reference an article?
Authors name-date-title of article, journal title, volume, issue number, page numbers.
How do you reference a book?
Authors last name, first initial (date). Title. Place of publication: Publisher.
