Reporting Psychological Investigations Flashcards
What is in a psychological report?
Abstract
Introducarikn
Method results
Discussion
Referencing
What’s the purpose of an abstract?
Allows the reader to gain an overview of the study to help them decide if they want to read on
What does an abstract help the reader decide?
If they want to read on
What goes in an abstract?
Summary of the study covering the aims, hypothesis, method, results and conclusion. It’s the fist part of the psychological report. 150-200 words
Where does the abstract go and how many words should it generally be?
First part of the report
150-200 words
What goes in an introduction?
Describes previous research in the area. Links made with previous research and its made clear how the current research will add to the previous research. The intro ends with the researcher stating aims and hypothesis of the research.
How does an introduction end?
With the researcher stating aims and hypothesis
What’s the purpose of an introduction?
Gives background on relevant theories and studies do explain how aims and hypothesis are developed
The introduction gives a background on what?
Relevant theories and studies to explain how aims and hypothesis developed
What’s the purpose of an introduction?
Gives a detailed description of what the researcher did - should provide enough info for replication if the study
What goes in a method section?
Sampling method
Procedure
Equipment
Ethics
Design
What’s a sampling method?
How many took part and info about ppts (ages gender)
What is a procedure?
Written like a recipe with exact order of events including standardised instructions
What is the equipment?
Details of any materials and apparatus used
What are ethics?
Significant ethical issues may be mentioned as well as how they’re felt with
What’s the design?
E.g repeated measures or covert observation
Design decisions should be justified
What’s the purpose of the results section?
To present the overall summary of the findings to the reader
What goes in a results section?
Descriptive statistics- tables and graphs showing measured of central tendency and dispersion
Inferential statistics - stats tests reported and calculated value and significance levels
For qualitative research categories and themes are described along with examples
What’s the purpose of the discussion?
Discuss findings and possible uses or research
What goes in discussion section?
Summary of results
Compare with other results
Limitations and modifications
Implications and future research
In the discussion section what is the summary of results?
Description of results focusing on if the hypothesis was supported. Results from tables and graphs are discussed along with atypical data
In the discussion section what is comparing with other results?
Explain if findings support results of studies in the introduction
In the discussion section what is the limitations and modifications?
Evaluate the research methods and procedures and explain how this could be improved if repeated
In the discussion section what is the implications and future research section?
Explain how findings can be used and an follow up studies could be conducted
What’s the purpose of a reference?
To give details of an articles and books mentioned in the study
How to reference an article?
Author name - date - title of article, journal title, volume, issue number, page number
How to reference a book?
Author last name, first name initial (date). Title of book. Place of publication: publisher
