Reporting Psychological Investigations Flashcards
What is a psychological report made up of? (in order)
Abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, references
What is the first section of a psychological report?
Abstract
What is the abstract?
A short summary of the key points of the research in roughly 150-200 words.
What should be included in an abstract?
Aim, hypothesis, participants, methods, results, data analysis and conclusions
What is the second part of a psychological report?
Introduction
What is the introduction?
It justifies the need for conducting the research. Researches try to identify a gap in existing research or questions that need to be answered.
What goes in the introduction?
Describes previous research in the area including links. Then will end with restating the aims and hypothesis.
What is the third section of a psychological report?
Method
What is the method?
A detailed description of what the researcher did, detailed enough to replicate the study.
What does the method section include?
Sampling (the group of p’s), Procedure (step by step instructions), Equipment/ materials (details), Ethics (significant ethical issues mentioned/ how they were dealt with), Design (design decisions should be justified) (SPEED)
What is the fourth section of a psychological report?
Results
What is the results section?
To present a summary of the findings
What goes in the results section?
Descriptive statistics (tables and graphs, measures of central tendency/ dispersion), inferential statistics (stats tests, calculated values, significance levels), Qualitative/quantitative research
What is the fifth section of the psychological report?
Discussion
What is the discussion?
Discuss the findings and suggest possible future areas of research
What goes in the discussion section?
Summary of the results, comparison with other results, limitations and modifications (evaluation), implications and future research
What is the sixth section of the psychological report?
References
What is the references section?
To give detail and credit of any other articles or books that are mentioned in the research
How to reference an article:
Author > date > title of article > journal title > volume issue number > page number
How to reference a book:
Author > date > title of book > place of publication > publishers
