reporting psychological investigations

Question 1

outline the sections of a scientific report

Answer 1

1. abstract
2. introduction
3. method
4. results
5. discussion
6. referencing

Question 2

describe the abstract

Answer 2

• 1st section in journal article
• short summary
• 150-200 words in length
• includes all major elements: aims, hypotheses, method/procedure, results & conclusions

Question 3

describe the introduction

Answer 3

• review of general area of research detailing relevant theories, concepts & studies
• follow logical progression: begin broadly/gradually, becoming more specific until aims/hypotheses presented

Question 4

describe the method

Answer 4

• should include sufficient detail so researchers can replicate study
• several subsections:
  1. design - clearly states & reasons/justifications given
  2. sample - info related to people involved (eg. how many, biographical/demographic info, sampling method & target population)
  3. apparatus/materials
  4. procedure - ‘recipe-style’ list of everything that happened in investigation, including record of everything said to participants (eg. briefing, standardised instructions, debriefing)
  5. ethics - explanation of how these were addressed

Question 5

describe the results

Answer 5

• summarise key findings
• likely to feature descriptive statistics eg. tables, graph, charts, measures of central tendency/dispersion
• inferential statistics should include reference to choice of statistical test, calculated/critical values, level of significance & final outcome (which hypothesis was rejected)
• any raw data/calculations appear in appendix
• if researcher used qualitative methods, the results/findings likely to involve analysis of themes/categories

Question 6

describe the discussion

Answer 6

• summarise results/findings in verbal form
• discussed in context of evidence presented in introduction & other relevant research
• discuss limitations of investigation & suggestions of how to address these in future studies
• consider wider implications of research (eg. real-world applications of what’s been discovered & contribution investigation has made to existing knowledge within field)

Question 7

describe the referencing

Answer 7

• full details of any source material cited within report

Question 8

format of journal references

Answer 8

author(s), data, article title, journal name (in italics), volume(issue), page numbers.

eg:
Gupta, S. (1991) Effects of time of day and personality on intelligence test scores. Personality and Individual Differences (italics), 12(11), 1227-1231.

Question 9

format of book references

Answer 9

author(s), data, title of book (in italics), place of publication, publisher.

eg:
Skinner, B. F. (1953) Science and Human Behaviour (italics). New York: MacMillan.

Question 10

format of website references

Answer 10

source, date, title, weblink & date accessed