Reporting Psychologist Investigations Flashcards
General points about writing psychological reports
1) write it in third person
2) should be clear so that exact replication would be possible
Stages in writing a psychological report
1) Title
2) An abstract
3) Introduction leading to aims / hypothesis
4) Method section
5) Results section
6) Discussion section
7) Referenced section
What’s the point of the title
- should provide a clear focus of the study and should involve the key variables being studied, it should not be too vague
What type of information is provided in the abstract
- aims
- experimental hypothesis (1 or 2 tailed)
- null hypothesis
- research methods & procedures
- experimental design
- sample used (number, age, setting) & sampling
- brief account of findings e,g, stat tests, results, levels of significance
- conclusions of studies
How many words should the abstract be
100-300 words long (brief summar)
Why / when is the abstract written
When the report is completed
It involves a summary of the main concepts + provides a clear summary of the entire investigation to get an overview
Is the first section of a report
What do you write about in the introduction
- to justify the need for conducting research
- includes a general discussion of the research topic and this should become more focused towards the end
-> sometimes a hypothesis can be established and the aim can be too
What do they talk about in the method section
- design
- sample
- apparatus
- procedure
- ethic
What do you talk about in design
i) The experimental design (independent measures, matched participants or repeated measures) and the reasoning for why this particular design has been used.
ii) Also the research method needs to be selected with justification
iii) The independent and dependent variables need to be stated (as well as confounding ones)
iv) Controls – for example if counterbalancing was used or random allocation etc
What do you talk about in sample
i) Give details of your sample, e.g. number of males and females, age, background, where did you get them from?
ii) Also explain the sampling method used and why. How were the sample accessed? Where did the sample originate from e.g. place? Participants must remain anonymous and do not use any names!
What do you talk about in the procedure section
Bullet pointed steps (or written as a report) that need to be carried out in order to conduct the research, which must be written in sufficient depth and detail for easy replication. Clear information must be presented from the start to the end of the research. Briefing, standardized instructions and debriefing must be included
What do you mention in ethics
- consider any ethical issues that arose within the study, and how they were addressed.
E.g. if participants were being deceived about the true aims of the study, then it is important for the researcher to explain that there was an issue with informed consent, but that this was dealt with using a debrief following completion of the study.
Specific points for procedure
Step 1. Given a consent form
Step 2. Given standardised instructions
….
Step 10. Debriefing
What do you talk about in the results section
- descriptive statistics e.g. tables, graphs, raw data + central tendency e.g. the mode median + dispersion methods e.g. range, sd
- inferential statistics (what’s been used, why, significance levels)
- whether hypothesis is rejected
What is mentioned in the discussion section
A) summary of results
B) relationship to background research
C) Limitations of methodology and modifications
D) Implications and suggestions
What do we talk about in the summary of results
Reported the results in a brief format with some explanation about what they mean
What do we talk about in the relationship to background research
The results of the study discussed in relationship to the research reported in the introduction section & other related research
What is discussed in ‘Limitations of methodology and modifications’
This is a key step
Criticisms may be made about the methods used in the study and modifications / improvements suggested
Implications and suggestions
The implications of the results for psychological theory and real life applications
Suggestions can be made for future research
What are the two types of references
Journal referencing
Journal referencing order
Authors name(s), date of publication, title of article, journal title, volume (issue number), page numbers
Example of a journal reference
Smith,M. (1991) “Effects of time of day and personality on intelligence and test scores’ Personality and Individual Differences, 12 (11). Pages 112-119
How do we reference a book
Authors name(s) (alphabetical order), date of publication, title of book, place of publication, publisher
Example of a book reference
Flanagan, C. And Berry, D. (2016) A level Psychology. Cheltenham: Illuminate Publishing
Design an observational study to….
What should u mention?
(12 marks)
Type of observation with justification e.g. covert/ naturalistic/ & participant & why
Operationalised behavioural categories
Time & or event sampling & why
How reliability of the data collection could be assessed
Why is it important to include a referencing section
Can avoid plagiarism
Enables readers to track down sources used
Credit given to other researchers
