The Role Of The Scientific Community In Validating New Knowledge: Report Writing

Question 1

What is the order of the format for a report

Answer 1

1) Abstract
2) introduction
3) Method
3a) Design
3b) Participants
3c) Apparatus/materials
3d) Procedures
3e) ethics
4) Results
5) Discussion
6) reference
——> use this mnemonic: “Alex Invites Many Distinguished People, Always Preferring Excellent Restaurant Dining Rooms.’

Question 2

What is the abstract

Answer 2

• A summary of the research, outlining the aim, hypothesis, method, results and conclusions.
• It is the first section of a report but is written after the report has been written

Question 3

What is the introduction

Answer 3

• This section considers the area in psychology in which the study is located and then focuses on previous research which has been carried out on the same area
• This may include conflicting research or research that this study aims to clarify.
• It will justify the current research and identify the aim of the current research, as well as research predictions and hypotheses

Question 4

What is the method

Answer 4

• A lengthy section which includes all the details necessary for someone to be able to carry out the same research
• It will include the design, participants, apparatus/materials used, procedures and ethics

Question 5

What is the design

Answer 5

• this sub-section will state the research design (e.g. repeated measures or cover observation), how participants were allocated to conditions AND justify these choices

Question 6

What is the participants

Answer 6

• (used to be called the ‘subjects’)
• this subsection will include the techniques used for obtaining the participants as well as any relevant features such as number, age, gender, etc

Question 7

What is the apparatus/materials

Answer 7

• this sub-section contains a description of any apparatus used
• it could describe word lists or stimulus material

Question 8

What is the procedures

Answer 8

• This sub-section explains how the participants were approached, what was said, standardised instructions, timings and what actually happened in the research

Question 9

What is the ethics

Answer 9

• this sub-section will include any significant issues with what was right or wrong about the research as well as how the wrong things were dealt with

Question 10

What is the results

Answer 10

• This section will refer to the raw data and provide verbal summaries and descriptive statistics, such as measures of central tendency, measures of dispersion, and graphical representations
• It will also contain the results of any inferential statistical test and whether the results were significant or not

Question 11

What is the discussion

Answer 11

• Focuses on what the results show, relating it to the research introduction.
• it will give evaluation of the method and implications for theories and applications
• plus suggestions on how to improve the research and new ideas to pursue

Question 12

What is the reference

Answer 12

This section contains a list of the original sources that were referred to by name and date in the introduction and discussion