Report writing
You are expected to plan and conduct an observation You can select from the following: Usage of mobile phones in the library Number of people who let elderly or pregnant individuals onto the bus before themselves Animals; live webcam feeds http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/webcams/ ferrets, tigers, molerats, kingfishers, giraffes, pandas, octopus http://www.zoo.org.au/featured/webcams.cfm gorillas, butterflies http://sandiegozoo.org/videos/ polar bears, pandas, apes, elephants
You are expected to plan and conduct a self-report You wish to see if there is a relationship between the two variables; pet ownership and stress levels In groups of 2/3, you must collectively create questionnaire or interview for at least 5 participants each When you have collected the data, you will conduct a correlation
Report writing In this presentation we will look at the various sections that make up a psychology article. All of the studies that you look at this year will have been written in a similar format. It may be a good idea to search for the original articles to solidify your understanding.
Abstract The abstract summarises the research. It includes the aim, method, results and conclusions. The aim of the abstract is to allow researchers to quickly understand a study before they read the full article.
Introduction The introduction considers previous research in the area and then links it to the current study. Think of the introduction as like a funnel. It starts broadly discussing the area of interest, then finishes by justifying the hypothesis being studied.
Method The method includes sample (including all relevant detail), experimental design, materials and procedure. The goal of the method is to make the study as replicable as possible.
Results The results contains the raw data, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics and graphs. To go along with the numbers, written explanations of results are also included.
Discussion The discussion looks at what was found in the study, the implications of the findings and any limitations of the study. Future research ideas may also be discussed.
References If the author of the study has referenced other studies carried out either by themselves or others, then they must reference these studies. This allows readers to easily find the research referenced. This may be important as other psychologists may want to check that the claims made are valid.
Appendices This includes any relevant materials used for the study. This could be tests, raw data, questionnaires, etc.
Citing a journal When discussing someone else’s work, it is vital that you credit it. If you don’t then you may be accused of plagiarism. Citing a journal is done in the body of the text but then has to be referenced in the references section at the end of the article.
‘Only one published study (Metzger et al ‘Only one published study (Metzger et al., 1979) reported that switching rooms harmed performance, while three published studies (Abernethy, 1940; Farnsworth, 1934; Saufley, Otaka and Bravaresco, 1986) reported that it did not.’ This example, taken from Grant et al. (1998), references several studies but does not directly quote them. It merely summarises the ideas found in those studies so doesn’t need to use quotation marks. If you were to directly quote from the article it would have to be done in the format below: ‘Grant found that “The results showed that there are context dependency effects for newly learned meaningful material, regardless of whether a short-answer test or a multiple choice test is used.” (Grant et al., 1998)’
Citing in the references section The most commonly used method is the Harvard method of referencing. For journal articles, record: The author’s name/s The year in which the journal was published The title of the article The title of the journal The page number/s of the article in the journal As much other information as you can find about the journal, for example the volume and issue numbers Note: The system is different for books and online resources.
Example reference (Harvard system) Metzger, R. L., Boschee, P. F., Haugen, T. and Schnobrich, B. L. (1979). The classroom as learning context: Changing rooms affects performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 71, 440–442.