1. Guide to APA Style
Dr. Blakemore
PSY 100

2. What is APA style?
Writing style developed by the American Psychological Association
Used in many social and behavioral sciences and other fields such as communication, and some humanities fields (although they may use MLA style)
Very widely used

3. Where can you find information about it?
In the full manual
In the handout you received
Chapter six of the textbook
On the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) at:

4. What does it do?
Provides a standard style for all aspects of writing in the behavioral sciences
Scientific writing
How to organize tables and figures
APA editorial style
Using headings
Abbreviations
Using gender neutral language
Formatting the paper physically
Citing sources in the text of the paper
Preparing a reference page

5. Our concerns
In this class we will be concerned primarily with two aspects of APA style:
Citing references in the text of papers
Preparing a reference page
Other classes (especially PSY 203, Research Methods), will deal more with other aspects of APA style in addition to these two parts of it
But all psychology courses will expect you to cite sources properly, and to prepare an APA style reference page

6. General Formatting Use 12 pt, Times New Roman Margins 1 inch all sides
All APA style pages must be double spaced, so just set your word processor to double spacing before you start

7. Running head
First page
Later pages
Your assignment

8. Citing sources in text
You must always cite your source for any information which you took from someone else, whether it’s a direct quote or not
If you make a statement that is not “common knowledge,” you must find and cite a source for it
Be very careful about this – err on the side of caution and find and cite sources for basically any matter of fact that you state
Anything you cite in text must appear on your reference page, and vice versa

9. This assignment
For this assignment, you need seven sources on your reference page, but are likely to cite fewer in your sentences.
That’s okay for this assignment.

10. Secondary Sources This is a source cited by someone else
Generally, you may not cite secondary sources in your paper
That is, if you read an article, and those authors cite someone else’s work, you can only cite the article (chapter, etc.) you read
If you want to cite that other source, find it and use it as a primary source

11. Using direct quotes
The standard in psychology is to avoid direct quotes as much as possible (if you can get away with it, don’t use them), but sometimes they add something special, but it should be rare
Paraphrase or (even better) explain what someone else said in your own words
When you use direct quotes, APA style requires you to put quotes around the quote, or put in a block quote if 40 or more words, and a page number to be cited:
“We tested year-olds” (Smith, 2003, p. 17).
Unless it’s a direct quote, a page number is not used in APA citation style, only the author or authors and the year of publication. This differs notably from MLA style.
(Smith, 2003)

12. Citing a single authored paper, book, or chapter
You can cite the source in the text of your sentence, putting the year in parentheses:
One of the earliest researchers to examine this question was MacDonald (1927).
Or you can cite the source completely in parentheses
There was some research on this topic in the early part of the twentieth century (MacDonald, 1927).
Either is fine – use whatever makes sense, but whatever you do, the sentence should be able to stand alone grammatically.
DO NOT EVER put the title of the article, book, journal, or chapter in the text – only the author name or names and year. There are some rare exceptions to this for certain classic or very well-known books (and they wouldn’t normally apply to student papers), but virtually never for journal articles or chapters.

13. Citing two authors
For all other combinations of authors, you can cite inside or outside or parentheses, just make sure your sentence makes sense
In the case of two authors, cite both of them in all cases
Some, like Fagot and Leinbach (1995), have used scales developed to measure attitudes toward gender roles in adults. Others (Katz & Kofkin, 1997). . .
Note that the word “and” is used to link the authors outside of parentheses, and “&” is used inside parentheses.
This is always the case with two or more authors
The order of the authors should be the same as the original source – it has meaning.

14. Three to five authors
The first time you cite a study with three to five authors, list all the authors
. . .focus on the difference between old-fashioned and modern sexism (Swim, Aikin, Hall, & Hunter, 1995)
After that, use et al.
(Swim et al., 1995)
For six or more authors, use et al. every time
Note that al. is followed by a period (it’s an abbreviation of alii or alia from the Latin – others masculine or others feminine), whereas et is not followed by a period, because it is a full word (meaning “and” in Latin). “et al.” therefore means “and others.”

15. Citing several sources in the same parentheses
If you are citing several sources for the same type of finding, all can go in the same set of parentheses, in alphabetical order by first author, each followed by a semicolon:
Several studies (Bussey & Bandura, 1984; Frey & Ruble, 1992; Luecke-Aleksa et al., 1995; Ruble et al., 1981; Slaby & Frey, 1976) have shown that children, especially boys . . .
If exactly the same authors are cited in the same paragraph for more than one source, you just add the year for each of the sources, each year followed by a semicolon:
(Glick & Fiske, 1996; 1997; 1999).

16. Common mistakes
Using only one author’s name when the paper was authored by more than one person
Citing the same source over and over again in the same paragraph – if it’s clear you’re still talking about the same study, ONCE is enough, even into the next paragraph if it’s clear it’s the same study.
Citing all sources at the end of the sentence or at the end of the paragraph. Cite it where it makes sense logically – where it fits.
Not double spacing – everything must be double spaced.
Not using “et al.” properly.

17. Formatting on the Reference Page
On the reference page the title is “References,” centered, at the top of the page
References are in alphabetical order, by the name of the first author
All author names must be included in the reference on the reference page (unless there are more than seven. If more than seven, the convention is to list the first seven followed by and then the last author’s name and initials.)
Use as many initials as the author listed in the publication (e.g., Blakemore, J. E. O.).

18. Sample journal article.
Most references for your papers will be journal articles, so getting this one right is really important
Begin with all author names, full last name and initials for first name; use an ampersand (&) between last author’s name and the preceding author’s name
Lawton, C. A., Blakemore, J. E. O., & Vartanian, L. R.
Follow this by the year of publication, in parentheses, followed by a period
Lawton, C. A., Blakemore, J. E. O., & Vartanian, L. R. (2003).

19. Follow this with the title of the article, with only the following in capitals:
The first word; the first word after a colon; and any proper names.
NO QUOTES around the title
Lawton, C. A., Blakemore, J. E. O., & Vartanian, L. R. (2003). The new meaning of Ms.: Single, but too old for Miss.
Follow this with the name of the journal, major words in caps (the only place where that is the case), in italics
Lawton, C. A., Blakemore, J. E. O., & Vartanian, L. R. (2003). The new meaning of Ms.: Single, but too old for Miss. Psychology of Women Quarterly,
Follow this with the volume number in italics (sometimes the issue number is in parentheses after the volume number, but we don’t usually use it, so you should not, but it’s not technically incorrect if you do), followed by the page numbers, in regular text (not italics)
Lawton, C. A., Blakemore, J. E. O., & Vartanian, L. R. (2003). The new meaning of Ms.: Single, but too old for Miss. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 27,

20. Follow this with the doi (digital object identifier)
Lawton, C. A., Blakemore, J. E. O., & Vartanian, L. R. (2003). The new meaning of Ms.: Single, but too old for Miss. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 27, doi: /
If you use the issue number in one journal, use it for all journals, or don’t ever use it – pick a convention and stick with it.
The reference is done with hanging indentation – first row out to the margin, other rows indented under it.

21. Reference for a book Authors are the same as for a journal article
Title follows the format of a journal article title (not the journal’s name)
The book’s title follows the year of publication. If it’s a second or subsequent edition, that goes in parentheses. Volume numbers can also be complicated, but check the pocket guide for further information.
The publisher city (and state if the city is not well known – New York, Chicago, Toronto, London, etc., go alone)
Followed by a colon and the name of the publisher
Kuther, T. L. (2006). The psychology major’s handbook (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Perrin, R. (2007). Pocket guide to APA style (2nd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

22. Chapter in an edited book
Many scholarly books consist of several chapters by different authors (essentially review articles on some topic) in a book organized by an editor or editors
The same rules are followed, plus some new ones
You need the authors, the chapter title, its pages, the editors, and the book title and publishers:
Russell, G. (1999). Primary caregiving fathers. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), Parenting and child development in “nontraditional” families (pp ). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Note that it is the book title in italics, but not the chapter title.

23. Other types of sources
There are several other sources which are much less commonly used in term papers in psychology
You will use journal articles most of all, and depending on the course, perhaps some books and book chapters
There are samples on the Purdue OWL

24. Common mistakes Only including the first author
Using names, not initials (whether you use one, two, or three initials depends on what the original source lists)
Putting quotes around the title
Not italicizing book titles, journal titles, and volume numbers (this is the one that even good reference lists may still miss)
Capitalizing words other than major words in the title
No ampersand between the second-to-last and last authors

25. Hanging Indent in Word

26. Endnote
Samples on youtube linked from lecture page.