Psychological Reports

• Psychological reports are published papers documenting empirical evidence.
• Psychological reports have set sections which read like any scientific paper.
• Empirical evidence is based on systematic observation and experimentation, while anecdotal evidence is based on personal experiences or stories.
• Empirical evidence is gathered in Psychology and published in psychological reports.
• The sections of a psychological report are, an abstract, introduction, method (design, participants, apparatus/ materials, procedure), results, discussion, references and appendices.
• The purpose of conducting empirical research in Psychology is to gather objective data and evidence to support or refute theories and hypotheses, to advance our understanding of human behaviour and mental processes.
• The abstract is a summary of the entire investigation. It includes a few sentences on each of the sections and is approximately 150-200 words.
• The abstract is found at the front of a psychological report.
• The introduction section contains relevant background theory and studies, setting the scene for the research in the report.
• The introduction states the aim and hypotheses of the research in the psychological report.
• The method section has several sub-sections including the design, participants, materials and procedure.
• The design section outlines detail about the experimental method as well as any variables that were controlled or manipulated.
• The materials section outlines any specific equipment or apparatus used in the study.
• The participants section outlines the sample of the study and described how they were selected.
• The procedure is a step-by-step process to ensure that replication is easy to conduct.
• Ethical guidelines may be included in the procedure section of a report.
• The results section outlines a summary of the main findings, but any raw data or calculations are found in the appendices.
• A discussion provides an explanation of the results, and links the findings back to the background information.
• References use the Harvard System to cite every source used in the study.
• The introduction and discussion sections of the report are where there is acknowledgment of previous theories or studies.