Reporting psychological investigations

• What are the 6 sections which make up a scientific report?

  Abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion and referencing
• What is an abstract?

  A short summary of all the major elements of the study (aim, hypothesis, methods, results and conclusion)
• What is an introduction?

  A literature review of the general area of investigation which looks at past research on a similar topic - includes the aim and hypothesis
• What is the method?

  A description of what the researcher did including design, sample, apparatus/materials, procedure and ethics
• What are the results?

  A summary of the key findings of the investigation, including descriptive and inferential statistics
• What is the discussion?

  Discussing the results in the context of the evidence presented in the introduction - includes awareness of limitations of study and the wider implications of the research
• What are the references?

  A list of sources that are referred to or quoted in the articles e.g. journal articles, books or websites, and their full details
• What format does the reference of a book have?

  author(s), date, title of book (in italics), place of publication, publisher
• What format does the reference of a journal article have?

  author(s), date, title of article, journal title (in italics), volume (issue number + in italics), page numbers