Reporting Psychological Investigations

• what are the sections of a scientific report?

  • abstract
  • introduction
  • method
  • results
  • discussion
  • reference
  • appendices
• what is the abstract?

  • first section of report which is a concise summary of report
  • 150-200 words and tells reader about major elements of report including aim, hypothesis, method, results and conclusion (written last)
  • allows researchers to not have to read hundreds of reports when conducting new research
  • used to find most relevant reports to read in full
• what is the introduction?

  • written using funnel technique, so that broad themes are covered first, these are then narrowed in closer and closer to current piece of research
  • ends with aim and hypothesis
• what is the method?

  • should be detailed enough so that report/research can be replicated, includes:
  • design - e.g. independent groups
  • sample & participants - target population, sampling method, number of participants, general demography
  • apparatus - any materials used e.g. images
  • procedure - full account of how experiment took place, including standardised instructions and everything said in debriefing, note for extraneous variables
  • ethics - possible issues, explanations for how these are dealt with
• what are the results?

  • key findings in relation to hypothesis
  • descriptive statistics (tables, graphs, charts, averages, measures of dispersion)
  • choice of statistical test - calculated values, critical value, significance level
  • for qualitative findings - analysis of themes and categories
• what is the discussion?

  • results verbally summarised at start including relating them to the aim and hypothesis stated in introduction
  • comparison of results to the previous research outlined in introduction
  • any limitations discussed and possible suggestions for addressing these
  • implications of research to real life
• what is the reference?

  • all sources used to gather initial information and apparatus for investigation e.g. books, articles, websites
  • usually use Harvard referencing
• what is the appendices?

  • any material used goes here e.g. consent form, debrief form, questionnaires, diagrams, raw data, statistical calculations
• what does a consent form include?

  • study purpose
  • procedure
  • ethical issues
  • contact information for researcher
  • space to give consent