Reporting Psychological Investigations

• 1. Abstract:

  • First section of a psychological report.
  • Contains a concise summary of the report.
  • About 150 words.
  • Tells the reader about the major elements of the report including the aim, hypothesis, method, results and conclusions.
  • Abstracts mean that researchers do not have to read hundreds of reports when conducting new research, but instead can read just the abstracts.
  • Researchers use abstracts so find the most relevant reports to read in full.
• 2. Introduction

  • This is a literature review and overview of the current research field.
  • Written using the funnel technique so that broad themes are covered first and these are narrowed in closer and closer to the current piece of research.
  • It ends with the aim and hypothesis of the current research.
• 3. Aim and Hypothesis

  • The aim states the purpose of the study : "To investigate..."
  • The hypothesis states what is going to be tested and the expected outcome.
• 4. Method

  • It should be detained enough so that if someone else picks up the report, they could replicate the research.

  It should include:

  • Design and method
  • Sample and participants
  • Apparatus and equipment
  • Procedure
  • Ethics
• 5. Results

  • Should include key findings in relation to the hypothesis and:
  • Descriptive statistics including tables, graphs and chats, measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion
  • Inferential statistics
• 6. Discussion

  • The results should be verbally summarised at the start of the discussion and this includes relating them to the aim and the hypothesis stated in the introduction.
  • The researcher then compares the results to the previous research outlined in the introduction.
  • Any limitations of the research will be discussed and possible suggestions of addressing these in future research.
  • The implications of the research for real life.
• 7. Referencing

  • The reference section includes all the sources the researcher used to gather their initial information and apparatus for their investigation.
• How to write book reference:

  Autheor, A.A (Year of publication). Title of work (Capital letters also for subtitle)

  Location: Publisher
• How to write journal article reference:

  Author A.A and Author B.B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of journal, volume number, page range.
• 8. Appendices

  • Any materials used for any part of the research go here.

  Example:

  • Consent form
  • Debrief form
  • Questionnaires
  • Diagrams
  • Raw Data
• Format:

  • The repots should be written in the third person and language should be formal and technical.