reporting psychological investigations

• Report


  Designed to tell other psychologists everything they need to know about why a study is conducted, how the study was conducted, what was found, and what that means.
• Sections of a psychology research article

  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Method
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • References
• Abstract


  One or two paragraphs that summarize the entire paper, including the researcher's aim, hypothesis, information on the method, and main results and conclusions.

  They speed up the research process - abstracts allow the researcher to identify if the article is relevant and if they should read the report in full or not.
• Introduction


  Guides the reader through the academic background of the current study and research that has come before the study, and the reason why the current study is being conducted. The introduction will explain the aim and give the hypothesis.
• Method


  Provides a step-by-step guide on how to conduct the study, so that another researcher can replicate it
• Sections of the method

  • Design - outlines factors the researcher has chosen in how to conduct the study.
  • Participants - the number of participants used, sampling technique and target population the sample was taken from.
  • Materials - physical equipment, paper resources like questionnaires, photos and word lists.
  • Procedure - a step-by-step guide on how to actually conduct the study; this can include standardised procedures.
• Results


  Summarizes the data collected in the research study, including tables of descriptive statistics and relevant graphs.

  Statistical tests will be performed on the data to see if the data collected passes the required level of significance.
• Discussion


  Considers how the findings fit in with previous research, potential implications, should the hypothesis be accepted, and weaknesses of the study, as well as suggestions for future research.

  The discussion is also an opportunity for the researcher to criticise their own research, identifying potential extraneous variables.
• References


  An alphabetical list of all the researchers whose work has been used, providing credit for their ideas and allowing other researchers to easily track the sources