Reporting psychological investigations

What is the abstract in a scientific report

A short summary - 150-200 words - includes aims, hypotheses, methods and procedure, results and conclusions. Written last. When researching a particular topic, psychologists will often read lots of abstracts in order to identify those studies that are worthy of further examination

What is the introduction

A review of past research, starting off with broad data and gradually becoming more specific until aims and hypotheses are presented. Aim is to provide a rationale for the study

What is the method

Includes the design, sample, apparatus, procedure, ethics. Includes sufficient detail so that other researchers are able to precisely replicate the study

What is included in the results section

Should summarise the key findings. Features descrptive statistics (tables, graphs, charts, measures of central tendency and dispersion) and inferential statistics (choice of stat test, level of sig, critical values, final outcome). Raw data should be in the appendix

What is in the discussion section

Summary of the findings in verbal rather than statistical form. Relationship of findings to previous research mentioned in intro. Discuss limitations and suggestions of modifications. Implications of research are considered - real-world application of what has been discovered and what contribution the investigation has made to existing knowledge base

What is in the referencing section

Includes full details of any source material cited in the report

What is the format of referencing for journals, books, and websites

Journal: author(s), data, article title, journal name (in italics), volume (issue), page numbers

Book: author(s), date, title of book (in italics), place of publication, publisher

Website: source, date, title, weblink, date accessed