reporting on psychological investigations

structure of reports on psychological studies

title, abstract, introduction, aim and hypotheses, method, results, discussion, references, and appendices

title

The first thing a report needs is a title. It should say what the study's about and include the IV and the DV.

abstract

a concise summary of the report (often no more than 120 words), telling the reader about the research and findings without them having to read the whole report.

It should include brief descriptions of the aims and hypotheses of the study, the method, and a summary of the results. The abstract should also contain interpretations of the findings and any significant flaws in the study.

introduction

a general overview of the area being studied, including existing theories.

It should also discuss a few studies closely related to the current study.

aim and hypotheses

The aim is a sentence stating the purpose of the study. The hypothesis is what's actually going to be tested, and should include the IV and the DV.

method

describes how the research was carried out. Someone should be able to replicate the study by following the method, so it needs to be detailed. It should include info on:
- the design of the investigation
- the procedure used
- the use of pps
- the resources used

method - the design of the investigation, e.g:

- the rm used, e.g. field experiment
- the research design, e.g. repeated measures, and any potential problems with the design
- how EVs were controlled, e.g. counterbalancing
- how materials, e.g. word-lists, were chosen
- how ethical issues were dealt with

method - the procedure used:

- this should be a step-by-step account of what happened each time a pp took part
- it should start with how the researcher and the investigation were introduced to the pp and how informed consent was obtained
- it needs to include what was said to the pps (the standardised instructions), how the study was carried out and how the pps were debriefed
- the method should also contain details on how the data was recorded

method - the use of pps, e.g:

- the number of pps used
- the demographics of the pps, e.g. age, employment, gender, etc.
- the sampling method used
- how pps were allocated to conditions

the resources used, e.g:

- the materials used, e.g. questionnaires, pictures, word-lists, etc.
- any apparatus used - it’s often useful to include diagrams or photographs of these

results

can be reported as descriptive or inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics include tables, graphs and charts. Inferential statistics involve doing statistical tests on the data.

The results section needs to include explanations of why certain tests were chosen, e.g. because the study was looking for a correlation.

They should also include the results of the test — the observed value, the critical value and level of significance.

discussion

- An explanation of the findings - summarising the results and relating them to the aim and hypothesis. It should be stated whether or not the null hypothesis is rejected. Any unexpected findings should also be addressed and explained here.
- The implications of the study - for example, whether the study relates to real-life situations, e.g. interviews, exams, etc.
- The limitations and modifications of the study - any limitations need to be explained, along with modifications that could improve the study.
- The relationship to background research — the results need to be related to the background research covered in the introduction. The data should be compared to other data and comments made on whether or not the findings of the study support the findings of other studies.
- Suggestions for further research - some ideas for further research should be included.

references

contains a list of all the books, articles and websites that have been used for info during the study.

It allows the reader to see where the information on the research and theories mentioned in the report (e.g. in the introduction) came from. References should be presented in alphabetical order of first author's surname.

appendices

Any materials used, e.g. questionnaires or diagrams, can be put in the appendix. Raw data and statistical test calculations also go here.

How to write a reference

Surname(s), date, title, city and publisher.