Writing a psychological report

What is section 1?

The abstract

What is the abstract?

A short summary including major elements of the research e.g aim, hypothesis, method, results, conclusions

What is section 2?

The introduction

What does the introduction include?

A literature review of relevant definitions to the research

What is section 3?

The method

What is included in the method?

The design, sample, apparatus/ materials, procedure and ethics

What is the design?

The design of the study e.g covert observation, and why it was chosen

What is the sample?

Information of the people who took part that doesn’t compromise anonymity, the sampling method and target population

What is the apparatus/materials?

Any instruments or relevant materials used

What is the procedure?

A list of everything the researcher did in easy to follow steps including anything said to the participants

What are the ethics?

How ethics were addressed in the study

What is section 4?

The results

What are the results?

Summary of the key findings from the study e.g stats, raw data, calculations, analysis of themes or categories

What is section 5?

Discussion

What are the discussions?

Summary of the key findings in verbal form with the context of other research and the abstract, includes limitations of the research and how they could be overcome, also has the real world implications

What is section 6?

Referencing

What is referencing?

The full details of any source material used in the research