PSYC102 Research Report Notes

Mid-Term Quiz

• Format: 40 multiple-choice questions.
• Weight: 10% of overall unit marks.
• Difficulty: Same level as self-test quizzes and final exam.
• Topics: Topics 1 to 4 (up to and including Cross-Cultural and Indigenous Psychology in Australia).
• Resources: Open-book test (all resources allowed).
• Attempts: One attempt only (no pause or return).
• Duration: 1 hour 10 minutes (70 minutes).
• Availability: Open Friday, 21st March; Close Sunday, 30th March @ 11:59pm (AEST).

Research Report Structure

• Introduction:
  • Provides the logical and theoretical foundation for the study.
  • Explains key concepts, theories, and variables.
  • Provides explanations and examples of past research to logically lead to the current study's aims and hypotheses.
• Methods:
  • Explains what was done in the study and what was used in a way others can reproduce the study.
  • Should be short and to the point.
• Results:
  • Presents the numbers, statistics, images, figures, and graphs.
  • Follows strict rules for data presentation.
• Discussion:
  • Turns the numbers back into words.
  • Reflects on how the findings match up with the literature.
  • Reflects on how the study performed as a whole and concludes the paper.
• Abstract:
  • A summary of the paper that includes spoilers.
  • Takes information from all parts of the report.

Method Section

• The method section includes three subsections:
  • Participants
  • Materials
  • Procedure

Participants

• Provides and describes important key demographic information, such as:
  • Participant sample numbers
  • Gender $[n]$ and $[$
  • Mean $[SD]$
  • Age
  • Group affiliation
  • Other important details about the sample.

Materials

• Describes the survey or questionnaire that participants completed.

Procedure

• Describes what participants did.
• Include key information about the sequence or chronological order of events involved in data collection.

Example Participant Section

• A total of 208 first-year Australian university psychology students voluntarily participated in an online survey generated in Qualtrics.
• The cohort included 166 (79.8%) females, 36 (17.3%) males, five (2.4%) nonbinary/third gender, and one (0.5%) who preferred not to disclose their gender.
• Participants were aged between 18 and 76 years, with a mean age of 33.0 years ($SD = 11.5$).
• There were 139 (66.8%) students who reported being engaged in mindful meditation practice, and 69 (33.2%) who had not engaged in mindfulness meditation.

Example Materials Section

• The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10; Cohen et al., 1983):
  • Used to measure how often a person feels or thinks a certain way in response to 10 self-report items.
  • Assessed based on the past month on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 0 (never) to 4 (very often).
  • Example item: “In the past month, how often have you been upset because of something that happened unexpectedly?”
  • A score is calculated from the sum of the 10 items corrected for scale item direction.
  • Scores range from 0 to 40.
  • The higher the PSS score, the more likely it is that the individual will perceive that environmental demands exceed their ability to cope.
• The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS; Tennant et al., 2007):
  • Used to measure both subjective and psychological well-being as a composite measure of mental well-being.
  • Comprised of 14 self-report items, measured using a 5-point rating measured from 1 (none of the time) to 5 (all of the time).
  • Example items: “I’ve been feeling useful” and “I’ve been feeling confident”.
  • Scores are summed with a minimum score of 14 and a maximum score of 70, with higher scores indicating a higher level of well-being.
  • Higher scores indicate increased psychological and subjective well-being.

Example Procedure Section

• Participants were recruited anonymously through the University of New England PSYC102 Moodle site, where participants were linked to an online questionnaire hosted by Qualtrics (https://www.qualtrics.com).
• Participants were required to read general information detailing the study, data confidentiality, possible risks, and possible withdrawal.
• Subsequently, participants could provide informed consent before commencing the questionnaire.
• Following the demographic questions, the above measures were presented.
• The PSYC102 unit coordinator scored and analyzed the data using SPSS v28 (IBM Corp, 2021).

Results Section

• Summarizes the data that was collected and analyses that were conducted on those data.
• Includes descriptive and inferential statistics (In-text summary of statistical effects).
• Describe important effects and differences between groups and conditions.
• Include APA formatted table of the relevant descriptive statistics for key study variables (e.g., correlation matrix/table).
• Results of statistical tests reported clearly and according to APA style.
• Identify if the results support the hypotheses or not.
• Save discussion of the results for the discussion.

Bivariate Pearson’s product-moment coefficients

• Determined the strength and direction of relationships between mindfulness, wellbeing, and sleep quality.
• See Table 1 for a correlation matrix including means and standard deviations for key study variables.
• All correlations were one-tailed with an alpha of 0.05.
• The results supported the hypothesis that mindfulness would be significantly positively/negatively associated with wellbeing and mindfulness would be significantly positively/negatively associated with sleep quality.

Example Results Table

Table 1
Pearson's Correlations Between Variables, N= 208, Means, Standard Deviations

Note. ***p<.001.

Examples of in text summary H2 & H3

• An independent samples t-test indicated a non-significant difference in mental well-being between participants who reported having experience in mindfulness meditation ($M = 45.79$, $SD = 10.74$) and those who reported not practicing mindfulness ($M = 44.46$, $SD = 9.42$), $t(116) = 0.67$, $p =.253$, one-tailed.
• The results did not support the hypothesis that those participants who engaged in regular mindfulness meditation practice would report significantly greater well-being as opposed to those participants who reported never engaging in mindfulness practice.
• Similarly, an independent samples t-test found no significant difference in reported sleep quality between those who have experience in mindfulness meditation ($M = 13.12$, $SD = 4.21$) and those who do not practice mindfulness ($M = 13.59$, $SD = 3.96$), $t(116) = -0.59$, $p = .279$, one-tailed.
• The results did not support the hypothesis that those participants who engaged in regular mindfulness meditation practice would report significantly greater sleep quality as opposed to those participants who reported never engaging in mindfulness practice.
• Note, focus on what P is telling us about finding a meaningful difference between two group means.

Discussion Section

• Considers results as they relate to aims and hypotheses.
• Make inferences and draw conclusions about them.
• Relate and compare results to previously published research that was cited in the introduction.
• Opening discussion by restating the study aims.
• Explicit statement of whether or not findings support each hypothesis – restate the hypotheses in full (don’t say “Hypothesis 1” or “first hypothesis” etc.). Don’t restate findings, just say whether they supported the hypotheses.
• Implications of findings regarding each of the supported hypotheses are discussed in depth. Supporting literature is evident, with correct APA citation use.
• Does not introduce new citations that have not previously been cited in the introduction.
• Potential study limitations are broached, with discussed limitations leading to recommendations that future research might address.
• Clear and concise concluding paragraph, briefly summarizing key research findings in light of the hypotheses.
• Summarizing implications of key findings with no new ideas are introduced in the conclusion.

Example Discussion

• The aims of the present study were to identify areas associated with depressive symptomology that may help raise awareness of depressive episodes in young people or may have application in helping reduce negative affect. Additionally, identification of differences in urban and rural environments in perceived stress and depressive symptoms was expected.
• The hypothesized negative association between depressive symptomology and social support was found, and the two subscales of SSQN and SSQS had similar effect sizes. This supports previous research and shows that increased satisfaction with social networks and higher numbers of trusted others may protect against depressive symptomology, or that the absence of low levels of depression may facilitate stronger social connection.

In conclusion

• The present study adds support to the idea that depressive symptoms do not occur in isolation but are associated with the quality of social support, the strength of one’s social network and the coping methods one employs. This information contributes to the base of knowledge around identifying and reducing depressive symptomology in Australian adolescent youth.
• The strong link found between perceived stress and depressive symptoms shows promise as a starting point for programs aimed at identifying and reducing both of these negative constructs.
• The confirmation that high adaptive coping and strong social support are paired with lower depressive symptomology supports the notion that work should be done to strengthen social support and educate youth on better ways to cope with stress and negative affect.

Abstract Section

• The Abstract is a brief summary of the entire report.
• Consistent with APA formatting, the 150-word abstract includes a concise summary of the:
  • Study topic
  • Study aim
  • Participants (who and how many)
  • Results and key findings
  • Conclusion and recommendations
• Write the abstract in past tense.
• Don’t include citations.

Abstract Example

• (Background problem >) Depressive symptomology is a severe problem for Australian Adolescents and is associated with an array of negative outcomes.
• (Aim >) The present study aimed to identify factors associated with depressive symptoms. These factors included social support, perceived stress, adaptive coping, and urban and rural differences.
• (Who >) Participants were 304 students at private high schools, from rural and urban regions of NSW, Australia.
• (How >) Participants answered questionnaires to assess each of the main variables.
• (Results >) Correlation analysis found significant negative relationships between depressive symptoms and both social support and adaptive coping. A key finding was the strong relationship between perceived stress and depressive symptomology. No differences were found between urban and rural groups, contrary to expectations.
• (Implications of findings leading to future direction >) This information may help inform future research and development of interventions towards reducing adolescent depressive symptoms and associated negative effects.

Report Sections - Key Questions

• Intro:
  • What are we trying to understand and why?
  • Why should we care?
  • What do we know?
  • What don’t we know?
  • What are we trying to understand? (aims)
  • What do we predict (specific hypotheses)?
• Method: What did the study involve?
  • Who were the participants? (participants)
  • What were the participants asked to do? (materials and procedure)
• Results:
  • Descriptive statistics (usually M, SD, correlations for key study variables)
  • Results of the statistical analyses testing the hypotheses
• Discussion:
  • What did the study try to find out? (restate aims)
  • Were the hypotheses supported? Why / why not?
  • Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research
  • Conclusion: summary of the findings and their implications (what did we learn and why is it important?)

Introduction vs. Discussion