APA LABORATORY REPORT WRITING FOR SINGLE EXPERIMENTS
(The portions of this sheet that
are relevant to PSYC 2000 are in bold face.)
The Publications
Manual (2001, on reserve in the library) of the American Psychological
Association (APA) has set forth rules for report-writing that we use at
AU. Those rules are summarized
here. Citations in the text of a paper
are made using the “author-copyright date” method (e.g. Jones, 1994). The portions of this summary useful for
library research papers (as distinguished from conducting an experiment and
writing about it) are the “Introduction” and “Reference” sections. All papers must be typed and double-spaced (except PSYC 2000 summary sheets, which are
single-spaced).
Students are encouraged to consult APA journals that publish
research reports to better understand how reports are written (examples of
print media are: Behavioral Neuroscience, Journal of Abnormal Psychology,
Journal of Comparative Psychology, Journal of Counseling Psychology, Journal of
Consulting & Clinical Psychology, Journal of Educational Psychology,
Journal of Family Psychology, Journal of Personality & Social Psychology). PSYC 2000 students can also use the Journal
of Social Psychology, and the Journal of Psychology, which are
non-APA journals that are similar enough to APA to use. PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE ARE MANY MORE
AVAILABLE ONLINE THROUGH “EBSCO HOST” THAT YOU CAN PRINT ( go to Internet Explorer, and then go to the following address: “bones.anderson.edu”
and look under “choose index” which is located on the left). There are also two journals that are
theoretical and review in nature (i.e. they are not research reports)
that are similar to our “library research” papers, and should NOT be
used for PSYC 2000 summaries: Psychological Bulletin and Psychological
Review.
PLEASE SEE PAGES 305-320 IN THE APA PUBLICATION MANUAL
(2001) FOR AN EXAMPLE OF THIS APA FORMAT. This book is on reserve in the
University Library. The INTERNET has
additional APA style helps (go to “http://www.google.com,” and in the search box enter “APA style.”) Select “OWL, for example,
” (from
Title Page
This should be your
outside cover sheet. In the middle of
the page, center the name of your experiment.
Page numbers go in the upper right corner and begin on the title
page. Five spaces to the left of the
page number should have your “manuscript page header,” which is the first two
or three words of your title (it appears on each page, not just the title
page). Also, in the upper left
corner of the title page only, type “Running Head:” followed by an
abbreviated title in capital letters (50 characters or fewer, counting
letters, spaces, etc.). The running head
should be down one line so it doesn’t run into the page header.
On separate lines
below the name of the experiment, center your name and
Abstract
This should be the second
page (i.e. follows the Title Page) of your completed report, and the paragraph
is NOT indented. It is a brief (limited
to 960 characters, including spaces, about 120 words) summary of the salient
points drawn from all sections. For
example, get the statement of the problem being investigated from the
Introduction; the participants and brief procedure from the Method, findings in
the Results, conclusions in the Discussion, etc. of your paper. It will probably be the last thing you write
since it reviews the entire paper. It is
appropriate to give some statistical significance levels in the abstract.
(Introduction)
This succeeds the abstract on a separate
sheet of paper. Do not use the word
“Introduction” as a heading, but do type in the title of the article,
capitalizing all major words. The
introduction should present the specific problem under study, a brief review of
the most relevant studies done in the past (“relevant” usually means studies
using similar independent and dependent variables), a relevant theoretical
statement and a prediction (an hypothesis) of outcome
based on the reviewed studies. Do not include any information about your specific
experiment in this section, until the last paragraph or two, where you will
state the rationale for, and purpose of the present study. Said another way, in the last paragraphs, and
for our purposes, identify and define the variables you will manipulate,
the measures that you will use (the dependent variables), and include a formal
statement of your hypothesis. The
hypothesis should agree with the research and theory you have reviewed.
Method
This is the format
for reporting a single experiment (see pp. 27 and 317 for how to handle more
than one experiment) . This section must be very detailed and clear to allow
replication. It consists of the
following sections: Participants, Apparatus/Materials, Design/Procedure,
(in PSYC 2010 we not use “Design.”
Participants (in italics)
A statement of the number, age, gender,
and where the participants were found (e.g. a Midwestern university General
Psychology class) should be included here.
Also, include the selection procedure (randomly selected, haphazard,
matched pairs, etc.). When describing
the number of subjects, use the numeric symbol (e.g. 3 males). Spell out the number when it starts a
sentence.
Apparatus/Materials (in italics)
Describe any equipment used in the experiment. This should include the name of the apparatus, manufacturer, model, number, approximate dimensions of the room, clocks, etc. If there was no “apparatus,” just use the word “materials,” and vise versa.
Procedure (in italics)
This section includes a detailed account
of what you did (PSYC 2010 does not need a separate “design” section). As completely as possible, and in
step-by-step manner, the experimental procedure should be presented (e.g. the
participant was asked to sit behind the table, etc.). If you used some unusual measure, it can also
be included here (e.g. how you derived the “total score” in the mirror tracing
experiment). Be sure not to discuss any
actual results here. Include information
about how participants were assigned to the various groups and whether and how
counterbalancing was employed.
Results
This section is often confused with the
discussion section. Here, you describe
what you found (descriptive and inferential statistics, graphs, called
“figures,” tables, etc.). Do not
go into what it means - that belongs in the discussion - but guide the reader
by indicating why you did the statistical test (e.g., “To determine if females
had superior performance to males on reaction time, Group F was compared to
Group M, etc..”). Be sure that your figures have an
explanation or caption below the graph, preceded by “Figure 1” 9in
italics). Tables have an underlined
caption above the table at the left margin.
Type “Table 1” a line above the caption, also on the
left margin.
We customarily use
“t” tests, and work at an alpha level of .05 to determine if the means are
significantly different from one another (be sure to say, “An alpha level of
.05 was used for all comparisons,” in your Results section). Where the computer
gives the actual probability, if the probability is .05 or below, (like .02),
there is a significant difference in means (also described as “rejecting the
null hypothesis”). Summarize the statistics, offsetting it with comas, near the
end of the sentence; for example, t (d.f.) = 2.68,
p=.03.
Discussion
Here you state what the results mean. Do the results support the hypothesis, not
support the hypothesis, or partially support the hypothesis? Do the results agree with or disagree with
the literature you reviewed in the Introduction? Also, in case of unexpected results, a
critique of the present experiment (or earlier experiments) may be in
order. A new theory may be suggested,
but don’t overdo this. Your primary
responsibility is to evaluate and interpret your results and discuss implications.
References
Organize this
separate sheet of paper by arranging the books and papers alphabetically by the
first author’s last name. Also, indent 5
spaces (or whatever equals ½ inch) all lines of the reference, EXCEPT THE
FIRST. Never rearrange the order of the authors’ names of a particular article
or book. Include only sources that
you have actually held in your hand or read on the net. (Please see pages
219-232 of the APA Publication Manual for more examples).
Book Example:
Woodworth, R.S., &
Schlosberg, H. (1954). Experimental psychology.
Rinehard &
Winston.
Journal Example:
lesions on the gill cover response in Siamese fighting fish. Psychology and Behavior, 13 (2), 749-755.
Edited volume example
(includes encyclopedias that specify authored pieces) :
Mitchell, K.M., Bogarth, J.D., &
Kraught, C.C. (1981). A
reappraisal of the therapeutic effectiveness
of
accurate empathy; An experimental approach.
In A.S. Gurman, A.N. Razin, & B.O. Stinks (Eds.), Effective
psychotherapy:
A handbook research (pp. 239-252).
Citing an abstract as
an original source:
Jones, J.R., &
Psychological
Abstracts, 70, 764.
Citing an abstract
from a secondary source (e.g. PsycINFO):
Nakazato, K., Shimano, A., & Homma,
Y. (1992). Cognitive functions of centenarians:
The Tokyo
Metropolitan
Centenarian Study. Japanese
Journal of Developmental Psychology, 3, 9-16. Abstract obtained from
PsycSCAN: Neuropsychology,
1993, 2, Abstract No. 604.
Electronic Media (on line): See pp
268-281 in the Publication Manual, (an example from print media follows:)
Scott, G., Bray, B., & Subtle, V.
(2002). Role-reversal in male and female interactions
[Electronic version]. Journal
of Social
Interactions, 5, 111-122.
(That is, if you access a journal electronically that is also in print,
use the above format.)
Electronic Media
example of an article in an Internet-only journal:
Busby, F.L. (2002, April 5). Cultivating positive
attitudes to enhance health. Prevention
& Treatment, 3, Article 0001a. Retrieved
Appendix
For writing research
reports (not PSYC 2000 summaries),
you may be asked to include all raw data, statistical calculations,
survey results, etc. at the end of your paper. Further, you may wish to
have Appendix A” and “Appendix B” if the material is too unrelated to appear in
only one appendix. (2002 Version)