How to Write an APA-Style How to Write an APA-Style Research PaperResearch Paper

Psych 350

Major sections of an APA style research paper

1. Title page2. Abstract3. Introduction4. Method5. Results6. Discussion7. References

IntroductionIntroduction

Introduction

• Things you must include:– State the research problem/question

• “This is what I am interested in.”– Background information

• “This is what other people have done in this area.”– What questions are left unanswered

• “This is what other people still need to do in this area.”– Current study

• “This is what I am going to do, and this is what I predict.”

How to write an effective introduction

• First paragraph should be an overview.– Give a BRIEF description of the research problem– State your research questions. What do you want

to know about this topic?e.g., “The accuracy of personality judgments is a long debated issue in personality psychology. This study examines whether observers’ judgments of individuals’ personalities based on their online social network profiles coincide with individuals’ self-rated personality.”

Why is this question important?

How to write an effective introduction

• The body of your introduction should discuss the research relevant to the topic and YOUR questions.– What have other people done? How will your

study “fill in the gaps” for what has NOT been done?

• You will use this information to formulate your hypotheses.

• Your hypotheses have to be rooted in the existing literature!

How to write an effective introduction

• The last paragraph should address YOUR study.

• How are you going to address your questions?– Do NOT get deep into method here. Example:

“The current study examined the relationship between personality and emotion.”

• Name your variables (Big Five, intelligence, self-esteem, etc.) and define them as necessary.

How to write an effective introduction

• Lastly, state your hypotheses.– Be as specific as possible! What variables are you

referring to? What about strength and direction of findings?

• It is OK to cite other sources here.– “Based on Zhong & Liljenquist (2006), we expect

that guilt will decrease after participants wash their hands.”

How to write an effective introduction

• Hypotheses (continued)– BE SPECIFIC!!– For example:

• “We predict correlations between self- and observer-ratings.”

vs.• “We predict strong negative correlations between

conscientiousness and alcohol abuse.”

How to write an effective introduction

• Tips: – Don’t talk about your study in the middle of the

paper and then go back to discussing research. This will break up your introduction and leave your readers confused.

– Don’t discuss details about your study in the first paragraph. Your first paragraph should be a short summary of what your entire introduction will say.

How to write an effective introduction

• Tips:– Do tell WHY you predict what you predict. What

are you basing your hypotheses on?• Talk about what other studies have found.

– Do tell why your study is different from previous work. Sell me on why your study is so important, and why I should keep on reading!

• Talk about how your study replicates and/or extends previous studies.

MethodMethod

Method

• Things you must include:1. Participants2. Measures3. Procedure

1. Participants

• Describe your sample– Who are your participants? – How many? – What are they like (descriptives/frequencies for

age, gender, race, students, etc.)? – How did you recruit them? – Did you toss any data out? If so, explain why.

• Describe your raters (if applicable)

2. Measures

• What scales and demographic items did you use?

• Did you make up the scale? (If so, include it in an appendix in your paper)

• If you used a pre-existing scale, cite it:– E.g., “We used the ten-item anger subscale from

the Discrete Emotions Inventory (Weiss, Suckow, & Cropanzano, 1999).”

2. Measures (cont.)

• What was the response format? (e.g., 7-point scale, open-ended)– E.g.: “Participants responded to the Satisfaction

with Life Scale (SWLS) on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree)?

• Give an example of a scale item• What are the Cronbach’s αs for your sample?

– If you measure 5 traits, list 5 alphas, etc.

3. Procedure

• What did participants/raters do? – Tell enough that someone else could replicate

your study.– E.g.: “Filled out ___ scales via the internet.”

• Format: computer vs. paper & pencil• How long did it take them?• Were participants supervised?• Etc.

ResultsResults

Results

• Give your results in number form; don’t explain them yet

• Use tables and/or figures to summarize your findings

• Statistics to include:– Means and standard deviations (for every variable

you studied)– Correlations

Results

• What types of analyses did you use?– E.g., “We analyzed the correlations between self-

and other-ratings on Openness.”

• What were your results? Tell in words, then numbers. – E.g.: “Raters and participants showed strong

agreement on Neuroticism (N = 50, r = .33, p = .05).”

• Don’t explain your results yet! Just report them.

Results

• How do your results correspond to your hypotheses?– Remind your lazy readers what you wanted to do

in the first place!– Supported or not supported?

• If you use tables or figures, talk about them in your text.– Don’t just stick them in your paper at random. The

reader may not know what they are for.– E.g.: “Blah blah blah blah blah (see Table 2).”

Results

• How to show data in a table:

Table 1Means and Standard Deviations for Conscientiousness and Extraversion for

Real, Ideal, and Undesired Self

M SD Real Self

Conscientiousness 3.68 1.24 Extraversion 2.54 0.79

Ideal Self Conscientiousness 4.21 0.99 Extraversion 3.49 0.31

Undesired Self Conscientiousness 1.98 1.48 Extraversion 2.67 0.83

Note which borders in the table are visible and which are not!

Results

• Another good (informative) table example:

Trait

Males

M SD

Females

M SD

E 2.5 .75 2.7 .84

A 3.4 1.20 2.5 1.5

C 1.5 .23 4.3 1.6

N 2.2 .50 2.3 .67

O 4.2 1.6 4.3 .56

Results

• Tables should be clearly labeled – E.g.: “Table 2: Means and Standard Deviations for

Conscientiousness and Extraversion for Real, Ideal, and Undesired Self”

• …and referred to in the text– “(See Table 2)”

Results

• DO NOT do this:

Table 1: Means for C and E Table 2: Std. Deviations for C and E M SD Real Self Real Self

Conscientiousness 3.68 Conscientiousness 1.24 Extraversion 2.54 Extraversion 0.79

Ideal Self Ideal Self Conscientiousness 4.21 Conscientiousness 0.99 Extraversion 3.49 Extraversion 0.31

Undesired Self Undesired Self Conscientiousness 1.98 Conscientiousness 1.48 Extraversion 2.67 Extraversion 0.83

Results

• Tables should summarize a lot of information in a small space– Please put at least two columns in your table and

combine results as much as possible!– Several 1-column tables are annoying and useless

• Tables should allow you to compare data across groups.

• You probably will not need to use figures in this paper.

DiscussionDiscussion

Discussion

• Explain results in plain language.• Interpret your results using regular language.

– What does it MEAN if people agree more on ratings of others’ conscientiousness than other traits? What are the implications in the real world?

• How do your findings hold up to other studies?– Refer back to the articles cited in your

introduction.

Discussion

• What are the limitations of your study?– What would you do better if you had it to do over

again?

• Future Directions/Research/Studies:– How might other researchers or other fields use

your results?

General TipsGeneral Tips

General tips

• Remember, you are telling a story. • Doesn’t have to be dry... Make your work

sound COOL! Show why it is exciting.• If you can say it in one sentence or three

sentences, say it in one. – Research papers should be very concise.

Wordiness/Conciseness

• Eliminate fluff.• Using less words makes you sound smarter.• For example:

– “... we tested this by finding the correlations between the composite scores for X and the composite scores for Y.”

vs.– “...by correlating X and Y.”

Wordiness/Conciseness

• Eliminate unnecessary “the”s to instantly sound more professional.

• Tip: Any time you have “the participants,” just say “participants.”

Active vs. Passive Voice

• In your method section particularly, your words need to be as active as possible.

• Instead of, “the personality traits of the participants,” say, “participants’ personality traits.”

What NOT to do

• DO NOT cite Wikipedia!• DO NOT use lots of direct quotes… paraphrase

(but cite them)!• DO NOT talk about how you created your

questionnaire in metaform!• Do NOT include the steps in SPSS you used to

compute correlations, composite variables, etc.– Or that you even used SPSS

What NOT to do

• Do NOT say that you created composite variables, reverse-scored items, etc. This is a given.

• Do NOT copy and paste giant correlation matrices (or any other raw output!) directly from SPSS.

Bad...

E A C N O

E 1 .21 .36 -.04 .17

A .21 1 .23 -.25 .02

C .36 .23 1 -.56 .33

N -.04 -.25 -.56 1 -.11

O .17 .02 .33 -.11 1

Good!

E A C N O

E --

A .21 --

C .36 .23 --

N -.04 -.25 -.56 --

O .17 .02 .33 -.11 --

Lastly...

• Remember to label your sections!• Refer back to the sample paper posted on the

class website if you need to.