HOW TO WRITE A REPORT!

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HOW TO WRITE A REPORT!
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REPORT?What's that about.

• Great, that time of year has come and you get to
  be a 'real psychologists'! What will
  differentiate a good report from bad report will
  be whether you are able to be objective and
  think like a psychologist.

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An investigation into the influence of Music on
memory.

• Before you set your title out you would have
  completed some background reading in your choice
  of topic.
• Officially this is called a literature review.

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ABSTRACT.

• The Abstract should be about 250 words long. It
  should concisely summarise the
• Aim- The aim was to investigate
• Background-Your hypothesis (H1/H2).
• Design- Independent/Repeated Measures. Variables.
• Sample- Selection ?Girls ?Boys.
• Results and statistical conclusions of your
  study- Inferential Descriptive..Main findings.
• It should be written in the 3rd person and past
  tense, in other words you should not write I
  found.instead The experiment was carried out

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INTRODUCTION.

• You should inform your reader of the background
  to your investigation. Psychologists tend to use
  an
• upside down pyramid approach to writing
  introductions.

HUH????
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INTRODUCTION.

• General introduction
• Specifics
• Actual Aim
• Your Hypothesis

Approx 250-500 words.
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INTRODUCTION con.

• Also state the implications of setting a 0.05
  level of significance.
• Even in the event of your results being found to
  be statistically significant you recognise there
  is a 1 20 probability that your results occurred
  by chance.

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METHOD..

• Your method should include descriptions of the
  following
• Design
• Materials
• Variables
• Sample
• Procedure.
• Not necessarily in the above order.

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PROCEDURE

• An exceptionally crucial section of the report as
  this is what the reader would follow if they were
  to replicate your investigation.
• It should outline from start to finish what your
  participants did without exception, and end with
  you thanking them and thoroughly debriefing each
  participant.
• A step-step guide of what to do. (Like a recipe
  in a cookbook all steps would need to be followed
  in order to make that perfect soufflé!!!)

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RESULTS

• First things first..you need to draw a table to
  put in input your raw data, this is the actual
  scores/answers you take from each participant.
• Present your results in a meaningful way.
• The next step will be to tabulate some
  descriptive statistics.

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Descriptive Statistics?????

• These are the first calculations we complete with
  the raw data.
• Mean-Add all scores together and divide by number
  of participants.
• Median- The Middle value.
• Mode- The most frequent answer.
• Range- The highest value minus the lowest value.

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Tables/ Graphs.

• You could display your results via a bar chart,
  histogram, pie chart scatter gram..

Any of the above are acceptable as are others
that are not included in this example
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RESULTS

• Next step is an inferential statistic such as
• Chi-squared (test of association)
• Mann Whitney
• T-Test
• Spearman's Rho (test of frequency)

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Inferential Statistics.

• You will use an inferential statistic in your
  results. This will allow you to accept/reject
  your null hypothesis, and thus reject/accept your
  experimental.

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DISCUSSION.

• Refer to your introduction and your aim
• Keep it structured and remember the audience the
  report is aimed at..academics like yourself,
  teachers etc.
• Explain your findings referring to some
  psychology (ie the introduction/previous
  research).
• Refer to your descriptive statistics (graphs and
  charts) to back up what you say - otherwise what
  was the point of doing them! Use language like
  'As can be seen from Fig ? on page .'

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Discussion.

• Identify limitations in your investigation e.g.
  your design, method, sampling technique etc.
• Identify further improvements that could be made
• Identify future research
• Lastly in the report you need to end with a
  conclusion.

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CONCLUSION..

• A conclusion is a brief statement.
• What you were aiming to do.
• What you found (Descriptive/Inferential).
• Did the findings support or reject your
  hypothesis.
• What the research was based on (piece of
  research).

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APPENDICES..

• An example of raw data,
• Stimulus sheets (word lists etc)
• Consent form
• Debrief sheet
• Standard instruction sheet.
• Calculations (statistics)
• References
• Also ensure you have a contents page at the front
  of the report.

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References

• References.
• Cardwell, M. Flanagan, C. (2004) Psychology A2
  The Complete Companion. Cheltenham Nelson
  Thornes Ltd.
• Baker, J. Bezance, J. Zellaby, E. Aggleton, J.
  (2004) Chewing gum can produce context-dependent
  effects upon memory. online Page 1, 2, 3.
  Available from http//www.scq.ubc.ca/papers/1103g
  um.pdf Accessed on 4/3/09
• Godden, DR. Bsddeley, AD. (1975)
  Context-dependent memory in two natural
  environments on land and underwater. online
  Available from http//www.uniview.co.uk/pdf/newgo
  dmerge.pdf Accessed on 4/3/09