Introduction Section Content:
An APA-style introduction section will typically do several things:
1) Provide a general introduction to the topic of the paper. This often includes background information on the psychological construct the experiment will try to measure (for example, memory). This part of the introduction should help to convince the reader that the topic is important.
2) Provide a statement of the purpose of the study. This section should include a clear discussion of the variables that the experiment examines, and the hypothesized relationship between those variables.
3) Describe the research strategy used to evaluate the hypothesis.
Methods section content:
1) A participants subsection, in which the research subjects who participated in the experiment (you and your fellow classmates) should be described. In addition, the sampling methods used to recruit the research subjects should be reported. Finally, whether IRB approval and informed consent was obtained prior to the start of the experiment should be reported.
(A quick note on ethics – your project will did not go through the process of IRB approval. The data generated here are used solely for the purpose of instruction, and will never be published. Therefore, this experiment is not considered research and IRB approval is not necessary. A statement to this effect should be present in the methods section.)
2) A procedure subsection, in which the methods used to collect data should be described at a level of detail that would plausibly allow another researcher to replicate the experiment. This should include a clear description of each phase of the experiment.
3) An apparatus subsection, in which the equipment used to collect data should be described.
Results section content:
Typically, an APA-style results section will typically do several things for each dependent variable:
1) Report descriptive statistics. You should describe the different treatment groups defined by the independent variable by reporting the mean and standard deviation.
2) Report inferential statistics. You should report the results of the statistical test that was run, using the APA-style reporting method we discussed in class (examples are present in the statistics crash course ppt file). You should also interpret what those results mean for the experiment’s hypothesis. Are the differences between the treatment groups meaningful, or not?
Discussion Section Content:
An APA-style discussion section will do the following:
1) Restate the hypothesis and summarize the results of the experiment
2) Place the results in context with other research, citing papers as necessary.
3) Interpret the results in light of the methods used. This section should have a discussion of the study’s limitations, including any threats to internal or external validity that may be present in the experimental design.
4) Discuss the implications of the data, how it could be applied, and suggestions for how future research can extend the results of the experiment described in this discussion section.
Reference Section Content: The references section should make a complete list of all references cited in the report. This list should be organized alphabetically by the last name of the first author. All references should be in APA format.
