Research Methods in Psychology Dr. Kimberley Duff

Lab Report

Due Date___________________

Total points_________________

You are to write a complete APA style lab report of your group’s research project. Each student needs to write an individual paper about the experiment that you designed and conducted. Therefore, as the topic is the same the papers will be similar in content, but the only sections that will be identical will be the appendices of materials used in the study. All other sections, including the method and even tables etc.. should be unique to each student’s paper. This report is to be 3 -4 pages of text, not including the title page, abstract, references, appendices. Consult your textbook, APA Manual, journal articles and class handouts. Similar to examples we have seen in class, your paper must include the following:

Title Page

Must be written in APA Style and include a title that reflects the content of the paper.

Abstract

Must be written in APA style and must sum up your paper: what you topic is, why it is important, what work in the past has shown, what your work was designed to address, and what you found. Should be written in the past tense as you are reporting on an experiment that will have taken place.

Introduction

Must be written in APA style. You must first introduce your topic that you are researching (very generally). Start defining your terms and reviewing past work, justify why your experiment was conducted, propose what you expect to fine, including clearly stated hypotheses. See any introduction form a journal article as a model.

Method

Must be written in APA style. List out your participants, your materials (should be referenced in the text) and a step-by-step description of what you did so that another researcher could replicate it.

Results

Must be written in APA style. Identify the independent and dependent variables. Describe how scores were calculated, list general averages (means) and other results and briefly state what they mean.

Discussion

Must be written in APA style. First address if you obtained the results you hypothesized. Describe in English (non-statistical language) what your results mean in terms of your hypothesis and your topic in general. Include: How do your findings compare with past research, Were you surprised by the results, were there any potential confounds, what are the real world implications of your work, suggestions for where the research should go next.

References

Appendices

Include all experimental materials.

Include one APA style table or figure.