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Psychology Laboratory Report Writing |
4: Method
The Method section (Gail and Bel to edit so that this is a more general blurb...)
- Provides sufficient detail about how the research was undertaken so that
the research can be replicated by anyone who might want to so do. It should
also
- Provide sufficient detail for any reader to evaluate
the appropriateness of all aspects of the methodology.
- Differs according to the requirements of the different areas of psychology
research. A good way to learn about these differences is to read the leading
journals in the relevant field of psychology.
As a general rule, the Method section in a psychology laboratory report includes
five sections, design, participants, materials, procedure, and, sometimes,
data analyses.
Design
- Begins with a very succinct statement of the research problem;
- Presents an overview of the approach taken and the strategy
adopted to investigate the research problem;
- Specifies the independent variables, identifies the dependent variables, and
provides a clear and concise statement about how they were operationalised;
- Alerts the reader to the strategies that were used to
exclude or to control any extraneous variables.
Participants/Subjects
- Tells the reader precisely who took part in the research, that is, how many
humans or animals, and relevant characteristics, such as age, and sex;
- Outlines the strategy used for the recruitment of participants
(acknowledging, for example, where the research participants have been recruited
from student groups or classes) and also the details of any exclusion criteria.
"Participants" is generally the term used for research involving
humans. Experiments involving animals, however, use the term "subjects".
Whenever animals are the subjects in the experiment, it is important to outline
details of the animals in such a way that researchers are fully informed about
their salient and all relevant characteristics.
Materials/Apparatus
- Describes all the material that were used in the research, that is, measuring
instruments, stimuli that participants were exposed to, and the details of
all experimental equipment that were used;
- Provides the readers with sufficient detail to familiarize
them with the content and nature of all measuring instruments, including examples
of typical questions and their responses options.
The actual measuring instruments or questionnaires are sometimes included in
an Appendix. However, even when that is the case, it is critically important
that sufficient detail is provided in the materials section so that readers
know exactly which measures were used and how scores were derived from the measures.
Note: For all measuring instruments it is also important to
outline the way the scores that have been used in the analyses have been derived
(specifying, for example, where participants’ responses were summed to
yield a total score, or averaged in order that the mean group performance
could be compared). The actual measures are usually included in an Appendix;
they do not appear in the body of the report.
Procedure
- Provides the reader with a step-by-step description of how the research
was carried out;
- Is written in detail that is sufficient for others to
be able to replicate the research that has been undertaken;
- Does not simply repeat the Materials section, but focuses on precisely what
was done, to whom, and under what conditions.
Often there is a degree of overlap between the material to be included in the
subsections of the Method, especially the Materials and Procedure sections.
An important task in writing the method section is, therefore, to be sure that
all necessary information is included, but without repetition or duplication.
It is important to read a draft and carefully edit it.
Data analyses
- Makes clear to the reader how the data were derived (usually from the details
provided in the Materials subsection);
- Provides the reader with a clear statement about
how each of the hypotheses (outlined at the end of the Introduction) was tested.
- Sometimes the Method section does not include a subsection that outlines
the way the data were analysed. Sometimes a description of the way data were
analysed is included in the Results section, before presenting each set of
results from the analyses.
- Example of
a method section (1st year student)
