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Psychology Laboratory Report Writing |
5: Results
This section presents the findings from the research that was carried out.
An effective structure for the Results section is one that presents the
findings from the analyses that tested each of the hypotheses, one at a time.
To be maximally informative, the Results section needs to be planned carefully.
The findings should be collated in such a way that the reader can gain a very
clear picture of the most important results that were obtained.
Essentially, the Results section:
- Presents the findings from the research in descriptive language in the
text;
- Provides the collated findings in tables and graphs (referred
to as, figures).
A well-written Results section:
- Draws the readers’ attention to the most important issues, for example,
significant differences, non-significant effects (especially if they are contrary
to that which was hypothesised), and large standard deviations.
- Includes the results of significance tests for both significant
and non-significant effects. It is important to note that sometimes it is
the non-significant effects, or absence of significant differences, that is
of greatest interest.
- Is well organised and easy to read. For example, where a study involves
multiple hypotheses, it is sometimes useful to outline the results of the
test of each, one at a time.
- Tells the reader how to read the table or figure
(that is, pointing out the pattern or other important finding), and does not
simply read the numbers.
- Introduces each table or figure, and tell the reader what is presented there.
Tables or figures should then appear as soon after their introduction as is
feasible.
- Presents text immediately following each table or figure
that facilitates the reading of the collated data that have been presented
in them.
- Does not interpret the results. Rather, interpretations wait until the Discussion
section.
Terminology should be used with great care. There are many terms that have
specific meaning for psychological research (for example, significant, correlation,
conditioning and so on). It is, therefore, important to use such terms appropriately,
and to avoid using them loosely.
Note: Original raw data (as distinct from tabulated or graphically
presented collated data) are not presented in the Results section. Instead,
they can be included in an Appendix.
Tables and figures:
- Need to be prepared carefully, in order that they highlight the most appropriate
pattern(s) in the research findings;
- Do NOT usually present the same data in both forms. However,
sometimes the initially collated data are presented in a table (for example,
of means and standard deviations), and then a figure is used to represent
graphically the pattern of findings from one of the major analyses (as, for
example, in the case where the analyses have yielded a significant interaction).
