Quantitative dissertation guidelines full

5. ALL QUANTITATIVE REPORTS AND PROJECTS

WRITING STYLE:There are a few definite ‘dos’ and ‘do nots’ in writing a quantitative report:

1. You should write in the third person (e.g. “An experiment was conducted”) throughout the report; avoid saying “I” or “we” (although you may come across this in some papers).

2. Use the past tense when referring to your study and to previous research. So, you should say “…this experiment examined…” rather than “…this experiment examines…” Note that using the present tense when reporting findings can change the meaning. For example, “X is faster than Y” suggests a ‘fact’ (i.e. is a generalised statement), and is not the same as “X was faster than Y”, which shows it relates to a specific instance/finding based on a particular design and sample. Be careful about shifting tenses - this can easily happen, particularly in long paragraphs.

3. Your reports should be presented as objective pieces of scientific work. This means that you should avoid phrases like “it was hoped” or “it was expected”. Instead, you should bear in mind that experiments and studies are normally designed to test hypotheses. This means that phrases like ‘it was hoped’ should be replaced by “it was predicted” You should also explain the basis for your prediction or the rationale for your study.

4. Your writing style should be parsimonious (economical) - avoid unnecessary details and the repetition of information.

5. Writing should be in narrative style. Do not use bullet points, or forms of shortened sentences/phrases.

6. Human participants should not be referred to as ‘subjects’, subjects is only appropriate when animals are used.

7. You need to use the APA reporting structure (along with any amendments detailed here) throughout your report.

8. Do not use contractions (e.g. don’t, can’t, won’t, didn’t, etc.), and do not use abbreviations except as directed earlier in this guide.

9. Be careful of making sweeping, unsupported statements - however obvious they may seem to be. Evidence is required in Psychology, and therefore you must ALWAYS cite your sources.

10. Do not say that your findings ‘prove’ anything (they do not), rather they ‘support’ or ‘suggest’.

11. Take care of your grammar. Pay attention to the meanings of words that are often confused (e.g. ‘effect’ vs. ‘affect’). Also note that data are plural and so should be described as such; for example, “Data were analysed...” is grammatically correct. “Data was analysed...” is grammatically incorrect.

12. You should proof read and revise your work before handing it in. Avoid poor proof reading errors such as: ‘combing between participants’. Does it read coherently? Reading aloud often helps. Run through a spellchecker, but you will probably knead to cheque for homophones like these that escape the checker. Allow time when you have finished your report to put the writing to one side (e.g. a few days) so that you can re-read it later from a fresher perspective.

The contents and function of the individual sections are as follows:

TITLE:You should think up your own title for the report or project, which should clearly and concisely say what your study/experiment was about. The purpose of the title is to indicate the nature of the study/experiment, the principle experimental manipulations or study variables, and where possible, reflect the main findings (rather than asking a question). You should identify the main variables and theoretical issues under investigation and the relationships between them. The title should also be relatively succinct. Some examples of reasonable titles are: “Time-of-Day Effects in Recognition Memory”, “No Influence of Personality Factors on Social Compliance”, and “Motivational Instructions impact on the Speed/Accuracy Trade-Off”. In each of these examples, the type of study and the main variables are signalled in the title; they also provide some indication of the findings. In contrast, the title “A Report about Eyewitness Memory” is clear and concise, but it does not tell you reader what the study was about, or its outcome.

ABSTRACT:The Abstract is a brief summary that describes what you were trying to find out, how you did it, what you found, and the conclusions you reached. So, although the Abstract is the first main section, it is a good idea to write it last. The Abstract should be written at a level that can be easily understood by a fellow-psychologist, who has no prior knowledge of the report’s contents, and should begin with an outline of the main purpose of the study, preferably in a single sentence (e.g. “This experiment investigated…”).

Your abstract should cover the objectives of the study, so state the problem and the main hypothesis. It should describe the relevant characteristics of the participants, the study method, including design, sample size and measures. Report your findings (including – ideally – effect sizes and confidence intervals or statistical significance levels). Then state the conclusions, with the implications or applications of the results.

Your Abstract should not be longer than 150 words.

The Abstract should not include the following:

The statistical tests applied (e.g. t-test), unless these are especially unusual and key to the research methodology

Demographic details of the participants (e.g. age, sex, ethnicity – unless these are specifically relevant to the design of your study); however it is usual to state the number of participants who have taken part in your study to provide evidence of its scale.

Detailed descriptions of materials or equipment used in the study (unless key to the research)

Specific citations (unless your experiment was a direct replication) – Write your aim in general terms of prior research

ABSTRACT GENERAL STRUCTURE: Why the research was conducted (1 sentence) What was ‘done’ (2 sentences) What was found (2 sentences) What this means – your interpretation (1 sentence).

INTRODUCTION:The Introduction provides the rationale for your research (i.e. the reason why your study was conducted) and prepares the reader for the methods you have chosen. It is a good idea to follow the policy of starting broad and ending narrow. The introduction starts with an outline of the area with which the report is concerned. Note that this should be very short and not too general; assume that the reader has knowledge of psychology. It then moves toward a consideration of the theoretical issues that are central to the construction of the research, including a review of the findings of relevant studies that have investigated them (see the ‘Main Content’ section below). Thus, the first paragraph will provide a general introduction to the aspect of human behaviours under study, and the final paragraph in this section will usually consist of an outline of your design based on a stated rationale derived from the theories and findings previously discussed.

You need to state the problem that you are addressing, including theoretical or practical implications. You need to review the relevant literature and then use this to build to your Hypothesis, Aims, and Objectives, which should be clearly stated.

HYPOTHESES: Your rationale is followed by your hypotheses, which should be written in narrative, not bulleted or numbered form. Do not state null hypotheses – these are inferred from the hypotheses. You should word hypotheses specifically in terms of the variables being measured and/or manipulated. For example, “It was predicted that there would be significantly lower errors for aligned than contra-aligned orientation judgements” Make sure the wording is unambiguous, and where possible (depending on your design and rationale) provide a ‘direction’ (e.g. greater errors for X than Y as above), which permits one-tailed analysis, rather than merely stating a difference (e.g. error scores will differ between X and Y- two-tailed analysis).

MAIN CONTENT:In between the first and last paragraphs, previous research and theory relevant to your research should be discussed. You need to describe not only theories and what others suggested, but, very importantly, the evidence they presented in support of their comments. You should then compare and contrast findings and different theories to show how you have decided (your rationale) on your design and your predictions. The more specific you are, the better you will be able to interpret your findings later in the discussion. Statements and findings must be appropriately referenced using APA7 (2020) style (see guidance here: https://citethemrightonline.com/Basics/american-psychological-association-apa-7th-edition), and it is better to have a few well-chosen references than a long and unselective list. The Introduction should not include the following:

Extensive details about your design or procedure, as this information is presented in the Method section - Just provide sufficient information to demonstrate a ‘logical link’ from your rationale.

Details of statistical tests that will be applied - these go in the Results section. (An exception to this would be where part of your rationale is that a specific treatment of the data is theoretically more appropriate than that used in earlier research).

Information about the research outcome. Details about participants, apparatus or stimulus materials (Unless these are very

specific to the rationale, and even then you should be very brief).

CITATIONS:Detailed information about citations and references is provided here https://citethemrightonline.com/Basics/american-psychological-association-apa-7th-edition: The main points are summarised below:

FIRST TIME CITED:1 Author Last name (date) e.g. “Smith (2007) found…”2 authors last name and last name (date) e.g. “Smith & Jones (2008)

described…”3 or more authors last name of first author et al. (date) e.g. “Brown et al. (2009)

summarised…”

Where a statement is made that does not mention the author(s) directly (as in the above examples), then the citation should comprise “author, date” in parenthesis at the end of the statement, using the style of notation given above. For example (Webster, 1999).

Use normal font for ‘et al.’, not italics. When citing multiple authors, use ‘and’ in the text, use ‘&’ in parenthesis.

REPEATED CITATIONS:The date should be omitted for repeated citations within the same paragraph, but each time you start a new paragraph, you must add the date to the first instance of the reference.

MULTIPLE CITATIONS:If you have a number of citations within the same parenthesis, then you should provide these alphabetically, and separate each with a semi-colon.

Example:(Asch & Witkin, 1948a, 1948b; Witkin & Asch, 1949a, 1948b)

Where you have two citations by the same author(s) with the same date – then you need to differentiate by using letters after each date. Remember to use a, b etc. in your reference list to correspond to your citations. Note: Do not copy ‘a’ or ‘b’ from someone else’s list – Only use if you have two (or more) citations that would otherwise be the same.

SECONDARY CITATIONS:These should be avoided if possible. However, if you have not read all of the original studies that you wish to cite, but have read about them (for example in a textbook or the introduction section of a journal article), then you must make it clear that you have not read the original source, but rather a second-hand account or summary written by someone else. In such cases, you must make it clear that your description is based on the account of another author as follows: “Smith (1994, as cited in Jones & Brown, 2000), found…” Note that only the secondary source is listed in the reference list at the end of your work.

QUOTATIONS:Verbatim quotations should be kept to a minimum, as you should be presenting your interpretation of others’ findings, not merely repeating what they said. However, if you do use a direct quote, the citation must also include the relevant page number. For example: “Quotation” (Evans, 2002, p. 12) or Evans (2002) stated “quotation” (p. 12).

ELECTRONIC SOURCES:Guard against over-use of Web-based only sources of information. Other than electronic forms of published journal articles, your background literature must be as reliable as possible. When you access a full text article online, and when it is actually available in a ‘paper’ journal, then you should cite as for the paper journal version. For all other sources, you should cite as near as possible in the same way as you would a journal paper. Thus, you will need an author (this may be an organisation) and a date (usually found at the end of the source, e.g. ‘last updated…’).

If no author or date is provided, then you should include the first word or two of the title in the parenthesis, followed by the abbreviation ‘n.d.’ indicating ‘no date.’

Note that your academic work should not include citations to search engines (e.g. www.google.co.uk) or Web sites such as (http://en.wikipedia.org). Also, that because Web-based only documents can sometimes provide inaccurate, unsubstantiated or out-dated information, these should generally be avoided.

METHOD:

The Method section contains a number of subsections. People are sometimes confused about which sub-heading should contain which kinds of information. You should be guided by the purpose of the Method section, which is to ensure that you have supplied enough information for someone with no knowledge of the research to replicate it. Once written, you may wish to read over your Method section, and ask yourself: “Could I carry out this study if I knew nothing about it, simply from reading the Method?” If the answer is no, it will need to be tidied up.

The subsections of the method are as follows.

PARTICIPANTS (SUBJECTS FOR ANIMAL RESEARCH):This section is usually first. You should describe the sampling technique you have employed, the number of participants, their mean age and age range, and how many males and females. If your study is investigating sex differences, then you would need to provide participant details for these individual groups as well as for your overall sample. Some indication of why they participated is normally supplied (e.g. “as part of a practical course requirement”). Supplementary information is usually required, depending on the relevance to the study. For example, in studies in which visual acuity is important such as studies of visual perception, it is the convention to state, “Participants had normal or corrected to normal vision”. In questionnaire research, understanding of the questions is essential; therefore you should state any characteristics of the participants that might be relevant in this case (e.g. “English was the first language of all participants” – Assuming of course that you have checked this!).

DESIGNThis section can be (although this is not recommended at Level 4) combined with Procedure (although it must appear before Materials), but details of the design must be stated at the beginning, and you should only combine if both sections would otherwise be very brief. This section must provide a clear overview of what was measured and/or manipulated (or possibly observed). The best way to achieve this is to begin with a description of the variables and whether or not they were manipulated, as well as any details of randomisation and counterbalancing. An example of Design information is provided below:

“The experiment manipulated two independent variables. The first, dosage of caffeine, was a between-participants factor and had three levels: low, medium and high. Equal numbers of participants were randomly assigned to the three groups. The second variable, target discriminability, was a within-participant factor with two levels: low and high. In the low discriminability condition, the target was very dim, with a luminance barely distinguishable from the VDU background. In the high discriminability condition, the target was bright and clearly identifiable. Equal numbers of low and high luminance targets were presented in a random order within a single block of 120 trials.”

The critical information to communicate in the Design (for correlation, experimental and quasi-experimental designs) is:

The variables measured or manipulated, or participant variables, including:

o A description of the independent variable(s) (the different types of manipulation), and their levels.

o A description of dependent variable(s) (i.e. the aspect of behaviour you measure in each condition), and how these were operationalised (i.e. measured) - “The dependent variable was participants’ reaction time measured in milliseconds.” Or a description of variables measured ‘in situ’ (no independent or dependent variables in correlations).

Whether the variables represent within-participant or between-participants manipulations.

(If applicable) the number of trials per condition (If applicable) procedures of randomisation and counterbalancing used in the

experiment or study.

Note that you should not report any statistical treatments in this subsection.

MATERIALS AND/OR APPARATUSThis subsection describes the equipment and/or materials used, and the name depends on its content. For example, ‘Materials’ (e.g. covering content of questionnaires), ‘Apparatus’ (e.g. covering details of specialist equipment such as computers and programmes), or ‘Materials and Apparatus’ (e.g. covering details of both). You do not need to describe any ‘standard’ equipment such as normal office stationary, stopwatch etc., in great depth. For example “Reaction time was measured using a hand-held stopwatch” is fine.

Where any existing questionnaires or scales are used, these should be referenced in full and you should provide details of reliability and validity found by previous researchers. Note that if the material is central to the research question, then details of its reliability and validity can be covered in the Introduction as part of your rationale for using the instrument). In the text, you should refer to examples of any stimuli or materials used (e.g. “see Appendix C”), and then remember to include these examples in the Appendices.

PROCEDUREThe Procedure section should begin with a short description of the ethical considerations that you took into account before conducting your study. Next, describe exactly what happened in the study. You do not need to repeat large amounts of information already provided in the Design; rather, the procedural aspects of the task are described (i.e. what participants did), often via a description of what happened in a typical trial in the study. It is often useful to describe the procedure for one experimental condition, and then just to report the ways in which other experimental conditions differed from the structure of that trial. Timing information must go in the Procedure. If there are practice trials, this should also be outlined in the Procedure. An example is:

“Participants signalled that they were ready to begin testing by pressing their response button. The first trial was delivered 5 s later. Targets remained on the screen until a response was made; or, if they were undetected, until 5 s had elapsed. The presentation of trials was continuous, and the testing session lasted for approximately eight minutes.”

You do not need to state details such as participants were asked to sit down. However, you should state a basic outline of the instructions given to participants and refer to full (written) instructions in the Appendices if these are too detailed to include in the Method. Unless you have adjusted your raw data in some way (see ‘Data Collation’ below), you do not need to state that the data were collated and entered into SPSS (or similar); this is assumed.

This section should leave the reader feeling that they know ‘what was done’ and being in a position to replicate in general terms, with the Appendices (if needed) providing the further and more specific details.

DATA COLLATION:Where any form of adjustment is made to the data, or detailed explanations are required about your data treatment, it is recommended that you use this additional subheading at the end of the Method section. This helps to limit the details necessary within the Results section. Details of scoring (for example, details about reverse coding for questionnaire scales, and/or whether you have calculated total or mean scores) could go in here if not an intrinsic part of the design. You should also state the level of significance you have decided to accept (e.g. p < .05), by, for example, using the following comment:

“All statistical analyses are reported with two-tailed (or one-tailed, whichever predominates) levels of significance unless otherwise stated, and with alpha set at .05.” (Make sure that you then state one- or two-tailed for any statistics that vary from this in the Results section).

If you have treated ordinal data as interval data for reporting and analysis purposes (e.g. scores derived from ordinal scales), then you should make this clear, for example: “All scale measures were treated as interval data.” If you do not state this and then use a parametric test for ordinal data, you are suggesting to your marker that you do not fully understand your data.

Finally, do not report the analyses you used to test your hypotheses in this sub-section; report these as integral parts of the Results section.

RESULTS:Once you have collected data, you will need to report your findings. These are initially presented in the form of descriptive statistics (usually reported to two decimal places), which provide an overall ‘view’ of the data. Use appropriate measures of central tendency and dispersion, and use narrative unless table format would be clearer. It is important that you do not just include tables and figures into this section. Results should be described in narrative, and tables and figures (presented using APA format) introduced appropriately.

The APA recommends that statistics should be reported for all hypothesis tests, including tests that demonstrate non-significant findings. Level 4 students should adhere to this recommendation. In the case of some types of analysis and to avoid repetition in your work, Level 5 and Level 6 students, may be advised by their Lecturer or Supervisor to summarise

non-significant findings. For example, in the case of multivariate ANOVA analyses, you may be encouraged to report significant main effects and interaction effects, but then to summarise non-significant effects using a phrase such as “No other main effects or interaction effects were significant (Fs < 1).” In these cases, students should adhere to the advice of their Lecturer/Supervisor.

GENERAL STRUCTURE AND CONTENT Start with a narrative description of the results (not the analyses). For example:

“The mean reaction time for responses in Condition A (use actual name) was 42.09 s (SD = 2.10 s), and in Condition B (actual name) was 38 s (SD = 2.56 s).” Note: When using the examples quoted in this handbook as templates for reporting your findings, please ensure that you adjust the wording in the example to match the variables/measurement you have used in your study!

Do not state that B was faster than A – the means may show this, but B is only faster if the difference is shown to be statistically significant.

If tests were conducted to examine the reliability of a scale instrument, then these should be reported prior to analyses of the scale data.

Next, report the analyses used to test your hypotheses, and then any additional analyses used to aid interpretation of the results. Report the type of test used including the ‘sub-test,’ that is, not just ANOVA but type of ANOVA (e.g. “one-way, within-participant”).

Keep this section as short as possible. Report analyses using narrative and in APA format. Do not refer to results as being marginally significant, they are either significant (p < .05) or not. You can comment on results that approached significance (‘interesting’ trends) in the Discussion, but in brief - too much ‘weight’ should not be given to trends. If you have a number of hypotheses, you can structure the Results section to deal with each in turn (findings then analyses, hypothesis by hypothesis), or do all findings first then all analyses – choose whichever is clearer.

NOTATION:In order to demonstrate clear understanding of statistical notation, Level 4 students are recommended to use a standard reporting format, which is similar for all tests, namely:

Statistic (df) = value, p < .05 (or the most conservative level of probability – e.g. p < .01).

At Levels 5 and 6, and in line with current APA recommendations, your Lecturer or Project Supervisor may advise you to report an actual p-value (reported to three decimal places)

rather than using the ‘less-than’ symbol in the example provided above. In this case, the ‘<’ symbol is replaced by ‘=’ and the p-value computed by SPSS is reported, for example:

Statistic (df) = value, p = .013

This form of notation is also appropriate where significance is approached, for example “p = .058.”

Note that all statistical notations should be in italics and parenthesis around the whole notation should be avoided. You do not need to include the value of N, as df provides sufficient information for the reader.

Examples of narrative reporting for various analyses are shown in the majority of the recommended SPSS texts. However, some of these texts use older versions of APA formatting to that described in this guide, so do check the information provided in textbooks with that provided here, and use the latter information. For example:

The mean self-confidence score for males was 104.9 (SD = 8.53), whereas the mean self-confidence score for females was 96.3 (SD = 6.64). This difference was found to be significant using an independent-samples t-test, t(38) = 3.59, p = .03, indicating that male self-confidence scores were significantly higher than those of females.

Note: The above example provides the required information for the correct reporting of an independent-samples t-test for Level 4 students. Levels 5 and 6 students should additionally include an indication of effect size (see the sub-section covering ‘Effect Sizes’ below). At all Levels, you should not additionally include a statement as to whether your analysis supports your hypothesis – This belongs in the Discussion. It is sufficient here to report your analysis(es) and a short indication of what the findings indicate in words. You should not use the term ‘insignificant’ for findings that are not statistically significant. Use “not significant,” “did not differ significantly,” or “non-significant.”

Some analyses might be better stated in a table; this is especially the case where a number of correlations have been conducted (e.g. a correlation matrix table – see example below), and where multiple regression analyses have been used. Examples of these can be found in many APA journal papers. Note that as described above, descriptive statistics are usually reported to two decimal places; however, this is dependent upon the precision of the measurement used. For example, milliseconds should be reported in ‘whole numbers.’ For consistency, figures within analyses notations should also be reported to two decimal places.

Example of a correlation matrix:

Table 1. Correlation Matrix of Relationships between EFT, GEFT and CSA (WA)

EFTForm B

GEFTSection 2

GEFT Section 3

GEFTOverall

CSAWA

EFT Form A .668*** .265 -.252 -.029 .187

EFT Form B - .284 -.079 .107 .098GEFT Section 2 - .437** .806*** .245GEFT Section 3 - .855*** .175GEFT Overall - .255

*** denotes significance p < .001, ** denotes significance p < .01

EFFECT SIZES:In addition to reporting the significance of a finding, it is advisable to also report the magnitude or strength - the effect size. It should be noted that BPS and APA psychology journals insist on the inclusion of effect sizes. Level 4 students are not expected to include effect sizes, while Level 5 students are encouraged to include them in their practical reports (to show an increased understanding). It is also recommended that effect sizes are reported in project reports where appropriate.

Pearson’s & Spearman’s r this is quite simple as the r value is an indication of the effect size – you use r2 to give the percentage of the variance accounted for.

t- tests you will have to determine effect size by hand, using either Cohen’s d or r2 (the percentage of the variance accounted for – as for correlations).

ANOVAs (and associated tests) you will need to use eta squared - 2 - (or partial eta squared - p

2). These can usually be obtained through SPSS options.

CONFIDENCE INTERVALSThe APA also strongly recommends the inclusion of confidence intervals when reporting statistical analyses. Level 4 students are not expected to include confidence intervals. Levels 5 and 6 students should consult with the person who has set the work (Level 5), or their Project Supervisor (Level 6) for their advice regarding this inclusion.

TABLES AND/OR FIGURES:Use neither if you can convey your findings clearly in a short, narrative form (couple of sentences for each analysis) that includes the means and SDs (or other central tendency and dispersion measures).

The next choice is a table, especially for multiple findings that are ‘related’, and is particularly useful if you would otherwise have more than two or three sentences to report.

A figure (anything not text or a table is a figure, not ‘graph’, or ‘chart’) is to be used only where, for example, there are multiple groups and the findings are more clearly understood when visually represented. (Note that a figure will not usually include specific details of the means or SDs therefore, you will still need to report this information in narrative, which is why repetition can occur and why you should not over use figures.)

Tables and figures must be referred to in the preceding text, for example, “see Table 1,” or see “Figure 2.”

LABELS:Fully label all Tables and Figures.

Labels for Tables and Figures should go above the table (capitalise each main word). The number of the table of figure should be in bold, followed by the title in italics on the line below.

The measurement for the data should be clear. You should adhere to the formats (note the use of italics) shown in the examples below:

Example Table

Table 2

Response Frequencies for Preconception of Level of Learning from Computer-based Material

Response

Much less than print

Less than Print

Same as Print

More than Print

Much more than

PrintResponse Frequency 1 8 7 1 0

Mean EFT score 25.16 25.65 13.89 27.48 -

To format the style of the table, use Insert/Table from the Insert tab in MS Word, and fill in the cells with the headings and data, then select the table and choose one of the formats from the Design tab, that produce a table without vertical lines. Note that you may need to edit your table further (e.g. add/delete borders, delete colour). Tables should be formatted with single line spacing.

Example Chart

Figure 1.

Estimated Total English Secondary School IT Expenditure in £million

1984-85 1989-90 1995-96 1999-20000

20406080

100120140160

Academic Year

Exp

endi

ture

in £

M

You should not repeat information within this section. Therefore, for the same results, you should not provide a narrative and a table and a figure (there are some circumstances where a figure and either narrative or a table are acceptable due to the need for full and clear presentation of the findings).

A LITTLE MORE ABOUT CHARTSThe charts most commonly found in journal articles are:

Pie charts Bar charts Histograms Line graphs Scatter plots

An example of each of these is provided below, together with some additional information that should help you to decide on the most appropriate one to use for your data.

PIE CHARTSPie charts are typically used to show relative proportions (e.g. the percentage of men and women responding to a survey questionnaire); however, within the behavioural sciences, the use of pie charts is uncommon. It is therefore unlikely that you will be asked to use pie charts to illustrate your data.

Figure 2.

Political Party Preference

45%

35%

15%

5%

Labour

Tory

Liberal

Other

BAR CHARTSSimple bar charts are often used to compare data from two or more groups. The Y-axis is typically used for interval data representing one variable or measure, and the X-axis is used to denote different categories or nominal data. For example, comparing men and women’s average income, or comparing two or more participant’s word fluency scores. The height of the bar indicates the ‘group’s’ value on the Y-axis. For bar charts and line graphs where data is summarised as a mean it is good practice to include error bars.

Figure 3.

Annual Income by Sex

Men Women0

10

20

30 26

18

Annual Income

SexM

ean

Inco

me/

£k

The bar chart above has a title (Annual income by sex), indicating that annual income is being ‘broken down’ by sex. The Y-axis indicates the measure of interest (mean annual income) and the unit of measurement (£k). The categorisation variable (sex) is indicated, as are the levels of this variable (men and women). Note that the actual values in this chart, and the one below have been added to aid clarity.

Another type of bar chart is a clustered bar chart. This type of chart is typically used to illustrate the distribution of a continuous variable (e.g. income) across two categorical variables. For example:

Figure 4.

Annual Income by Sex and Age

Men Women0

10

20

30

4026

18

35

24

Annual Income

Young

Old

Sex

Mea

n In

com

e/£k

HISTOGRAMSHistograms are typically used to display the frequency distribution of a continuous variable. The Y-axis indicates the frequency of occurrence of the value/s specified on the X-axis. The X-axis represents an ordered range of values. For example:

Figure 5.

Frequency Distribution of the Scores of XXXX

10 20 30 40 500

2

4

6

1

3

5

3

1

Frequency Distribution

Score

No.

Occ

urrin

g

LINE GRAPHSSimple line graphs show the relationship between two continuous variables. By convention, if one of the variables can be regarded as an IV, and the other as a DV, the IV is plotted on the X-axis, and DV on the Y-axis. It is possible to reflect additional IV’s on a line graph by having additional lines to represent the values of additional IV’s (see examples below). Line graphs are usually reserved for data where an IV has been manipulated and a causal relationship is believed to exist between the variables of interest.

In instances where one or both of the variables is ordinal, rather than continuous, a scatter plot should be considered rather than a line graph. Similarly, in instances where one of the two variables is nominal, and the other continuous or ordinal, then a bar chart would probably be more appropriate.

Figure 6.

Level of Income of Men and Women by Age

21 25 30 35 40 45 500

10

20

30

40

Age and Income

men

women

Age/years

Mea

n In

com

e/£k

Strictly speaking, if the measured data cannot be assumed to be continuous, then the data points should not be joined by a line, in which case such a graph is probably displayed as a scatter plot rather than a line graph. In the above figure, the relationship between age and income has been plotted separately for men and women. Age has been regarded as the IV, and is plotted on the X-axis, and Income has been regarded as the DV, and is plotted on the Y-axis. A further non-continuous variable, sex, has been indicated on the line graph by means of the two separate lines.

SCATTER PLOTSScatter plots are very similar to line graphs, but the paired data points arising from the two variables are not joined by a line. They are often used to indicate the nature and degree of correlation between two variables. Often, there is more than one value for a given variable associated with a particular value of the other.

Figure 7.

Level of Income of Men by Age

15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 550

1020304050

Age and Income

Age (years)M

ean

Inco

me/

£k

PRODUCING CHARTSWhilst SPSS is capable of producing a useful range of charts, you might find it easier to use the chart facilities within a word processing package such as Word or Excel, when producing reports or assignments. Primarily, this stems from the need to often change the format and labelling of SPSS charts to match the requisite reporting conventions, which are more easily done in Word.

DISCUSSION:In the Discussion section, the results of the research, the original predictions and the theoretical background are brought together. In contrast to your Introduction, this section should start narrow – with a brief review of what you have found, and end broad (considering the results of your work in the context of other studies in the general area). You should begin with a brief review of what you have found, and whether this supports the prediction/s made. Do not re-state statistical values or p values here; it is enough to say that something was significant, and whether or not your hypothesis(es) was supported. It is not always necessary to re-state your hypothesis(es) verbatim: ‘response times to X were significantly faster than to Y’ is sufficient. You can also consider non-significant findings by commenting on trends, or ‘borderline significant’ results, but these should not be over-emphasised.

After this opening paragraph, the Discussion is dependent on the outcome of your research. You need to relate your findings to the theories and studies described in your Introduction, and decide which (if any) are supported. It is very important that your initial Discussion is guided by your Introduction because this gives the report a sense of completeness, direction and focus. Very often, a poor Introduction leads to a poor Discussion because there is very

little to talk about! You should not introduce new concepts, theories or previous research findings at this stage. If they are relevant to your research, then they should have been included in the Introduction.

Questions to ask and answer in your Discussion: Were your hypotheses supported? (Do not repeat hypotheses word for word, just

state “a significant/no difference was found between X and Y, which supported/did not support…”). Remember we do not prove anything (with the rare exception of mathematical or logical arguments).

How do the findings ‘fit’ with earlier findings – why do they differ, why are they consistent? Look further than the overall ‘direction’ of the results, if the designs differ then should the findings be consistent? Perhaps this shows that the findings can be generalised further? Remember findings are either consistent or not with others. How do your additional measures and analyses help to interpret the main findings?

Interpret your findings in relation to previous research and theory. In short, what do your findings mean and how can they be understood with respect to current theory? This is a frequently neglected part of Discussions, and should be allocated sufficient space for consideration.

How could the design be improved? Do not ‘knock’ the design too much – if it is that poor it should not have been used! Do not state additional participants might have made the findings significant – first, while this may be true due to the mathematics involved, a researcher should ensure the design has the required power (and therefore, use an appropriate number of participants from the start), and second, additional participants might make no difference to the outcome. Were there any limitations within the design/procedure that led to the pattern of results observed? (This is an important issue, because a limitation may become apparent only after the data have been analysed.)

Do not provide sentences stating the obvious; that is, factors that are relevant to most research (e.g. participants might have become bored), comment on issues that are relevant to your specific design. For example, if testing took three hours, then a note on boredom may be warranted; or if it was especially demanding, then you could comment on potential influence. Statements such as ‘not ecologically valid’ add little – few studies are ecologically valid! Rather, state how ecological validity might be improved by an appropriate and realistic design alteration.

What are the implications of the findings? When considering avenues of future research keep to the point – what changes to the design could be made that would

examine further the differences or relationships that you were looking at in this research. Do not talk about using different groups of participants (e.g. different age groups, cultures etc.) unless participant groups are relevant to your research, which they might well be in social psychology, but not often in cognitive psychology.

Can any existing theories be easily modified to account for the findings? If yes, then suggest modifications.

Is a new theory needed? If yes, try to construct your own; be bold! You can only be rewarded by the marker for trying to do this, not penalised. If your new theory leads to relevant testable hypotheses, then suggest future experiments.

REFERENCES:In this section, provide full references for all of the published studies mentioned in your report or project. The references should be arranged alphabetically, and you should use APA format (7th edition). References should not be numbered or bulleted, but they should be formatted with a hanging indent (as in the examples below), and single spacing may be used. To apply the hanging indent format, type out the reference (allowing each to ‘wrap around’ at the end of the line, and with a ‘return’ paragraph at the end of each reference), highlight (select) all text, select from the toolbar – Format, then Paragraph, then from the drop-down menu in the Special box, select Hanging and press OK.

Although there is a single reference list for all publications, there are different formats for books, journals, book chapters and materials derived from electronic sources. For examples of the large majority of these, please consult the referencing guidelines that you can find here: https://citethemrightonline.com/Basics/american-psychological-association-apa-7th-edition

APPENDICES:Label each page in full with Appendix A, B, etc., on the top right-hand side of the page, accompanied by a heading that reflects the content; for example:

APPENDIX AInstructions to Participants

If you only use one appendix, then ‘Appendix’ (Heading) is sufficient.

Only one item should be presented on each page. However, you can group related items (e.g. two tables of SPSS output, but each of these must be fully labelled). You must refer to

each appendix in the main text as appropriate. For example, “The attitude scale comprised 30 items (see Appendix B), half of which were negatively worded.” The labels (A, B, etc) in the main text must also follow in alphabetical order, corresponding to the Appendices.

You should include examples of any stimuli used that cannot be easily described in narrative form. For example, word lists, stimuli images, questionnaires, instructions - everything necessary for the reader to be able to replicate your design. Include the main SPSS output; this means just the main table(s), giving the analysis results. Do not include all of the output as a matter of course - you must edit. Each table you include must be fully labelled. Raw data should not be included with reports unless there are some individual results that you are going to comment on specifically, or you have been directed to include these by the lecturer who set the practical. Note that for projects, completed materials (e.g. questionnaires) and data files (SPSS, Excel etc.) should be handed to your supervisor.