Research methods 2- Study One Methods, Results, and Discussion
Purpose of Paper II: Study One Methods, Results, and Discussion
1). Psychological Purpose
The psychological purpose behind Paper II is to make sure you can tell your reader what
you did on your study, how you did it, and what you found. By now you have read several
empirical studies in psychology, and you should be familiar with the Methods, Results, and
Discussion sections. Now is your chance to write Methods, Results and Discussion!
Like those prior studies you looked at in Paper I, you will provide information about your
participants, materials, and procedure in your Methods section. Your participant section
goes first, and it includes descriptive statistics about your sample (means and standard
deviations for age as well as percentages for gender and race/ethnicity). Your materials and
procedure sections include information about what you did and how you did it. You should
write this section for an audience who is unfamiliar with your specific study, but assume
that they do know research methods. Thus educate your reader about your materials and
procedure, giving enough detail so they could replicate the study. This includes explicitly
describing your independent and dependent variables and talking about how you presented
those variables to your participants. My suggestion is to look over the articles you
summarized in Paper I and see how they wrote their Methods. This will give you a good
idea regarding the level of depth and detail you need in your own Methods section.
Your Results section follows. The purpose of this section is to make sure you can show
how you analyzed the data and describe what you found. You will have a lot of help in this
section from your lab instructors.
Finally, I want you to include a short description of your findings. Tell me if you supported
or did not support your hypotheses and explain why you got those results (you can actually
speculate here if you like, but make it an “educated” speculation!)
2). APA Formatting Purpose
The second purpose of Paper II: Methods, Results and Discussion is to once again teach
you proper American Psychological Association (APA) formatting for these sections. In
the pages below, I will tell you how to format your paper using APA style. There are a lot
of very specific requirements in APA papers (as specific as what to italicize), so pay
attention to the instructions below as well as Chapter 14 in your textbook!
3). Writing Purpose
Finally, this paper is intended to help you figure out how to write a Methods, Results, and
Discussion section. Many students find statistics daunting, but my hope here is that writing
this paper will help you understand both the logic and format of statistics in results
sections. We will once again give you a lot of feedback and help in this paper, which you
help you when you write Papers IV and V later in the course. Make sure that you write this
PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS
3
for an audience familiar with APA methods and results, but also for someone who needs
you to tell them what you found.
Note: The plagiarism limit is higher in this paper (up to 65%) since your classmates are doing the
same design. Don’t go higher than that, though! 65% is the maximum allowed!
Sorry for the length of the instructions! They are long, but take it one section at a time and you will
get all of the content you need in your paper and get a great grade!
PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS
4
Methods
1. Title Page: I expect the following format
(1 point)
:
a. The title page for your Paper II is identical to the one you used for Paper I:
Literature Review Study One. For proper APA formatting, either copy your title
page from Paper I or review the title page instructions I gave you in Paper I. You
can change your title if you like, but make sure it helps to describe your study
(much like a title in PsycInfo describes what the authors did in their paper)
2. Abstract?
a. You DO NOT need an abstract for Paper II: Methods, Results, and Discussion
(Study One). You cannot write it until you run both study one and two, so omit it
for now
3. Methods Section: I expect the following format
(15 points)
:
a. For this paper, the methods section starts on page 2.
b. Write
Method
at the top of this page, make it bold, and center it (see the top of this
page as an example!)
c. The participants section comes next. The word
Participants
is bolded and left
justified. In this section …
i. Tell me who your participants were (college students, family members,
friends?) and how many there were.
1. Note: If a number starts a sentence, then spell out the number. That
is, “Two-hundred and five participants participated in this study.”
2. If a number is mid-sentence, you can use numerals. “There were 205
participants in this study.”
3. But keep numbers consistent. If you spell out a number at the start of
the sentence, carry that through and spell out other numbers in the
sentence.
4. For statistics, always use numbers (for the mean, SD, %, etc.)
ii. Provide frequencies and descriptive statistics for relevant demographics.
1. For some variables—like ethnicity and gender—you only need to
provide frequency information (the number of participants who fit
that category). “There were 100 men (49%) and 105 women (51%)
in the study.” Or “The sample was 49% male (
N
= 100) and 51%
female (
N
= 105).”
2. Other variables—like age—are continuous (rather than categorical),
so use descriptive statistics here (the range, mean, and the standard
deviation). “Participants ranged in age from 18 to 77 (
M
= 24,
SD
=
3.50).” or “The average age of participants was 24 (
SD
= 3.50).”
Your TA can help you find the mean and standard deviation for this
assignment, though information is also available in a lab powerpoint.
3. Make sure to italicize the
N
,
M
, and
SD
(the letters, not the numbers)
d.
Materials and Procedure
i. For this section, things are flexible. Some studies include Materials and
Procedure in the same section while others break them up into two sections.
This is a matter of choice.
PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS
5
1. In general, the more complex the design, the better it is to split up
the methods and results. In one section, the author may describe the
materials; in the next, they describe what participants did with those
materials (the procedure). This is one option for you. However …
2. However, your “Paper II: Methods, Results and Discussion (Study
One)” is simple enough that I strongly recommend combining them
into
one
overall Materials and Procedure section.
ii. Again, the words
Materials and
Procedure
are flush left. In this section …
1. Provide information about your materials and your procedure.
a. I suggest starting with your procedure. Tell your reader what
your participants did in the order participants did them. Be
specific here. I have the following recommendations:
i. First, talk about the oral informed consent procedure.
ii. Second, talk about the three versions of the Selfie
study questionnaire. Provide enough detail so that
your readers know how the three conditions differ. As
a reader, I need to able to replicate your design, so
you need to give me enough detail so I can do so.
(Hint: Copy and paste the various questions or refer
the reader to an appendix that has those materials!)
1. I want to stress that – pretend I have no idea
what you did, but I want to repeat your design
and procedures. That means you need to be
VERY clear and detailed about what you did
and how you did it.
2. At the end of the semester (for Paper V),
someone other than your instructor / TA may
grade your paper. They may know NOTHING
about your topic, though they do know
methods. Thus go into painstaking detail about
what EACH section of the survey page looked
like, including the participant instructions and
the pictures
iii. Third, talk about your dependent variables (that is,
your survey questions. For these dependent variables,
once again provide enough detail so I know exactly
what questions you asked. For example, “Participants
provided their gender, age, and race”. For other
dependent variables, tell me how the responses were
recorded (yes/no, true/false, a scale of 1 to 6, etc.). If
you used a scale, note the endpoints. That is, does a 1
mean it is high or is it low? “Participants were asked,
‘How frustrating was this task?’, and they responded
on a scale from 1 (very frustrating) to 9 (not at all
frustrating).’” Your study has a few really important
DVs (including several DVs about their impressions
of Emma Wood, the Instagram user, on elements of
how frequently she changes her picture / posts to
PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS
6
Instagram and how narcissistic, egotistical, self-
absorbed, or selfish she is). For these DVs, you again
need to tell me what they are specifically!
iv. Fourth, make sure to highlight which specific DVs
you analyzed. If there are DVs participants completed
but you did not analyze it, feel free to say those that
participants completed them but since they were not
analyzed, they are not discussed further.
v. Finally, make sure to be specific about your attention
/ manipulation check question!
vi. Finally, mention debriefing
e. There is no set minimum or maximum on the length of the methods section, but I
would expect at least a page or two (though probably more. After all, your own
research script took up several pages – you should provide a similar level of depth
and detail in your methods section!). Missing important aspects of your IVs and
DVs or presenting them in a confused manner will lower your score in this section.
f. Remember, make sure that another researcher can replicate your study based on
your methods section. If they can’t, then you may not have enough detail!
4. Results Section: I expect the following format
(10 points)
:
a. The results are the hardest part of this paper, and your lab powerpoints will help
you with this part of the paper (also refer to the crash course statistics quizzes,
which walk you through similar analyses!).
b. First, write
Results
at the top of this section, center it, and use boldface. This
section comes directly at the end of the methods section, so the results section
DOES NOT start on its own page.
c. For this assignment, include statistics about the most important variables in your
study, including your IV (Photo Condition – Selfie, Groupie, and Professional) and
the DVs you feel are most important to your hypotheses. I require you look at ONE
dependent variable from Part I of the survey (either Question #2 or Question #3)
ONE dependent variable from Part II (either narcissistic, self-absorbed, selfish, or
egotistical). All of these variables really focus on your predictions. Note that some
instructors may not do this Selfie study at all, but the results section should follow
the same guidelines regardless of your study topic.
d. More specifically,
you must run at least three different analyses on three
different dependent variables
. One must be a chi square for the question asking
participants which to recall the theme of the advertisements (our manipulation
check, which looks at the three options for the nominal variable in Part V). At least
one of the remaining two analyses must be a One Way ANOVA (I actually
recommend that both of your last two analyses focus on One Way ANOVAs). The
third analysis can be either an ANOVA or a
t
-Test. Questions #2 and #3 in Part I
have a nice scale to them (0 to 5), so an ANOVA or t-Test are good for both. The
four traits in Part II use a 0 to 5 scale as well, so an ANOVA and t-Test are good for
those, too. Now, you could run an ANOVA on the question “Emma seems selfish”
OR you could run a
t
-Test on the question “Emma seems selfish”, but because it is
the same dependent variable, that only counts as one DV. We count the number of
DVs you analyze – NOT the number of statistical tests you run!
i.
Chi square
: Your first analysis will be a chi square, which you use if your
DV is categorical (yes / no; yes / no / maybe; male / female, or … in our
PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS
7
case, we have our “Theme” based questions in Part IV (The photo was a
selfie, groupie, or professional photo). So let’s discuss the chi square, which
does not look at means but rather counts how many responses there are
compared to how many you would expect.
1. Consider the DV in Part VI of your questionnaire – “Which of the
following BEST describes Emma’s A, B, and C photo options?
(
Mark one with an X
)” The options were selfie, groupie, or
professional. Here, you can run a chi square looking at the
frequencies of the three answer options
2. We are interested in the chi square (
χ
2
) and
p
value. We also provide
percentages for each of our groups (rather than means and
SD
).
a. “Using the photo condition as our independent variable
(selfie, groupie, or professional) and the photo participants
recalled seeing as the dependent variable, we saw a
significant effect,
χ
2
(4) = 68.49,
p
< .001. Most participants
in the selfie condition recalled selfies (98%); most
participants in the groupie condition recalled seeing groupies
(96%); and most participants in professional photo condition
recalled seeing professional photos (90%). This indicates that
participants saw our manipulation as intended.”
b. Alternatively, you can just look at correct versus incorrect
responses. This is a bit trickier to run in SPSS, since you
need to add up all those who correctly remembered the ad
(those in the selfie condition who recalled selfies + those in
the groupie condition who recalled groupies + those in the
professional condition who recalled professional photos) and
compare them to people who recalled an incorrect photo. In
this instance, you wouldn’t want the chi square to be
significant. That is, you might conclude that
χ
2
(4) = 1.49,
p
>
.05, indicating that there was no difference between those
who got the photo correct across the three different
conditions. (In other words, participants weren’t more correct
in one condition compared to another). My advice is to go
with the chi square in a. above
c. Make sure to italicize the
χ
and
p
ii.
ANOVA
: Since you have a condition independent variable with three levels
(e.g. Selfie, Groupie, or Professional), the most appropriate test is a One-
Way ANOVA if your DV is scaled (like a 0 to 5 scale or a 1 to 5 scale).
Your lab and lecture powerpoints show you how to conduct an ANOVA, but
there are some guidelines I want to give you about how to write your results.
Below, I am going to walk you through one analysis specific to this paper.
However, keep in mind that you can run ANOVAs on several different DVs.
1. First, there are several dependent variables to choose from. For my
example analysis below, I want to focus on Part II in your survey
(impressions of Emma Wood). Since each of the ten questions
(especially the four we mention in our predictions) in Part II are
scaled variables that range from 0 to 5, each uses an interval scale,
PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS
8
which is perfect for an ANOVA. However, I want you to look at
either Question #2 or #3 in Part I as well
2. Second, given that this study has one IV with three levels and one
DV that is on a continuous (ratio or interval) scale, a One-Way
ANOVA is the best test to use to see if there are significant
differences among the levels. We look first at the ANOVA table (or
F
table) and focus on the between subject factor. We note the
degrees of freedom, the
F
value itself, and the
p
value. (We’ll get
into two-way ANOVAs later in this course, but here we only have
one independent variable, so it is a one-way ANOVA. Yes, we have
three levels to our IV, but it is still only one IV).
3. If the
p
value is significant (less than .05), we have one more step to
take. Since this is a three level IV, we need to compare mean A to
mean B, mean A to mean C, and mean B to mean C. We do this
using a post hoc test (try using Tukey!). That will tell us which of the
means differ significantly. You then write up the results. For
example, let’s say I ran an ANOVA on the dependent variable
“Emma seems selfish”. My write up would look like this (though
note: I completely made up the data below, so don’t copy the
numbers!) …
a. “Using the photo condition (selfie v. groupie v. professional)
as our independent variable and ratings of “Emma seems
selfish” as the dependent variable, we found a significant
condition effect,
F
(2, 203) = 4.32,
p
< .05. Tukey post hoc
tests showed that participants thought Emma seemed more
selfish in the selfie condition (
M
= 4.56,
SD
= 1.21) than
participants in both the groupie (
M
= 2.24,
SD
= 0.89) and
professional (
M
= 2.23,
SD
= 0.77) conditions. The groupie
and professional conditions, however, did not differ from
each other. This supports our prediction that participants
exposed to selfies are more likely to rate Emma high in
selfishness than those who are exposed to groupies or
professional photos.”
i. Note there are lots of possible outcomes. The one
above essentially says that condition S (Selfie)
differed from G (Groupie) and P (Professional), but
that G and P did not differ from each other (In other
words, S
≠
G = P). However, we might also find that
NONE of the three conditions differ from each other,
so they are all equal (S = G = P) or we might find that
ALL conditions differ from each other (S
≠
G
≠
P), so
they all differ
ii. As an example for this latter (S
≠
R
≠
E), I would
predict no differences between the three conditions
for the dependent variables “Emma seems happy” and
“Emma seems smart”
b. Make sure to italicize the
F
,
p
,
M
, and
SD
(as in the example)
PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS
9
c. Pretty simple, right! I suggest doing this same procedure for
one DV in Part I (Question #2 or #3) and one DV in Part II
(like questions 4, 7, 9, or 10).
d. However, if you choose you can do a
t
-Test on one of those
other dependent variables as well. Here’s how:
iii.
t
-Test
: If you have only two levels to your IV (e.g. Selfie or Professional
only), things are even more simple.
1. Here, you will run a
t
-Test (a
t
-Test looks at differences between
only two groups). Again, your lab presentations tell you how to run
this, but you can do it on your own as well (you can even run this if
your study originally has three levels to the IV – when you go into
the
t
-Test menu in SPSS, choose “define groups” and select 1 and 3
(Selfie = 1 and Professional = 3). This will let you look at two of the
groups! You could also select “2 and 3” or “1 and 2” where the
Groupie condition = 2).
2. Rather than an
F
value, we will look at the
t
value in the
t
-Test data
output. Here, we have one number for the degree of freedom, we
have the
t
value, and we have the
p
value.
3. The nice thing about a
t
-Test is that since you only have two groups,
you do not need a post hoc test like Tukey (you only need that if you
have to compare three means. Here, we only have two means, so we
can just look at them and see which one is higher and which is lower
when our
t
-Test is significant). Then just write it up …
a. “Using the priming condition (selfie v. professional) as our
independent variable and ratings of “Emma seems selfish” as
our dependent variable, we found a significant condition
effect,
t
(203) = 8.12,
p
< .05. Participants rated Emma as
more selfish in the selfie condition (
M
= 5.56,
SD
= 1.21)
than participants in the professional condition (
M
= 2.23,
SD
= 0.77).”
i. Note my means for this
t
-Test, and compare them to
the means for the ANOVA. The selfie and
professional means and SDs are identical between the
ANOVA and
t
-Test, because both the
t
-Test and
ANOVA use the same means! Thus DO NOT run a
t
–
Test and ANOVA on the same DV, as it is repetitive.
b. Repeat for other dependent variables
c. Make sure to italicize the
t
,
p
,
M
, and
SD
(as in the example)
iv. Statistics order recommendation: For this paper, start your results section
with the chi square (your manipulation check). Then talk about your main
analyses (Questions #2 or #3 in Part I, and the Emma impression questions,
4, 7, 9, or 10 in Part II). Make sure the analyses line up with your
hypotheses.
e. There is no page minimum or maximum for the results section, though I would
expect it to be at least a paragraph or two for each dependent variable
5. Appendices
(4 points)
PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS
10
a. I want to make sure you are including the correct numbers in your results section,
so I want you to include all relevant SPSS tables for each of your analyses in a
series of appendices.
i. Appendix A: Include your tables for age, gender, and ethnicity.
ii. Appendix B: Include your tables for your chi square and the crosstabs
iii. Appendix C: Include your tables for your first dependent variable (This
must be an ANOVA table, the descriptive statistics table for that ANOVA,
and the post hoc test whether it is significant or not)
iv. Appendix D: Include your tables for you second dependent variable
(Although I prefer a second ANOVA like iii. above, you could include
t
–
Test tables here. This would involve both the descriptives for the
t
-Test and
the
t
-Test output itself
b. Hint: The best way to get these tables is to copy them directly from SPSS. In the
SPSS output, right click on the table, copy it, and then paste it into your appendix.
Another alternative is to use a “snipping” tool (search “snipping tool” in Microsoft
Word to find it). You can highlight an area on any computer page and save it as a
picture. Copy the picture and paste it into your appendix. Easy!
c. Make sure to give a proper name to the appendix (e.g. Appendix A – Study One
Demographics)
6. Discussion Study One
(2 points)
a. In this section, tell me about your findings and if they did or did not support your
results. It might help to refer back to your hypotheses “We expected to find A but
instead found B” or “We expected to find A and our results supported this
hypothesis.” Explain using plain English why you think your study turned out the
way it did.
b. IMPORTANT – Do NOT give me statistics again here. I can find those in your
results section. Here, all I want is a plain English summary of your findings.
c. Also, don’t give me results for a DV if you did not run an analysis on that DV. Only
tell me about the results you actually looked at in the results section.
d. There is no length requirement for this section, but I recommend at least four or five
sentences
7. Overall writing quality
(3 points)
a.
Make sure you check your paper for proper spelling and grammar. The FIU writing
center is available if you want someone to look over your paper (an extra eye is
always good!) and give you advice. I highly recommend them, as writing quality
will become even more important on future papers. I also recommend visiting the
FIU Research Methods Help Center if you need additional guidance with writing or
statistical analyses. Also, remember to upload this paper through the Pearson writer
before uploading to blackboard!
b.
Make sure to use the past tense throughout your paper. You already did the paper,
so don’t tell me what participants are going to do. Tell me what they did!
Other Guidelines for Paper II – Methods and Results (Study One)
1). Page size is 8 1/2 X 11” with all 4 margins should be one inch. You
must
use a 12-point
font in Times New Roman.
PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS
11
2). PLEASE use a spell checker and/or Pearson Writer to avoid unnecessary errors.
Proofread everything you write. I actually recommend reading some sentences aloud to see
if they flow well, or getting family or friends to read your work.
Use the Paper II Checklist on the next page before you turn in your paper to make sure it is
the best paper you can write!
Finally, go look at the supporting documents for this paper. Like Paper I, there is a
checklist, a grade rubric, and an example paper for Paper II. All will give you more
information about what we are specifically looking for as well as a visual example of how
to put it all together in your paper. Good luck!
"Looking for a Similar Assignment? Order now and Get 10% Discount! Use Code "GET10" in your order"
