Psychology

Information for the Peer Review Form

The Introduction serves as the body of the paper. It begins with a broad statement of the problem under investigation and then proceeds to narrow the focus to the specific hypothesis or hypotheses of the study. The purpose of this section is to introduce the reader to the overall issue/problem that is being tested and to provide justification for the hypothesis or hypotheses. In order to accomplish these tasks, the author needs to review past research on the same topic, discussing their findings. This section will be the longest of the introduction. It contains prior research studies relevant to the current study. A researcher cannot merely create a hypothesis and test it. He or she must provide a rationale or case for why that hypothesis should be tested. The final section of the introduction includes formally stating the study's purpose, the rationale for that purpose, and the specific hypothesis or hypotheses. A reader should be able to understand what is being tested and why.

Research Question and Methods Section: The purpose of the Method section is to provide a detailed description of how the study was conducted. An overarching goal of science is the replication of research. It is in the Method section that authors need to specify their participants and procedures to allow others to duplicate the study. Think of this section as being a recipe with an exact description for others to follow. Participants/Subjects

(Participants is the term used when humans are involved in the study while Subjects is the term used when animals are in the study.)

This section contains information such as:

a) number of participants and how they were selected & assigned

(e.g., at random?)

b) major demographic characteristics

(e.g., sex, age, race, ethnicity, level of education, socioeconomic status)

c) description of agreements and payments made

d) statement of ethical principles used in relation to the participants

For nonhuman subjects:

a) genus, species

b) strain number or location of supplier

c) number, sex, age, weight, and physiological condition

d) ethical guidelines on treatment and handling

Materials/Apparatus/Measures

All physical aspects of the research design are described in this subsection. It lists everything that was used in the study to help others replicate it (think of the "ingredients" section of a recipe). When an author uses new materials or measures for the study, often a copy of the information is included as an Appendix, located at the back of an article.

Procedure

This section provides a detailed account of what happened in the study (think of the "directions" part of a recipe).

Results

The Results section is the statistical reporting of the data. Its purpose is to describe what was found after statistically analyzing the data.

The Discussion

The Discussion section reviews, interprets, and evaluates the results of the study. The review of the results is done in everyday, nontechnical language, using no statistics. Discussion sections typically begin by listing the hypothesis or hypotheses and then stating if the results supported or contradicted the hypothesis or hypotheses. Next, writers usually discuss similarities and differences between the current findings and findings of previous research. Any weaknesses of the current study are also reviewed and suggestions are made on improving the research design. Finally, a discussion section usually ends with the writer providing directions for future research. Opposite to the Introduction, the discussion section begins with a narrow focus on the findings and then proceeds more broadly by drawing conclusions until it ends with future implications.