Paper 2

Running head: METHODS, RESULTS DISCUSSION INSTRUCTIONS 1

Instructions for Paper II: Study One Methods, Results, and Discussion (Worth 35 Points)

Ryan J. Winter

Florida International University

PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS 2

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!

Note: You do NOT need to include your literature review / hypotheses in Paper II, as Paper II

focuses just on your methods, results, and discussion. However, you’ll include those Paper I

components later in Paper III, so do keep them handy!

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 for your paper. It also increases your chances of getting 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 that 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 Facebook

Consensus study questionnaire. Provide enough detail

so that your readers know how the three conditions

differ. Imagine I do not know what you did, but I

need to able to replicate your design. 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 Consensus or Conformity, 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 participant

impressions of Abigail and her cheating behavior as

PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS 6

well as whether the participant agrees with the advice

of Abigail’s friends. 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. Fifth, 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 (Condition – Support, Oppose, and Mixed) and the DVs

you feel are most important to your hypotheses. There are several important DVs in

your survey, including all of those in Part II (regarding cheating) and the first three

DVs in Part III, especially Part III Question #3. All of these variables really focus

on your predictions. Note that some instructors may not do this Facebook

Consensus 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 how well Pat did in his job interview (our manipulation

check, which looks at the three options for the nominal variable in Part V). One

analysis must be a One Way ANOVA (I recommend looking at any of the

statements in Part II). The third analysis should be a t-Test on Part III Question #3.

Why? Because the mixed condition makes this question tough for participants to

answer (the question asks if they would give the same advice as Abigail’s friends,

but because the mixed condition mixes oppositional and supportive comments, it is

tough to know what the “same advice” would involve. A t-Test just looking at the

two consensus groups is best here). Of course, you can run ANOVA’s or t-Tests on

virtually all of the Part II and Part III Questions, but you cannot look at the same

DV with both a t-Test and an ANOVA. We count the number of DVs that you

analyze – NOT the number of statistical tests you run!

PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS 7

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

case, we have our “Feedback” question in Part V (The feedback supported

Abigail’s behavior; opposed it; was mixed). So let’s discuss the chi square,

which doesn’t look at means but rather counts how many responses there are

compared to how many you would expect.

1. Consider the DV in Part V of your questionnaire – “Without looking back, what general feedback did Abigail’s friends give her? (Mark

one with an X)” The options were supported, opposed, or mixed.

Here, you can run a chi square looking at the frequencies of the three

answer options

2. We are interested in the chi square (χ2) and p value. We also provide percentages for each of our groups (rather than means and SD).

a. “Using Facebook consensus condition as our independent variable (support, oppose, or mixed) and recall of the

feedback Abigail’s friends gave her as the dependent

variable, we saw a significant effect, χ2(4) = 68.49, p < .001.

Most participants in the “support” condition recalled

“supporting” feedback (98%); most participants in the

“oppose” condition recalled a “oppositional” feedback

(96%); and most participants in mixed condition recalled an

“mixed” feedback (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

correct feedback (those in the support condition who recalled

“supportive feedback” + those in the oppose condition who

recalled “oppositional feedback” + those in the mixed

condition who recalled “mixed feedback”) and compare them

to ALL the people who were incorrect in their recall. In this

instance, you wouldn’t want the chi square to be significant.

That is, you might conclude that χ2(4) = 1.49, p > .05,

indicating that there was no difference between those who

got the manipulation check question 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. Support, Oppose, or Mixed), the most appropriate test is a One-Way

ANOVA if your DV is scaled (like a 0 to 5 scale or a 1 to 6 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

PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS 8

(cheating impressions). Since each of these seven questions are

scaled variables that range from 1 to 6, each uses an interval scale,

which is perfect for an ANOVA.

2. Second, given that this study has one IV with three levels and we will look at one DV at a time, a One-Way ANOVA is the best test to

use to see if there are significant differences among the three IV

levels for that one DV. 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

“Abigail’s behavior was wrong”. My write up would look like this

(though note: I completely made up the data below, so don’t copy

the numbers!) …

a. “Using consensus condition (support v. oppose v. mixed) as our independent variable and ratings of “Abigail’s behavior

was wrong” as the dependent variable, we found a significant

condition effect, F(2, 203) = 4.32, p < .05. Tukey post hoc

tests showed that participants felt the cheating was less

wrong in the support condition (M = 2.56, SD = 1.21) than

participants in both the oppose (M = 4.24, SD = 0.89) and

mixed (M = 4.23, SD = 0.77) conditions. The oppose and

mixed conditions, however, did not differ from each other.

This supports our prediction that participants exposed to

unanimously supportive friend comments would similarly

support Abigail, while any opposition (whether unanimous or

not) would make her behavior seem more wrong.”

i. Note there are lots of possible outcomes. The one above essentially says that condition S (support)

differed from O (oppose) and M (mixed), but that O

and M did not differ from each other (In other words,

S ≠ O = M). However, we might also find that NONE

of the three conditions differ from each other, so they

are all equal (S = O = M) or we might find that ALL

conditions differ from each other (S ≠ O ≠ M), so

they all differ

ii. As an example for this latter (S ≠ O ≠ M), I would predict no differences between the three conditions

for the dependent variable “Abigail’s behavior was

wrong”

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 running an ANOVA on any of the statements in Part II (though I suggest doing more than

one ANOVA here – the practice will help you, so look at

multiple Part II DVs!)

d. You could run a t-Test on one of those Part II dependent variables as well, but for this semester’s study on consensus,

I actually want you to run a t-Test on Part III Question #3.

Here’s how:

iii. t-Test: If you have only two levels to your IV (e.g. Support and Oppose 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 2

(Support = 1 and Oppose = 2). This will let you look at two of the

groups! You could also select “2 and 3” or “1 and 3” where the

Mixed condition = 3).

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 consensus condition (support v. oppose) as our independent variable and ratings of “I would give Abigail the

same advice that her friends gave her” as our dependent

variable, we failed to find a significant condition effect,

t(203) = 1.12, p > .05. Participants in both the support

condition (M = 4.56, SD = 1.21) and participants in the

oppose condition (M = 4.24, SD = 0.89). said they would

give Abigail the same advice that her friends gave her. This

indicates that participants do pay attention to consensus and

feel fine conforming their own beliefs in line with that

consensus”

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 (Any question from Part II followed by the analysis of the Part III

Question #3 dependent variable). 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 (You should include t-Test tables here. This would involve both the descriptives

for the t-Test and the t-Test output itself

v. Appendix E: (If applicable) 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!

i. I’m not worried if your table is not all on the same line. If it spills over into the next page, that is fine. I just need to see the full table

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 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 Canvas!

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!