Lab report
atheerhamed
instructionsforIntroduction.pdf
The APA Introduction The Introduction is a review of the past published original research reports in the areas of concern to the present study. One interesting aspect is that the present study -‐ the one you are proposing -‐ is not mentioned at all until the very end of the introduction. The introduction starts off in the most general and big-‐picture way, bringing in the major concepts of the title, then focuses in more detail on each major concept in turn. For example, the first sentence might read something like this: "Stress and the need to relax have concerned Psychologists since the earliest days of the discipline (Cormick, 1934; Jung, 1899; Rogers, 1968; Zelner, Abbott, Perel, & Lovitt, 1987)." Big-‐picture statement backed up with a series of citations that show a long history of concern. Notice the citations are in alphabetical order, and separated by semi-‐colons. Presumably these citations refer to articles that support the statement. Cormick (1934) for example wrote extensively on the history of stress and stress-‐related research. This is not an original research article, but remember you may quote books and other information as long as you also include at least 8 original research articles as published in journals. Since our example is the student article on music therapy, progressive neuromuscular relaxation (pnr), and problem-‐solving, the introduction's first paragraph would include brief statements of all these areas. The student's paper is included in the Content in D2L and in the Powerpoint on How to write an APA proposal for research. The second and third sentences then might look like this: "From psychodynamic theory to strange medical interventions, people have sought relief from anxiety and stress (Freud, 1911; Saks, 2001). The use of machines that could read brain waves were used to help with relaxation training in the 1960's biofeedback craze in Psychology and the use of relaxing music was refined into a therapy (Bohns, 1967; Hevel & Brookside, 1972)." So now music therapy has been brought into the discussion. Similarly in the next few sentences pnr and problem-‐solving should be included to conclude the first paragraph. You have now laid out all the major topics/concepts that will be dealt with in more detail in the following paragraphs. It is not necessary to take the historical approach as I did here. In fact the actual student's paper took a different tack entirely. What is important is that all major concepts are included in this first paragraph and then expounded upon in subsequent paragraphs. It is best to take up each concept in turn, covering all you want to cover in that topic before moving on to the next one. For example, Stress needs to be defined and discussed as it appears in the research. Then the types of therapy may be touched on briefly before concentrating on music therapy research and findings. Next, pnr is taken up and the more modern therapy for stress. And then the introduction considers problem-‐solving as it relates to stress, maybe suggesting that this link between high-‐stress and poor problem-‐solving although well-‐established has not been convincingly applied to college students, who are typically highly stressed to get complex problems solved and turned in for grades! Towards the end of the introduction is where you begin to bring the concepts together, forming a justification for the your purpose. Having now presented the relevant research into music therapy, pnr, the relationship between stress and problem-‐solving, and the suggestion that the past research has not addressed the kinds of stress we see in college students, you are neatly set up for the last paragraph, the purpose.
The purpose paragraph begins: "The purpose of this study will be to...." I will be looking for this exact phrase as the first part of the first sentence of the last paragraph of your introduction. All students will use this same exact phrase. In our example the sentence might read something like this: "The purpose of this study will be to test the effectiveness of music therapy and progressive neuromuscular relaxation to enhance problem-‐solving in stressed college students." The next 2-‐3 sentences briefly described the procedures that will be used to fulfill this purpose. It might be questionnaire research in which students are given a stress-‐evaluation survey, then asked if they have used music therapy or pnr and if they think it helped with problem-‐solving. This kind of self-‐report research is not the best in this case, but valid to determine if college students believe the therapies work or not. To find out if they do indeed work a more experimental approach would be needed in which "Students will be given 30 minutes of music therapy, or pnr therapy, and then required to solve a puzzle problem. The time to solve the puzzle will be recorded. Stress-‐related behaviors will be observed before and after the therapy." Finally, a list of testable hypotheses is presented using the indented paragraph heading style. Something like this: Hypothesis One. Music Therapy will result in faster puzzle-‐solving times and reduced stress-‐ related behaviors compared to a No Therapy control group. Hypothesis Two. PNR Therapy will result in faster puzzle-‐solving times and reduced stress-‐ related behaviors compared to a No Therapy control group. Hypothesis Three. PNR Therapy will result in faster puzzle-‐solving times and reduced stress-‐ related behaviors compared to Music Therapy. There could be more hypotheses, or fewer. Notice that I included one that says PNR is better than Music, but I don't really know if that's a valid hypothesis or not. The past research is your guide as to what is and is not logical. If some past studies show that PNR is better than Music, and others show the opposite, then it might be a good idea to compare the two in your study to find out which side of the debate your results support. If past studies clearly indicate that PNR is better than Music, you might argue that Music Therapy is still better than No therapy and that college students might use Music therapy since it is easier and they already have the personal resources for it. And that brings us to the end of the Introduction. The complete assignment will include the APA Title Page, the Introduction, and the Reference list.
