Lab report

1

How to Write the Results Section of the APA-style Research Report

The results section is best split into at least two parts: Descriptive Statistics and Inferential Statistics. First you want to discuss the subjects if the numbers of different types of subjects were important. By important I mean that numbers and percentages were relevant to your purpose. For example if your purpose was to find out how many or what percentage of the population know someone who uses physical punishment on their children, then it’s results. If you are merely reporting how many males and females you sampled, then it’s subjects. The analysis may include a report of the numbers of males and females in various groups, college class, etc. You may want to also give percentages and/or put the numbers in an APA style table. The means and standard deviations are presented next. In a proposal you don’t actually have any numbers because you have not done the study yet. So instead of presenting numbers you simply report how you plan to present them, what numbers you will present, etc. Descriptive statistics are presented in text and also put in an APA style table. Tables (and graphs) go on their own page with nothing else on the page. Tables and Figures go on the first page after first mention and there is only one per page. Your tables can contain fake data (be sure to identify it as such) or you can put XX's in the place where the numbers will go. The general strategy is to follow chronological order of the data collection. You asked the subjects to fill out the demographic form. An analysis of the numbers of people in the various categories is presented. You need to "break this down" by the groups. For example, report the number of males and females, numbers of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and senior, or whichever category variables represent the Independent Variables. Report the range of ages. It may be interesting to see the number of male and female freshman for each group too, if it's relevant to your purpose and hypotheses. You can also report percentages. Even with a table or two you will still need a paragraph or two reporting the interesting demographic data and the Means and Standard Deviations of relevant variables. Perhaps the mean age of each group is interesting. There are too many ways to explore your data looking for the ways your groups differ or are similar for me to write them all up. You do the search and include all the data you collected broken down by whatever variables you find interesting. When you report a mean you must report the standard deviation too. Means cannot stand alone. Often, means and standard deviations are put into large tables showing all the break downs. This term, break downs, or breaking down the data, refers to separating the levels of one IV by the levels of another. Tables do not substitute for written paragraphs. You cannot simply tell the reader to "see Table 1." You must write at least one paragraph describing the table and reporting interesting data from the table. This is redundant, but that's how it's done. You may have a table that is a correlation matrix; if your research is a correlation study. This shows the relationship between all pairs of variables. It is an APA table. Present interesting correlations in the paragraph that you write describing the correlations. Not everyone will have a correlation matrix, it just depends on your research design. This completes the descriptive statistics portion of the paper. After presenting the descriptive statistics, the inferential statistics come next. This is a most difficult section because you have to decide which statistical test to use (and there are always more than one to be done). Some of you will use the Anova and bar charts or line drawings, some will use correlation and scatterplots, and some of you may need both! Everyone will include at least one table and one graph.

2 Factorial analysis of variance (2x3, or 3x4x2, or ...) are common. At least one and maybe more graphs, APA Figures, will be needed and you are required to use Excel to create the graphs. Detailed step-by- step instructions are available in the Content on D2L. At least one graph, the APA Figure, of the means and standard deviations for your groups is required. The statistical analysis is usually an Analysis of Variance procedure, the F-test, with post hoc test results. First state the test used, whether or not it showed a statistically significant effect, and the relevant test statistics. The basic choices are: Oneway analysis of variance, factorial analysis of various (including the appropriate numbers - 2x3, 3x4, etc.) repeated measures analysis of variance, mixed design analysis of variance, regression analysis. Also discuss the nature of post hoc tests and/or simple effects analysis. Then report what it all means in everyday language. Briefly. You may have additional analysis to consider too. For example, you may have found that more males take scuba class than females. So a chi-square analysis is in order to statistically verify this finding. Or you may have found that it appears that scuba students are young males rather than older males or females of any age. Contingency table analysis? These additional analyses will depend on your data. A regression analysis may be required. By using a stepwise procedure in Multiple Linear Regression you can discover all the variables that are related to your dependent variable in one fell swoop. You can then build a "prediction model" to determine the characteristics that distinguish one group of people from other groups. I. Descriptive Statistics 1. consent forms 2. demographics 2a. table of percentages and absolute numbers. 2b. paragraph or two of important/interesting numbers/percentages. 3. Means and standard deviations by group and demo's and dependent variable 3a. table of M's and SD's 3b. paragraph or two of important M's and SD's 4. Correlation Matrix 4a. table 4b. paragraph II. Inferential Statistics 1. Basic F-test (Anova and/or Factorial) 1a. graph of means and standard deviations 1b. paragraph 2. Post-Hoc tests (paragraphs only) 3. Additional analysis 3a. graph if relevant 3b. paragraph 4. Regression analysis 4a. graph if relevant 4b. paragraph