SR2

Method Section

Slides adapted from Joe Pirozzolo, Don Foss, et al.

Review:

 What are the 4 parts of the Main Body?

References

Main Body

Abstract

Title page

Review: Introduction:

Grab the reader’s attention

Define the topic & state why it is important to study

Relevant Background (this is your literature review)

Review the literature (empirical studies)

Integrate your review of relevant literature into your proposed idea

Discuss your proposed topic

Define variables

State and support your specific hypothesis

Method: How are you going to

test your hypothesis?

What is the purpose of the Method

section?

 To describe in detail how the study was conducted.

 To enable replication

◼ An instruction manual or cookbook

◼ Make it very clear for your reader

What is the purpose?

 What kind of information do you think should be included in this section of your paper?

Parts of the Method Section

 Participants

 Design

 Procedure

 Measures/Materials/Apparatus

These are all of your level 2 headings for your Method

section

Participants

 How many participants? ◼ How many were in each condition?

 Where were they recruited from? ◼ random, convenience, from psych classes, etc.

 What population? ◼ college students, teens, workers at insurance companies, etc.

 Specific characteristics ◼ age, ethnicity, gender, grade level, SES, relationship status,

etc.  Relevant information only. If you’re not comparing single men to married

men, then you don’t need to include relationship status.

◼ Any relevant characteristics that may be important to your topic (i.e. level of depression)

 Are they being compensated in any way?

 Mention that they gave informed consent for participation (though details of the consent process will be in the Procedure)

Example

Participants

Seventy heterosexual couples were recruited from the University of Houston campus through announcements made in introductory psychology classes. Participants were from 18 to 55 years old with a mean age of approximately 23. To participate in the study couples must have dated for at least one month (mean length=2.6 yrs). Approximately 37% were married, 23% engaged and 40% casually dating. The majority of participants reported this partner as their only current partner (97.8%). This sample was ethnically diverse with approximately 39% Caucasian, 18% Asian/Pacific Islander, 15.8% African American, 16.5% Hispanic/Latino, and 8.3% choosing “other”. Participants recruited from classes received two hours of extra-credit and each couple was entered into a drawing for a gift certificate to a local restaurant. All participants gave informed consent to participate in the study under a protocol approved by the University of Houston Institutional Review Board.

Design

 What kind of design:

◼ correlational or experimental

◼ cross-sectional or longitudinal

◼ within-subjects (repeated measures) or between-subjects (independent groups) or mixed

 Restate IV/DV or predictor/criterion

◼ Make sure to use correct terminology

◼ Operational definitions

 Even more specific than in your Introduction

Design: Operational Definitions

 You already briefly stated your operational definitions in the Introduction

 You want to repeat them in the Method section so that you can describe them in more detail

◼ E.g.: Intro - jealousy is operationalized as Perceived Threat Scale (PTS) score (White, 1981)

Example

Intro:

Jealousy was operationalized by the score on the Perceived Threat Scale (PTS; White, 1981).

Method:

To determine the state of jealousy, a modified version of The Perceived Threat Scale (White, 1981), assessed state of jealousy through six Likert-type items that measured the perceived threat of rival relationships. Anchors ranged from 1=not at all to 7= very much (e.g., “At this moment how much do you worry that your partner wants to start a relationship with someone else”).

Procedure

 Step-by-step what was done

◼ For replication

◼ If your study uses a procedure from a previous study, be sure to include a citation.

 Should be written as clearly as possible, including:

 how informed consent was given

▪ What is informed consent?

Informed consent/Debriefing

 This is standard research procedure

 You must include in your procedure that you will take informed consent.

 In some cases, you also will need to state that participants will be debriefed (and explain what will happen at debriefing).

 Debriefing at the conclusion of the study gives the participants:

◼ A summary of the purpose of the study

◼ Informs the participant of any deception (i.e. a confederate, video recording)

◼ Thanks the participant and provides contact information for future questions.

Procedure

 Step-by-step what was done

◼ For replication

◼ If your study uses a procedure from a previous study, be sure to include a citation.

 Should be written as clearly as possible, including:

 how informed consent was given

▪ What is informed consent?

 how participants were assigned to groups (this applies only to experimental studies)

 how questionnaires were distributed

 compensation information

 debriefing information

Procedure

 Explain your rationale for everything in the procedure.

◼ Why did you choose that measure? sample?

◼ Why is this design appropriate?

 Discuss any deception used

 For studies with specific, standardized instructions, or with hypothetical scenarios, please provide a verbatim example.

 Look at sample papers in your lab manual and textbook appendix, as well as journal articles, for examples

Measures/Materials/Apparatus  How do you decide what measures you

want to use?

◼ What measures/surveys did other studies use? → Can use PsycTESTS to help find them

◼ https://guides.lib.uh.edu/az.php?a=p ◼ If you agree with those measures, use them

 Don’t reinvent the wheel just to study a slightly different tire tread pattern!

 (Note that you should not cite PsycTESTS as the source of a test—this is a database you can use to find the original publication, and you can cite that.)

◼ Create your own measure with caution!  Sometimes creating your own measure is necessary

 But using a measure that has never been used before is not good scientific practice, so such studies often start by validating the new measure (which is very labor intensive!)

Measure/Materials/Apparatus

 Describe measures (or questionnaires) used

◼ include a reference if using measures developed by other researchers

◼ # of items/questions

◼ what do the items measure?

◼ what scale is used (i.e. Likert, 7-point)?

◼ 1 or 2 sample questions

◼ If novel, may include all questions in an appendix

 Describe other materials used

◼ specific computer programs, video taped conversations, etc

 Figures: Use pictures/diagrams/samples  Make sure you insert figures in correct APA formatting

 Make sure that you cite who you borrowed the figure from (generally, you won’t borrow figures in a real publication)

Review of APA Format

 Method not Methods!

 The word Method is Bold and centered above the section.

 Method section does not start on a new page unless normal pagination requires it.

 Write out numbers that begin a sentence ◼ Seventy-five participants were included in the study.

 Do not use biased language

 Past tense even though you have not actually conducted the study

Review of APA Format

 Use appropriate APA level headings

Example Method (Level 1)

Participants (Level 2)

Where the participants came from, age, gender…..

Design (Level 2)

How the study was organized, IV’s & DV’s….

Procedure (Level 2)

The order of events for the study, informed consent….

Measures (Level 2)

The Hawley Stress Test. (Level 3) Students gave a saliva sample to examine their stress hormones……

Stress self-report. (Level 3)Students rated their level of stress following the pop quiz….

Results (Level 1)

blah blah blah ......................................................

…………………………………………………………………………

Discussion (Level 1)

The Results section

 You won’t be writing a Results section

 But, to give you a brief sketch of how you would write it:

◼ Every manipulation/measure you describe in your Method should be revisited in your Results

◼ Give a verbal summary of what you found for each

◼ Present complete results in tables or figures as appropriate

◼ All results should include appropriate statistical comparisons