Research methods 2- Study One Methods, Results, and Discussion
Purpose of Paper II: Study One Methods, Results, and Discussion1). Psychological PurposeThe psychological purpose behind Paper II is to make sure you can tell your reader whatyou did on your study, how you did it, and what you found. By now you have read severalempirical studies in psychology, and you should be familiar with the Methods, Results, andDiscussion 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 yourparticipants, materials, and procedure in your Methods section. Your participant sectiongoes first, and it includes descriptive statistics about your sample (means and standarddeviations for age as well as percentages for gender and race/ethnicity). Your materials andprocedure sections include information about what you did and how you did it. You shouldwrite this section for an audience who is unfamiliar with your specific study, but assumethat they do know research methods. Thus educate your reader about your materials andprocedure, giving enough detail so they could replicate the study. This includes explicitlydescribing your independent and dependent variables and talking about how you presentedthose variables to your participants. My suggestion is to look over the articles yousummarized in Paper I and see how they wrote their Methods. This will give you a goodidea 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 showhow you analyzed the data and describe what you found. You will have a lot of help in thissection from your lab instructors.Finally, I want you to include a short description of your findings. Tell me if you supportedor did not support your hypotheses and explain why you got those results (you can actuallyspeculate here if you like, but make it an “educated” speculation!)2). APA Formatting PurposeThe second purpose of Paper II: Methods, Results and Discussion is to once again teachyou proper American Psychological Association (APA) formatting for these sections. Inthe pages below, I will tell you how to format your paper using APA style. There are a lotof very specific requirements in APA papers (as specific as what to italicize), so payattention to the instructions below as well as Chapter 14 in your textbook!3). Writing PurposeFinally, this paper is intended to help you figure out how to write a Methods, Results, andDiscussion section. Many students find statistics daunting, but my hope here is that writingthis paper will help you understand both the logic and format of statistics in resultssections. We will once again give you a lot of feedback and help in this paper, which youhelp you when you write Papers IV and V later in the course. Make sure that you write thisPAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS3for an audience familiar with APA methods and results, but also for someone who needsyou to tell them what you found.Note: The plagiarism limit is higher in this paper (up to 65%) since your classmates are doing thesame design. Don’t go higher than that, though! 65% is the maximum allowed!Sorry for the length of the instructions! They are long, but take it one section at a time and you willget all of the content you need in your paper and get a great grade!PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS4Methods1. 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 titlepage from Paper I or review the title page instructions I gave you in Paper I. Youcan 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 itfor now3. Methods Section: I expect the following format(15 points):a. For this paper, the methods section starts on page 2.b. WriteMethodat the top of this page, make it bold, and center it (see the top of thispage as an example!)c. The participants section comes next. The wordParticipantsis bolded and leftjustified. 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. Thatis, “Two-hundred and five participants participated in this study.”2. If a number is mid-sentence, you can use numerals. “There were 205participants in this study.”3. But keep numbers consistent. If you spell out a number at the start ofthe sentence, carry that through and spell out other numbers in thesentence.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 toprovide frequency information (the number of participants who fitthat 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 standarddeviation). “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 thisassignment, though information is also available in a lab powerpoint.3. Make sure to italicize theN,M, andSD(the letters, not the numbers)d.Materials and Procedurei. For this section, things are flexible. Some studies include Materials andProcedure in the same section while others break them up into two sections.This is a matter of choice.PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS51. In general, the more complex the design, the better it is to split upthe methods and results. In one section, the author may describe thematerials; in the next, they describe what participants did with thosematerials (the procedure). This is one option for you. However ...2. However, your “Paper II: Methods, Results and Discussion (StudyOne)” is simple enough that I strongly recommend combining themintooneoverall Materials and Procedure section.ii. Again, the wordsMaterials andProcedureare flush left. In this section ...1. Provide information about your materials and your procedure.a. I suggest starting with your procedure. Tell your reader whatyour participants did in the order participants did them. Bespecific here. I have the following recommendations:i. First, talk about the oral informed consent procedure.ii. Second, talk about the three versions of the Selfiestudy questionnaire. Provide enough detail so thatyour readers know how the three conditions differ. Asa reader, I need to able to replicate your design, soyou need to give me enough detail so I can do so.(Hint: Copy and paste the various questions or referthe reader to an appendix that has those materials!)1. I want to stress that – pretend I have no ideawhat you did, but I want to repeat your designand procedures. That means you need to beVERY clear and detailed about what you didand how you did it.2. At the end of the semester (for Paper V),someone other than your instructor / TA maygrade your paper. They may know NOTHINGabout your topic, though they do knowmethods. Thus go into painstaking detail aboutwhat EACH section of the survey page lookedlike, including the participant instructions andthe picturesiii. Third, talk about your dependent variables (that is,your survey questions. For these dependent variables,once again provide enough detail so I know exactlywhat questions you asked. For example, “Participantsprovided their gender, age, and race”. For otherdependent variables, tell me how the responses wererecorded (yes/no, true/false, a scale of 1 to 6, etc.). Ifyou used a scale, note the endpoints. That is, does a 1mean it is high or is it low? “Participants were asked,‘How frustrating was this task?’, and they respondedon a scale from 1 (very frustrating) to 9 (not at allfrustrating).’” Your study has a few really importantDVs (including several DVs about their impressionsof Emma Wood, the Instagram user, on elements ofhow frequently she changes her picture / posts toPAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS6Instagram and how narcissistic, egotistical, self-absorbed, or selfish she is). For these DVs, you againneed to tell me what they are specifically!iv. Fourth, make sure to highlight which specific DVsyou analyzed. If there are DVs participants completedbut you did not analyze it, feel free to say those thatparticipants completed them but since they were notanalyzed, they are not discussed further.v. Finally, make sure to be specific about your attention/ manipulation check question!vi. Finally, mention debriefinge. There is no set minimum or maximum on the length of the methods section, but Iwould expect at least a page or two (though probably more. After all, your ownresearch script took up several pages – you should provide a similar level of depthand detail in your methods section!). Missing important aspects of your IVs andDVs 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 onyour 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 helpyou with this part of the paper (also refer to the crash course statistics quizzes,which walk you through similar analyses!).b. First, writeResultsat the top of this section, center it, and use boldface. Thissection comes directly at the end of the methods section, so the results sectionDOES NOT start on its own page.c. For this assignment, include statistics about the most important variables in yourstudy, including your IV (Photo Condition – Selfie, Groupie, and Professional) andthe DVs you feel are most important to your hypotheses. I require you look at ONEdependent variable from Part I of the survey (either Question #2 or Question #3)ONE dependent variable from Part II (either narcissistic, self-absorbed, selfish, oregotistical). All of these variables really focus on your predictions. Note that someinstructors may not do this Selfie study at all, but the results section should followthe same guidelines regardless of your study topic.d. More specifically,you must run at least three different analyses on threedifferent dependent variables. One must be a chi square for the question askingparticipants which to recall the theme of the advertisements (our manipulationcheck, which looks at the three options for the nominal variable in Part V). At leastone of the remaining two analyses must be a One Way ANOVA (I actuallyrecommend that both of your last two analyses focus on One Way ANOVAs). Thethird analysis can be either an ANOVA or at-Test. Questions #2 and #3 in Part Ihave a nice scale to them (0 to 5), so an ANOVA or t-Test are good for both. Thefour traits in Part II use a 0 to 5 scale as well, so an ANOVA and t-Test are good forthose, too. Now, you could run an ANOVA on the question “Emma seems selfish”OR you could run at-Test on the question “Emma seems selfish”, but because it isthe same dependent variable, that only counts as one DV. We count the number ofDVs you analyze – NOT the number of statistical tests you run!i.Chi square: Your first analysis will be a chi square, which you use if yourDV is categorical (yes / no; yes / no / maybe; male / female, or ... in ourPAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS7case, we have our “Theme” based questions in Part IV (The photo was aselfie, groupie, or professional photo). So let’s discuss the chi square, whichdoes not look at means but rather counts how many responses there arecompared to how many you would expect.1. Consider the DV in Part VI of your questionnaire – “Which of thefollowing BEST describes Emma’s A, B, and C photo options?(Mark one with an X)” The options were selfie, groupie, orprofessional. Here, you can run a chi square looking at thefrequencies of the three answer options2. We are interested in the chi square (χ2) andpvalue. We also providepercentages for each of our groups (rather than means andSD).a. “Using the photo condition as our independent variable(selfie, groupie, or professional) and the photo participantsrecalled seeing as the dependent variable, we saw asignificant effect,χ2(4) = 68.49,p< .001. Most participantsin the selfie condition recalled selfies (98%); mostparticipants in the groupie condition recalled seeing groupies(96%); and most participants in professional photo conditionrecalled seeing professional photos (90%). This indicates thatparticipants saw our manipulation as intended.”b. Alternatively, you can just look at correct versus incorrectresponses. This is a bit trickier to run in SPSS, since youneed to add up all those who correctly remembered the ad(those in the selfie condition who recalled selfies + those inthe groupie condition who recalled groupies + those in theprofessional condition who recalled professional photos) andcompare them to people who recalled an incorrect photo. Inthis instance, you wouldn’t want the chi square to besignificant. That is, you might conclude thatχ2(4) = 1.49,p>.05, indicating that there was no difference between thosewho got the photo correct across the three differentconditions. (In other words, participants weren’t more correctin one condition compared to another). My advice is to gowith the chi square in a. abovec. Make sure to italicize theχandpii.ANOVA: Since you have a condition independent variable with three levels(e.g. Selfie, Groupie, or Professional), the most appropriate test is a One-Way ANOVA if your DV is scaled (like a 0 to 5 scale or a 1 to 5 scale).Your lab and lecture powerpoints show you how to conduct an ANOVA, butthere 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 myexample analysis below, I want to focus on Part II in your survey(impressions of Emma Wood). Since each of the ten questions(especially the four we mention in our predictions) in Part II arescaled variables that range from 0 to 5, each uses an interval scale,PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS8which is perfect for an ANOVA. However, I want you to look ateither Question #2 or #3 in Part I as well2. Second, given that this study has one IV with three levels and oneDV that is on a continuous (ratio or interval) scale, a One-WayANOVA is the best test to use to see if there are significantdifferences among the levels. We look first at the ANOVA table (orFtable) and focus on the between subject factor. We note thedegrees of freedom, theFvalue itself, and thepvalue. (We’ll getinto two-way ANOVAs later in this course, but here we only haveone independent variable, so it is a one-way ANOVA. Yes, we havethree levels to our IV, but it is still only one IV).3. If thepvalue is significant (less than .05), we have one more step totake. Since this is a three level IV, we need to compare mean A tomean B, mean A to mean C, and mean B to mean C. We do thisusing a post hoc test (try using Tukey!). That will tell us which of themeans differ significantly. You then write up the results. Forexample, let’s say I ran an ANOVA on the dependent variable“Emma seems selfish”. My write up would look like this (thoughnote: I completely made up the data below, so don’t copy thenumbers!) ...a. “Using the photo condition (selfie v. groupie v. professional)as our independent variable and ratings of “Emma seemsselfish” as the dependent variable, we found a significantcondition effect,F(2, 203) = 4.32,p< .05. Tukey post hoctests showed that participants thought Emma seemed moreselfish in the selfie condition (M= 4.56,SD= 1.21) thanparticipants in both the groupie (M= 2.24,SD= 0.89) andprofessional (M= 2.23,SD= 0.77) conditions. The groupieand professional conditions, however, did not differ fromeach other. This supports our prediction that participantsexposed to selfies are more likely to rate Emma high inselfishness than those who are exposed to groupies orprofessional photos.”i. Note there are lots of possible outcomes. The oneabove essentially says that condition S (Selfie)differed from G (Groupie) and P (Professional), butthat G and P did not differ from each other (In otherwords, S≠G = P). However, we might also find thatNONE of the three conditions differ from each other,so they are all equal (S = G = P) or we might find thatALL conditions differ from each other (S≠G≠P), sothey all differii. As an example for this latter (S≠R≠E), I wouldpredict no differences between the three conditionsfor the dependent variables “Emma seems happy” and“Emma seems smart”b. Make sure to italicize theF,p,M, andSD(as in the example)PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS9c. Pretty simple, right! I suggest doing this same procedure forone DV in Part I (Question #2 or #3) and one DV in Part II(like questions 4, 7, 9, or 10).d. However, if you choose you can do at-Test on one of thoseother dependent variables as well. Here’s how:iii.t-Test: If you have only two levels to your IV (e.g. Selfie or Professionalonly), things are even more simple.1. Here, you will run at-Test (at-Test looks at differences betweenonly two groups). Again, your lab presentations tell you how to runthis, but you can do it on your own as well (you can even run this ifyour study originally has three levels to the IV – when you go intothet-Test menu in SPSS, choose “define groups” and select 1 and 3(Selfie = 1 and Professional = 3). This will let you look at two of thegroups! You could also select “2 and 3” or “1 and 2” where theGroupie condition = 2).2. Rather than anFvalue, we will look at thetvalue in thet-Test dataoutput. Here, we have one number for the degree of freedom, wehave thetvalue, and we have thepvalue.3. The nice thing about at-Test is that since you only have two groups,you do not need a post hoc test like Tukey (you only need that if youhave to compare three means. Here, we only have two means, so wecan just look at them and see which one is higher and which is lowerwhen ourt-Test is significant). Then just write it up ...a. “Using the priming condition (selfie v. professional) as ourindependent variable and ratings of “Emma seems selfish” asour dependent variable, we found a significant conditioneffect,t(203) = 8.12,p< .05. Participants rated Emma asmore selfish in the selfie condition (M= 5.56,SD= 1.21)than participants in the professional condition (M= 2.23,SD= 0.77).”i. Note my means for thist-Test, and compare them tothe means for the ANOVA. The selfie andprofessional means and SDs are identical between theANOVA andt-Test, because both thet-Test andANOVA use the same means! Thus DO NOT run at-Test and ANOVA on the same DV, as it is repetitive.b. Repeat for other dependent variablesc. Make sure to italicize thet,p,M, andSD(as in the example)iv. Statistics order recommendation: For this paper, start your results sectionwith the chi square (your manipulation check). Then talk about your mainanalyses (Questions #2 or #3 in Part I, and the Emma impression questions,4, 7, 9, or 10 in Part II). Make sure the analyses line up with yourhypotheses.e. There is no page minimum or maximum for the results section, though I wouldexpect it to be at least a paragraph or two for each dependent variable5. Appendices(4 points)PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS10a. 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 aseries 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 crosstabsiii. Appendix C: Include your tables for your first dependent variable (Thismust 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(Although I prefer a second ANOVA like iii. above, you could includet-Test tables here. This would involve both the descriptives for thet-Test andthet-Test output itselfb. Hint: The best way to get these tables is to copy them directly from SPSS. In theSPSS 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 MicrosoftWord to find it). You can highlight an area on any computer page and save it as apicture. Copy the picture and paste it into your appendix. Easy!c. Make sure to give a proper name to the appendix (e.g. Appendix A – Study OneDemographics)6. Discussion Study One(2 points)a. In this section, tell me about your findings and if they did or did not support yourresults. It might help to refer back to your hypotheses “We expected to find A butinstead found B” or “We expected to find A and our results supported thishypothesis.” Explain using plain English why you think your study turned out theway it did.b. IMPORTANT – Do NOT give me statistics again here. I can find those in yourresults 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. Onlytell 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 fivesentences7. Overall writing quality(3 points)a.Make sure you check your paper for proper spelling and grammar. The FIU writingcenter is available if you want someone to look over your paper (an extra eye isalways good!) and give you advice. I highly recommend them, as writing qualitywill become even more important on future papers. I also recommend visiting theFIU Research Methods Help Center if you need additional guidance with writing orstatistical analyses. Also, remember to upload this paper through the Pearson writerbefore uploading to blackboard!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. Youmustuse a 12-pointfont in Times New Roman.PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS112). 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 seeif 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 isthe best paper you can write!Finally, go look at the supporting documents for this paper. Like Paper I, there is achecklist, a grade rubric, and an example paper for Paper II. All will give you moreinformation about what we are specifically looking for as well as a visual example of howto put it all together in your paper. Good luck!