Pasadena City College
PSYCH 5: Research Methods in Psychology
INSTRUCTIONS FOR PAPER #2:
Method Section
General instructions: Write an APA-style method section based on your group research. For this writing
assignment only, you must write in collaboration with your other group members. The group must submit only
one method section, for which each group member will receive the same grade.
Specific parts of an APA report required for this assignment
1. Method section, complete with proper headings, standard subheadings, and appropriate contents written in
standard APA format. Subsections you should include are:
 Participants
 Materials
 Design (optional)
 Procedure
Background resources to consult before you begin writing and as you write
1. Textbook – use the information in Chapter 2 of your text as well as the appendix to emulate a research paper
method section.
2. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is the ultimate resource for writing your
paper. If you have any questions left unanswered by your textbook and class handouts, refer to this guide.
3. You will need to refer to your notes covering the research study you are writing about.
Presentation form
1. The method section report is to be printed by a computer printer.
2. Attach a cover sheet with the names of all the members of your writing team, the number of the course
(Psych 5), instructor’s name, and the date on which you submitted the report. Do not include any other cover or
binder or extra pages. Simply staple your completed pages together in order.
3. Submit one copy of Paper #2. (Every group member should keep a copy of the submitted paper.)
Audience / writing perspective
1. The paper is to be written as though it will be read by an intelligent but uninformed outsider—someone who
is somewhat sophisticated and generally aware of psychology, but who was not present on the day the research
was conducted. (In other words, do not write with the assumption that "the instructor will know what I mean."
Include all essential points and explain what needs to be explained.) One way to check on whether your paper is
understandable is to have someone who is not in the class (but who cares enough to give you good feedback)
read the paper and tell you if they understand all your points.
2. Write the paper from the perspective of being a member of a research group.
Length
Adequacy of your paper will be judged by its contents, not by its length. Write your report according to
essentials that are required by APA format, as detailed in Appendix A of your textbook and in your APA
Publication Manual. Your paper is long enough when you have covered what needs to be covered.
CHECKLIST FOR WRITING PAPER #2
Method
 M-1 The method section has the first explicit main heading within the body of the report. As with all main
headings, this one should be centered, with only the first letter of the heading capitalized and bolded (not in
all caps, or underlined). The method section describes all the major steps used in conducting the research.
The description should be sufficiently specific and detailed that a sophisticated reader could use it as a guide
to replicating your study in its every important detail.
 M-2 Complete sentences are required throughout all subsections in the method section, just as in the other
sections of the report. (Do not simply provide isolated lists such as lists of participant characteristics or lists
of materials.)
 M-3 The method section is most typically divided into three subsections, each with its own subheading.
Section subheadings are aligned with the left margin and italicized or underlined.
Participants
 M/S-1 Indicate the number and types of research participants, including any demographic information that
may be relevant in the context of the study, such as number of males and females, age and ethnicity, if
known. Specify how participants were recruited for participation, and describe any agreements that were
made with them and any incentives for participation. (For non-humans, provide information on genus,
species, strain, and the identity and location of the supplier.)
 M/S-2 Be sure to specify how many participants were included in each group or condition in the study, and
disclose how they were assigned to the groups or conditions of the study. (If the procedures for any group
assignments include several steps, place details about this in the Procedure subsection.) [Caution: If you
use terms such as “randomly assigned” or “randomly selected, be sure that the procedures were truly
random. Also, because you are writing a student report, provide a clear description of how randomization
was carried out.] If any participants failed to complete their participation or were excluded from the data
analysis, provide an explanation about why this occurred.
 M/S-3 Wherever possible, avoid the use of the term “subject” if a more precisely descriptive and less
objectifying term can be substituted (e.g., participant, student, shopper, interviewee, survey respondent, man,
woman, child, rat, dog, etc.)
Materials (or Apparatus if equipment was used)
 M/M-1 Describe the equipment and/or stimulus materials used in executing the research. Mention any
feature of the materials or apparatus that would be important to include in a replication—anything that might
have reasonably affected the way the results turned out.
Design (This subsection is optional, but including it can sometimes make the organization of the other
subsections smoother.)
 M/D-1: If you do choose to include a design section, identify the research method used (naturalistic
observation, correlational research, independent groups experiment, etc.), describe the general logic behind
the design, and indicate which factors, if any, were manipulated, held constant, or balanced, and what factors
were measured. (This information may alternatively be included in the Procedure subsection.)
Procedure
 M/P-1 In this section, provide a step-by-step description of how participants were approached, prepared,
assigned to groups or conditions, instructed and treated, and how the data were collected. Clearly describe
any control procedures, such as randomization and counterbalancing. Include every detail that could
reasonably have had an impact on the pattern of results obtained, and make your description clear enough
that a reader could use it as the basis for a replication of the research.
 M/P-2 Be sure to mention any deviations from standard procedures that occurred in the course of data
collection. (For example, if the researcher mistakenly presented the wrong material on one trial, or if a loud
noise was made outside in a supposedly noise-controlled environment, mention these things since the results
could have been influenced by them. Or if any data were disregarded or lost, explained why or how.)
 M/P-3 Please be aware that the latest edition of the APA Publication Manual requires that the Headings
(Method) and subheadings (Procedure, Participants, etc) are bolded. The heading is centered, and the
subheadings are flush left as in the previous version.
General Guidelines for Style and Mechanics
 G-1 Type your report in double-spaced format, with 1-inch margins all around.
 G-2 Use primarily past tense verbs throughout your report. Remember that you are generally describing
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events that have taken place in the past. (There are a few places where verbs of other tenses may be called
for, and most of them will be obvious when you encounter a sentence that demands an exception.)
G-3 Adhere to the following general rules for the expression of numbers in an APA report:
o G-3.1 Use numerals generally to express any number of magnitude 10 or greater, unless a number
appears as the first word in a sentence. If you begin a sentence with a number, you must spell it. For
example:
 Incorrect: 24 students volunteered to participate.
 Correct: Twenty-four students volunteered to participate.
 Correct: A total of 24 students volunteered to participate.
o G-3.2 Use written out words to express a number smaller than 10, unless the number represents the size
of a sample or subsample, or is presented in a series with numbers of magnitude 10 or greater. For
example, for both the reasons given above you should write “There were 9 men and 12 women included
in the survey,” (not “nine men and 12 women…”).
o G-3.3 Use numerals to express any number that directly precedes a unit of measurement (“3 mm, 9-ml
dose) representing exact amounts of time (duration, dates, ages); sample or subsample size (number of
participants in a research study), exact sums of money, scores or points on a scale (e.g., “a rating of 5”),
or numerals as numerals (“the numbers 1 through 7 were written on slips of papers…”)
G-4 Minimize the use of first person pronouns (i.e., I, we, my, etc.). The tone of a scientific report is
generally rather impersonal, emphasizing the research rather than the researcher.
G-5 Avoid plagiarism! Use your own words and thinking processes. Use quotation marks and cite
references appropriately.
G-6 Avoid references to any idiosyncratic or locally specialized information that would be meaningless to
an “outsider”. For example, if you write that “PCC students were approached by Psychology 5 students as
they walked through the halls of the C Building,” you have committed three such errors, by mentioning local
abbreviations for the college, a course, and a building, all of which would be meaningless to even the most
intelligent outsider. (In this case, it would be more informative for the general reader if you were to write
that “People on the campus of a large southern California community college campus were approached by
students from a Research Methods in Psychology course as they walked through the halls of a main campus
building housing administrative offices, classrooms, and computer laboratories.”)
G-7 Edit your final draft to correct errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar (run-on
sentences or sentence fragments, lack of subject-verb agreement, inconsistent or incorrect verb tenses, etc.).
Some commonly misused or misspelled words to watch out for:
o “Data” = the plural form of the noun “datum”, so the proper phrasing is “The data were gathered...”
o “Questionnaire” has two n's in it, and is often spelled incorrectly in student reports.
G-8 Before you print out your final paper, carefully review and edit your paper to make sure that it is
complete, clear, logical, and smoothly written.