13.5: Presenting Your Research (Summary)

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Key Takeaways

• APA style is a set of guidelines for writing in psychology. It is the genre of writing that psychologists use to communicate about their research with other researchers and practitioners.
• APA style can be seen as having three levels. There is the organization of a research article, the high-level style that includes writing in a formal and straightforward way, and the low-level style that consists of many specific rules of grammar, spelling, formatting of references, and so on.
• References and reference citations are an important part of APA style. There are specific rules for formatting references and for citing them in the text of an article.
• An APA-style empirical research report consists of several standard sections. The main ones are the abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, and references.
• The introduction consists of an opening that presents the research question, a literature review that describes previous research on the topic, and a closing that restates the research question and comments on the method. The literature review constitutes an argument for why the current study is worth doing.
• The method section describes the method in enough detail that another researcher could replicate the study. At a minimum, it consists of a participants subsection and a design and procedure subsection.
• The results section describes the results in an organized fashion. Each primary result is presented in terms of statistical results but also explained in words.
• The discussion typically summarizes the study, discusses theoretical and practical implications and limitations of the study, and offers suggestions for further research.
• Research in psychology can be presented in several different formats. In addition to APA-style empirical research reports, there are theoretical and review articles; final manuscripts, including dissertations, theses, and student papers; and talks and posters at professional conferences.
• Talks and posters at professional conferences follow some APA style guidelines but are considerably less detailed than APA-style research reports. Their function is to present new research to interested researchers and facilitate further interaction among researchers.

Key Terms and Concepts

APA STYLE

Set of guidelines for writing research articles in psychology and related fields.

PUBLICATION MANUAL OF THE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

The official style guide for psychology and related fields.

TITLE PAGE

The first page with title, author names, and institutional affiliation.

ABSTRACT

A brief summary appearing on its own page after the title page.

INTRODUCTION

Opening section providing background and rationale.

OPENING

The beginning of the introduction that grabs attention.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Summary of relevant previous research.

CLOSING

End of introduction stating specific research questions and hypotheses.

METHOD

The section describing participants, materials, and procedures in detail.

RESULTS

The section presenting statistical findings without interpretation.

DISCUSSION

Interpretation of results, implications, limitations, and future directions.

HIGH-LEVEL STYLE

Overall organization and structure of a document.

LOW-LEVEL STYLE

Specific writing mechanics like grammar, punctuation, and formatting.

REFERENCE CITATION

APA format for citing references.

EMPIRICAL RESEARCH REPORT

An article presenting results of one or more new studies.

APPENDIX

Supplementary material at the end of a paper.

REVIEW ARTICLES

Articles summarizing and synthesizing research on a topic.

THEORETICAL ARTICLES

Articles presenting new theories or evaluating existing theories.

FINAL MANUSCRIPTS

Polished, publication-ready versions of papers.

PROFESSIONAL CONFERENCES

Meetings where researchers present their work.

ORAL PRESENTATION

A spoken presentation, typically with slides.

POSTER

A large visual display summarizing a research project.

POSTER SESSION

A time period when researchers stand by their posters to discuss their work.

LARGE CONFERENCES

Major national or international meetings with hundreds or thousands of attendees.

Test Your Knowledge (answers at end of section)

1. What is the primary purpose of APA style?

a) To facilitate scientific communication by promoting clarity and standardizing organization

b) To make writing more creative and engaging

c) To demonstrate the writer's knowledge of grammar rules

d) To ensure all psychology papers are exactly the same

2. In APA style, when a journal article has three to five authors, how should it be cited after the first citation?

a) List all authors every time

b) Use first author's name followed by 'et al.'

c) Use only the first two authors' names

d) Use the title of the article instead of authors

3. An APA-style research report title should be:

a) At least 20 words long to be descriptive

b) Creative and attention-grabbing with metaphors

c) Written entirely in capital letters

d) Clear and concise, about 12 words or fewer

4. The literature review in the introduction serves to:

a) Simply list all previous studies on the topic

b) Demonstrate how much research the author has read

c) Construct an argument for why the research question is worth addressing

d) Take up as many pages as possible

5. Conference posters are typically presented:

a) On small letter-size sheets of paper

b) During one-to-two-hour poster sessions where presenters stand near their posters

c) Only at international conferences

d) Without the researcher present

Answer Key

1. A - To facilitate scientific communication by promoting clarity and standardizing organization

The primary purpose of APA style is to facilitate scientific communication by promoting clarity of expression and by standardizing the organization and content of research articles.

2. B - Use first author's name followed by 'et al.'

For articles with three to five authors, all names should be included in the first citation, but after that, use the first author's name followed by 'et al.'

3. D - Clear and concise, about 12 words or fewer

The title should clearly and concisely (in about 12 words or fewer) communicate the primary variables and research questions.

4. C - Construct an argument for why the research question is worth addressing

The literature review constitutes a kind of argument for why the research question is worth addressing. It is not simply a list of past studies.

5. B - During one-to-two-hour poster sessions where presenters stand near their posters

Posters are typically presented during one- to two-hour poster sessions where presenters set up their posters and stand near them to interact with researchers.

References

American Psychological Association, Committee on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Concerns Joint Task Force on Guidelines for Psychotherapy With Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Clients. (2000). Guidelines for psychotherapy with lesbian, gay, and bisexual clients. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/guidelines

Bem, D. J. (2003). Writing the empirical journal article. In J. M. Darley, M. P. Zanna, & H. R. Roediger III (Eds.), The complete academic: A practical guide for the beginning social scientist (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Bentley, M., Peerenboom, C. A., Hodge, F. W., Passano, E. B., Warren, H. C., & Washburn, M. F. (1929). Instructions in regard to preparation of manuscript. Psychological Bulletin, 26, 57–63.

Darley, J. M., & Latané, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4, 377–383.

Madigan, R., Johnson, S., & Linton, P. (1995). The language of psychology: APA style as epistemology. American Psychologist, 50, 428–436.

Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Combs, J. P., Slate, J. R., & Frels, R. K. (2010). Editorial: Evidence-based guidelines for avoiding the most common APA errors in journal article submissions. Research in the Schools, 16, ix–xxxvi.

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

Exercises

• Practice: Find a description of a research study in a popular magazine, newspaper, blog, or website. Then identify five specific differences between how that description is written and how it would be written in APA style.
• Practice: Find and correct the errors in the following fictional APA-style references and citations.
  • Walters, F. T., and DeLeon, M. (2010). Relationship Between Intrinsic Motivation and Accuracy of Academic Self-Evaluations Among High School Students. Educational Psychology Quarterly, 23, 234–256.
  • Moore, Lilia S. (2007). Ethics in survey research. In M. Williams & P. L. Lee (eds.), Ethical Issues in Psychology (pp. 120–156), Boston, Psychological Research Press.
  • Vang, C., Dumont, L. S., and Prescott, M. P. found that left-handed people have a stronger preference for abstract art than right-handed people (2006).
  • This result has been replicated several times (Williamson, 1998; Pentecost & Garcia, 2006; Armbruster, 2011)
• Practice: Look through an issue of a general interest professional journal (e.g., Psychological Science). Read the opening of the first five articles and rate the effectiveness of each one from 1 (very ineffective) to 5 (very effective). Write a sentence or two explaining each rating.
• Practice: Find a recent article in a professional journal and identify where the opening, literature review, and closing of the introduction begin and end.
• Practice: Find a recent article in a professional journal and highlight in a different color each of the following elements in the discussion: summary, theoretical implications, practical implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research.
• Discussion: Do an Internet search using search terms such as psychology and poster to find three examples of posters that have been presented at conferences. Based on information in this chapter, what are the main strengths and main weaknesses of each poster?