Psychology Paper II: Study One Method, Results, and Discussion

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Instructions for Paper II: Study One Method, Results, and Discussion (35 Points)
First M. Last
Florida International University
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Purpose of Paper II: Study One Method, Results, and Discussion
1). Psychological Purpose
Like those prior studies you looked at in Paper I, you will provide information about your
participants, materials, and procedure in your Method section. Your materials and procedure
sections include information about what you did and how you did it. You should write this
section for an audience who is unfamiliar with your specific study but assume that they do
know research Method. This includes explicitly describing your independent and dependent
variables and talking about how you presented those variables to your participants.
Your Results section follows. The purpose of this section is to make sure you can show how
you analyzed the data and describe what you found.
Finally, I want you to include a short description of your findings. Tell me if you supported or
did not support your hypotheses.
2). APA Formatting Purpose
The second purpose of Paper II: Method, Results and Discussion is to once again teach you
proper American Psychological Association (APA) formatting for these sections.
3). Writing Purpose
Finally, this paper is intended to help you figure out how to write a Method, Results, and
Discussion section. Many students find statistics daunting, but my hope here is that writing this
paper will help you understand both the logic and format of statistics in results sections. We
will once again give you a lot of feedback and help in this paper, which you help you when you
write Papers IV and V later in the course.
Note: The plagiarism limit is 60% in this paper. However, this DOES NOT mean that you can
directly plagiarize 60% of your paper. These 60% similarity is set for our standardization—everyone is
writing on the same topic, using almost same references, and using the same instruction & checklist as
an example. In addition, I will check all the similarity reports in your paper. Copying and pasting
(plagiarism) is NOT ok even with a tiny percent. Furthermore, you will get an auto 0 on this
paper with more than 60% overlapping.
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Method
1. Title Page: I expect the following format (3 points) —1 page
a. The title page for your Paper II is identical to the one you used for Paper I. DO NOT
change your title page unless you need to revise some errors in it based on our
comments left in your Paper I.
2. Method Section: I expect the following format (10 points) —min 1.5 pages
a. For this paper, the Method section starts on page 2.
b. Write Method at the top of this page, make it bold, and center it
c. The participants section comes next. The word Participants is bolded and left justified.
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. That is,
“Two-hundred and five participants participated in this study.”
2. If a number is mid-sentence, you can use numerals. “There were 205
participants in this study.”
3. Keep numbers consistent, though. If you spell them out in the middle
of the sentence, carry that through and spell out other numbers in the
sentence.
4. For statistics, though, use numbers (for the mean, standard deviation, %,
etc.)
ii. Provide frequencies and descriptive statistics for relevant demographics.
1. For some variables—like ethnicity and gender—you only need to
provide frequency information (the number of participants who fit that
category). “There were 100 female participants (49.08%) and 105 male
participants (51.92%) in the study.” Or “The sample was 49.08% male
(N = 100) and 51.92% female (N = 105).”
2. Other variables—like age—are continuous (rather than categorical), so
use descriptive statistics here (the range, mean, and the standard
deviation). “Participants ranged in age from 18 to 77 (M = 24.45, SD =
3.50).” or “The average age of participants was 24.45 (SD = 3.50).”
3. Make sure to italicize the N, M, and SD (the letters, not the numbers) and
round up to 2 decimals
d. Materials and Procedure
i. For this section, things are flexible. Some studies include Materials and
Procedure in the same section while others break them up into two sections.
This is a matter of choice.
1. In general, the more complex the design, the better it is to split up the
materials and procedure.
2. However, your Paper II is simple, so I recommend combining them into
one overall Materials and Procedure section.
ii. Again, the words Materials and Procedure are flush left. In this section …
1. Provide information about your materials and your procedure.
a. I have the following recommendations:
i. First, talk about the oral informed consent procedure.
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ii. Second, talk about the three versions of the Facebook
Rudeness study questionnaire. Provide enough detail
including the scenario, differences among conditions, and
random assignment, so that your readers know how the
three conditions differ. I need to able to replicate your
design, so give me enough detail so I can do so.
iii. Third, talk about your dependent variables (that is, your
survey questions). For these dependent variables, once
again provide enough detail but do not copy every
question from the survey. You can talk about the
questions per their part. For example, “Part II in the
survey describes xxxxxx, including A, B, C, D as
questions”, etc., or “Participants provided their gender,
age, and race”. For dependent variables, tell me how the
responses were recorded (yes/no, true/false, a scale of -5
to 5, or 1 to 7, etc.). If you used a scale, note the
endpoints. That is, does a 1 mean it is high or is it low?
“Participants were asked, ‘How frustrating was this task?’,
and they responded on a scale from 1 (very) to 9 (not at
all).’”
iv. Fourth, make sure to highlight which specific DVs you
analyzed (for our Facebook Rudeness study, we focus on
Part V (manipulation check), Part II Q2-Polite person,
and Part III Q7– Conversation). Notice that I restrict
the DVs for you as I fixed the hypothesis for you.
v. Finally, mention debriefing. Tell reader what was
debriefed to participants: general purpose, hypothesis, IV,
DV?
e. Remember, make sure that another researcher can replicate your study based on your
Method section. If they can’t, then you may not have enough detail!
3. Results Section: I expect the following format (15 points) —hard to set page limit for this
section because you are strictly required to have 3 analyses.
a. The results are the hardest part of this paper, and your lab will help you with this part of
the paper. But this section is the most standardized part.
b. First, write Results at the top of this section, center it, and use boldface. This section
comes directly at the end of the Method section, so the results section DOES NOT start
on its own page.
c. For this assignment, include statistics about the most important variables in your study,
including your IV (Post condition – Rude Disagree, Polite Disagree, and Polite Agree)
and the DVs (here, I require Part V (manipulation check), Part II Q2-Polite person, and
Part III Q7– Conversation.
d. For this paper, you must run at least three different analyses (that is, focus on three
different dependent variables). One must be a chi square for Part V, our manipulation
check. One must be a one-way ANOVA on Part II Q2-Polite person. The last one must
be one-way ANOVA on Part III Q7– Conversation. Please note that if you run three
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tests on the same DV, that still only counts as one DV, you will lose points. We count
the number of DVs you analyze – NOT the number of tests you run!
i. Chi square: Your first analysis will be a chi square, which you use if your DV
is categorical (yes / no; yes / no / maybe; male / female, or … in our case, we
have Corey post recall on last question). So, let’s discuss the chi square, which
does not look at means but rather counts how many responses there are
compared to how many you would expect.
1. Consider DV last question on your questionnaire – “Finally, in the last
comment, how did Corey respond to Peyton and Riley?” Here, you can
run a chi square looking at the frequencies of the three answer options
2. We are interested in the chi square (χ
2
) and p value. We also provide
percentages for each of our groups (rather than means and SD).
a. “Using the type of post primed on Facebook page (rude disagree,
polite disagree, or polite agree) as independent and recall of type
of post as the dependent variable, Chi-square test had a
significant results, χ
2
(1) = 68.49, p = .031 (directly report p
value, however, if SPSS output shows p =.000, then write p
< .001). Most “rude disagree” condition participants recalled a
rude disagreement post from Corey (98.45%); most “polite
disagree” condition participants recalled a polite disagreement
post from Corey (96.02%); and most “polite agree” condition
participants recalled a polite agreement post from Corey
(90.69%). This indicates that participants saw our manipulation
as intended.”
b. Make sure to round up to 2 decimals (except for p), italicize the χ
and p.
ii. ANOVA: Since you have a condition independent variable with three levels, the
most appropriate test is a One-Way ANOVA if your DV is scaled (like a 1 to 9
scale or a 1 to 6 scale). Your lab will show you how to conduct an ANOVA, but
there are some guidelines I want to give you about how to write your results.
1. First, for my example analysis below, I want to give you an example on
Corey seems like a polite person.
2. We look first at the ANOVA table (or F table) and focus on the between
subject factor. We note the degrees of freedom, the F value itself, and
the p value.
3. If the p value is significant (less than .05), we have one more step to take.
Since this is a three level IV, we need to compare mean A to mean B,
mean A to mean C, and mean B to mean C. We do this using a Tukey
post hoc test. That will tell us which of the means differ significantly.
You then write up the results (Note: I completely made up the data
below).
a. “Using the type of post primed on Facebook page (rude disagree,
polite disagree, or polite agree) and ratings of Facebook user’
politeness as the dependent variable, One-way ANOVA had a
significant result, F(2, 203) = 4.32, p = .02. Tukey post hoc tests
showed that participants agreed more strongly that Corey was
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less polite in rude disagree condition (M = 4.56, SD = 1.21) than
those in polite disagree (M = 5.24, SD = 0.89) and polite agree
(M = 5.23, SD = 0.77) conditions. The polite disagree and polite
disagree conditions, however, did not differ from each other.
This supports the prediction that the way people admit fake news
influences how other people feel about them.”
i. Note there are three possible outcomes: NONE of the
three conditions differ (A = B = C). ALL differ from each
other (A ≠ B ≠ C). One differs from the other two, but
those other two do not differ (A ≠ B = C). You need to
write out the results based on your analysis results.
b. Make sure to round up to 2 decimals (except for p), and italicize
the F, p, M, and SD (as in the example)
c. Now you can run and write out the same ANOVA on our DVs
(Part II Q2, Part III Q7).
4. Discussion Study One (2 points) —1-2 paragraphs
a. In this section, first re-state the hypothesis in a summarized and brief way (do not copy
the whole hypothesis), and then tell me whether the results supported your hypothesis.
IMPORTANT – Do NOT give me statistics again here. I can find those in your results
section. Here, all I want is a plain English summary of your findings.
5. Appendices (3 points)—3 pages, 1 page for each table
a. 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 a series 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 crosstabs
iii. Appendix C: Include one of your tables for your DVs
6. Overall writing quality (2 points)
a. Make sure you check your paper for proper spelling and grammar. I highly recommend
visiting Research Method Help Center if you need additional guidance with writing or
statistical analyses.
Other Guidelines:
▪ You may get 1-5 points deducted due to lack of originality. For heavy overlapping issue
(directly copying from previous/other students work or other Academic Misconduct
behaviors), you will be reported to Academic Integrity Office and will bear course,
educational, and university sanctions.
▪ Use the Checklist on the next page before you turn in your paper to make sure it is the best
paper you can write!
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Checklist – Paper II: Study One Method, Results, and Discussion
Use the check sheet below to make sure your paper is the best it can be! Make sure you answer “Yes”
to all questions before submitting your paper! The first two sections duplicate the Paper I checklist, but
those elements in purple are unique to you Method / Results / Discussion Paper II
General Paper Format (This section is identical to the Paper I Checklist)
Yes No
1. Is everything in your paper in 12-point Times New Roman font?
2. Is everything in your paper double spaced?
3. Do you have one-inch margins on all sides of the paper?
4. Are the first lines of all paragraphs indented ½ inch?
5. Are your paragraphs aligned left?
Title page (This section is identical to the Paper I Checklist)
Yes No Header
1. Is your Running head title in ALL CAPS?
2. Is your Running head in 12 point Times New Roman font?
3. Do you have a page number that is flush right (also in 12 point Times New Roman font)?
Title / Name / Institution
1. Is your title capitalized using title case, centered and bold?
2. Are your name and institution correct?
Method Section (New Information in this section)
Yes No Header
1. Is your header title present and identical to your header title on the title page?
2. Is your header title in ALL CAPS and 12-point Times New Roman font?
3. Do you have a page number starting on page 2
Title for the Method section
1. Is the word “Method” centered and in bold at the top of your Method page?
Method Section Continued
Yes No Participants
1. Do you have the word “Participants” flush left and in bold, right below the word “Method”?
2. Did you list out your demographic characteristics, including gender, age, and ethnicity / race?
3. Did you provide the descriptive statistics for (means and standard deviations) for age and italicize the
letters M and SD?
4. Did you provide frequencies for gender and ethnicity/race and italicize the N?
Materials and Procedure
1. Did you mention informed consent?
2. Did you thoroughly describe your independent variable in enough depth and detail that another
researcher could duplicate your materials?
3. Did you give this IV a name that matches up with the name you refer to in the results section?
4. Did you describe all of your most relevant dependent variables, noting the scales you used (e.g. “Yes /
No”, A scale ranging from 1 to 7, -5 to 5, etc.) for EACH of your DVs?
5. Did you fully describe what participants went through in the study, noting the order in which they
received study materials (e.g. first informed consent, then IVs, DVs, and debriefing)?
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Results Section (New Information in this section)
Yes No
1. Do you have the word “Results” centered and in bold, immediately following the Method section?
2. Did you run three analyses (one Chi-square on manipulation check, two one-way ANOVA on two
required DVs)?
3. Did you mention both the IV and the DV by name when talking about your analysis?
4. Did you include means and standard deviations within parentheses for each level of your independent
variable when reporting post-hoc tukey reults?
5. Did you italicize the letters F, p, M, SD, and  (where appropriate)?
6. Did you round up to 2 decimals when writing out numbers, except p value?
Discussion Section (New Information in this section)
Yes No
1. Do you have the word “Discussion” centered and in bold, immediately following the results section?
2. Did you remind your reader of your hypothesis?
3. Did you mention whether you supported or did not support your hypothesis?
Appendix Section – Study One (New Information in this section)
Yes No
1. Do you have the word “Appendix” centered on each Appendix page, followed by a description of
the appendix content, immediately following the results section?
2. In Appendix A (Demographics), do you have SPSS tables for gender, ethnicity, and age? (Note:
Age might be in a general “statistics” table, but you should have specific frequency tables for
both gender and ethnicity)
3. In Appendix B (Chi Square), do you have the crosstabs table (with percentages) plus the chi
square test (with Pearson)?
4. In Appendix C (ANOVA), do you have the descriptives table, the ANOVA table, and the post
hoc table for your dependent variable?

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