Specific paper guidelines
- If you are confused about what you are supposed to be writing about, please review the “overview of the research paper” in module 5 and the data collection in part 1 of module 8. Our methods section is based on the data that we collected in module 8.
- The general rule of thumb for a methods section is to include a lot of detail as to how the study was conducted. How much detail? Enough so someone can replicate the study. Most of your grade for this paper will come from whether you have included enough detail. Questions are provided below to help guide you in the information required in each section. You can also used the papers you have read as examples of how to structure the methods section.
- Because we did not have enough data just from our small class to run statistical tests, I combined your data with data I collected in previous semesters.
- The information you will need to write this section:
| Number of men | 53 |
| Number of women | 103 |
| Average age (and range of ages) | 19 (17-32) |
| Number of freshman | 106 |
| Number of sophomores | 30 |
| Number of juniors | 15 |
| Number of seniors | 5 |
Participants
- Who were the participants and how many are there in this study? Where are the participants from?
- How/where was this sample obtained, recruited, and selected?
- What were the demographic characteristics of the sample (e.g., sex, age, ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status)?
- Only include demographic information you collected (e.g. do not assume the race and ethnicity of your sample without asking them).
Materials
What were the materials that were used to collect the data? g. surveys, assessments, mazes, computers, word lists, video cameras, timing devices, etc.?
- Be sure to include enough detail about the materials so someone could replicate the study.
- For surveys and assessments include the following details
- name of each scale
- number of questions
- information about Likert scales used
- a sample question
- the range of possible scores one could obtain with this measure (i.e. what does a higher score mean on this measure?)
Procedures
- What was the chronological sequence of events to which participants were exposed?
- Were participants placed in different conditions? If so, how where participants randomly selected into conditions?
- What else does the reader need to know in order understand how subjects were treated and what conditions were provided?
