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Faculty of Humanities

Psychology

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Coursework Guidelines

The total length of your piece of coursework should be 2000 words, excluding tables, figures and appendices. The following divisions can be used:

Title

Should give the reader a good idea what the study is about, not too long or vague.

(optional)

Abstract

(summary) About 150 words. Presentation of the basic details of the study; main aims; methods; results and conclusions.

The abstract gives the reader a chance to find out the bare essentials without going any further. The style should be brief, but not using note form.

One sentence summary, giving the topic(s) to be studied. This may include: the hypotheses (experimental/ alternative and null), some brief theoretical background, similar research findings.
Description of participants and setting: who, when, where, how many, what groups?
Description of the method, what design, what experimental treatment, what questionnaires, surveys or tests used.
Description of the major findings, which may include a mention of the statistics used and significance levels, or simply one sentence summing up the outcome.
What does it all mean? The conclusion(s) of the investigation. Mention of the implications of the findings and suggestions for further research.

Introduction

About 600 words. Gives background theory and relevant research, leading logically into the study’s aims. This should not be a general essay.

The purpose of the introduction is to explain where the hypothesis(es) comes from.

Starting with general theory, briefly introducing the topic.
Narrowing down to specific and relevant theory and research. One or two studies are sufficient.
Leading logically into aims and hypotheses.
Concise and selective, it is very tempting to include information that is not directly relevant.
The introduction should not turn into an essay.
The details of a piece of research should not be spelled-out unless it is one the candidate is replicating.
Relevant critical comment on research should be included, but you should take care that the aims remain consistent with the literature review. If the hypothesis is unlikely, why is it being tested?
You should not include material more appropriate to the discussion, duplication of material from the introduction on the discussion should be avoided.

Aims

Explanation of the area of investigation and justification of the direction of the hypothesis(es).

The aims should not appear out of thin air, the preceding review of psychological literature should lead logically into the aims.

A paragraph should be written explaining what you plan to investigate and why. You should use previously cited research to explain your expectations. Later these expectations are formally stated as the hypotheses.
Include a justification for the direction of the hypotheses. This means explaining why it is one-tailed (e.g. ‘previous research suggests that people remember more in the morning, therefore the hypothesis is one-tailed’) or two-tailed (‘previous research is not clear which group will do better, therefore the hypothesis will be two-tailed’).

Hypothesis

Statement of the experimental / alternative hypothesis and null hypothesis.

State the experimental / alternative hypothesis and whether it is one-tailed or two-tailed. You should ensure that this is unambiguous and understandable to someone who has not yet read the rest of the report. You can write several sentences, such as ‘Participants in condition 1 perform better than those in condition 2. Condition 1 involves words which are hierarchically organised and condition 2 consists of randomly organised word lists’.

Statement of the minimum level of significance that will be acceptable and explanation of why.

Method

About 600 words. You should provide precise details of what you did, so that another person could replicate your study. Stimulus materials, observation checklists, questionnaires and standardised instructions should be placed in the appendices.

This is typically divided into several subsections:

1. Design

Description of any design decisions, for example:

Choice of method, e.g. field experiment, participant observation, etc.
Choice of experimental design: independent, repeated, or matched pairs.
Choice of observation techniques (where relevant), e.g. point or time sampling.
Identification of variables: IV, DV and confounding variables, or co-variables.
Ethical considerations.

2. Participants

Who was involved. Full details of:

Researchers: details of who conducted the research.
The target population, describe in terms such as age, sex, education, or any other relevant variables.
The sampling method.
The actual sample.
Treatment groups: how were participants assigned to conditions?

3. Apparatus / materials

Descriptions of all apparatus/ materials used. The exact details should be placed in the appendices. You should remember to include mark schemes for any tests or questionnaires.

4. Standardised procedure

Description of the exact steps taken in conducting the research. Statement of where the research was undertaken, the instructions given to researchers and participants, details of debriefing, and any other relevant details which would be necessary for replication. It may be preferable to place these details in an appendix and refer to them here.

5. Controls

This is further evidence of design decisions. You should emphasise those control procedures already mentioned, such as counterbalancing, random allocation of participants to groups, single- or double-blind, control of extraneous variables, standardised procedures and avoiding any possible bias in sampling or experimental procedures.

Results

Graphical or other descriptive statistics, justification and details of inferential tests and significance. Any raw data and calculations should be placed in the appendices.

Presentation of a summary of the data in the main text. This may be in the form of descriptive statistics.

All raw data should be included in an appendix, presented in a readable form with all headings clearly explained.
Details such as the names of participants need not be included. In fact such information should be regarded as confidential.
Actual answer sheets should not be included, one example will suffice.

Descriptive statistics

Descriptive statistics are as important as inferential tests. Averages, bar charts and means of describing data help to get a ‘feel’ for the data and may help determine how to best analyse the data with statistical tests. One or two graphs are sufficient and should be included in the main report not the appendices.

Numerical statistics: e.g. measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode), measures of dispersion (range, standard deviation).
Graphical statistics: e.g. tables, frequency tallies, bar charts, pie charts, pictograms, frequency polygons, line graphs, curved lines, scattergrams.
Special care should be taken that all graphs and tables have clear titles, all graphical axes are labelled, and all graphs drawn on graph paper.

Inferential statistics

Such statistics enable us to draw conclusions about the likelihood of the hypothesis(es) being true.

Statement of the test(s) to be used.
Justification of the choice of statistical test, with reference to whether the data is related or independent, in frequencies or correlational. Remember matched pairs produce related data.
In the main text, statement of the observed and critical values of the test, degrees of freedom, significance level and whether the test was one- or two-tailed. Statement of the conclusion in terms of the hypothesis (e.g. retain / reject null hypothesis).
Presentation of the mathematical calculations in an appendix. If a computer or calculator program have been used all data should be presented, except the mathematical workings. You should not copy each others’ workings.

Discussion

About 600 words. Discussion of the theoretical significance of the findings, with reference to the introduction and aims / hypotheses. Consideration of the limitations and modifications of the method, and the implications (applications) of the results, proposed ideas for further research.

This section has the greatest potential for marks (12/48 marks) and is also where students do least well. There are four divisions:

1. Explanation of findings

The word ‘explain’ means to state what has been found out. In the last section you should have stated the results of their research in statistical terms. Now you need to state them in psychological terms, relating the findings to your initial aims / hypotheses. You may have additional findings to report, aside from those related to the hypotheses, such as observations made when collecting the data.

2. Relationship to background research

Now is your opportunity to provide reasons to account for your results, in other words to ‘explain’ why they occurred by referring to other research, and discussion of the outcome in terms of relevant background literature / research. In the introduction, the hypothesis(es) grew logically out of the background literature/research. Now the process should be reversed and the outcome should be tied to the background literature/ research. However, this should not be a repeat of the introduction, you should use new theory/research to understand your results. If the results agree with previous theory/research, then the discussion will be brief, though you might find ways in which your study differs. If the results are contrary to previous research/theory you should look for alternative explanations/theory/research.

3. Limitations and modifications

This might include looking at experimental treatments, measurement scales, sampling, lack of controls, procedures, and/or statistical treatments. Even a well-designed study will have flaws. Both the design (what you intended to do) and what you did should be considered.

4. Implications and suggestions for further research

Have the findings got any wider implications or applications? Have you got any ideas for follow-up research? One or two ideas are sufficient, there isn’t space for more.

5. Conclusion

You should finish with a statement of your findings and the key points

References

This section is not a bibliography ( a list of the books used). It should be a list of all the material you have referred to even if they have not been looked at. If you do not have the original all the necessary details can be found in the reference list at the back of the book which did mention the source. Should be given in alphabetical order.

The recommended style for a textbook reference is:

Flanagan, C. (1997) An introduction to Psychology. London:Thomas & Co.

[i.e. Author, date, title in italics or underlined, place of publishing, publisher’s name].

The recommended style for a journal reference is:

Flanagan, C. (1997) How to pass A level. Psychology Review, 2, 23-45.

[i.e. Author, date, title of article, title of journal and volume number all in italics or underlined, page numbers].

Appendices

Some details are better in an appendix so that they do not interrupt the flow of the text. Rough work or answers from each participant should not be included.

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