apa method section. things to keep in mind... purpose: replication assess reliability &...
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APA Method Section
Things to keep in mind...
Purpose:
• Replication
• Assess reliability & validity
• Make design clear
Keep it precise, concise, and clear
APA Method
• Subdivided
1.Participants
2. Materials
3. Procedure
APA Method
• Participants
Number
Sex
Age
General demographic characteristics
Selection & assignment of participants
Type of sampling procedure
Recruitment procedures
Incentives used to encourage participation
Did you have to exclude any participants, and why?
APA Method
• Which heading do I use: Materials or Apparatus?
Describe what was used in the study
• Apparatus
• Special equipment used
• Materials
• Questionnaires, written or videotaped sketches, etc
• Don’t include ordinary items like paper, pen, etc.
APA Method
• Materials
• Operationally define each variable
• Describe each variable
• What it is
• How it was measured
• Describe questionnaires (if applicable)
APA Method
APA Method• Procedure
– Step-by-step description of precisely how the study was conducted
• Enough detail for replication
• Include:
– Experimental manipulations• How were participants recruited and assigned to groups?
– IV (levels), DV (how you measured it)
– All research procedures:• Location of study
• Instructions given to participants
• Actions performed by participants
• Amount of time participants were given to complete the tasks
• Rewards for participation
Method
Participants
260 undergraduate students (216 female, 42 male, 2 other, Mage = 21.5
years, age range: 18-59 years) were recruited from the SUNY New Paltz
subject pool. All data from participants who reported a previous diagnosis of
OCD personality disorder were excluded from analysis; therefore, this sample
was considered to be representative of a nonclinical population.
Example
Materials
The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) checklist was adapted from Goodman et
al. (1989a). The Y-BOCS checklist includes eight categories of symptoms of obsession (i.e. aggression,
contamination, somatic, sexual, hoarding/saving, religious, symmetry, and miscellaneous) and seven
categories of symptoms of compulsions (i.e. cleaning/washing, checking, repeating rituals, counting,
ordering/arranging, hoarding/collecting, and miscellaneous). The checklist contained 61 items measuring the
presence and severity of both obsessive (39 items) and compulsive (22 items) symptoms; however, 17 items
identified as miscellaneous were removed from analysis because a category has not yet been agreed upon for
these items. The checklist was reformatted from the original interview format into a self-report questionnaire
so that the survey could be administered online. The answer options included: “yes, currently”, “yes, in the
past”, and “no, never” (see Appendix).
The checklist was followed by two demographic questions pertaining to the participants sex and
age, as well as a question about whether or not the participant had any previous diagnosis of OCD (see
Appendix).
Procedure
Participants completed the checklist online using surveymonkey.com. The entire
survey took around 20-25 minutes to complete.
How to write numbers in APATYPE OF
NUMBERHOW TO EXPRESS
EXAMPLE
1 – 9 WORDS One pumpkin
10 and up NUMBERS 300 pumpkins
Numbers in an abstract NUMBERS 3 students
Numbers with a measurement NUMBERS 3.57 cm
Numbers in a graph NUMBERS M = 86
Numbered series NUMBERS Column 4
Times, dates, ages, scores, points on a scale, exact sums of money, numbers as numbers NUMBERS
$4.17; 1 hr 20 minOctober 31, 2011, at 2:20 pm4 years old3 on a 5-point scaleThe number 7
How to write numbers in APATYPE OF
NUMBERHOW TO EXPRESS
EXAMPLE
Approximation for days, months, and years
WORDS We landed on the moon approximately forty years ago.
Numbers beginning a sentence WORDS Seventy percent of the sample
List of numbers with 3 or lessWORDS Subjects could choose among
one, two, or three pathways
List of numbers with 4 or more NUMBERS Subjects could choose among 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 pathways
Back-to-back numbers WORDS & NUMERALS Twelve 3-year-olds
QUESTIONS?