Hi girls
Hmm. The method section of the exam was lacking in a bit of detail. I thought that a note on the conventions of report writing and a sample might help you to re-write this to standard.
The details below are from the website below which gives an overview of report writing:
simplypsychology (LINK)
METHOD SECTION
I also made reference to some videos regarding clinical characteristics, they can be found below.
Link to Health website with good videos of symptoms
http://www.simplypsychology.org/research-report.html
Hmm. The method section of the exam was lacking in a bit of detail. I thought that a note on the conventions of report writing and a sample might help you to re-write this to standard.
Homework Tuesday 15th May
Re-write the method section 10 mark question from last week after reading the notes below.
Question from exam paper;
A psychologist was interested in testing a new treatment for people with eating disorders. She
put up adverts in several London clinics to recruit participants. Thirty people came forward
and they were all given a structured interview by a trained therapist. The therapist then
calculated a numerical score for each participant as a measure of their current functioning,
where 50 indicates excellent, healthy functioning and zero indicates failure to function
adequately. The psychologist then randomly allocated half the participants to a treatment group
and half to a no-treatment group. After eight weeks, each participant was re-assessed using a
structured interview conducted by the same trained therapist, and given a new numerical score.
The trained therapist did not know which participants had been in either group.
For each participant, the psychologist calculated an improvement score by subtracting the score
at the start of the study from the score after eight weeks. The greater the number, the better the
improvement.
(h) The psychologist noticed that female and male participants seemed to have responded
rather differently to the treatment.
She decided to test the following hypothesis:
Female patients with an eating disorder will show greater improvement in
their symptoms after treatment with the new therapy than male patients.
She used a new set of participants and, this time, used self-report questionnaires instead
of interviews with a therapist.
Imagine that you are the psychologist and are writing up the report of the study. Write
an appropriate methods section which includes reasonable detail of design, participants,
materials and procedure. Make sure that there is enough detail to allow another
researcher to carry out this study in the future. (10 marks)
The details below are from the website below which gives an overview of report writing:
simplypsychology (LINK)
METHOD SECTION
Assume the reader has no knowledge of what you did and ensure that he/she would be able to replicate (i.e. copy) your study exactly by what you write in this section. USE THE FOLLOWING SUBHEADING:
Design –
State the experimental design, independent and dependent variables (both operationalized). Say what the independent conditions were and what participants had to do (i.e. their task). Identify at least one extraneous variable; say how it could have affected the results if you hadn’t controlled it. Finally, say what you did to control the extraneous variables.
Participants –
Identify the target population (refer to a geographic location) and type of sample. Say how you obtained your sample (e.g. opportunity sample) and why you chose this sample. Give relevant details, e.g. how many, age range, background etc. If appropriate, details of how participants were assigned to each IV group.
Materials –
Describe the materials used, e.g. pictures, word lists, instructions, debrief, record sheets etc. Give plenty of detail and explain why you chose these things. Tell the reader they are in the appendix.
Procedure –
Describe the precise procedure you followed when carrying out your research i.e. exactly what you did. Anyone should be able to copy what you did from this. Include the brief, standardize instructions and debrief – all word for word. Start with a sentence like “Participants were approached in the college library and asked if….” Clearly refer to at least one ethical issue you considered and say what you did about it (use BPS terminology)
If you want to look at a sample method section click below:
I also made reference to some videos regarding clinical characteristics, they can be found below.
Link to Health website with good videos of symptoms
http://www.simplypsychology.org/research-report.html
