Writing a Psychology Paper

Department of Psychology

North Carolina Wesleyan College

The Department of Psychology uses the writing format of the American Psychological Association (APA) for all formal papers. If you aren't sure whether a particular assignment constitutes a "formal" paper, ask your instructor. For detailed information about APA writing style, see the following:

• Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). (2001). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• Bem, D.J. (1995). Writing a review paper for Psychological Bulletin. Psychological Bulletin, 118, 172-177.
• Rosnow, R.L., & Rosnow, M. (2003). Writing papers in psychology. (6th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
• Hairston, M., Ruszkiewicz, J., & Friend, C. (2002) The Scott, Foresman handbook for writers (6th ed.). New York: Longman.

There are thousands of examples of APA reports in the psychology journals in the Pearsall Library.

General Considerations:
Choose a topic which interests you. Discuss the topic with your instructor early in the process.

All formal papers should be typed, double-spaced, and on one side of a page only. The margins should be approximately 1.5 in on all sides. Pages should be numbered, starting with "1" on the title page. Pages should be stapled together. The quickest way to irritate your teacher is to hand in a scroll of fanfold paper.

All formal papers should have a title page, which contains the following information:

• Title
• Author's name
• Course number and name
• Institutional affiliation (usually North Carolina Wesleyan College)
• Date of submission

The next page of a formal paper is the Abstract. The word "Abstract" appears in the center at the top of the page. The Abstract is simply a summary of the entire paper. The Abstract should be no longer than one page.

"Running heads" are optional. In a literature review or theoretical article, sub-headings are used at the discretion of the author. For a research report, special sections are required (see below).

The most important elements in writing a psychology paper are clarity and precision. Don't make your poor reader have to guess at your meaning -- say exactly what you mean to say.

Have a clearly defined organizational strategy before you begin to write. Outlines are valuable in this regard.

Although you may be writing your paper for your instructor, do not write to your instructor. The teacher is the coach, not the audience. Address your remarks to a reasonably intelligent reader who has no formal training in the topic at hand. If you have a choice between using arcane jargon and plain English, choose English. Sometimes you must use jargon. There are, for example, no common English equivalents for "stepwise multiple regression" or "corpus callosum." If you use such specialized words, explain them.

Try to avoid sexist language, e.g., use "police officers" instead of "police men."

All formal papers should be written in Standard English. Have your paper edited by a good proofreader before you submit it. Be sure that names and technical terms are spelled correctly.

Research Reports:
Use the following format to report original empirical research:
· Title page
· Abstract
· Introduction
· Method
· Results
· Discussion
· References
· Footnotes
· Tables
· Figures

The Introduction begins on a new page. The title of the paper appears at the top, not the word "Introduction."

The Method section does not begin on a new page. The word "Method" is centered. Sub-sections within the Method section are underlined on the left margin. You will always have at least two sub-sections: Participants and Procedure. At the author's discretion other sub-sections may be used, e.g., Apparatus, Experimental Design, Dependent Variables, Scoring, etc.

The Results section does not begin on a new page. This section contains, not surprisingly, the results of your study. In general, the least important results come first, and the most important come at the end of the section.

The Discussion section does not begin on a new page.

The References section begins on a new page. See the detailed instructions below.

Footnotes (endnotes, really) begin on a new page. These are substantive footnotes, not reference notes. Try to avoid footnotes. If something is worth saying, figure out a way to work it into the text.

Each Table and Figure gets its own page. Each table and figure must be clearly labeled.

References

It is absolutely essential that the references are done properly. References provide your paper with credibility; they show that you have done your homework and are capable of speaking with some authority.

All references are not created equal. Some carry more weight than others. Pay special attention to the details of the assignment; your instructor may specify certain kinds of sources and a minimum number of sources.

Text Citations:
In the Abstract and the body of the paper, sources are cited by the surnames of the authors and the date of publication, e.g.:

Asch (1955) found that people will conform even when peer pressure is minimal.

People will conform even when peer pressure is minimal (Asch, 1955).

If there are two authors, both surnames must be listed each time the source is cited, e.g.:

Aronson & Mills (1959) found that cognitive dissonance could influence liking for a group.

If there are three or more authors, all surnames must be listed in the first citation. In subsequent citations, the citation can be abbreviated as follows:

Rauscher, Shaw, & Ky (1993) found that listening to Mozart can enhance visual-spatial performance.

Rauscher, et al. (1993) say that the effect lasts about ten minutes.

We typically do not include the name of the book or the article in the text citation. Nor do we usually include titles such as "Dr." or "Professor".

Reference Section:
The Reference section contains the complete reference for every source cited in the text, and only for those sources cited in the text. If a source is cited in the text, it must appear in the Reference section. If a source is not cited in the text, it cannot appear in the Reference section. If a source is listed in the Reference section, it must be cited in the text. If a source is not listed in the Reference section, it cannot be cited in the text.

The references are not numbered. They are listed in alphabetical order according to the surname of the first author. Given names are not used -- only initials. Titles, such as "Professor" and "Dr." are not used.

The most common forms of references are (1) an article in a periodical, (2) a book, (3) a chapter from an edited book, and (4) a secondary source. See the APA style manual for other reference forms.

Article in a periodical:
Dutton, D.G., & Aron, A.P. (1974). Some evidence for heightened sexual attraction under conditions of high anxiety. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 510-517.

Notice that the title of the paper, other than the first word or proper nouns, is not capitalized. The title of the journal is capitalized and underlined. The volume number (30) is also underlined. The page numbers are 510-517.

Book:
Duval, S., & Wicklund, R.A. (1972). A theory of objective self-awareness. New York: Academic Press.

The title of the book, other than the first word, is not capitalized. The book title is underlined. The publisher is Academic Press, located in New York City.

Chapter from an edited book:
Hafner, H., & Schmidtke, A. (1989). Do televised fictional suicide models produce suicides? In D.R. Pfeffer (Ed.), Suicide among youth: Perspectives on risk and prevention. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.

It is important to distinguish between author and editor. Hafner & Schmidtke are the authors, and Pfeffer is the editor.

Secondary source:
Imagine that you are discussing Seta's study, but you have not read the original -- you have only read about Seta in the book by Myers. In the text of your paper, you cite the source as follows:

"Seta (as cited in Myers, 1996) found that the subjects' expectations affected task performance."

In the Reference section, give the reference for Myers.

As a general rule, it is better to use primary sources than to rely on secondary citations.

Direct Quotations:
Direct quotations are typically used to draw attention to the language of the primary source, rather than the content of that source. Because psychology papers almost always focus on the content of primary sources, direct quotations are used sparingly, if at all. (Check with your instructor -- some psychology teachers discourage any direct quotations.) Sometimes a direct quotation is useful when your source contains a good joke or a clever phrase that you wish to share with the reader. Direct quotations are also useful if your primary source is very silly -- you may want to use the quote to show your reader that you are not erecting a straw man. If you must quote, be sure to use quotations marks and to include the page number in the text citation:

Jaynes (1976) invites the reader "to sit down and try to be conscious of what it means to say that consciousness does not exist" (p. 13).

Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is using another person's words or ideas without proper attribution. You must use the work of others in developing your paper, but you must give credit to those authors, and you must present your thoughts in your own words. A parenthetical reference means that you are drawing upon another author's work, but it does not give you license to use that author's words.

There are two flavors of plagiarism: direct and indirect. In direct plagiarism the source is copied verbatim. The more common problem is indirect plagiarism (sometimes called "lazy writing"), in which a source is copied with minor variations in wording. Consider the following passage from Daniel Dennett's (1991) book Consciousness Explained:

"We all assume that the future will be like the past -- it is the essential but unprovable premise of all our inductive inferences, as Hume noted. Mother Nature (the design-developer realized in the processes of natural selection) makes the same assumption. In many regards, things stay the same: gravity continues to exert its force, water continues to evaporate, organisms continue to need to replenish and protect their body water, looming things continue to subtend ever-larger portions of retinas, and so on." (p. 182).

Now look at Chuck Wagon's reporting of Dennett:
"Dennett notes that everyone assumes that the future will be like the past -- this is the essential but unproven premise of all our inductive inferences. Mother Nature (the designer realized in natural selection) makes the same assumption. In many ways, things stay the same: gravity continues to exert force, water continues to evaporate, looming things continue to cover ever-larger portions of retinas, etc."

Has Mr. Wagon plagiarized? You bet! The fact that Wagon made some minor changes does not change the fact that he is being dishonest, presenting Dennett's words as his own.

The best way to avoid plagiarism is to close your primary source and put it back on the shelf before you begin to write.

Every instructor in the Department of Psychology is obligated to follow the procedures described in the College Catalog with respect to plagiarism.