HW4: Drafting a Method and Results Section
THE METHOD SECTION
The Method section gives the reader a thorough description of how the study was conducted. A clear and thorough description of methods allows other researchers to replicate your study and to compare the details with other studies in the literature. If your findings differ from similar studies, details in the methods and populations studied provide possible reasons for this. Readers can only assess the soundness of your research design and measurement choices if the information is clear and complete.
Participants
Describe the demographics of your sample. Give the total number of participants and the breakdown for measured demographic information such as age, ethnicity, and gender. For continuous variables such as age, give the mean and standard deviation; for categorical variables such as gender or ethnicity, give percentages or frequencies.
Explain how participants were recruited and whether they were compensated with money or course credit or not.Identify any exclusion criteria.
NOTE: You may recall from 302 that means and standard deviations are presented parenthetically, and to two decimal places, like this: (M = 4.35, SD = 1.09). Statistics like M and SD are always italicized.
2. Materials
Describe what variables were manipulated or measured in the study. Include all variables in the study (not just the variables that are key to testing your correlational hypothesis). The focus should be on the measures that you are correlating.
For manipulated variables, identify the number and nature of conditions.
For measured variables, identify whether these were collected with questionnaires, observations, or another approach, give the names for any standard instruments used, and cite the sources.
Explain what the range of possible responses was and, for aggregate scales, how items were aggregated (for example, using an average or sum) and the range of possible scores.
For the key variables for your study, provide extra detail. If a scale was only 2-3 items, include the text. For longer scales, provide at least one sample item.