Lecture 13 - Report Writing and Research Rationales
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Transcript of Lecture 13 - Report Writing and Research Rationales
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118PY: Research and ProfessionalDevelopment
Lecture 13: Report Writing and
Research Rationales
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Announcements Workshop this week: Figures and plagiarism
Next week (w/c 21st of November 2011)
Wednesday Lecture (GEG31)
Friday Lecture (CSG2)
Workshop SPSS class test t-tests (open book)
Mandatorybut does not form the basis of your endof year mark
Assignment 1 (humour and psychology) dueMonday 21st of November 2011
Turnitin by 11:59pm (latest) email AndyJohnson at that time (attaching your assignment)
if there are problems with the Moodle/Turnitin
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Key Terms From Last Lecture
Exploring/summarising data
Table
Figure
Frequency histograms Stem and leaf display/plots
Box plots/Box and whisker plots
Outlier
Bar chart
Line chart/ interaction line chart
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Report Writing and Research
Rationale: Contents
The eel and the anus
Revision of key concepts acquired this term
Coursework check
General pointers
Structure
Content Referencing
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A Cautionary Scientific Tale
Lo, S.F., Wong, S.H., Leung L.S., Law, I.C., and Yip, A.W.C. (2004).Traumatic rectal perforation by eel. Surgery, 135(1), 110-111.
CASE REPORT -A 50-year-old man was seen at the Accident andEmergency Department because of abdominal pain. Physicalexamination revealed peritonitis. A shadow of an eel was noticedon the abdominal radiograph. On further questioning, the patientadmitted an eel was inserted into the rectum in an attempt torelieve constipation.Emergency laparotomy found a 50 cm-long
eel biting the splenic flexure of the colon, and a 3-cm perforationwas found over the anterior wall of the rectum. The rectum wasdivided at the site of perforation, and the proximal end wasbrought out as colostomy. The postoperative course wasuneventful. The patient was discharged home on day 7.
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Here it is
The eel is 50cm (i.e.more than a quarterof my height)
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The Scientific Method
(1) Identify the problem and highlight ahypothetical suggestion
Based on the patient self-report, we have arationale to examine the following proposition...
Does insertion of an eel alleviate the symptomsof constipation?
Null hypothesis (H0): ???
Experimental hypothesis (H1): ???
NEED A RATIONALE
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The Scientific Method
Does insertion of an eel alleviate the symptomsof constipation?
We begin with the null hypothesis
If there is sufficient statistical support we mayreject our null hypothesis and adopt our
alternative/experimental hypothesis
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The Scientific Method
(2) Design the study
Two groups both with an equivalent level of
constipation (controlled) One group inserts eel, one groups does not
Design =between-participants
Measure effect on constipation
Independent variable (IV) = eel (yes or no)
Dependent variable (DV) = level of constipation
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The Scientific Method
(2) Design the study
What are the disadvantages of such a design?
What design could we have instead?
Limitations of this?
Within-participants but order effects
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The Scientific Method
(2) Design the study
Type of study?
Quasi experimental or experimental?
What do we need for an experimental design?
Control over IV
Random allocation to IV levels
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The Scientific Method
(3) Conduct study
We will cover ethics in another session; butsuffice to say, this is not acceptable conduct
Good luck getting participants!
HYPOTHETICALEXAMPLE!
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The Scientific Method
(4) Evaluate the study by analysing data from thestudy
Compare constipation scores between 2 groups
Descriptives
0
10
2030
40
50
60
70
8090
100
Eel No Eel
Mean
Constipation(%)
HYPOTHETICAL
EXAMPLE!
Figure 1: Mean constipation scores
for the eel and no eel groups
Labels of x and y axis
Axis starts at 0 notmisleading
Appropriatetitle
Gapbetween
bars
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The Scientific Method
(4) Evaluate the study by analysing data from thestudy
Compare constipation scores between 2 groups
Descriptives
HYPOTHETICAL
EXAMPLE!
Eel group No eel group
Mean 57.32 89.45
Standarddeviation
12.85 15.39
Table 1: Mean constipation scores and standarddeviations for the eel and no eel groupsAppropriate
title
Groups clearly
labelled
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The Scientific Method
(4) Evaluate the study by analysing data from thestudy
Compare constipation scores between 2 groups
Parametric tests
Assumptions: Independence
Ratio/interval
Normal distribution
Homogeneity of variance
What type of test would be appropriate?
Unrelated t-test
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The Scientific Method
(4) Evaluate the study by analysing data from thestudy
Compare constipation scores between 2 groups
T-test results
An unrelated t-test was conducted and foundsignificantly higher levels of constipation in theeel group compared to the no eel group,t(37)=6.74, p
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The Scientific Method(4) Evaluate the study by analysing data from the
study Compare constipation scores between 2 groups
Purpose of t-test is to assess the number of
standard errors our score is from the nullhypothesis that there is no difference (this is t)
We use standard deviation to estimate thestandard error
We then divided the obtained difference by theestimate of the standard error = t
Once we have tand the dfwe can assess theprobability of getting that value by chance (t
distribution Gosset)
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The Scientific Method
(4) Evaluate the study by analysing data from the study Compare constipation scores between 2 groups
Using a non-directional (2-tailed) approach
Falls within5%, therefore
significant
Looks extremedifference but outsidethe 5% critical area;
therefore, cannotreject the null
hypothesis
But if we have a critical area at both tails each area can only be 2.5%
(to equal 5% in total) this score then ceases to be significant
Falls outside 5%,therefore non-
significant
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The Scientific Method
(5) Communicate the results
Right up an account of your experiment (to be
discussed) Why bother?
Can inform people of your findings increaseknowledge/people may be able to benefit from yourfindings
If people do not believe your findings, they can followyour reported methodology and see if they canreplicate your findings
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The Scientific Method
(5) Communication/interpretation of the results
Another variable.
What if eel group has a significant reductionThe role of slime
This is called a..
Confounding variable
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Insertion of a live animal into the rectumcausing rectal perforation has never beenreported. This may be related to a bizarre
healthcare belief, inadvertent sexual behaviour,or criminal assault. However, the true reasonmay never be known. (Lo et al., 2004, p. 111)
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Humour and Psychology Practical
Due 21st November 2011
General Points of Advice
Avoid informal language Avoid abbreviations
Avoid unsubstantiated comments (cite)
Keep language concise and scientific
Follow the prescribed structure Check it over
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Humour and Psychology Practical
Due 21st November 2011
General Points of Advice
The Golden Thread you are telling a story andthere should be common link association betweenall things you are writing and your study aim
Signpost these links to the reader otherwise
some things may look out of context
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Humour and Psychology Practical
Title
You need to devise your own title
Should contain, in some respect, the IV and theDV
Keep it concise avoid unnecessary wording
Do not try and make it funny/quirky etc
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Humour and Psychology Practical
Introduction The inverted triangle
A brief introduction to the notion of expectancy (canbe from a different area of psychology)
A brief introduction on humour (factors that influenceit)
Wimer and Beins (2008): how they used expectancy toinvestigate the effects on humour, what they found
Rationale (do not jump from description of studies towhat you predict) for your study (why are you doingthis can be linked to summary of what you read)
Briefly what you are going to do
Prediction plus justification for such
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Humour and Psychology Practical
Method Design
IV, DV, type of design, and any controls
Participants
How many, how many male/female, mean age,who were they, and recruited from where
Materials
Key materials used - describe in some detail anddo not rely uniquely on an appendix
Procedure
Chronological account of your study
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Humour and Psychology Practical
Results(1) Descriptives (table or graph) means and
standard deviations
Ensure that all tables and figures are labelled
appropriatelyInclude an additional line describing pattern ofmeans and SDs
(2)Inferential statistics (t-test)
Sentence describing the type of test, thegroups/conditions under comparison, thedirection of any effects, and then the stats, e.g.t(8)=9.47, p
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Humour and Psychology Practical
Results
Keep concise
Avoid making any evaluative judgments
An objective reporting of the results Do not refer to hypothesis or what it means
It will not be many words so do not worry if it is
short
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Humour and Psychology Practical
Discussion(1) Briefly summarise the results (without the stats)
(2) How do the results relate to previous studiesmentioned in the introduction (consistent or
inconsistent with them?)(3) How might we explain the findings? What is the
theory/mechanism (relate back to the introduction andany explanations in Wimer and Beins. 2008)
(4) Any limitations to the study which may invoke analternative explanation how could these be overcomein future, i.e. Suggest methodological improvements
(5) Practical application
(6) Future research ideas where next....
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Humour and Psychology Practical
Referencing in the text Citing in the text: Wimer and Beins (2008)
investigated...
Consistently cite if any ambiguity about who you are
talking about in a passage cite them again If three or more authors: for the first citation you must
write Martin, Carlson and Buskist (2007:35) arguedthat... and then after that you can refer to them as...
Martin et al. (2007:23) argued... Quotes: e.g. Hills (2007:34) stated that the effect wastransient and difficult to replicate.
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Humour and Psychology Practical
Referencing in the text
Primary source you read the study that you are citing
(e.g. Wimer and Beins, 2008) Secondary sources if you read about astudy/argument/theory in another text
Smith (2004, cited in Martin, Carlson and Buskist,2007) argued that....
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Humour and Psychology Practical
The Reference Section
Alphabetical order
Books: Martin, G.N., Carlson, N.R., and Buskist, W.
(2007).Psychology. Harlow, Pearson EducationLimited, pages 304-312
Journal articles: Wimer, D.J. and Beins, B.C. (2008).Expectations and Perceived Humour.Humour, 21(3),
347-363.
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Reading
Chapter 24: Planning your practicaland writing your report [Coolican, H.
(2009). Research Methods andStatistics in Psychology (5th Edition).London: Hodder and Stoughton]