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.Participants2. Materials3. 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?
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