Designing and reporting experiments in psychology / Peter Harris.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harris, Peter (Peter R.)

Contributor:

Harris, Peter (Peter R.).

Series:

Open guides to psychology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Psychology--Experiments.

Psychology.

Psychometrics.

Report writing.

Physical Description:

xix, 227 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Buckingham ; Philadelphia, Pa. : Open University, 2002.

Contents:

To students xiii

Part 1 Writing experimental reports 1

1 Some preliminaries 3

1.1 Experienced students, inexperienced students and the report 6

1.2 Writing the report 7

1.3 The importance of referencing in the text 8

1.4 The report as a research instrument 10

1.5 Finding things to write about: how to get more references 12

1.5.1 Where to start 13

1.5.2 Ways of adding to your references 14

1.6 Experimental ethics 15

2 The introduction section 16

2.1 The first part of the introduction: reviewing the background to your study 17

2.2 Inexperienced students, experienced students and the introduction 18

2.3 Your own study 21

3 The method section 25

3.1 The design subsection 27

3.2 The participants subsection 29

3.3 The apparatus or materials subsection 31

3.4 The procedure subsection 33

3.5 Interacting with and instructing participants 37

3.6 Optional additional subsections of the method 39

3.6.1 Pilot test 39

3.6.2 Ethical issues 39

3.6.3 Statistical power 40

4 The results section 41

4.1 Describing the data 42

4.2 Analysing the data 45

4.3 An example results section 46

4.4 Mistakes to avoid in the results section 48

4.5 Rejecting or not rejecting the null hypothesis 50

4.6 Reporting specific statistics 51

4.6.1 Chi-square, X[superscript 2] 52

4.6.2 Spearman rank correlation coefficient (rho), r[subscript s] 52

4.6.3 Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient, r 52

4.6.4 Mann

Whitney U test, U 53

4.6.5 Wilcoxon's Matched-Pairs Signed-Ranks Test, T 53

4.6.6 Kruskal

Wallis one-way analysis of variance, H 53

4.6.7 Friedman's ANOVA, X[superscript 2 subscript r] 54

4.6.8 The t test (independent and related), t 54

4.6.9 Analysis of variance (ANOVA), F 55

4.6.10 Do's and don'ts when reporting ANOVA 57

4.6.11 Statistics of effect size 58

5 The discussion section 59

5.1 How well do the findings fit the predictions? 61

5.2 What do the findings mean? 61

5.3 What are the implications of these findings? 64

5.4 What to do when you've been unable to analyse your data properly 65

5.5 External validity: the generalizability of findings 65

5.6 Some tips to help you to avoid some common failings in the discussion 67

5.7 Two example discussion sections 68

5.7.1 The cheese and nightmare experiment 68

5.7.2 The mnemonic experiment 70

6 The title and abstract 72

7 References and appendices 76

7.1 The references section 76

7.2 General rules for the references section 76

7.3 Citing specific types of reference 77

7.4 Citing electronic and online sources 78

7.5 Appendices 79

8 Producing the final version of the report 80

8.1 Writing style 80

8.2 Definitions and abbreviations 81

8.3 References in the text 82

8.4 Tables and figures 85

8.5 Graphing data 87

8.5.1 One IV with two levels 88

8.5.2 Error bars 89

8.5.3 One IV with more than two levels 90

8.5.4 More than one IV 91

8.6 Drafting the report 93

8.7 Producing the final version 94

Check list for report writing 97

What the marker is looking for 97

Part 2 Designing experiments 101

9 Experimenting in psychology 103

9.1 Experimenting 103

9.1.1 The experiment 104

9.1.2 Experimental and control conditions 107

9.1.3 Control: eliminating confounding variables 108

9.1.4 Experimental and null hypotheses 110

9.1.5 More on controlling variables 114

9.2 Correlation 116

9.3 Description 119

10 Experimental design I 121

10.1 Unrelated and related samples independent variables 121

10.2 Other names for unrelated and related samples independent variables 124

10.3 Deciding between related and unrelated samples 126

10.4 Related samples 128

10.4.1 Advantages 128

10.4.2 Disadvantages 128

10.4.3 Controlling for order effects 129

10.5 Principal alternatives to related samples 134

10.6 Unrelated samples 134

10.6.1 Advantages 134

10.6.2 Disadvantages 134

10.6.3 Ways around these disadvantages 134

10.7 Matching participants 136

10.8 The external validity of your experiment 137

10.9 The internal validity of your experiment 140

10.10 Ethics: the self-esteem and welfare of your participants 141

10.10.1 Informed consent 143

10.10.2 Debriefing your participants 144

10.10.3 Data confidentiality 145

11 Statistics: significance testing 146

11.1 Inferential statistics 147

11.2 Testing for statistical significance 151

11.3 Type I and type II errors 154

11.4 Choosing a statistical test 157

11.5 Two-tailed and one-tailed tests 159

11.6 Testing for statistical significance: summary of the procedure 161

12 Statistics: effect size and power 163

12.1 Effect size 164

12.2 Power 165

12.2.1 Estimating power 165

12.2.2 Increasing the power of our experiments 167

12.3 Effect size and power: reporting and interpreting findings 168

12.3.1 Reporting for those who do not know how to calculate power or effect size statistics 169

12.3.2 Reporting for those who have been taught how to calculate power or effect size statistics 171

13 Experimental design II 174

13.1 Extending the number of levels on the independent variable 174

13.1.1 Unrelated samples IVs 174

13.1.2 Related samples IVs 176

13.2 Experimental designs with two or more independent variables 178

13.3 Labelling designs that have two or more independent variables 181

13.4 Main effects of independent variables 183

13.5 Statistical interactions 184

13.6 Analysing designs involving two or more IVs 186

13.7 Graphing statistical interactions 187

13.8 Watch out for "IVs" that are not true independent variables 188

13.9 Some final tips to help you to design better experiments and write better reports 190

13.9.1 The basic rule 190

13.9.2 Getting reliable measures of the dependent variable 190

13.9.3 Pilot testing 191

13.9.4 The post-experimental interview 192

13.9.5 Check and screen your data before statistical analysis 192

13.10 Above all, randomize properly 194

Appendix 1 Confusing predictions from the null hypothesis with those from the experimental hypothesis 202

Appendix 2 Randomizing 204

Appendix 3 How to use tables of critical values of inferential statistics 208.

Notes:

Rev. ed. of: Designing and reporting experiments. 1986.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [223]-224) and index.

Related Work:

Harris, Peter (Peter R.). Designing and reporting experiments.

ISBN:

0335201474

0335201466

OCLC:

46402188