Psychology Assessment Guidance:

Psychology Practical Reports

What is a practical report?

Practical reports are the standard way that new research evidence is reported
and disseminated to other academics in psychology. Throughout your degree
you will read published research reports in journal articles and you will learn
to conduct your own research and report your findings in the standard
format.

What would a good practical report look like?

The report should follow the structure laid out by American Psychological
Association with the following subheadings

Title
The title should clearly describe the study so the reader can understand the
nature of the research. A good title is short and to the point. For example,
"School readiness predicts early years achievement" or “Memory Tests
Improve Long-Term Retention” are examples of concise titles. Any title
exceeding 15 words is almost certainly too long.
It is customary to include your title on a title page which includes the title of
your project, your name, your supervisor’s name, your course title, the date
of your submission, and the word count. The abstract should follow on the
next page.

Abstract
The purpose of an abstract is to let a reader understand if they should read
the whole report or not. It should contain a concise summary of the whole
research with enough information for the reader to decide if this report is
relevant to them.
The abstract must clearly explain the aim of the research, the methods used,
and results or findings and conclusions of the article. The structured abstract
must have the following subheadings and information:
 Objectives: State the aims and objective of the paper and the main
hypothesis or research question.
 Methods: State the procedures used, including the selection and
numbers of participants, the interventions or experimental
manipulations, and the primary outcome measures. For qualitative
projects state the selection and number of participants, the method of
data collection and data analysis.
  Results/Findings: State the main results of the study, or the main
themes from a qualitative analysis. Numerical data may be included
but should be kept to a minimum.
 Conclusions: State the conclusions that can be drawn from the data
provided, and their implications.

Introduction
This section explains to the reader why the research is being done. It explains
context of the research including the societal issues at stake, summarises the
previous research that has been published on the topic. What we can
conclude from this research evidence should be explained and limitations or
gaps in the published research evidence identified, particularly if your
research will be able to fill these gaps or address the limitations.
At the end of the introduction, you should introduce your study. The rationale
for your study should follow logically from the research that you describe. You
should finish the introduction with a statement of the purpose of the study. It
should contain the reasons for carrying out the study and the specific
hypotheses/research questions to be investigated.
One way to organise your introduction is to think of a funnel that starts with
broad social issues (e.g. “Online misinformation has been identified as a
contributor to various contentious events, ranging from elections, political or
religious persecution, social unrest, and the global response to the COVID-19
pandemic”) and then narrows down to the specific research question that
you’ll be investigating (e.g. “This study will investigate the effectiveness of
pre-emptive (‘pre-bunking’) interventions to reduce the effects of online
misinformation in undergraduate students”).
Throughout the introduction, previous research that is relevant to your study
should be summarised and explained in sufficient detail that a reader who is
not familiar to the topic would be able to understand. You should not be
referring to student textbooks or media articles; instead, you should be
accessing original journal articles or book chapters and demonstrate a
sophisticated understanding of the existing research in your topic area.

Method
A good methods section will include all the necessary detail to allow another
researcher to replicate your study. For quantitative research, the method
section should contain the following subheadings (see below).
Participants
In this section, indicate how many participants took part, who they were and
how they were selected. However, present only relevant information such as
gender, age-range etc. Do not give information about each participant, unless
it is appropriate in the context of a qualitative or neuropsychological case
study.
Materials
Include information about any equipment or materials that you used. Generic
terms are usually appropriate e.g. “a laptop computer” is sufficient without
providing the exact make and model or specifications.
Design
Here you should state clearly and simply any variables you manipulated, any
variables you measured and the overall design of the study. If you performed
a qualitative study, you state the nature of the data you collected and the
approach you used when collecting it.
Procedure
You need to provide an exact description of the procedures that you followed.
This description should enable the reader to understand precisely what you
did. You should also refer to any ethical issues here and how they were
mitigated.
Qualitative reports may use slightly different sub-headings for the method
section, for example, headings may be Participants, Ethics, Data Collection,
Data Analysis. You may also wish to include a Reflexivity section. Discuss
what should be included with your supervisor.
In all research reports, the method section should include information about
ethical research practices (e.g. brief statements about informed consent,
debriefing should be mentioned in the procedures. Recruitment strategy and
incentives, such as research participation credits, should be mentioned in the
participants section).

Results/Findings
This section is where the data are presented. This tends to be called ‘results’
for a quantitative project and ‘findings’ for a qualitative one. In each case, a
good results/findings section should clearly lay out the data in a well-
organised and logical way. Importantly, you should not comment on the
implications of the results in this section.
Quantitative Results
For the analysis of quantitative data, you should provide descriptive statistics
(i.e. means and standard deviations or range of the data as appropriate) as
well as inferential statistics (i.e. the outcomes of a t-test, ANOVA or
Regression).
You should present your descriptive statistics in appropriate Figures or Tables
which clearly show the pattern of the results. These should be well formatted
so that the results if interest are clear with labelled axes and a figure legend
(if appropriate). If you’re not sure how to format your tables or figures you
can refer to the APA style guide for advice.
You should also include some text to introduce each table (e.g. The mean
framing scores in each condition are presented in Figure 1) but avoid
duplicating the information that is provided in the figure so that it’s repeated
in the text.
 Example of a bar chart which presents descriptive statistics from a complex
3x2x2 ANOVA design. The axes are clearly labelled. The scale of the y axis is
appropriate. The figure legend explains the colour coding on the bars. The error
bars indicate the variance in the data (standard error).

Once the data have been described, you should present the outcomes of
appropriate inferential statistics. These should be clearly described so the
reader can readily understand your analysis strategy and the outcomes of the
tests.
You may find there are several different analyses that you need to perform to
understand the data. If so, using subheadings within the results section may
improve the clarity of the report. Do not interpret the data in this section. The
interpretation of the data should be confined to the discussion.

Qualitative Findings
For the analysis of qualitative data, you must organise your analysis section
into clearly headed themes, including all supporting quotations from
participants and/or observation tables (if appropriate). You can also use
thematic diagrams, flow charts to represent the patterns, discourses and
contexts of the data. The main aim is to have an analysis section that is clear,
structured and well organised.
Example of a thematic map

Discussion
This section will interpret your research findings in light of the existing
literature and explain the relevance of these data to the societal issues
described in the introduction.
The discussion section of your report should begin with a summary of your
results / findings. Then go on to discuss the implications of these results with
respect to the theory(s) and research that you explored in the introduction.
You should state your conclusions but take care not to over-interpret your
data and make generalisations that are unjustified. You might want to
highlight the limitations of the research or problems you encountered that
may have affected the results. Make suggestions for future research that
could overcome these limitations and improve our understanding of this
topic.
You can structure your discussion leading from specific issues around your
individual dataset out to more general issues and the potential impact on
society.
References
Ensure that these are in the approved APA style. You should only include
items in your reference list that you cite in the main body of the text. There is
a useful how-to guide on the library website:
https://libguides.lsbu.ac.uk/APA_Howtoguide/overview

Appendixes
If appropriate provide appendixes at the end that contain information that
does not belong in the report but would be useful for an exact replication of
the study (i.e. if you developed your own task questionnaire, more details of
the questionnaire may be included in the appendix).

How are psychology research reports marked?

You should check the assessment brief for guidance that is specific to each
assessment, but here is general advice on how reports are marked using the
standard university criteria.
Criteria Advice for Reports

Research Evidence of identifying and discussing relevant research to

develop the rationale for the project and to interpret the
findings.

Subject Demonstration of a clear understanding of the topic area,

Knowledge the existing literature and the potential impact /
implications of the research.
Knowledge of appropriate research methods, analysis
techniques and ethical principles.

Critical Evaluation of the literature to identify the most important

Analysis and relevant studies to include.
Integrating information from the literature in a
sophisticated manner, showing knowledge of issues and
debates in the literature.
Identifying gaps and limitations to the existing evidence.
Interrogating the validity of previous research in the
context of the present study.
Understanding the limitations of research design and
drawing reasonable conclusions on the basis of evidence.

Communicat Clear, structured narrative throughout the empirical

ion and project, written in a manner that is appropriate for an
Presentation academic audience.

Data Evidence of confident and accurate data handling (either

Literacy quantitatively or qualitatively).
Clear understanding of findings, appropriate use of analysis
methods, and appropriate interpretation / conclusions.

What gets high marks in the research reports?

 A good practical report will be clearly written so that the reader can
readily understand the reason that the research was conducted, the
details of the procedures, and the author’s interpretation of the results.
 A good report is intricately linked to the existing academic literature.
For example, a research study on age related memory loss would
include a short review of the theoretical models of memory and
previous research with older people on how memory gets worse with
older age. This means that the new research can be readily understood
in terms how it fits in with the previous work. This shows good
scholarship and scientific thinking.
 A good report will have a clear hypothesis or research question that
follows on from the existing literature. It is clear how this new research
would extend the previous findings and add to the existing knowledge
or resolve a gap in the literature. Likewise, in the discussion section the
 results are interpreted in light of the previous findings so these links
are explicit.

The table below explains what the markers will be looking for in each section.

How to get a good mark in your report

Abstrac

 A good abstract will clearly and concisely summarise the report

including the background/rationale/aims, methods, results and
conclusions/implications (take-home message).
t

 A good introduction should provide a sophisticated review of the

existing and relevant literature with evidence of relevant critical
evaluation, showing breadth and depth of coverage of the literature.
 A good introduction will identify gaps or ambiguities in the literature
Introduction

that your findings might help to address

 A good introduction should provide a clear rationale for the study
which is based on relevant research and/or theories.
 The introduction should conclude with a clearly articulated hypothesis
or research question.

 The sections (participants, materials, design and procedure) should

be clearly and concisely described with no errors or omissions.
 Enough detail provided that a replication of the study is possible.
 Where appropriate, clear diagrams/tables are used to illustrate the
Methods

methods and aid communication.

 The methods used map onto rationale, hypothesis/research question
and results/findings

For Qualitative
 Findings are well organised with clearly defined themes which help
answer the RQ.
 Analysis goes beyond description.
 Use of appropriate quotes to support themes and sub-themes (where
relevant).
 Appropriate use of thematic table or map that is referred to in text.
For Quantitative:
Results / Findings

 Results are well organised and clearly communicated with the

appropriate level of detail. No extraneous, irrelevant details or
duplication.
 Selective use of figures and tables which are clear and appropriate
with clear titles / legends, error bars and indications of significance
(as appropriate). Figures and tables are referred to in text.
 Where appropriate, descriptive and inferential statistics are provided
and accurately described.
  The discussion should provide a sophisticated analysis of results in
relation to the literature described in the introduction, including the
extent to which the findings resolve ambiguities or gaps in the
literature or extend the earlier work.
Discussion

 Interesting limitations and novel future directions of the research

should be discussed.
 The implications and the potential impact of the research should be
clearly stated.

What sort of things to students usually struggle with in

research reports?
Common mistakes include:
 Not giving enough detail about the research so that the reader cannot
understand what was done.
 Poorly presented findings and results that do not clearly address the
research question / hypothesis.
 A weak summary of the previous literature which shows poor
scholarship. The research may be motivated by the personal interest of
the author (e.g. “I’m interested in childhood trauma”) rather than
motived by a gap in the exiting research literature.

Where can I access support?

You should look on the Moodle site for each module for more information
about your specific assessment including the word count and any other
guidance provided there. Some module leaders offer assessment support in
seminars where you will be supported to develop your skills and encouraged
to ask for help if needed.
You can find resources in the library. For example, this book on study skills, or
this book on writing up undergraduate research. Specifically, chapter 3 is
about “Writing up Research” and has great advice about what to include in
each section.
The University’s Skills for Success team can help you with:
 Academic writing
 English language
 Presentation skills
 Revision skills
 Evaluating journal articles
 Finding books/journals
 Literature searching
 Referencing
For more information, see the skills for success website:
https://library.lsbu.ac.uk/skillsforsuccess
Further Reading
Cottrell, S. (2019) The study skills handbook. Fifth edition. London: Red Globe
Press.
Forshaw, M. (2013) Your undergraduate psychology project: a student guide.
2nd ed. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. (Chapter 3 covers how to write a research
report).