HYPERLINK "https://lms.uwa.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_90725_1&content_id=_3654582_1" o "Alternative formats"Guidel

HYPERLINK "https://lms.uwa.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_90725_1&content_id=_3654582_1" o "Alternative formats"Guidelines for the PSYC4101 Lab Report

Aim and scopeThe aim of the lab report assignment is to help you to learn how to interpret and critically analyse scientific data relevant to the field of Psychology.

Therefore, in the lab report assignment you are asked to describe and discuss a study that changed Psychology for you. Changed can be construed in different ways: it could be that the study made you think about something in an entirely different way; it could be that the study introduced you to something you had no idea about; it could be that the study made you want to pursue a career in (business) psychology; or it could be many more things. You are free to consider this word broadly.

Most likely the study changed Psychology for you will be a psychological study (i.e. a study by psychologists/published in a psychological journal). However, it doesnt necessarily have to be. Sometimes studies that have change Psychology come from adjacent fields, such as neuroscience or criminology. It is ok to select a study like this, as long as it has clear implications for the discipline of Psychology.

The study has to be published in a peer reviewed journal. It can be qualitative or quantitative.

Content

The lab report should include a title (try to make it witty like in the textbook!) and contain five sections:

1. The background

Describe the background against which the study was conducted. What was the dominant scientific approach and thinking in Psychology at the time that influenced the study? Was this study in line with the dominant view or did it deviate from it? What were the questions psychologists were trying to solve that led to this study? Was there a specific reason this project was carried out?

2. The study

In this section youll summarise the study and its results, in a way that could be understood by someone without a psychology background (e.g. one of your friends or family members). The challenge here is to describe the study and findings using simple terminology while still being accurate and conveying the complexities of the research. You cannot describe everything here, so you will need to find the right level of abstraction. Do not make it not too detailed and do not focus on less relevant information. Essentially the reader needs to understand the most important aspects of the methods, and the description of the results should make it clear whether the hypothesis was supported or how the research question was answered. You should describe the following:

a. What is it that the researchers were trying to explain or understand?b. The hypothesis or hypotheses on which the research rests (i.e. what is the explanation that is being put forward?). If the study is qualitative: what is the research question?c. The design and methods, participants, materials, and procedured. The resultse. The original interpretation of the meaning of the findings

3. The significance

Explain why this study was so important to your thinking about Psychology. This is where you describe why you picked the study and why it left an impression on you. What were your assumptions or preconceived notions before you learnt about this study, and how did these change after reading the study? What aspects of psychology did it change for you (e.g. scientific approach, theory formulation, clinical application, awareness of breadth, depth, ...)? How has it affected you (e.g. in everyday life, social settings, academic/career pursuits)? Do you think this is a very personal experience or did the study change Psychology more broadly for a lot of people?

4. The appraisal

This section should present a critical appraisal of the study, including a critical evaluation of the (selection of) participants, the measures that were used, any drop-out, any limitations the authors mention and other limitations you may have identified, the appropriateness of the authors interpretation of the data and the conclusions they draw, ... You should also comment on the originality of the study (i.e. does it add anything to our understanding relative to previous studies?).

5. The aftermath

In this section you should examine how the study was received at the time it was published, and whether and how it has continued to have an impact on psychology and/or society today. Questions that can be considered in this section are: Were the findings readily accepted or did they receive pushback? Was the study subject to criticism, commentaries or rebuttals? Were the findings replicated later by independent researchers or were there failures to replicate? Did researchers build on the findings (i.e. did the study generate further research)? Did the findings inform theory? Was there any media attention for the study? Did the study influence policy or practice? Does the study have any relevance to Business Psychology? In this section you can talk about more than the impact of the one study that you chose for this report. The studies that are listed in the '40 studies that changed psychology' book all had a huge impact on the field or on the world. That might not be the case for the study that changed psychology for you (although it did have an impact on you!). Because of this, you may consider the more general impact of studies like the one you chose.

Format

The lab report should be no more than 1500 words. This includes the main text and in-text references, but not the reference list. The word count also includes figure caption and table captions.

References should be styled according toAPA 7thguidelines. APA (from the American Psychological Association) is the referencing and formatting style that is used throughout undergraduate psychology at UWA. Though you may notice that it is not the formatting style used by all psychology journals, it is widely recognized and respected.