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.Participants

2. Materials

3. 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?