example research report psychology

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

APA Sample Paper: Experimental Psychology

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Chapter 11: Presenting Your Research

Writing a Research Report in American Psychological Association (APA) Style

Learning Objectives

Identify the major sections of an APA-style research report and the basic contents of each section.
Plan and write an effective APA-style research report.

In this section, we look at how to write an APA-style empirical research report , an article that presents the results of one or more new studies. Recall that the standard sections of an empirical research report provide a kind of outline. Here we consider each of these sections in detail, including what information it contains, how that information is formatted and organized, and tips for writing each section. At the end of this section is a sample APA-style research report that illustrates many of these principles.

Sections of a Research Report

Title page and abstract.

An APA-style research report begins with a title page . The title is centred in the upper half of the page, with each important word capitalized. The title should clearly and concisely (in about 12 words or fewer) communicate the primary variables and research questions. This sometimes requires a main title followed by a subtitle that elaborates on the main title, in which case the main title and subtitle are separated by a colon. Here are some titles from recent issues of professional journals published by the American Psychological Association.

Sex Differences in Coping Styles and Implications for Depressed Mood
Effects of Aging and Divided Attention on Memory for Items and Their Contexts
Computer-Assisted Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Child Anxiety: Results of a Randomized Clinical Trial
Virtual Driving and Risk Taking: Do Racing Games Increase Risk-Taking Cognitions, Affect, and Behaviour?

Below the title are the authors’ names and, on the next line, their institutional affiliation—the university or other institution where the authors worked when they conducted the research. As we have already seen, the authors are listed in an order that reflects their contribution to the research. When multiple authors have made equal contributions to the research, they often list their names alphabetically or in a randomly determined order.

In some areas of psychology, the titles of many empirical research reports are informal in a way that is perhaps best described as “cute.” They usually take the form of a play on words or a well-known expression that relates to the topic under study. Here are some examples from recent issues of the Journal Psychological Science .

“Smells Like Clean Spirit: Nonconscious Effects of Scent on Cognition and Behavior”
“Time Crawls: The Temporal Resolution of Infants’ Visual Attention”
“Scent of a Woman: Men’s Testosterone Responses to Olfactory Ovulation Cues”
“Apocalypse Soon?: Dire Messages Reduce Belief in Global Warming by Contradicting Just-World Beliefs”
“Serial vs. Parallel Processing: Sometimes They Look Like Tweedledum and Tweedledee but They Can (and Should) Be Distinguished”
“How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Words: The Social Effects of Expressive Writing”

Individual researchers differ quite a bit in their preference for such titles. Some use them regularly, while others never use them. What might be some of the pros and cons of using cute article titles?

For articles that are being submitted for publication, the title page also includes an author note that lists the authors’ full institutional affiliations, any acknowledgments the authors wish to make to agencies that funded the research or to colleagues who commented on it, and contact information for the authors. For student papers that are not being submitted for publication—including theses—author notes are generally not necessary.

The abstract is a summary of the study. It is the second page of the manuscript and is headed with the word Abstract . The first line is not indented. The abstract presents the research question, a summary of the method, the basic results, and the most important conclusions. Because the abstract is usually limited to about 200 words, it can be a challenge to write a good one.

Introduction

The introduction begins on the third page of the manuscript. The heading at the top of this page is the full title of the manuscript, with each important word capitalized as on the title page. The introduction includes three distinct subsections, although these are typically not identified by separate headings. The opening introduces the research question and explains why it is interesting, the literature review discusses relevant previous research, and the closing restates the research question and comments on the method used to answer it.

The Opening

The opening , which is usually a paragraph or two in length, introduces the research question and explains why it is interesting. To capture the reader’s attention, researcher Daryl Bem recommends starting with general observations about the topic under study, expressed in ordinary language (not technical jargon)—observations that are about people and their behaviour (not about researchers or their research; Bem, 2003 [1] ). Concrete examples are often very useful here. According to Bem, this would be a poor way to begin a research report:

Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance received a great deal of attention during the latter part of the 20th century (p. 191)

The following would be much better:

The individual who holds two beliefs that are inconsistent with one another may feel uncomfortable. For example, the person who knows that he or she enjoys smoking but believes it to be unhealthy may experience discomfort arising from the inconsistency or disharmony between these two thoughts or cognitions. This feeling of discomfort was called cognitive dissonance by social psychologist Leon Festinger (1957), who suggested that individuals will be motivated to remove this dissonance in whatever way they can (p. 191).

After capturing the reader’s attention, the opening should go on to introduce the research question and explain why it is interesting. Will the answer fill a gap in the literature? Will it provide a test of an important theory? Does it have practical implications? Giving readers a clear sense of what the research is about and why they should care about it will motivate them to continue reading the literature review—and will help them make sense of it.

Breaking the Rules

Researcher Larry Jacoby reported several studies showing that a word that people see or hear repeatedly can seem more familiar even when they do not recall the repetitions—and that this tendency is especially pronounced among older adults. He opened his article with the following humourous anecdote:

A friend whose mother is suffering symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) tells the story of taking her mother to visit a nursing home, preliminary to her mother’s moving there. During an orientation meeting at the nursing home, the rules and regulations were explained, one of which regarded the dining room. The dining room was described as similar to a fine restaurant except that tipping was not required. The absence of tipping was a central theme in the orientation lecture, mentioned frequently to emphasize the quality of care along with the advantages of having paid in advance. At the end of the meeting, the friend’s mother was asked whether she had any questions. She replied that she only had one question: “Should I tip?” (Jacoby, 1999, p. 3)

Although both humour and personal anecdotes are generally discouraged in APA-style writing, this example is a highly effective way to start because it both engages the reader and provides an excellent real-world example of the topic under study.

The Literature Review

Immediately after the opening comes the literature review , which describes relevant previous research on the topic and can be anywhere from several paragraphs to several pages in length. However, the literature review is not simply a list of past studies. Instead, it constitutes a kind of argument for why the research question is worth addressing. By the end of the literature review, readers should be convinced that the research question makes sense and that the present study is a logical next step in the ongoing research process.

Like any effective argument, the literature review must have some kind of structure. For example, it might begin by describing a phenomenon in a general way along with several studies that demonstrate it, then describing two or more competing theories of the phenomenon, and finally presenting a hypothesis to test one or more of the theories. Or it might describe one phenomenon, then describe another phenomenon that seems inconsistent with the first one, then propose a theory that resolves the inconsistency, and finally present a hypothesis to test that theory. In applied research, it might describe a phenomenon or theory, then describe how that phenomenon or theory applies to some important real-world situation, and finally suggest a way to test whether it does, in fact, apply to that situation.

Looking at the literature review in this way emphasizes a few things. First, it is extremely important to start with an outline of the main points that you want to make, organized in the order that you want to make them. The basic structure of your argument, then, should be apparent from the outline itself. Second, it is important to emphasize the structure of your argument in your writing. One way to do this is to begin the literature review by summarizing your argument even before you begin to make it. “In this article, I will describe two apparently contradictory phenomena, present a new theory that has the potential to resolve the apparent contradiction, and finally present a novel hypothesis to test the theory.” Another way is to open each paragraph with a sentence that summarizes the main point of the paragraph and links it to the preceding points. These opening sentences provide the “transitions” that many beginning researchers have difficulty with. Instead of beginning a paragraph by launching into a description of a previous study, such as “Williams (2004) found that…,” it is better to start by indicating something about why you are describing this particular study. Here are some simple examples:

Another example of this phenomenon comes from the work of Williams (2004).

Williams (2004) offers one explanation of this phenomenon.

An alternative perspective has been provided by Williams (2004).

We used a method based on the one used by Williams (2004).

Finally, remember that your goal is to construct an argument for why your research question is interesting and worth addressing—not necessarily why your favourite answer to it is correct. In other words, your literature review must be balanced. If you want to emphasize the generality of a phenomenon, then of course you should discuss various studies that have demonstrated it. However, if there are other studies that have failed to demonstrate it, you should discuss them too. Or if you are proposing a new theory, then of course you should discuss findings that are consistent with that theory. However, if there are other findings that are inconsistent with it, again, you should discuss them too. It is acceptable to argue that the balance of the research supports the existence of a phenomenon or is consistent with a theory (and that is usually the best that researchers in psychology can hope for), but it is not acceptable to ignore contradictory evidence. Besides, a large part of what makes a research question interesting is uncertainty about its answer.

The Closing

The closing of the introduction—typically the final paragraph or two—usually includes two important elements. The first is a clear statement of the main research question or hypothesis. This statement tends to be more formal and precise than in the opening and is often expressed in terms of operational definitions of the key variables. The second is a brief overview of the method and some comment on its appropriateness. Here, for example, is how Darley and Latané (1968) [2] concluded the introduction to their classic article on the bystander effect:

These considerations lead to the hypothesis that the more bystanders to an emergency, the less likely, or the more slowly, any one bystander will intervene to provide aid. To test this proposition it would be necessary to create a situation in which a realistic “emergency” could plausibly occur. Each subject should also be blocked from communicating with others to prevent his getting information about their behaviour during the emergency. Finally, the experimental situation should allow for the assessment of the speed and frequency of the subjects’ reaction to the emergency. The experiment reported below attempted to fulfill these conditions. (p. 378)

Thus the introduction leads smoothly into the next major section of the article—the method section.

The method section is where you describe how you conducted your study. An important principle for writing a method section is that it should be clear and detailed enough that other researchers could replicate the study by following your “recipe.” This means that it must describe all the important elements of the study—basic demographic characteristics of the participants, how they were recruited, whether they were randomly assigned, how the variables were manipulated or measured, how counterbalancing was accomplished, and so on. At the same time, it should avoid irrelevant details such as the fact that the study was conducted in Classroom 37B of the Industrial Technology Building or that the questionnaire was double-sided and completed using pencils.

The method section begins immediately after the introduction ends with the heading “Method” (not “Methods”) centred on the page. Immediately after this is the subheading “Participants,” left justified and in italics. The participants subsection indicates how many participants there were, the number of women and men, some indication of their age, other demographics that may be relevant to the study, and how they were recruited, including any incentives given for participation.

Three ways of organizing an APA-style method. Long description available.

After the participants section, the structure can vary a bit. Figure 11.1 shows three common approaches. In the first, the participants section is followed by a design and procedure subsection, which describes the rest of the method. This works well for methods that are relatively simple and can be described adequately in a few paragraphs. In the second approach, the participants section is followed by separate design and procedure subsections. This works well when both the design and the procedure are relatively complicated and each requires multiple paragraphs.

What is the difference between design and procedure? The design of a study is its overall structure. What were the independent and dependent variables? Was the independent variable manipulated, and if so, was it manipulated between or within subjects? How were the variables operationally defined? The procedure is how the study was carried out. It often works well to describe the procedure in terms of what the participants did rather than what the researchers did. For example, the participants gave their informed consent, read a set of instructions, completed a block of four practice trials, completed a block of 20 test trials, completed two questionnaires, and were debriefed and excused.

The results section is where you present the main results of the study, including the results of the statistical analyses. Although it does not include the raw data—individual participants’ responses or scores—researchers should save their raw data and make them available to other researchers who request them. Several journals now encourage the open sharing of raw data online.

Although there are no standard subsections, it is still important for the results section to be logically organized. Typically it begins with certain preliminary issues. One is whether any participants or responses were excluded from the analyses and why. The rationale for excluding data should be described clearly so that other researchers can decide whether it is appropriate. A second preliminary issue is how multiple responses were combined to produce the primary variables in the analyses. For example, if participants rated the attractiveness of 20 stimulus people, you might have to explain that you began by computing the mean attractiveness rating for each participant. Or if they recalled as many items as they could from study list of 20 words, did you count the number correctly recalled, compute the percentage correctly recalled, or perhaps compute the number correct minus the number incorrect? A third preliminary issue is the reliability of the measures. This is where you would present test-retest correlations, Cronbach’s α, or other statistics to show that the measures are consistent across time and across items. A final preliminary issue is whether the manipulation was successful. This is where you would report the results of any manipulation checks.

The results section should then tackle the primary research questions, one at a time. Again, there should be a clear organization. One approach would be to answer the most general questions and then proceed to answer more specific ones. Another would be to answer the main question first and then to answer secondary ones. Regardless, Bem (2003) [3] suggests the following basic structure for discussing each new result:

Remind the reader of the research question.
Give the answer to the research question in words.
Present the relevant statistics.
Qualify the answer if necessary.
Summarize the result.

Notice that only Step 3 necessarily involves numbers. The rest of the steps involve presenting the research question and the answer to it in words. In fact, the basic results should be clear even to a reader who skips over the numbers.

The discussion is the last major section of the research report. Discussions usually consist of some combination of the following elements:

Summary of the research
Theoretical implications
Practical implications
Limitations
Suggestions for future research

The discussion typically begins with a summary of the study that provides a clear answer to the research question. In a short report with a single study, this might require no more than a sentence. In a longer report with multiple studies, it might require a paragraph or even two. The summary is often followed by a discussion of the theoretical implications of the research. Do the results provide support for any existing theories? If not, how can they be explained? Although you do not have to provide a definitive explanation or detailed theory for your results, you at least need to outline one or more possible explanations. In applied research—and often in basic research—there is also some discussion of the practical implications of the research. How can the results be used, and by whom, to accomplish some real-world goal?

The theoretical and practical implications are often followed by a discussion of the study’s limitations. Perhaps there are problems with its internal or external validity. Perhaps the manipulation was not very effective or the measures not very reliable. Perhaps there is some evidence that participants did not fully understand their task or that they were suspicious of the intent of the researchers. Now is the time to discuss these issues and how they might have affected the results. But do not overdo it. All studies have limitations, and most readers will understand that a different sample or different measures might have produced different results. Unless there is good reason to think they would have, however, there is no reason to mention these routine issues. Instead, pick two or three limitations that seem like they could have influenced the results, explain how they could have influenced the results, and suggest ways to deal with them.

Most discussions end with some suggestions for future research. If the study did not satisfactorily answer the original research question, what will it take to do so? What new research questions has the study raised? This part of the discussion, however, is not just a list of new questions. It is a discussion of two or three of the most important unresolved issues. This means identifying and clarifying each question, suggesting some alternative answers, and even suggesting ways they could be studied.

Finally, some researchers are quite good at ending their articles with a sweeping or thought-provoking conclusion. Darley and Latané (1968) [4] , for example, ended their article on the bystander effect by discussing the idea that whether people help others may depend more on the situation than on their personalities. Their final sentence is, “If people understand the situational forces that can make them hesitate to intervene, they may better overcome them” (p. 383). However, this kind of ending can be difficult to pull off. It can sound overreaching or just banal and end up detracting from the overall impact of the article. It is often better simply to end when you have made your final point (although you should avoid ending on a limitation).

The references section begins on a new page with the heading “References” centred at the top of the page. All references cited in the text are then listed in the format presented earlier. They are listed alphabetically by the last name of the first author. If two sources have the same first author, they are listed alphabetically by the last name of the second author. If all the authors are the same, then they are listed chronologically by the year of publication. Everything in the reference list is double-spaced both within and between references.

Appendices, Tables, and Figures

Appendices, tables, and figures come after the references. An appendix is appropriate for supplemental material that would interrupt the flow of the research report if it were presented within any of the major sections. An appendix could be used to present lists of stimulus words, questionnaire items, detailed descriptions of special equipment or unusual statistical analyses, or references to the studies that are included in a meta-analysis. Each appendix begins on a new page. If there is only one, the heading is “Appendix,” centred at the top of the page. If there is more than one, the headings are “Appendix A,” “Appendix B,” and so on, and they appear in the order they were first mentioned in the text of the report.

After any appendices come tables and then figures. Tables and figures are both used to present results. Figures can also be used to illustrate theories (e.g., in the form of a flowchart), display stimuli, outline procedures, and present many other kinds of information. Each table and figure appears on its own page. Tables are numbered in the order that they are first mentioned in the text (“Table 1,” “Table 2,” and so on). Figures are numbered the same way (“Figure 1,” “Figure 2,” and so on). A brief explanatory title, with the important words capitalized, appears above each table. Each figure is given a brief explanatory caption, where (aside from proper nouns or names) only the first word of each sentence is capitalized. More details on preparing APA-style tables and figures are presented later in the book.

Sample APA-Style Research Report

Figures 11.2, 11.3, 11.4, and 11.5 show some sample pages from an APA-style empirical research report originally written by undergraduate student Tomoe Suyama at California State University, Fresno. The main purpose of these figures is to illustrate the basic organization and formatting of an APA-style empirical research report, although many high-level and low-level style conventions can be seen here too.

Key Takeaways

An APA-style empirical research report consists of several standard sections. The main ones are the abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, and references.
The introduction consists of an opening that presents the research question, a literature review that describes previous research on the topic, and a closing that restates the research question and comments on the method. The literature review constitutes an argument for why the current study is worth doing.
The method section describes the method in enough detail that another researcher could replicate the study. At a minimum, it consists of a participants subsection and a design and procedure subsection.
The results section describes the results in an organized fashion. Each primary result is presented in terms of statistical results but also explained in words.
The discussion typically summarizes the study, discusses theoretical and practical implications and limitations of the study, and offers suggestions for further research.
Practice: Look through an issue of a general interest professional journal (e.g., Psychological Science ). Read the opening of the first five articles and rate the effectiveness of each one from 1 ( very ineffective ) to 5 ( very effective ). Write a sentence or two explaining each rating.
Practice: Find a recent article in a professional journal and identify where the opening, literature review, and closing of the introduction begin and end.
Practice: Find a recent article in a professional journal and highlight in a different colour each of the following elements in the discussion: summary, theoretical implications, practical implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research.

Long Descriptions

Figure 11.1 long description: Table showing three ways of organizing an APA-style method section.

In the simple method, there are two subheadings: “Participants” (which might begin “The participants were…”) and “Design and procedure” (which might begin “There were three conditions…”).

In the typical method, there are three subheadings: “Participants” (“The participants were…”), “Design” (“There were three conditions…”), and “Procedure” (“Participants viewed each stimulus on the computer screen…”).

In the complex method, there are four subheadings: “Participants” (“The participants were…”), “Materials” (“The stimuli were…”), “Design” (“There were three conditions…”), and “Procedure” (“Participants viewed each stimulus on the computer screen…”). [Return to Figure 11.1]

Bem, D. J. (2003). Writing the empirical journal article. In J. M. Darley, M. P. Zanna, & H. R. Roediger III (Eds.), The compleat academic: A practical guide for the beginning social scientist (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. ↵
Darley, J. M., & Latané, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4 , 377–383. ↵

A type of research article which describes one or more new empirical studies conducted by the authors.

The page at the beginning of an APA-style research report containing the title of the article, the authors’ names, and their institutional affiliation.

A summary of a research study.

The third page of a manuscript containing the research question, the literature review, and comments about how to answer the research question.

An introduction to the research question and explanation for why this question is interesting.

A description of relevant previous research on the topic being discusses and an argument for why the research is worth addressing.

The end of the introduction, where the research question is reiterated and the method is commented upon.

The section of a research report where the method used to conduct the study is described.

The main results of the study, including the results from statistical analyses, are presented in a research article.

Section of a research report that summarizes the study's results and interprets them by referring back to the study's theoretical background.

Part of a research report which contains supplemental material.

Research Methods in Psychology - 2nd Canadian Edition Copyright © 2015 by Paul C. Price, Rajiv Jhangiani, & I-Chant A. Chiang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Lab Report Format: Step-by-Step Guide & Examples

Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Learn about our Editorial Process

Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc

Associate Editor for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education

Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

On This Page:

In psychology, a lab report outlines a study’s objectives, methods, results, discussion, and conclusions, ensuring clarity and adherence to APA (or relevant) formatting guidelines.

A typical lab report would include the following sections: title, abstract, introduction, method, results, and discussion.

The title page, abstract, references, and appendices are started on separate pages (subsections from the main body of the report are not). Use double-line spacing of text, font size 12, and include page numbers.

The report should have a thread of arguments linking the prediction in the introduction to the content of the discussion.

This must indicate what the study is about. It must include the variables under investigation. It should not be written as a question.

Title pages should be formatted in APA style .

The abstract provides a concise and comprehensive summary of a research report. Your style should be brief but not use note form. Look at examples in journal articles . It should aim to explain very briefly (about 150 words) the following:

Start with a one/two sentence summary, providing the aim and rationale for the study.
Describe participants and setting: who, when, where, how many, and what groups?
Describe the method: what design, what experimental treatment, what questionnaires, surveys, or tests were used.
Describe the major findings, including a mention of the statistics used and the significance levels, or simply one sentence summing up the outcome.
The final sentence(s) outline the study’s “contribution to knowledge” within the literature. What does it all mean? Mention the implications of your findings if appropriate.

The abstract comes at the beginning of your report but is written at the end (as it summarises information from all the other sections of the report).

Introduction

The purpose of the introduction is to explain where your hypothesis comes from (i.e., it should provide a rationale for your research study).

Ideally, the introduction should have a funnel structure: Start broad and then become more specific. The aims should not appear out of thin air; the preceding review of psychological literature should lead logically into the aims and hypotheses.

The funnel structure of the introducion to a lab report

Start with general theory, briefly introducing the topic. Define the important key terms.
Explain the theoretical framework.
Summarise and synthesize previous studies – What was the purpose? Who were the participants? What did they do? What did they find? What do these results mean? How do the results relate to the theoretical framework?
Rationale: How does the current study address a gap in the literature? Perhaps it overcomes a limitation of previous research.
Aims and hypothesis. Write a paragraph explaining what you plan to investigate and make a clear and concise prediction regarding the results you expect to find.

There should be a logical progression of ideas that aids the flow of the report. This means the studies outlined should lead logically to your aims and hypotheses.

Do be concise and selective, and avoid the temptation to include anything in case it is relevant (i.e., don’t write a shopping list of studies).

USE THE FOLLOWING SUBHEADINGS:

Participants

How many participants were recruited?
Say how you obtained your sample (e.g., opportunity sample).
Give relevant demographic details (e.g., gender, ethnicity, age range, mean age, and standard deviation).
State the experimental design .
What were the independent and dependent variables ? Make sure the independent variable is labeled and name the different conditions/levels.
For example, if gender is the independent variable label, then male and female are the levels/conditions/groups.
How were the IV and DV operationalized?
Identify any controls used, e.g., counterbalancing and control of extraneous variables.
List all the materials and measures (e.g., what was the title of the questionnaire? Was it adapted from a study?).
You do not need to include wholesale replication of materials – instead, include a ‘sensible’ (illustrate) level of detail. For example, give examples of questionnaire items.
Include the reliability (e.g., alpha values) for the measure(s).
Describe the precise procedure you followed when conducting your research, i.e., exactly what you did.
Describe in sufficient detail to allow for replication of findings.
Be concise in your description and omit extraneous/trivial details, e.g., you don’t need to include details regarding instructions, debrief, record sheets, etc.
Assume the reader has no knowledge of what you did and ensure that he/she can replicate (i.e., copy) your study exactly by what you write in this section.
Write in the past tense.
Don’t justify or explain in the Method (e.g., why you chose a particular sampling method); just report what you did.
Only give enough detail for someone to replicate the experiment – be concise in your writing.
The results section of a paper usually presents descriptive statistics followed by inferential statistics.
Report the means, standard deviations, and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for each IV level. If you have four to 20 numbers to present, a well-presented table is best, APA style.
Name the statistical test being used.
Report appropriate statistics (e.g., t-scores, p values ).
Report the magnitude (e.g., are the results significant or not?) as well as the direction of the results (e.g., which group performed better?).
It is optional to report the effect size (this does not appear on the SPSS output).
Avoid interpreting the results (save this for the discussion).
Make sure the results are presented clearly and concisely. A table can be used to display descriptive statistics if this makes the data easier to understand.
DO NOT include any raw data.
Follow APA style.

Use APA Style

Numbers reported to 2 d.p. (incl. 0 before the decimal if 1.00, e.g., “0.51”). The exceptions to this rule: Numbers which can never exceed 1.0 (e.g., p -values, r-values): report to 3 d.p. and do not include 0 before the decimal place, e.g., “.001”.
Percentages and degrees of freedom: report as whole numbers.
Statistical symbols that are not Greek letters should be italicized (e.g., M , SD , t , X 2 , F , p , d ).
Include spaces on either side of the equals sign.
When reporting 95%, CIs (confidence intervals), upper and lower limits are given inside square brackets, e.g., “95% CI [73.37, 102.23]”
Outline your findings in plain English (avoid statistical jargon) and relate your results to your hypothesis, e.g., is it supported or rejected?
Compare your results to background materials from the introduction section. Are your results similar or different? Discuss why/why not.
How confident can we be in the results? Acknowledge limitations, but only if they can explain the result obtained. If the study has found a reliable effect, be very careful suggesting limitations as you are doubting your results. Unless you can think of any c onfounding variable that can explain the results instead of the IV, it would be advisable to leave the section out.
Suggest constructive ways to improve your study if appropriate.
What are the implications of your findings? Say what your findings mean for how people behave in the real world.
Suggest an idea for further research triggered by your study, something in the same area but not simply an improved version of yours. Perhaps you could base this on a limitation of your study.
Concluding paragraph – Finish with a statement of your findings and the key points of the discussion (e.g., interpretation and implications) in no more than 3 or 4 sentences.

Reference Page

The reference section lists all the sources cited in the essay (alphabetically). It is not a bibliography (a list of the books you used).

In simple terms, every time you refer to a psychologist’s name (and date), you need to reference the original source of information.

If you have been using textbooks this is easy as the references are usually at the back of the book and you can just copy them down. If you have been using websites then you may have a problem as they might not provide a reference section for you to copy.

References need to be set out APA style :

Author, A. A. (year). Title of work . Location: Publisher.

Journal Articles

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (year). Article title. Journal Title, volume number (issue number), page numbers

A simple way to write your reference section is to use Google scholar . Just type the name and date of the psychologist in the search box and click on the “cite” link.

Next, copy and paste the APA reference into the reference section of your essay.

Once again, remember that references need to be in alphabetical order according to surname.

Psychology Lab Report Example

Quantitative paper template.

Quantitative professional paper template: Adapted from “Fake News, Fast and Slow: Deliberation Reduces Belief in False (but Not True) News Headlines,” by B. Bago, D. G. Rand, and G. Pennycook, 2020, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General , 149 (8), pp. 1608–1613 ( https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000729 ). Copyright 2020 by the American Psychological Association.

Qualitative paper template

Qualitative professional paper template: Adapted from “‘My Smartphone Is an Extension of Myself’: A Holistic Qualitative Exploration of the Impact of Using a Smartphone,” by L. J. Harkin and D. Kuss, 2020, Psychology of Popular Media , 10 (1), pp. 28–38 ( https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000278 ). Copyright 2020 by the American Psychological Association.

Student Resources

How To Cite A YouTube Video In APA Style – With Examples

How to Write an Abstract APA Format

APA References Page Formatting and Example

APA Title Page (Cover Page) Format, Example, & Templates

How do I Cite a Source with Multiple Authors in APA Style?

How to Write a Psychology Essay

Psychological Report Writing

March 8, 2021 - paper 2 psychology in context | research methods.

Through using this website, you have learned about, referred to, and evaluated research studies. These research studies are generally presented to the scientific community as a journal article. Most journal articles follow a standard format. This is similar to the way you may have written up experiments in other sciences.

(2) Introduction:

This tells everyone why the study is being carried out and the commentary should form a ‘funnel’ of information. First, there is broad coverage of all the background research with appropriate evaluative comments: “Asch (1951) found…but Crutchfield (1955) showed…” Once the general research has been covered, the focus becomes much narrower finishing with the main researcher/research area you are hoping to support/refute. This then leads to the aims and hypothesis/hypotheses (i.e. experimental and null hypotheses) being stated.

(1) Design:

(4) Results:

All studies have flaws, so anything that went wrong or the limitations of the study are discussed together with suggestions for how it could be improved if it were to be repeated. Suggestions for alternative studies and future research are also explored. The discussion ends with a paragraph summing up what was found and assessing the implications of the study and any conclusions that can be drawn from it.

Look through your report and include a reference every researcher mentioned. A reference should include; the name of the researcher, the date the research was published, the title of the book/journal, where the book was published (or what journal the article was published in), the edition number of the book/volume of the journal article, the page numbers used.

Exam Tip: In the exam, the types of questions you could expect relating to report writing include; defining what information you would find in each section of the report, in addition, on the old specification, questions linked to report writing have included; writing up a method section, results section and designing a piece of research.

In addition, in the exam, you may get asked to write; a consent form , debriefing sheet or a set of standardised instructions.

(2) A im of the study?

(3) P rocedure – What will I be asked to do if I take part?

(5) Do I H ave to take part?

Explain to the participant that they don’t have to take part in the study, explain about their right to withdraw.

Have you received enough information about the study? YES/NO

Do you consent for your data to be used in this study and retained for use in other studies? YES/NO

When writing a set of standardised instructions, it is essential that you include:

5. Explain to the participants what will happen in the study, what they will be expected to do (step by step), how long the task/specific parts of the task will take to complete.

8. Check that the participants are still happy to proceed with the study.

This is the form that you should complete with your participants at the end of the study to ensure that they are happy with the way the study has been conducted, to explain to them the true nature of the study, to confirm consent and to give them the researcher’s contact details in case they want to ask any further questions.

(2) Participants:

We're not around right now. But you can send us an email and we'll get back to you, asap.

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

49 Writing a Research Report in American Psychological Association (APA) Style

Learning objectives.

Identify the major sections of an APA-style research report and the basic contents of each section.
Plan and write an effective APA-style research report.

Sections of a Research Report

Title page and abstract.

An APA-style research report begins with a title page . The title is centered in the upper half of the page, with each important word capitalized. The title should clearly and concisely (in about 12 words or fewer) communicate the primary variables and research questions. This sometimes requires a main title followed by a subtitle that elaborates on the main title, in which case the main title and subtitle are separated by a colon. Here are some titles from recent issues of professional journals published by the American Psychological Association.

Sex Differences in Coping Styles and Implications for Depressed Mood
Effects of Aging and Divided Attention on Memory for Items and Their Contexts
Computer-Assisted Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Child Anxiety: Results of a Randomized Clinical Trial
Virtual Driving and Risk Taking: Do Racing Games Increase Risk-Taking Cognitions, Affect, and Behavior?

It’s Soooo Cute! How Informal Should an Article Title Be?

“Smells Like Clean Spirit: Nonconscious Effects of Scent on Cognition and Behavior”
“Time Crawls: The Temporal Resolution of Infants’ Visual Attention”
“Scent of a Woman: Men’s Testosterone Responses to Olfactory Ovulation Cues”
“Apocalypse Soon?: Dire Messages Reduce Belief in Global Warming by Contradicting Just-World Beliefs”
“Serial vs. Parallel Processing: Sometimes They Look Like Tweedledum and Tweedledee but They Can (and Should) Be Distinguished”
“How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Words: The Social Effects of Expressive Writing”

Introduction

The Opening

The opening , which is usually a paragraph or two in length, introduces the research question and explains why it is interesting. To capture the reader’s attention, researcher Daryl Bem recommends starting with general observations about the topic under study, expressed in ordinary language (not technical jargon)—observations that are about people and their behavior (not about researchers or their research; Bem, 2003 [1] ). Concrete examples are often very useful here. According to Bem, this would be a poor way to begin a research report:

Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance received a great deal of attention during the latter part of the 20th century (p. 191)

The following would be much better:

The individual who holds two beliefs that are inconsistent with one another may feel uncomfortable. For example, the person who knows that they enjoy smoking but believes it to be unhealthy may experience discomfort arising from the inconsistency or disharmony between these two thoughts or cognitions. This feeling of discomfort was called cognitive dissonance by social psychologist Leon Festinger (1957), who suggested that individuals will be motivated to remove this dissonance in whatever way they can (p. 191).

Breaking the Rules

Although both humor and personal anecdotes are generally discouraged in APA-style writing, this example is a highly effective way to start because it both engages the reader and provides an excellent real-world example of the topic under study.

The Literature Review

Another example of this phenomenon comes from the work of Williams (2004).

Williams (2004) offers one explanation of this phenomenon.

An alternative perspective has been provided by Williams (2004).

We used a method based on the one used by Williams (2004).

Finally, remember that your goal is to construct an argument for why your research question is interesting and worth addressing—not necessarily why your favorite answer to it is correct. In other words, your literature review must be balanced. If you want to emphasize the generality of a phenomenon, then of course you should discuss various studies that have demonstrated it. However, if there are other studies that have failed to demonstrate it, you should discuss them too. Or if you are proposing a new theory, then of course you should discuss findings that are consistent with that theory. However, if there are other findings that are inconsistent with it, again, you should discuss them too. It is acceptable to argue that the balance of the research supports the existence of a phenomenon or is consistent with a theory (and that is usually the best that researchers in psychology can hope for), but it is not acceptable to ignore contradictory evidence. Besides, a large part of what makes a research question interesting is uncertainty about its answer.

The Closing

The closing of the introduction—typically the final paragraph or two—usually includes two important elements. The first is a clear statement of the main research question and hypothesis. This statement tends to be more formal and precise than in the opening and is often expressed in terms of operational definitions of the key variables. The second is a brief overview of the method and some comment on its appropriateness. Here, for example, is how Darley and Latané (1968) [2] concluded the introduction to their classic article on the bystander effect:

These considerations lead to the hypothesis that the more bystanders to an emergency, the less likely, or the more slowly, any one bystander will intervene to provide aid. To test this proposition it would be necessary to create a situation in which a realistic “emergency” could plausibly occur. Each subject should also be blocked from communicating with others to prevent his getting information about their behavior during the emergency. Finally, the experimental situation should allow for the assessment of the speed and frequency of the subjects’ reaction to the emergency. The experiment reported below attempted to fulfill these conditions. (p. 378)

Thus the introduction leads smoothly into the next major section of the article—the method section.

The method section is where you describe how you conducted your study. An important principle for writing a method section is that it should be clear and detailed enough that other researchers could replicate the study by following your “recipe.” This means that it must describe all the important elements of the study—basic demographic characteristics of the participants, how they were recruited, whether they were randomly assigned to conditions, how the variables were manipulated or measured, how counterbalancing was accomplished, and so on. At the same time, it should avoid irrelevant details such as the fact that the study was conducted in Classroom 37B of the Industrial Technology Building or that the questionnaire was double-sided and completed using pencils.

The method section begins immediately after the introduction ends with the heading “Method” (not “Methods”) centered on the page. Immediately after this is the subheading “Participants,” left justified and in italics. The participants subsection indicates how many participants there were, the number of women and men, some indication of their age, other demographics that may be relevant to the study, and how they were recruited, including any incentives given for participation.

Figure 11.1 Three Ways of Organizing an APA-Style Method

In the third basic way to organize a method section, the participants subsection is followed by a materials subsection before the design and procedure subsections. This works well when there are complicated materials to describe. This might mean multiple questionnaires, written vignettes that participants read and respond to, perceptual stimuli, and so on. The heading of this subsection can be modified to reflect its content. Instead of “Materials,” it can be “Questionnaires,” “Stimuli,” and so on. The materials subsection is also a good place to refer to the reliability and/or validity of the measures. This is where you would present test-retest correlations, Cronbach’s α, or other statistics to show that the measures are consistent across time and across items and that they accurately measure what they are intended to measure.

The results section is where you present the main results of the study, including the results of the statistical analyses. Although it does not include the raw data—individual participants’ responses or scores—researchers should save their raw data and make them available to other researchers who request them. Many journals encourage the open sharing of raw data online, and some now require open data and materials before publication.

Although there are no standard subsections, it is still important for the results section to be logically organized. Typically it begins with certain preliminary issues. One is whether any participants or responses were excluded from the analyses and why. The rationale for excluding data should be described clearly so that other researchers can decide whether it is appropriate. A second preliminary issue is how multiple responses were combined to produce the primary variables in the analyses. For example, if participants rated the attractiveness of 20 stimulus people, you might have to explain that you began by computing the mean attractiveness rating for each participant. Or if they recalled as many items as they could from study list of 20 words, did you count the number correctly recalled, compute the percentage correctly recalled, or perhaps compute the number correct minus the number incorrect? A final preliminary issue is whether the manipulation was successful. This is where you would report the results of any manipulation checks.

Remind the reader of the research question.
Give the answer to the research question in words.
Present the relevant statistics.
Qualify the answer if necessary.
Summarize the result.

The discussion is the last major section of the research report. Discussions usually consist of some combination of the following elements:

Summary of the research
Theoretical implications
Practical implications
Limitations
Suggestions for future research

Finally, some researchers are quite good at ending their articles with a sweeping or thought-provoking conclusion. Darley and Latané (1968) [4] , for example, ended their article on the bystander effect by discussing the idea that whether people help others may depend more on the situation than on their personalities. Their final sentence is, “If people understand the situational forces that can make them hesitate to intervene, they may better overcome them” (p. 383). However, this kind of ending can be difficult to pull off. It can sound overreaching or just banal and end up detracting from the overall impact of the article. It is often better simply to end by returning to the problem or issue introduced in your opening paragraph and clearly stating how your research has addressed that issue or problem.

The references section begins on a new page with the heading “References” centered at the top of the page. All references cited in the text are then listed in the format presented earlier. They are listed alphabetically by the last name of the first author. If two sources have the same first author, they are listed alphabetically by the last name of the second author. If all the authors are the same, then they are listed chronologically by the year of publication. Everything in the reference list is double-spaced both within and between references.

Appendices, Tables, and Figures

Appendices, tables, and figures come after the references. An appendix is appropriate for supplemental material that would interrupt the flow of the research report if it were presented within any of the major sections. An appendix could be used to present lists of stimulus words, questionnaire items, detailed descriptions of special equipment or unusual statistical analyses, or references to the studies that are included in a meta-analysis. Each appendix begins on a new page. If there is only one, the heading is “Appendix,” centered at the top of the page. If there is more than one, the headings are “Appendix A,” “Appendix B,” and so on, and they appear in the order they were first mentioned in the text of the report.

After any appendices come tables and then figures. Tables and figures are both used to present results. Figures can also be used to display graphs, illustrate theories (e.g., in the form of a flowchart), display stimuli, outline procedures, and present many other kinds of information. Each table and figure appears on its own page. Tables are numbered in the order that they are first mentioned in the text (“Table 1,” “Table 2,” and so on). Figures are numbered the same way (“Figure 1,” “Figure 2,” and so on). A brief explanatory title, with the important words capitalized, appears above each table. Each figure is given a brief explanatory caption, where (aside from proper nouns or names) only the first word of each sentence is capitalized. More details on preparing APA-style tables and figures are presented later in the book.

Sample APA-Style Research Report

Figure 11.2 Title Page and Abstract. This student paper does not include the author note on the title page. The abstract appears on its own page.

Bem, D. J. (2003). Writing the empirical journal article. In J. M. Darley, M. P. Zanna, & H. R. Roediger III (Eds.), The complete academic: A practical guide for the beginning social scientist (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. ↵
Darley, J. M., & Latané, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4 , 377–383. ↵
Bem, D. J. (2003). Writing the empirical journal article. In J. M. Darley, M. P. Zanna, & H. R. Roediger III (Eds.), The complete academic: A practical guide for the beginning social scientist (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. ↵
Darley, J. M., & Latané, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4 , 377–383. ↵
Define non-experimental research, distinguish it clearly from experimental research, and give several examples.
Explain when a researcher might choose to conduct non-experimental research as opposed to experimental research.

What Is Non-Experimental Research?

Non-experimental research is research that lacks the manipulation of an independent variable. Rather than manipulating an independent variable, researchers conducting non-experimental research simply measure variables as they naturally occur (in the lab or real world).

Most researchers in psychology consider the distinction between experimental and non-experimental research to be an extremely important one. This is because although experimental research can provide strong evidence that changes in an independent variable cause differences in a dependent variable, non-experimental research generally cannot. As we will see, however, this inability to make causal conclusions does not mean that non-experimental research is less important than experimental research. It is simply used in cases where experimental research is not able to be carried out.

When to Use Non-Experimental Research

As we saw in the last chapter , experimental research is appropriate when the researcher has a specific research question or hypothesis about a causal relationship between two variables—and it is possible, feasible, and ethical to manipulate the independent variable. It stands to reason, therefore, that non-experimental research is appropriate—even necessary—when these conditions are not met. There are many times in which non-experimental research is preferred, including when:

the research question or hypothesis relates to a single variable rather than a statistical relationship between two variables (e.g., how accurate are people’s first impressions?).
the research question pertains to a non-causal statistical relationship between variables (e.g., is there a correlation between verbal intelligence and mathematical intelligence?).
the research question is about a causal relationship, but the independent variable cannot be manipulated or participants cannot be randomly assigned to conditions or orders of conditions for practical or ethical reasons (e.g., does damage to a person’s hippocampus impair the formation of long-term memory traces?).
the research question is broad and exploratory, or is about what it is like to have a particular experience (e.g., what is it like to be a working mother diagnosed with depression?).

Again, the choice between the experimental and non-experimental approaches is generally dictated by the nature of the research question. Recall the three goals of science are to describe, to predict, and to explain. If the goal is to explain and the research question pertains to causal relationships, then the experimental approach is typically preferred. If the goal is to describe or to predict, a non-experimental approach is appropriate. But the two approaches can also be used to address the same research question in complementary ways. For example, in Milgram's original (non-experimental) obedience study, he was primarily interested in one variable—the extent to which participants obeyed the researcher when he told them to shock the confederate—and he observed all participants performing the same task under the same conditions. However, Milgram subsequently conducted experiments to explore the factors that affect obedience. He manipulated several independent variables, such as the distance between the experimenter and the participant, the participant and the confederate, and the location of the study (Milgram, 1974) [1] .

Types of Non-Experimental Research

Non-experimental research falls into two broad categories: correlational research and observational research.

The most common type of non-experimental research conducted in psychology is correlational research. Correlational research is considered non-experimental because it focuses on the statistical relationship between two variables but does not include the manipulation of an independent variable. More specifically, in correlational research , the researcher measures two variables with little or no attempt to control extraneous variables and then assesses the relationship between them. As an example, a researcher interested in the relationship between self-esteem and school achievement could collect data on students' self-esteem and their GPAs to see if the two variables are statistically related.

Observational research is non-experimental because it focuses on making observations of behavior in a natural or laboratory setting without manipulating anything. Milgram’s original obedience study was non-experimental in this way. He was primarily interested in the extent to which participants obeyed the researcher when he told them to shock the confederate and he observed all participants performing the same task under the same conditions. The study by Loftus and Pickrell described at the beginning of this chapter is also a good example of observational research. The variable was whether participants “remembered” having experienced mildly traumatic childhood events (e.g., getting lost in a shopping mall) that they had not actually experienced but that the researchers asked them about repeatedly. In this particular study, nearly a third of the participants “remembered” at least one event. (As with Milgram’s original study, this study inspired several later experiments on the factors that affect false memories).

Cross-Sectional, Longitudinal, and Cross-Sequential Studies

When psychologists wish to study change over time (for example, when developmental psychologists wish to study aging) they usually take one of three non-experimental approaches: cross-sectional, longitudinal, or cross-sequential. Cross-sectional studies involve comparing two or more pre-existing groups of people (e.g., children at different stages of development). What makes this approach non-experimental is that there is no manipulation of an independent variable and no random assignment of participants to groups. Using this design, developmental psychologists compare groups of people of different ages (e.g., young adults spanning from 18-25 years of age versus older adults spanning 60-75 years of age) on various dependent variables (e.g., memory, depression, life satisfaction). Of course, the primary limitation of using this design to study the effects of aging is that differences between the groups other than age may account for differences in the dependent variable. For instance, differences between the groups may reflect the generation that people come from (a cohort effect ) rather than a direct effect of age. For this reason, longitudinal studies , in which one group of people is followed over time as they age, offer a superior means of studying the effects of aging. However, longitudinal studies are by definition more time consuming and so require a much greater investment on the part of the researcher and the participants. A third approach, known as cross-sequential studies , combines elements of both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. Rather than measuring differences between people in different age groups or following the same people over a long period of time, researchers adopting this approach choose a smaller period of time during which they follow people in different age groups. For example, they might measure changes over a ten year period among participants who at the start of the study fall into the following age groups: 20 years old, 30 years old, 40 years old, 50 years old, and 60 years old. This design is advantageous because the researcher reaps the immediate benefits of being able to compare the age groups after the first assessment. Further, by following the different age groups over time they can subsequently determine whether the original differences they found across the age groups are due to true age effects or cohort effects.

The types of research we have discussed so far are all quantitative, referring to the fact that the data consist of numbers that are analyzed using statistical techniques. But as you will learn in this chapter, many observational research studies are more qualitative in nature. In qualitative research , the data are usually nonnumerical and therefore cannot be analyzed using statistical techniques. Rosenhan’s observational study of the experience of people in psychiatric wards was primarily qualitative. The data were the notes taken by the “pseudopatients”—the people pretending to have heard voices—along with their hospital records. Rosenhan’s analysis consists mainly of a written description of the experiences of the pseudopatients, supported by several concrete examples. To illustrate the hospital staff’s tendency to “depersonalize” their patients, he noted, “Upon being admitted, I and other pseudopatients took the initial physical examinations in a semi-public room, where staff members went about their own business as if we were not there” (Rosenhan, 1973, p. 256) [2] . Qualitative data has a separate set of analysis tools depending on the research question. For example, thematic analysis would focus on themes that emerge in the data or conversation analysis would focus on the way the words were said in an interview or focus group.

Internal Validity Revisited

Recall that internal validity is the extent to which the design of a study supports the conclusion that changes in the independent variable caused any observed differences in the dependent variable. Figure 6.1 shows how experimental, quasi-experimental, and non-experimental (correlational) research vary in terms of internal validity. Experimental research tends to be highest in internal validity because the use of manipulation (of the independent variable) and control (of extraneous variables) help to rule out alternative explanations for the observed relationships. If the average score on the dependent variable in an experiment differs across conditions, it is quite likely that the independent variable is responsible for that difference. Non-experimental (correlational) research is lowest in internal validity because these designs fail to use manipulation or control. Quasi-experimental research (which will be described in more detail in a subsequent chapter) falls in the middle because it contains some, but not all, of the features of a true experiment. For instance, it may fail to use random assignment to assign participants to groups or fail to use counterbalancing to control for potential order effects. Imagine, for example, that a researcher finds two similar schools, starts an anti-bullying program in one, and then finds fewer bullying incidents in that “treatment school” than in the “control school.” While a comparison is being made with a control condition, the inability to randomly assign children to schools could still mean that students in the treatment school differed from students in the control school in some other way that could explain the difference in bullying (e.g., there may be a selection effect).

Figure 7.1 Internal Validity of Correlational, Quasi-Experimental, and Experimental Studies. Experiments are generally high in internal validity, quasi-experiments lower, and correlational studies lower still.

Notice also in Figure 6.1 that there is some overlap in the internal validity of experiments, quasi-experiments, and correlational (non-experimental) studies. For example, a poorly designed experiment that includes many confounding variables can be lower in internal validity than a well-designed quasi-experiment with no obvious confounding variables. Internal validity is also only one of several validities that one might consider, as noted in Chapter 5.

Describe several strategies for recruiting participants for an experiment.
Explain why it is important to standardize the procedure of an experiment and several ways to do this.
Explain what pilot testing is and why it is important.

The information presented so far in this chapter is enough to design a basic experiment. When it comes time to conduct that experiment, however, several additional practical issues arise. In this section, we consider some of these issues and how to deal with them. Much of this information applies to non-experimental studies as well as experimental ones.

Recruiting Participants

Of course, at the start of any research project, you should be thinking about how you will obtain your participants. Unless you have access to people with schizophrenia or incarcerated juvenile offenders, for example, then there is no point designing a study that focuses on these populations. But even if you plan to use a convenience sample, you will have to recruit participants for your study.

There are several approaches to recruiting participants. One is to use participants from a formal subject pool —an established group of people who have agreed to be contacted about participating in research studies. For example, at many colleges and universities, there is a subject pool consisting of students enrolled in introductory psychology courses who must participate in a certain number of studies to meet a course requirement. Researchers post descriptions of their studies and students sign up to participate, usually via an online system. Participants who are not in subject pools can also be recruited by posting or publishing advertisements or making personal appeals to groups that represent the population of interest. For example, a researcher interested in studying older adults could arrange to speak at a meeting of the residents at a retirement community to explain the study and ask for volunteers.

The Volunteer Subject

Even if the participants in a study receive compensation in the form of course credit, a small amount of money, or a chance at being treated for a psychological problem, they are still essentially volunteers. This is worth considering because people who volunteer to participate in psychological research have been shown to differ in predictable ways from those who do not volunteer. Specifically, there is good evidence that on average, volunteers have the following characteristics compared with non-volunteers (Rosenthal & Rosnow, 1976) [3] :

They are more interested in the topic of the research.
They are more educated.
They have a greater need for approval.
They have higher IQ.
They are more sociable.
They are higher in social class.

This difference can be an issue of external validity if there is a reason to believe that participants with these characteristics are likely to behave differently than the general population. For example, in testing different methods of persuading people, a rational argument might work better on volunteers than it does on the general population because of their generally higher educational level and IQ.

In many field experiments, the task is not recruiting participants but selecting them. For example, researchers Nicolas Guéguen and Marie-Agnès de Gail conducted a field experiment on the effect of being smiled at on helping, in which the participants were shoppers at a supermarket. A confederate walking down a stairway gazed directly at a shopper walking up the stairway and either smiled or did not smile. Shortly afterward, the shopper encountered another confederate, who dropped some computer diskettes on the ground. The dependent variable was whether or not the shopper stopped to help pick up the diskettes (Guéguen & de Gail, 2003) [4] . There are two aspects of this study that are worth addressing here. First, n otice that these participants were not “recruited,” which means that the IRB would have taken care to ensure that dispensing with informed consent in this case was acceptable (e.g., the situation would not have been expected to cause any harm and the study was conducted in the context of people’s ordinary activities). Second, even though informed consent was not necessary, the researchers still had to select participants from among all the shoppers taking the stairs that day. I t is extremely important that this kind of selection be done according to a well-defined set of rules that are established before the data collection begins and can be explained clearly afterward. In this case, with each trip down the stairs, the confederate was instructed to gaze at the first person he encountered who appeared to be between the ages of 20 and 50. Only if the person gazed back did they become a participant in the study. The point of having a well-defined selection rule is to avoid bias in the selection of participants. For example, if the confederate was free to choose which shoppers he would gaze at, he might choose friendly-looking shoppers when he was set to smile and unfriendly-looking ones when he was not set to smile. As we will see shortly, such biases can be entirely unintentional.

Standardizing the Procedure

It is surprisingly easy to introduce extraneous variables during the procedure. For example, the same experimenter might give clear instructions to one participant but vague instructions to another. Or one experimenter might greet participants warmly while another barely makes eye contact with them. To the extent that such variables affect participants’ behavior, they add noise to the data and make the effect of the independent variable more difficult to detect. If they vary systematically across conditions, they become confounding variables and provide alternative explanations for the results. For example, if participants in a treatment group are tested by a warm and friendly experimenter and participants in a control group are tested by a cold and unfriendly one, then what appears to be an effect of the treatment might actually be an effect of experimenter demeanor. When there are multiple experimenters, the possibility of introducing extraneous variables is even greater, but is often necessary for practical reasons.

Experimenter’s Sex as an Extraneous Variable

It is well known that whether research participants are male or female can affect the results of a study. But what about whether the experimenter is male or female? There is plenty of evidence that this matters too. Male and female experimenters have slightly different ways of interacting with their participants, and of course, participants also respond differently to male and female experimenters (Rosenthal, 1976) [5] .

For example, in a recent study on pain perception, participants immersed their hands in icy water for as long as they could (Ibolya, Brake, & Voss, 2004) [6] . Male participants tolerated the pain longer when the experimenter was a woman, and female participants tolerated it longer when the experimenter was a man.

Researcher Robert Rosenthal has spent much of his career showing that this kind of unintended variation in the procedure does, in fact, affect participants’ behavior. Furthermore, one important source of such variation is the experimenter’s expectations about how participants “should” behave in the experiment. This outcome is referred to as an experimenter expectancy effect (Rosenthal, 1976) [7] . For example, if an experimenter expects participants in a treatment group to perform better on a task than participants in a control group, then they might unintentionally give the treatment group participants clearer instructions or more encouragement or allow them more time to complete the task. In a striking example, Rosenthal and Kermit Fode had several students in a laboratory course in psychology train rats to run through a maze. Although the rats were genetically similar, some of the students were told that they were working with “maze-bright” rats that had been bred to be good learners, and other students were told that they were working with “maze-dull” rats that had been bred to be poor learners. Sure enough, over five days of training, the “maze-bright” rats made more correct responses, made the correct response more quickly, and improved more steadily than the “maze-dull” rats (Rosenthal & Fode, 1963) [8] . Clearly, it had to have been the students’ expectations about how the rats would perform that made the difference. But how? Some clues come from data gathered at the end of the study, which showed that students who expected their rats to learn quickly felt more positively about their animals and reported behaving toward them in a more friendly manner (e.g., handling them more).

The way to minimize unintended variation in the procedure is to standardize it as much as possible so that it is carried out in the same way for all participants regardless of the condition they are in. Here are several ways to do this:

Create a written protocol that specifies everything that the experimenters are to do and say from the time they greet participants to the time they dismiss them.
Create standard instructions that participants read themselves or that are read to them word for word by the experimenter.
Automate the rest of the procedure as much as possible by using software packages for this purpose or even simple computer slide shows.
Anticipate participants’ questions and either raise and answer them in the instructions or develop standard answers for them.
Train multiple experimenters on the protocol together and have them practice on each other.
Be sure that each experimenter tests participants in all conditions.

Another good practice is to arrange for the experimenters to be “blind” to the research question or to the condition in which each participant is tested. The idea is to minimize experimenter expectancy effects by minimizing the experimenters’ expectations. For example, in a drug study in which each participant receives the drug or a placebo, it is often the case that neither the participants nor the experimenter who interacts with the participants knows which condition they have been assigned to complete. Because both the participants and the experimenters are blind to the condition, this technique is referred to as a double-blind study . (A single-blind study is one in which only the participant is blind to the condition.) Of course, there are many times this blinding is not possible. For example, if you are both the investigator and the only experimenter, it is not possible for you to remain blind to the research question. Also, in many studies, the experimenter must know the condition because they must carry out the procedure in a different way in the different conditions.

Record Keeping

It is essential to keep good records when you conduct an experiment. As discussed earlier, it is typical for experimenters to generate a written sequence of conditions before the study begins and then to test each new participant in the next condition in the sequence. As you test them, it is a good idea to add to this list basic demographic information; the date, time, and place of testing; and the name of the experimenter who did the testing. It is also a good idea to have a place for the experimenter to write down comments about unusual occurrences (e.g., a confused or uncooperative participant) or questions that come up. This kind of information can be useful later if you decide to analy z e sex differences or effects of different experimenters, or if a question arises about a particular participant or testing session.

Since participants' identities should be kept as confidential (or anonymous) as possible, their names and other identifying information should not be included with their data. In order to identify individual participants, it can, therefore, be useful to assign an identification number to each participant as you test them. Simply numbering them consecutively beginning with 1 is usually sufficient. This number can then also be written on any response sheets or questionnaires that participants generate, making it easier to keep them together.

Manipulation Check

In many experiments, the independent variable is a construct that can only be manipulated indirectly. For example, a researcher might try to manipulate participants’ stress levels indirectly by telling some of them that they have five minutes to prepare a short speech that they will then have to give to an audience of other participants. In such situations, researchers often include a manipulation check in their procedure. A manipulation check is a separate measure of the construct the researcher is trying to manipulate. The purpose of a manipulation check is to confirm that the independent variable was, in fact, successfully manipulated. For example, researchers trying to manipulate participants’ stress levels might give them a paper-and-pencil stress questionnaire or take their blood pressure—perhaps right after the manipulation or at the end of the procedure—to verify that they successfully manipulated this variable.

Manipulation checks are particularly important when the results of an experiment turn out null. In cases where the results show no significant effect of the manipulation of the independent variable on the dependent variable, a manipulation check can help the experimenter determine whether the null result is due to a real absence of an effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable or if it is due to a problem with the manipulation of the independent variable. Imagine, for example, that you exposed participants to happy or sad movie music—intending to put them in happy or sad moods—but you found that this had no effect on the number of happy or sad childhood events they recalled. This could be because being in a happy or sad mood has no effect on memories for childhood events. But it could also be that the music was ineffective at putting participants in happy or sad moods. A manipulation check—in this case, a measure of participants’ moods—would help resolve this uncertainty. If it showed that you had successfully manipulated participants’ moods, then it would appear that there is indeed no effect of mood on memory for childhood events. But if it showed that you did not successfully manipulate participants’ moods, then it would appear that you need a more effective manipulation to answer your research question.

Manipulation checks are usually done at the end of the procedure to be sure that the effect of the manipulation lasted throughout the entire procedure and to avoid calling unnecessary attention to the manipulation (to avoid a demand characteristic). However, researchers are wise to include a manipulation check in a pilot test of their experiment so that they avoid spending a lot of time and resources on an experiment that is doomed to fail and instead spend that time and energy finding a better manipulation of the independent variable.

Pilot Testing

It is always a good idea to conduct a pilot test of your experiment. A pilot test is a small-scale study conducted to make sure that a new procedure works as planned. In a pilot test, you can recruit participants formally (e.g., from an established participant pool) or you can recruit them informally from among family, friends, classmates, and so on. The number of participants can be small, but it should be enough to give you confidence that your procedure works as planned. There are several important questions that you can answer by conducting a pilot test:

Do participants understand the instructions?
What kind of misunderstandings do participants have, what kind of mistakes do they make, and what kind of questions do they ask?
Do participants become bored or frustrated?
Is an indirect manipulation effective? (You will need to include a manipulation check.)
Can participants guess the research question or hypothesis (are there demand characteristics)?
How long does the procedure take?
Are computer programs or other automated procedures working properly?
Are data being recorded correctly?

Of course, to answer some of these questions you will need to observe participants carefully during the procedure and talk with them about it afterward. Participants are often hesitant to criticize a study in front of the researcher, so be sure they understand that their participation is part of a pilot test and you are genuinely interested in feedback that will help you improve the procedure. If the procedure works as planned, then you can proceed with the actual study. If there are problems to be solved, you can solve them, pilot test the new procedure, and continue with this process until you are ready to proceed.

Research Methods in Psychology Copyright © 2020 by Rajiv S. Jhangiani, I-Chant A. Chiang, Carrie Cuttler, Dana C. Leighton & Molly A. Metz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Search This Site All UCSD Sites Faculty/Staff Search Term
Contact & Directions
Climate Statement
Cognitive Behavioral Neuroscience
Cognitive Psychology
Developmental Psychology
Social Psychology
Adjunct Faculty
Non-Senate Instructors
Researchers
Psychology Grads
Affiliated Grads
New and Prospective Students
Honors Program
Experiential Learning
Programs & Events
Psi Chi / Psychology Club
Prospective PhD Students
Current PhD Students
Area Brown Bags
Colloquium Series
Anderson Distinguished Lecture Series
Speaker Videos
Undergraduate Program
Academic and Writing Resources

Writing Research Papers

Research Paper Structure

Whether you are writing a B.S. Degree Research Paper or completing a research report for a Psychology course, it is highly likely that you will need to organize your research paper in accordance with American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines. Here we discuss the structure of research papers according to APA style.

Major Sections of a Research Paper in APA Style

A complete research paper in APA style that is reporting on experimental research will typically contain a Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and References sections. 1 Many will also contain Figures and Tables and some will have an Appendix or Appendices. These sections are detailed as follows (for a more in-depth guide, please refer to " How to Write a Research Paper in APA Style ”, a comprehensive guide developed by Prof. Emma Geller). 2

What is this paper called and who wrote it? – the first page of the paper; this includes the name of the paper, a “running head”, authors, and institutional affiliation of the authors. The institutional affiliation is usually listed in an Author Note that is placed towards the bottom of the title page. In some cases, the Author Note also contains an acknowledgment of any funding support and of any individuals that assisted with the research project.

One-paragraph summary of the entire study – typically no more than 250 words in length (and in many cases it is well shorter than that), the Abstract provides an overview of the study.

Introduction

What is the topic and why is it worth studying? – the first major section of text in the paper, the Introduction commonly describes the topic under investigation, summarizes or discusses relevant prior research (for related details, please see the Writing Literature Reviews section of this website), identifies unresolved issues that the current research will address, and provides an overview of the research that is to be described in greater detail in the sections to follow.

What did you do? – a section which details how the research was performed. It typically features a description of the participants/subjects that were involved, the study design, the materials that were used, and the study procedure. If there were multiple experiments, then each experiment may require a separate Methods section. A rule of thumb is that the Methods section should be sufficiently detailed for another researcher to duplicate your research.

What did you find? – a section which describes the data that was collected and the results of any statistical tests that were performed. It may also be prefaced by a description of the analysis procedure that was used. If there were multiple experiments, then each experiment may require a separate Results section.

What is the significance of your results? – the final major section of text in the paper. The Discussion commonly features a summary of the results that were obtained in the study, describes how those results address the topic under investigation and/or the issues that the research was designed to address, and may expand upon the implications of those findings. Limitations and directions for future research are also commonly addressed.

List of articles and any books cited – an alphabetized list of the sources that are cited in the paper (by last name of the first author of each source). Each reference should follow specific APA guidelines regarding author names, dates, article titles, journal titles, journal volume numbers, page numbers, book publishers, publisher locations, websites, and so on (for more information, please see the Citing References in APA Style page of this website).

Tables and Figures

Graphs and data (optional in some cases) – depending on the type of research being performed, there may be Tables and/or Figures (however, in some cases, there may be neither). In APA style, each Table and each Figure is placed on a separate page and all Tables and Figures are included after the References. Tables are included first, followed by Figures. However, for some journals and undergraduate research papers (such as the B.S. Research Paper or Honors Thesis), Tables and Figures may be embedded in the text (depending on the instructor’s or editor’s policies; for more details, see "Deviations from APA Style" below).

Supplementary information (optional) – in some cases, additional information that is not critical to understanding the research paper, such as a list of experiment stimuli, details of a secondary analysis, or programming code, is provided. This is often placed in an Appendix.

Variations of Research Papers in APA Style

Although the major sections described above are common to most research papers written in APA style, there are variations on that pattern. These variations include:

Literature reviews – when a paper is reviewing prior published research and not presenting new empirical research itself (such as in a review article, and particularly a qualitative review), then the authors may forgo any Methods and Results sections. Instead, there is a different structure such as an Introduction section followed by sections for each of the different aspects of the body of research being reviewed, and then perhaps a Discussion section.
Multi-experiment papers – when there are multiple experiments, it is common to follow the Introduction with an Experiment 1 section, itself containing Methods, Results, and Discussion subsections. Then there is an Experiment 2 section with a similar structure, an Experiment 3 section with a similar structure, and so on until all experiments are covered. Towards the end of the paper there is a General Discussion section followed by References. Additionally, in multi-experiment papers, it is common for the Results and Discussion subsections for individual experiments to be combined into single “Results and Discussion” sections.

Departures from APA Style

In some cases, official APA style might not be followed (however, be sure to check with your editor, instructor, or other sources before deviating from standards of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association). Such deviations may include:

Placement of Tables and Figures – in some cases, to make reading through the paper easier, Tables and/or Figures are embedded in the text (for example, having a bar graph placed in the relevant Results section). The embedding of Tables and/or Figures in the text is one of the most common deviations from APA style (and is commonly allowed in B.S. Degree Research Papers and Honors Theses; however you should check with your instructor, supervisor, or editor first).
Incomplete research – sometimes a B.S. Degree Research Paper in this department is written about research that is currently being planned or is in progress. In those circumstances, sometimes only an Introduction and Methods section, followed by References, is included (that is, in cases where the research itself has not formally begun). In other cases, preliminary results are presented and noted as such in the Results section (such as in cases where the study is underway but not complete), and the Discussion section includes caveats about the in-progress nature of the research. Again, you should check with your instructor, supervisor, or editor first.
Class assignments – in some classes in this department, an assignment must be written in APA style but is not exactly a traditional research paper (for instance, a student asked to write about an article that they read, and to write that report in APA style). In that case, the structure of the paper might approximate the typical sections of a research paper in APA style, but not entirely. You should check with your instructor for further guidelines.

Workshops and Downloadable Resources

For in-person discussion of the process of writing research papers, please consider attending this department’s “Writing Research Papers” workshop (for dates and times, please check the undergraduate workshops calendar).

Downloadable Resources

How to Write APA Style Research Papers (a comprehensive guide) [ PDF ]
Tips for Writing APA Style Research Papers (a brief summary) [ PDF ]
Example APA Style Research Paper (for B.S. Degree – empirical research) [ PDF ]
Example APA Style Research Paper (for B.S. Degree – literature review) [ PDF ]

Further Resources

How-To Videos

Writing Research Paper Videos

APA Journal Article Reporting Guidelines

Appelbaum, M., Cooper, H., Kline, R. B., Mayo-Wilson, E., Nezu, A. M., & Rao, S. M. (2018). Journal article reporting standards for quantitative research in psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board task force report . American Psychologist , 73 (1), 3.
Levitt, H. M., Bamberg, M., Creswell, J. W., Frost, D. M., Josselson, R., & Suárez-Orozco, C. (2018). Journal article reporting standards for qualitative primary, qualitative meta-analytic, and mixed methods research in psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board task force report . American Psychologist , 73 (1), 26.

External Resources

Formatting APA Style Papers in Microsoft Word
How to Write an APA Style Research Paper from Hamilton University
WikiHow Guide to Writing APA Research Papers
Sample APA Formatted Paper with Comments
Sample APA Formatted Paper
Tips for Writing a Paper in APA Style

1 VandenBos, G. R. (Ed). (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.) (pp. 41-60). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

2 geller, e. (2018). how to write an apa-style research report . [instructional materials]. , prepared by s. c. pan for ucsd psychology.

Formatting Research Papers
Using Databases and Finding References
What Types of References Are Appropriate?
Evaluating References and Taking Notes
Citing References
Writing a Literature Review
Writing Process and Revising
Improving Scientific Writing
Academic Integrity and Avoiding Plagiarism
Writing Research Papers Videos

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

11.2 Writing a Research Report in American Psychological Association (APA) Style

Learning objectives.

Identify the major sections of an APA-style research report and the basic contents of each section.
Plan and write an effective APA-style research report.

Sections of a Research Report

Title page and abstract.

Sex Differences in Coping Styles and Implications for Depressed Mood
Effects of Aging and Divided Attention on Memory for Items and Their Contexts
Computer-Assisted Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Child Anxiety: Results of a Randomized Clinical Trial
Virtual Driving and Risk Taking: Do Racing Games Increase Risk-Taking Cognitions, Affect, and Behavior?

It’s Soooo Cute!

How Informal Should an Article Title Be?

“Let’s Get Serious: Communicating Commitment in Romantic Relationships”
“Through the Looking Glass Clearly: Accuracy and Assumed Similarity in Well-Adjusted Individuals’ First Impressions”
“Don’t Hide Your Happiness! Positive Emotion Dissociation, Social Connectedness, and Psychological Functioning”
“Forbidden Fruit: Inattention to Attractive Alternatives Provokes Implicit Relationship Reactance”

Introduction

The Opening

The opening , which is usually a paragraph or two in length, introduces the research question and explains why it is interesting. To capture the reader’s attention, researcher Daryl Bem recommends starting with general observations about the topic under study, expressed in ordinary language (not technical jargon)—observations that are about people and their behavior (not about researchers or their research; Bem, 2003). Concrete examples are often very useful here. According to Bem, this would be a poor way to begin a research report:

Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance received a great deal of attention during the latter part of the 20th century (p. 191)

The following would be much better:

The individual who holds two beliefs that are inconsistent with one another may feel uncomfortable. For example, the person who knows that he or she enjoys smoking but believes it to be unhealthy may experience discomfort arising from the inconsistency or disharmony between these two thoughts or cognitions. This feeling of discomfort was called cognitive dissonance by social psychologist Leon Festinger (1957), who suggested that individuals will be motivated to remove this dissonance in whatever way they can (p. 191).

Breaking the Rules

A friend whose mother is suffering symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) tells the story of taking her mother to visit a nursing home, preliminary to her mother’s moving there. During an orientation meeting at the nursing home, the rules and regulations were explained, one of which regarded the dining room. The dining room was described as similar to a fine restaurant except that tipping was not required. The absence of tipping was a central theme in the orientation lecture, mentioned frequently to emphasize the quality of care along with the advantages of having paid in advance. At the end of the meeting, the friend’s mother was asked whether she had any questions. She replied that she only had one question: “Should I tip?” (p. 3).

The Literature Review

Another example of this phenomenon comes from the work of Williams (2004).

Williams (2004) offers one explanation of this phenomenon.

An alternative perspective has been provided by Williams (2004).

We used a method based on the one used by Williams (2004).

The Closing

The closing of the introduction—typically the final paragraph or two—usually includes two important elements. The first is a clear statement of the main research question or hypothesis. This statement tends to be more formal and precise than in the opening and is often expressed in terms of operational definitions of the key variables. The second is a brief overview of the method and some comment on its appropriateness. Here, for example, is how Darley and Latané (1968) concluded the introduction to their classic article on the bystander effect:

These considerations lead to the hypothesis that the more bystanders to an emergency, the less likely, or the more slowly, any one bystander will intervene to provide aid. To test this proposition it would be necessary to create a situation in which a realistic “emergency” could plausibly occur. Each subject should also be blocked from communicating with others to prevent his getting information about their behavior during the emergency. Finally, the experimental situation should allow for the assessment of the speed and frequency of the subjects’ reaction to the emergency. The experiment reported below attempted to fulfill these conditions (p. 378).

Thus the introduction leads smoothly into the next major section of the article—the method section.

Figure 11.1 Three Ways of Organizing an APA-Style Method

Simple method	Typical method	Complex method
The participants were… There were three conditions…	The participants were… There were three conditions… Participants viewed each stimulus on the computer screen…	The participants were… The stimuli were… There were three conditions… Participants viewed each stimulus on the computer screen…

Simple method

Typical method

Complex method

The participants were…

There were three conditions…

The participants were…

There were three conditions…

Participants viewed each stimulus on the computer screen…

The participants were…

The stimuli were…

There were three conditions…

Participants viewed each stimulus on the computer screen…

After the participants section, the structure can vary a bit. Figure 11.1 “Three Ways of Organizing an APA-Style Method” shows three common approaches. In the first, the participants section is followed by a design and procedure subsection, which describes the rest of the method. This works well for methods that are relatively simple and can be described adequately in a few paragraphs. In the second approach, the participants section is followed by separate design and procedure subsections. This works well when both the design and the procedure are relatively complicated and each requires multiple paragraphs.

The results section is where you present the main results of the study, including the results of the statistical analyses. Although it does not include the raw data—individual participants’ responses or scores—researchers should save their raw data and make them available to other researchers who request them. Some journals now make the raw data available online.

The results section should then tackle the primary research questions, one at a time. Again, there should be a clear organization. One approach would be to answer the most general questions and then proceed to answer more specific ones. Another would be to answer the main question first and then to answer secondary ones. Regardless, Bem (2003) suggests the following basic structure for discussing each new result:

Remind the reader of the research question.
Give the answer to the research question in words.
Present the relevant statistics.
Qualify the answer if necessary.
Summarize the result.

The discussion is the last major section of the research report. Discussions usually consist of some combination of the following elements:

Summary of the research
Theoretical implications
Practical implications
Limitations
Suggestions for future research

Finally, some researchers are quite good at ending their articles with a sweeping or thought-provoking conclusion. Darley and Latané (1968), for example, ended their article on the bystander effect by discussing the idea that whether people help others may depend more on the situation than on their personalities. Their final sentence is, “If people understand the situational forces that can make them hesitate to intervene, they may better overcome them” (p. 383). However, this kind of ending can be difficult to pull off. It can sound overreaching or just banal and end up detracting from the overall impact of the article. It is often better simply to end when you have made your final point (although you should avoid ending on a limitation).

Appendixes, Tables, and Figures

Appendixes, tables, and figures come after the references. An appendix is appropriate for supplemental material that would interrupt the flow of the research report if it were presented within any of the major sections. An appendix could be used to present lists of stimulus words, questionnaire items, detailed descriptions of special equipment or unusual statistical analyses, or references to the studies that are included in a meta-analysis. Each appendix begins on a new page. If there is only one, the heading is “Appendix,” centered at the top of the page. If there is more than one, the headings are “Appendix A,” “Appendix B,” and so on, and they appear in the order they were first mentioned in the text of the report.

After any appendixes come tables and then figures. Tables and figures are both used to present results. Figures can also be used to illustrate theories (e.g., in the form of a flowchart), display stimuli, outline procedures, and present many other kinds of information. Each table and figure appears on its own page. Tables are numbered in the order that they are first mentioned in the text (“Table 1,” “Table 2,” and so on). Figures are numbered the same way (“Figure 1,” “Figure 2,” and so on). A brief explanatory title, with the important words capitalized, appears above each table. Each figure is given a brief explanatory caption, where (aside from proper nouns or names) only the first word of each sentence is capitalized. More details on preparing APA-style tables and figures are presented later in the book.

Sample APA-Style Research Report

Figure 11.2 “Title Page and Abstract” , Figure 11.3 “Introduction and Method” , Figure 11.4 “Results and Discussion” , and Figure 11.5 “References and Figure” show some sample pages from an APA-style empirical research report originally written by undergraduate student Tomoe Suyama at California State University, Fresno. The main purpose of these figures is to illustrate the basic organization and formatting of an APA-style empirical research report, although many high-level and low-level style conventions can be seen here too.

Figure 11.2 Title Page and Abstract

This student paper does not include the author note on the title page. The abstract appears on its own page.

Figure 11.3 Introduction and Method

Note that the introduction is headed with the full title, and the method section begins immediately after the introduction ends.

Figure 11.4 Results and Discussion

The discussion begins immediately after the results section ends.

Figure 11.5 References and Figure

If there were appendixes or tables, they would come before the figure.

Key Takeaways

An APA-style empirical research report consists of several standard sections. The main ones are the abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, and references.
The introduction consists of an opening that presents the research question, a literature review that describes previous research on the topic, and a closing that restates the research question and comments on the method. The literature review constitutes an argument for why the current study is worth doing.
The method section describes the method in enough detail that another researcher could replicate the study. At a minimum, it consists of a participants subsection and a design and procedure subsection.
The results section describes the results in an organized fashion. Each primary result is presented in terms of statistical results but also explained in words.
The discussion typically summarizes the study, discusses theoretical and practical implications and limitations of the study, and offers suggestions for further research.
Practice: Look through an issue of a general interest professional journal (e.g., Psychological Science ). Read the opening of the first five articles and rate the effectiveness of each one from 1 ( very ineffective ) to 5 ( very effective ). Write a sentence or two explaining each rating.
Practice: Find a recent article in a professional journal and identify where the opening, literature review, and closing of the introduction begin and end.
Practice: Find a recent article in a professional journal and highlight in a different color each of the following elements in the discussion: summary, theoretical implications, practical implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research.

Bem, D. J. (2003). Writing the empirical journal article. In J. M. Darley, M. P. Zanna, & H. R. Roediger III (Eds.), The compleat academic: A practical guide for the beginning social scientist (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Darley, J. M., & Latané, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4 , 377–383.

Research Methods in Psychology Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Free APA Journals ™ Articles

Recently published articles from subdisciplines of psychology covered by more than 90 APA Journals™ publications.

For additional free resources (such as article summaries, podcasts, and more), please visit the Highlights in Psychological Research page.

Basic / Experimental Psychology
Clinical Psychology
Core of Psychology
Developmental Psychology
Educational Psychology, School Psychology, and Training
Forensic Psychology
Health Psychology & Medicine
Industrial / Organizational Psychology & Management
Neuroscience & Cognition
Social Psychology & Social Processes
Moving While Black: Intergroup Attitudes Influence Judgments of Speed (PDF, 71KB) Journal of Experimental Psychology: General February 2016 by Andreana C. Kenrick, Stacey Sinclair, Jennifer Richeson, Sara C. Verosky, and Janetta Lun
Recognition Without Awareness: Encoding and Retrieval Factors (PDF, 116KB) Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition September 2015 by Fergus I. M. Craik, Nathan S. Rose, and Nigel Gopie
The Tip-of-the-Tongue Heuristic: How Tip-of-the-Tongue States Confer Perceptibility on Inaccessible Words (PDF, 91KB) Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition September 2015 by Anne M. Cleary and Alexander B. Claxton
Cognitive Processes in the Breakfast Task: Planning and Monitoring (PDF, 146KB) Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology / Revue canadienne de psychologie expérimentale September 2015 by Nathan S. Rose, Lin Luo, Ellen Bialystok, Alexandra Hering, Karen Lau, and Fergus I. M. Craik
Searching for Explanations: How the Internet Inflates Estimates of Internal Knowledge (PDF, 138KB) Journal of Experimental Psychology: General June 2015 by Matthew Fisher, Mariel K. Goddu, and Frank C. Keil
Client Perceptions of Corrective Experiences in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Motivational Interviewing for Generalized Anxiety Disorder: An Exploratory Pilot Study (PDF, 62KB) Journal of Psychotherapy Integration March 2017 by Jasmine Khattra, Lynne Angus, Henny Westra, Christianne Macaulay, Kathrin Moertl, and Michael Constantino
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Developmental Trajectories Related to Parental Expressed Emotion (PDF, 160KB) Journal of Abnormal Psychology February 2016 by Erica D. Musser, Sarah L. Karalunas, Nathan Dieckmann, Tara S. Peris, and Joel T. Nigg
The Integrated Scientist-Practitioner: A New Model for Combining Research and Clinical Practice in Fee-For-Service Settings (PDF, 58KB) Professional Psychology: Research and Practice December 2015 by Jenna T. LeJeune and Jason B. Luoma
Psychotherapists as Gatekeepers: An Evidence-Based Case Study Highlighting the Role and Process of Letter Writing for Transgender Clients (PDF, 76KB) Psychotherapy September 2015 by Stephanie L. Budge
Perspectives of Family and Veterans on Family Programs to Support Reintegration of Returning Veterans With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PDF, 70KB) Psychological Services August 2015 by Ellen P. Fischer, Michelle D. Sherman, Jean C. McSweeney, Jeffrey M. Pyne, Richard R. Owen, and Lisa B. Dixon
"So What Are You?": Inappropriate Interview Questions for Psychology Doctoral and Internship Applicants (PDF, 79KB) Training and Education in Professional Psychology May 2015 by Mike C. Parent, Dana A. Weiser, and Andrea McCourt
Cultural Competence as a Core Emphasis of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (PDF, 81KB) Psychoanalytic Psychology April 2015 by Pratyusha Tummala-Narra
The Role of Gratitude in Spiritual Well-Being in Asymptomatic Heart Failure Patients (PDF, 123KB) Spirituality in Clinical Practice March 2015 by Paul J. Mills, Laura Redwine, Kathleen Wilson, Meredith A. Pung, Kelly Chinh, Barry H. Greenberg, Ottar Lunde, Alan Maisel, Ajit Raisinghani, Alex Wood, and Deepak Chopra
Nepali Bhutanese Refugees Reap Support Through Community Gardening (PDF, 104KB) International Perspectives in Psychology: Research, Practice, Consultation January 2017 by Monica M. Gerber, Jennifer L. Callahan, Danielle N. Moyer, Melissa L. Connally, Pamela M. Holtz, and Beth M. Janis
Does Monitoring Goal Progress Promote Goal Attainment? A Meta-Analysis of the Experimental Evidence (PDF, 384KB) Psychological Bulletin February 2016 by Benjamin Harkin, Thomas L. Webb, Betty P. I. Chang, Andrew Prestwich, Mark Conner, Ian Kellar, Yael Benn, and Paschal Sheeran
Youth Violence: What We Know and What We Need to Know (PDF, 388KB) American Psychologist January 2016 by Brad J. Bushman, Katherine Newman, Sandra L. Calvert, Geraldine Downey, Mark Dredze, Michael Gottfredson, Nina G. Jablonski, Ann S. Masten, Calvin Morrill, Daniel B. Neill, Daniel Romer, and Daniel W. Webster
Supervenience and Psychiatry: Are Mental Disorders Brain Disorders? (PDF, 113KB) Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology November 2015 by Charles M. Olbert and Gary J. Gala
Constructing Psychological Objects: The Rhetoric of Constructs (PDF, 108KB) Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology November 2015 by Kathleen L. Slaney and Donald A. Garcia
Expanding Opportunities for Diversity in Positive Psychology: An Examination of Gender, Race, and Ethnicity (PDF, 119KB) Canadian Psychology / Psychologie canadienne August 2015 by Meghana A. Rao and Stewart I. Donaldson
Racial Microaggression Experiences and Coping Strategies of Black Women in Corporate Leadership (PDF, 132KB) Qualitative Psychology August 2015 by Aisha M. B. Holder, Margo A. Jackson, and Joseph G. Ponterotto
An Appraisal Theory of Empathy and Other Vicarious Emotional Experiences (PDF, 151KB) Psychological Review July 2015 by Joshua D. Wondra and Phoebe C. Ellsworth
An Attachment Theoretical Framework for Personality Disorders (PDF, 100KB) Canadian Psychology / Psychologie canadienne May 2015 by Kenneth N. Levy, Benjamin N. Johnson, Tracy L. Clouthier, J. Wesley Scala, and Christina M. Temes
Emerging Approaches to the Conceptualization and Treatment of Personality Disorder (PDF, 111KB) Canadian Psychology / Psychologie canadienne May 2015 by John F. Clarkin, Kevin B. Meehan, and Mark F. Lenzenweger
A Complementary Processes Account of the Development of Childhood Amnesia and a Personal Past (PDF, 585KB) Psychological Review April 2015 by Patricia J. Bauer
Terminal Decline in Well-Being: The Role of Social Orientation (PDF, 238KB) Psychology and Aging March 2016 by Denis Gerstorf, Christiane A. Hoppmann, Corinna E. Löckenhoff, Frank J. Infurna, Jürgen Schupp, Gert G. Wagner, and Nilam Ram
Student Threat Assessment as a Standard School Safety Practice: Results From a Statewide Implementation Study (PDF, 97KB) School Psychology Quarterly June 2018 by Dewey Cornell, Jennifer L. Maeng, Anna Grace Burnette, Yuane Jia, Francis Huang, Timothy Konold, Pooja Datta, Marisa Malone, and Patrick Meyer
Can a Learner-Centered Syllabus Change Students’ Perceptions of Student–Professor Rapport and Master Teacher Behaviors? (PDF, 90KB) Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology September 2016 by Aaron S. Richmond, Jeanne M. Slattery, Nathanael Mitchell, Robin K. Morgan, and Jared Becknell
Adolescents' Homework Performance in Mathematics and Science: Personal Factors and Teaching Practices (PDF, 170KB) Journal of Educational Psychology November 2015 by Rubén Fernández-Alonso, Javier Suárez-Álvarez, and José Muñiz
Teacher-Ready Research Review: Clickers (PDF, 55KB) Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology September 2015 by R. Eric Landrum
Enhancing Attention and Memory During Video-Recorded Lectures (PDF, 83KB) Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology March 2015 by Daniel L. Schacter and Karl K. Szpunar
The Alleged "Ferguson Effect" and Police Willingness to Engage in Community Partnership (PDF, 70KB) Law and Human Behavior February 2016 by Scott E. Wolfe and Justin Nix
Randomized Controlled Trial of an Internet Cognitive Behavioral Skills-Based Program for Auditory Hallucinations in Persons With Psychosis (PDF, 92KB) Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal September 2017 by Jennifer D. Gottlieb, Vasudha Gidugu, Mihoko Maru, Miriam C. Tepper, Matthew J. Davis, Jennifer Greenwold, Ruth A. Barron, Brian P. Chiko, and Kim T. Mueser
Preventing Unemployment and Disability Benefit Receipt Among People With Mental Illness: Evidence Review and Policy Significance (PDF, 134KB) Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal June 2017 by Bonnie O'Day, Rebecca Kleinman, Benjamin Fischer, Eric Morris, and Crystal Blyler
Sending Your Grandparents to University Increases Cognitive Reserve: The Tasmanian Healthy Brain Project (PDF, 88KB) Neuropsychology July 2016 by Megan E. Lenehan, Mathew J. Summers, Nichole L. Saunders, Jeffery J. Summers, David D. Ward, Karen Ritchie, and James C. Vickers
The Foundational Principles as Psychological Lodestars: Theoretical Inspiration and Empirical Direction in Rehabilitation Psychology (PDF, 68KB) Rehabilitation Psychology February 2016 by Dana S. Dunn, Dawn M. Ehde, and Stephen T. Wegener
Feeling Older and Risk of Hospitalization: Evidence From Three Longitudinal Cohorts (PDF, 55KB) Health Psychology Online First Publication — February 11, 2016 by Yannick Stephan, Angelina R. Sutin, and Antonio Terracciano
Anger Intensification With Combat-Related PTSD and Depression Comorbidity (PDF, 81KB) Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy January 2016 by Oscar I. Gonzalez, Raymond W. Novaco, Mark A. Reger, and Gregory A. Gahm
Special Issue on eHealth and mHealth: Challenges and Future Directions for Assessment, Treatment, and Dissemination (PDF, 32KB) Health Psychology December 2015 by Belinda Borrelli and Lee M. Ritterband
Posttraumatic Growth Among Combat Veterans: A Proposed Developmental Pathway (PDF, 110KB) Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy July 2015 by Sylvia Marotta-Walters, Jaehwa Choi, and Megan Doughty Shaine
Racial and Sexual Minority Women's Receipt of Medical Assistance to Become Pregnant (PDF, 111KB) Health Psychology June 2015 by Bernadette V. Blanchfield and Charlotte J. Patterson
An Examination of Generational Stereotypes as a Path Towards Reverse Ageism (PDF, 205KB) The Psychologist-Manager Journal August 2017 By Michelle Raymer, Marissa Reed, Melissa Spiegel, and Radostina K. Purvanova
Sexual Harassment: Have We Made Any Progress? (PDF, 121KB) Journal of Occupational Health Psychology July 2017 By James Campbell Quick and M. Ann McFadyen
Multidimensional Suicide Inventory-28 (MSI-28) Within a Sample of Military Basic Trainees: An Examination of Psychometric Properties (PDF, 79KB) Military Psychology November 2015 By Serena Bezdjian, Danielle Burchett, Kristin G. Schneider, Monty T. Baker, and Howard N. Garb
Cross-Cultural Competence: The Role of Emotion Regulation Ability and Optimism (PDF, 100KB) Military Psychology September 2015 By Bianca C. Trejo, Erin M. Richard, Marinus van Driel, and Daniel P. McDonald
The Effects of Stress on Prospective Memory: A Systematic Review (PDF, 149KB) Psychology & Neuroscience September 2017 by Martina Piefke and Katharina Glienke
Don't Aim Too High for Your Kids: Parental Overaspiration Undermines Students' Learning in Mathematics (PDF, 164KB) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology November 2016 by Kou Murayama, Reinhard Pekrun, Masayuki Suzuki, Herbert W. Marsh, and Stephanie Lichtenfeld
Sex Differences in Sports Interest and Motivation: An Evolutionary Perspective (PDF, 155KB) Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences April 2016 by Robert O. Deaner, Shea M. Balish, and Michael P. Lombardo
Asian Indian International Students' Trajectories of Depression, Acculturation, and Enculturation (PDF, 210KB) Asian American Journal of Psychology March 2016 By Dhara T. Meghani and Elizabeth A. Harvey
Cynical Beliefs About Human Nature and Income: Longitudinal and Cross-Cultural Analyses (PDF, 163KB) January 2016 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology by Olga Stavrova and Daniel Ehlebracht
Annual Review of Asian American Psychology, 2014 (PDF, 384KB) Asian American Journal of Psychology December 2015 By Su Yeong Kim, Yishan Shen, Yang Hou, Kelsey E. Tilton, Linda Juang, and Yijie Wang
Resilience in the Study of Minority Stress and Health of Sexual and Gender Minorities (PDF, 40KB) Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity September 2015 by Ilan H. Meyer
Self-Reported Psychopathy and Its Association With Criminal Cognition and Antisocial Behavior in a Sample of University Undergraduates (PDF, 91KB) Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement July 2015 by Samantha J. Riopka, Richard B. A. Coupland, and Mark E. Olver

Journals Publishing Resource Center

Find resources for writing, reviewing, and editing articles for publishing with APA Journals™.

Visit the resource center

Journals information

Frequently Asked Questions
Journal statistics and operations data
Special Issues
Email alerts
Copyright and permissions

Contact APA Publications

PSYC 101 - Introduction to Psychology
PSYC 201 - Lifespan Development
PSYC 205 - Abnormal Psychology
PSYC 212 - Research Methods in Psychology
PSYC 240 - Human Sexuality
PSYC 253 - Intro to Social Psychology
Online Databases: Research Resources
Formatting an APA paper
In-Text Citations
References Page
Sample APA paper

Sample APA Paper

Sample APA paper from Purdue Owl
<< Previous: References Page
Last Updated: Jun 20, 2024 2:14 PM
URL: https://library.ivytech.edu/psychologylibguide

Open access
Published: 26 June 2024

Does the job performance of academics’ influence burnout and psychological counselling? A comparative analysis amongst high-, average-, low-, and non-performers

Miao Lei 1 , 2 ,
Gazi Mahabubul Alam 2 , 3 ,
Karima Bashir 2 , 4 &
Gui Pingping 2 , 5

BMC Public Health volume 24 , Article number: 1708 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

56 Accesses

Metrics details

Extensive research has been conducted treating burnout as an independent variable and performance as a dependent variable to proffer possible solutions to burnout and job performance among academics. Despite this, the burnout crises persist and are exacerbated by the ongoing global proliferation of higher education. Acknowledging this, the current study explored whether performance may contribute to the emergence of burnout.

The study’s sample population comprised 689 academics from Jiangsu province, China. Key Performance Indicator (KPI) results served to measure performance. Psychological counselling and Burnout were calculated using mental health results garnered from the universities. Data was collected on respondents' demographic characteristics and work situations. The mean scores were 0.517 (SD = 0.5) for gender and 1.586 (SD = 1.103) for age. The relationship among performance, job burnout, and psychological counselling was analysed via a cross-sectional survey deploying grouped regression.

Academics’ job performance was found to regulate their burnout (β = -0.058, P < 0.01). Higher performance of academics was significantly associated with lower job burnout and psychological counselling. Furthermore, psychological counselling significantly moderated job burnout (β = -0.012, P < 0.05) among academics without regulating their job performance.

The paper supplements the discourse on job burnout and academic performance by suggesting a pre-counselling measure as a strategy to address the crises of burnout. The paper argued that the continued competence of employees should prevent burnout in Higher education and ensure better job performance.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Job burnout criteria and their schemata had their origins in the social and historical practices and experiences in the early to middle decades of the twentieth century. However, it was not until the mid-1970s that the factors that led to the recognition of burnout and its impacts were revealed through much psychology-based research [ 1 , 2 ]. Subsequently, the strategies that had been devised for tackling the job burnout crisis were discovered or identified, which had important implications for organizations’ management and staff members’ wellbeing had to be monitored [ 3 ].

Burnout in higher education: research gap and scope

In recent decades, the ever-increasing demands put on people who work in higher education throughout the world have intensified the pressures to deliver high-quality services to students, the wider community and internal staff members [ 4 ]. These circumstances have definitely heightened the challenges for higher education institutions to carry out effective management procedures [ 5 ]. Studies since the early 1990s have subsequently examined the correlations between job burnout issues in higher education, and other variables such as employees’ turnover [ 6 ], organizational commitment [ 7 ] and engagement with one’s work or duties [ 8 ]. To date, however, no study has yet specifically examined what sort of influence academics’ performance has on burnout – this is the focus of this research.

Studies such as those by Lei et al., Montero-Marín et al., and Watts and Robertson [ 9 , 10 , 11 ] explored why job burnout among academics was occurring, and what the key reasons were. What they discovered is that resource constraints, work overloads, uneven competition, inefficient and imbalanced management procedures, lack of motivation, and continuous social and family pressures are the key challenges that lead to a job burnout crisis developing. While Leiter and Maslach and Stankovic et al. [ 12 , 13 ] supported earlier findings that explained the major causes of job burnout, they added that the incompetence of employees is the reason why a job burnout crisis emerged in the first place.

Later on, the findings documented in studies such as [ 1 , 14 ] suggested that job training, motivation and counselling, balancing between job demands and resources, balanced distribution of tasks and working hours, resource allocation and distribution, incentives, and balancing one’s social, family or private life, all could help to address the job burnout crisis. However, the problem in higher education remains unresolved and new cases have continued to increase throughout the world.

Studies such as Fazey and Fazey, Blaskova et al. and Gillespie [ 15 , 16 , 17 ] further argued that the number of academic and management staff as well as students who lack the appropriate level of competence, motivation, necessary knowledge, and skills continues to grow [ 18 ]. Consequently, these situations regularly contribute to a perplexing workplace environment that works best for vested interests who put workplace pressures on the staff to carry out a myriad of tasks [ 19 ]. China presents a compelling case study, particularly in the context of its higher education system. The country has witnessed a rapid expansion of the higher education sector since 1999, changing from an elite to a mass higher education system [ 20 ]. The proliferation of higher education institutions has been stunning, growing from approximately 1,000 in 2000 to 2,756 in 2021, and the annual average growth has been 100 institutions [ 21 ]. This expansion has led to a substantial increase in university graduates from 0.83 million in 2000 to 5.054 million in 2021 [ 21 ]. Concurrently, the number of higher education academics has risen from 0.46 million in 2000 to 1.87 million in 2021 [ 21 ], meaning that China is a country with one of the largest groups of educators.

With this context in mind, it is crucial to explore the salient factors causing job burnout particularly in the huge Chinese higher education sector and identify and explain the pre-cautionary measures that could help alleviate burnout so that there is much less dependence on post-cautionary remediation measures.

Burnout: origin, evolution, and definition

Over the past fifty years, the concept of job burnout has been the subject of substantial conceptual and methodological analysis. Job burnout is currently recognized as a multi-dimensional construct primarily associated with prolonged exposure to work-related stress [ 1 ]. Studies such as those by Maslach et al. [ 1 , 22 ] defined job burnout from the psychosocial perspective, explaining it as a chronic stress-related syndrome that leads to emotional exhaustion, depersonalization or cynicism. A further feature of such burnout is the feeling of reduced or failing personal accomplishment or a sense of inefficacy.

Studies on the topic of job burnout started in the mid-1970s employing the qualitative method [ 22 ]. Basically, the qualitative studies took the phenomenological and narrative approaches, and they explained some key factors (such as work-family conflict, job autonomy, workload, years of experience, role conflicts and the state of working relationships) as the main causes of job burnout [ 2 , 23 , 24 ]. Then during the 1980s research tended to focus on employing various analysis models derived from quantitative methods to test the probable hypotheses where job burnout was treated as a dependent variable. Meanwhile the concerned factors were labelled as independent variables [ 1 ]. More research that continued up to the present day in the 2020s, resulted in establishing correlations/causal relationships between several factors, for instance personality, working relationships and job burnout [ 25 , 26 , 27 ].

A recent trend has been the emergence of research concentrating on identifying the consequences of job burnout by using both qualitative and quantitative methods, as form of mixed methodology [ 1 ]. Comparative studies have been predominantly conducted where job burnout was treated as an independent variable and job performance served as the dependent variable [ 28 ]. Essentially, published studies compared between burnout and non-burnout groups and their results indicated that job burnout and job performance had a negative correlation. Despite a long history of researching job burnout through the aforementioned pathway (Fig. 1 ), apprehensions emerged that performance might be the primary cause for burnout.

Path of job burnout research. Note. (-) = negative relationship

If the performance while doing one’s job triggered burnout, then earlier research on the pathways to burnout might have arrived at a completely different answer. This is despite the fact they may have reached a destination that was not fully agreed on. The ongoing research that has been done on the burnout pathway has erroneously established poor workplace functioning as a consequence of job burnout [ 1 , 29 ]. Subsequently, this study treats job performance as an independent variable, while job burnout is the dependent variable. Taking this approach seeks to create a new paradigm on job burnout research, one that heralds a new pathway on this topic (Fig. 2 )—travelling from the problem (job performance) to the destination (job burnout). This new research pathway will also make comparisons among four types of performing groups to establish whether job performance influences burnout while controlling for factors of burnout (gender, age, professional titles, years of employment in all groups).

Proposed new research path

Job performance in higher education

Theoretically, job performance can be defined as an aggregate of employees’ behaviours and actions that are expected to add value, assuredness and consistency to their workplace (positive or negative). It is essentially the collective expected value of an organization that all employees are expected to help achieve what the workplace has as its objectives or goals [ 30 ]. Paudel [ 31 ] emphasized that the collective performance of a university is mainly dependent on the achievement of the academic staff. Consequently, universities measure job performance and reward actions that are aligned with teaching excellence, future career prospects and organizational policies [ 32 , 33 ].

Three major methods have been identified as measuring an employee’s ability to perform his or her job. The Annual Compensation Review (ACR), also known as the annual confidential report for some countries, is one of the premier strategies implemented for measuring job performance [ 34 ]. Following ACR, the designated line managers will evaluate the employees' performance by employing descriptive analysis based on the job descriptions or duty statement [ 35 ].

However, the ACR method faced criticism for being arbitrary as factors like nepotism, prejudice, favouritism, and office politics, rather than actual job performance often influenced higher performance scores [ 34 ]. To reduce or remove such bad influences, multiple stakeholders were engaged within the ACR to eliminate these. However, it simply failed because what grew in the workplace was a lobbying, imitative and group-based culture in the workplace. The right things could be said or done but without much integrity behind them, so for this reason the ACR became an ineffective tool.

The failure of the ACR model led to the rise of the Individual Work Performance Questionnaire (IWPQ) model [ 36 ] that also later failed due to several reasons which include (1) the IWPQ model failed to identify the specific realities of workers’ performance (2) all employees do not work on the same hierarchical level, so the IWPQ model failed to distinguish between certain specified performance expectations and skills; (3) a basic theoretical test of performance may not reflect the practical reality; and what their duty statements demanded [ 37 ].

The incompatibility of both models (ACR and IWPQ) made the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) model popular over the last few decades [ 38 ]. In order to ensure a more accurate KPI, a 360-degree approach was introduced since 1990s [ 39 ]. Based on this model, the tasks and responsibilities of an employee are segmented into various micro units that reflect a range of differentiated or diverse domains. The specified tangible targets identified for each KPI unit are assigned along with the determined score for each employee based on his/her level in the hierarchy [ 40 ].

Determining the score that goes towards the KPI would normally be maintained through both qualitative and quantitative parameters, and this involves many stakeholders who work in the system [ 38 ]. Despite criticism labelling it as a “numbers game,” the KPI system has become a globally accepted model for assessing how well university academics perform [ 39 ] and China is no exception here. Hence, the score obtained on a KPI is the only official measurement method of evaluating the academics’ job performance and would be used as secondary data.

Research aim, questions, and hypothesis development

Current research trends are highlighting job burnout as the cause of certain job performance behaviours being labelled by Lemonaki et al. [ 41 ], although Taris [ 29 ] acknowledged that job burnout greatly determines performance. Challenging this belief, it has been highlighted that staff members’ performance should ideally influence the issues of job burnout in the university which is yet to be studied scientifically since the 1970s. Hence, whether an obvious difference exists in connection to job burnout between high—and low—performing groups is a key question and answering it will contribute to further refinement on the topic of job burnout.

Keeping this view in mind, this study seeks to compare between the performance level among groups of academic staff in order to: (1) re-explore the possible reasons causing job burnout in the higher education sector; and (2) offer some pragmatic measures applicable to both before and during the job that lead to preventing or at minimizing the burnout crisis. The following questions have been devised to get to the heart of the matter in accordance with the research aim and objectives:

What is the influence of job performance on job burnout? and

What mechanism/measures can be designed to address job burnout?

In order to answer these research questions, the hypotheses devised for this study are explained below.

In the latest revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11, 2019), the World Health Organization (WHO) officially designates burnout as an occupational disease, cautioning against its application to describe experiences outside of the workplace. Sunjaya et al. [ 42 ] further argued that it could – in severe cases – lead to medical conditions or health-threatening scenarios such as cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular risk factors, and depression. Similarly, the WHO [ 43 ] recommended psychological counselling and medical services as the main strategies to treat work issues such as job burnout in many societies, but here the basic well-known principle of “prevention is better than cure” [ 3 , 44 ] was not adhered to. This study intends to hypothesize that job performance fundamentally shapes job burnout by challenging the currently established hypothesis — job burnout primarily hampers good job performance:

H a 1: Academic job performance wields a significant negative influence on job burnout.

Ha2: There is a significant difference in the role of psychological counselling among the four different job performance groups.

If these two hypotheses are proven to be correct, a strong case would subsequently be established where the argument is made that more competent or resilient individuals with high job performance attributes need to be recruited as a pre-cautionary measurement. Their recruitment will prevent or at least greatly minimize the job burnout crisis without having to rely on psychological counselling as a post-cautionary measure. This marks an important contribution the “prevention is better than cure” school of thinking in job-burnout research. Discussions that followed explained the foundation that motivated the authors to develop these hypotheses.

Globally, burnout research was conducted in university settings due to the rising incidents of overloaded workplace demands, coupled with a decline in the number of staff as automation took over certain functions, and the insufficient coping competencies displayed by academics [ 10 ]. Studies have argued that academics are feeling the strain of various challenging occupational demands, including having to deliver consistently high-quality teaching and supervision to students, publishing innovative research in high-impact journals, sustaining managerial and entrepreneurial skills and responsibilities to a high level, and tenure-related success [ 11 ]. When they cannot do so, this leads to the competency of academics being seriously questioned.

Statistics reveal there has been a huge surge in the worldwide number of academics from 4 million in 1980 to 13.1 million in 2018, made possible by the emergence of mass higher education in developing and developed countries [ 45 ]. However, the increase in quantity does not mean that there was a similar increase in the quality of academics, making it impossible to match the standards of elite education [ 11 ]. Furthermore, Montero-Marín et al. [ 10 ] opined that academics worldwide experience persistent job burnout due to a lack of skills or competency to meet substantial work demands. Using this perspective, this paper developed subsequent hypotheses based on our core hypothesis explained earlier in this sub-section:

Ha3: Psychological counselling as a post-cautionary measure has a significant positive influence on job burnout.

Ha4: Psychological counselling as a precautionary measure has a significant positive influence on job burnout.

The results of these four hypotheses can lead to establishing further results and discussions for our research questions outlined earlier. Drawing from the model and existing literature, our study employs a quantitative research method using the comparative analysis approach to explore the influence of job performance on job burnout. The following section explains the research methods, procedure and the population and sample developed for this study.

The quantitative method, using cross-sectional survey design was employed for this research. As advocated by Creswell [ 46 ], this method is deemed most suitable to yield precise statistical results and elucidate relationships between variables, for example examining the statistical associations between academics' performance and job burnout.

Population and sampling techniques

Jiangsu province, a major economic hub in China and ranking second nationwide is the focus of this study. According to China Statistical Yearbook [ 20 ], Jiangsu province has a total of 167 universities, and it is ranked first in the country. These universities can be categorized into three types, i.e. Double First-Class university, general undergraduate universities and vocational universities [ 47 ]. To achieve a representative sample, a multi-stage sampling approach is implemented, and this method involves identifying different strata, selecting target individuals within these strata, and then sampling from these individuals [ 46 ]. The total sample from the total academic population amounts to 5694 and this number refers to academics who are working in Jiangsu province in its 167 universities. Since the nature of universities varies, one university is sampled from each type of university in order to achieve triangulation.

Following the recommendations of The Research Advisors [ 48 ], a sample size of 689 was deemed necessary for a population of 5694 academics. Demographic characteristics of the sample are presented in Table 1 . Subsequently, this sample was proportionally divided and allocated through a stratified sampling technique, making it possible to select specific respondents from each university included in the sampling process. Based on this approach, 408, 203, and 78 academics were sampled as presented in Table 2 .

The personnel departments of selected universities assisted in randomly selecting the academics involved in the study based on every third name on the staff list. These selected academics were used for all the data collection and analysis. The randomly selected samples were grouped based on the 4 categorizations of job performance (high, average, low and non-performance). This helped us not just to avoid sample bias but also provide a random visualization of the performance levels of academics.

Data collection and procedures

The collection of data took place between January 3 and February 17, 2024, and the sources were the university archives. All the universities were approached, and the first author explained the objective of the study to the relevant authorities and what information was required from the universities. Before the visits, ethical approval such as concerns about the safety of the research was obtained from a university (REFERENCE NO: JKEUPM-2023–676) before the research commenced. Subsequently, permissions were obtained from each university. Each university approved the request and provided the researchers with a reference number (YCTU20221017). Selected universities were made aware that participation is voluntary, and they could withdraw from the study at any time.

To ensure participants’ anonymity, we assigned numerical codes sequentially, starting with the first sample from the list. Thus, we collected samples from the universities with respondents represented as 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Therefore, all the participants’ personal information were anonymous and unknown to the researchers. Furthermore, universities were assigned with letters of the alphabet, i.e. A, B, and C. As such, the code for respondents in university A (the first university we collected information from) is A1, A2, etc., to the last respondent. For the second university, we used B1, B2, etc., and pseudonyms were implemented in all the documents as collected from the universities.

Instruments: measures and control variables

The data collection involves demographic information, Key Performance Indicator (KPI) results, and psychological counselling data from the sampled universities which derive from the same individuals. The use of secondary data obtained from the personnel department of the sampled university is more reliable than survey responses.

Control variables

The demographics information: gender, age, professional title, years of employment were evaluated and included in the regression model due to their established associations with job burnout [ 49 , 50 ].

Measurement of job performance

Key Performance Indicator (KPI) was used to measure the performance of the academics. In China, specific KPIs for measuring each competency and performance of each academic is mandated on universities, the basis for this practice being the Guiding Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Assessment and Evaluation System for Universities Teachers [ 51 ]. According to Regulations on the Assessment of Staff in Public Institutions [ 52 ], academic performance is generally divided into four categories: high performance (excellent), average performance (qualified), low performance (basically qualified), and non-performance (unqualified). Hence, KPI results and grading will be utilized as groupings to measure the job performance of academics in this study.

The four-year KPI results of academics were compiled to highlight multi-year trajectories. The inclusion criteria require all academics to have fully participated consecutively in the KPI from 2019 to 2023. The exclusion criteria applied to academics who missed the entire KPI or missed a KPI between 2019 and 2023. In essence, academics who have retired or were absent were not included.

Measurement of burnout and psychological counselling

Burnout and psychological counselling data is used to calculate the burnout status and psychological counselling records of academics. The Guiding Opinions on Strengthening Psychological Health Services from [ 53 ] stipulated that all higher education institutions should offer psychological health services, psychological assessments and other related services regularly for staff members. Data on burnout and psychological counselling was directly obtained from the Mental Health Centre of this study’s sampled universities. According to the records, burnout results and consultation frequency, and psychological counselling were scored based on a scale and were utilized for this study. These forms of data delivered a visual representation of information on academics who benefit from psychological counselling yearly. The measures are presented in Table 3 .

Data analysis

For the first research question (RQ1) concerning the relationship between job performance and job burnout, a multiple regression analysis was conducted using the latest data. To further investigate the relationship between job performance and job burnout and avoid errors caused by sample heterogeneity, group linear regression was employed. This served to examine the impact of job performance on job burnout among the four job performance groups (Model 1).

A performance group comparison based on burnout in 4 years was mapped out to document the results of RQ1 (Model 2). Furthermore, whether job performance affects burnout while controlling for gender, age, and years of employment was assessed. Regarding the second research question, hierarchical linear regression is first employed to assess psychological counselling in terms of: firstly, whether it significantly influences job burnout; and secondly, whether it has a moderating effect.

To ascertain the finding in the first step and to avoid errors caused by sample heterogeneity, group regression analysis was conducted among the four performance groups. This was done to determine whether psychological counselling wields a moderating effect amongst the four job performance groups (Model 1). Furthermore, a performance group comparison based on the role of psychological counselling for more than four years was presented to support the results of RQ2 (Model 2). The research questions and statistical methods are presented in Table 4 .

The influence of job performance on job burnout

Table 5 displays the results of the multiple linear regression analysis, and an inverse relationship between job performance and job burnout among academics (β = -0.058, p < 0.01) is noted. This finding supports H a 1.

To further confirm Ha1, a group regression analysis was executed among the four performance groups to assess how much influence performance level has on job burnout. Table 6 summarizes the findings, strongly suggesting that there is a notable negative association between job performance and job burnout across all four performance groups. Specifically, job performance demonstrates a negative effect on job burnout within each group.

To confirm the inverse association between job performance and burnout and to supplement the outcomes of Model 1, which suggests that performance dictates burnout, the findings from Model 2 analysis demonstrate that academics in the high-performance group consistently maintain low burnout levels. Meanwhile those in the non-performance group consistently exhibit high burnout levels, as depicted in Fig. 3 .

Academics Job performance group comparison (2019 to 2023)

Moderating effect of psychological counselling

Analyzing the moderating influence of psychological counselling on academics experiencing burnout revealed that alleviating the burnout crisis can be done through psychological counselling provides substantially. In the initial block, no control variables significantly impact burnout. However, once job performance is added in the second block, it significantly contributes to negatively predicting burnout (β = -0.034, p < 0.01).

In the third block, it becomes evident that psychological counselling exerts a negative influence on job burnout (β = -0.160, p < 0.05). Upon introducing the interaction between job performance and psychological counselling in Block 4, it significantly predicts job burnout (β = -0.012, p < 0.05). It is strongly indicated in Table 7 that psychological counselling plays a significant negative moderating role in the relationship between job performance and job burnout among academics experiencing crises as a homogeneous group.

Furthermore, after excluding academics who did not participate in psychological counselling, the group regression analysis, as presented in Table 8 , reveals that psychological counselling exerts a moderating effect among the low (β = -0.020, p < 0.01) and non-performance (β = -0.036, p < 0.05) groups. However, there is no moderating influence in the high (β = -0.051, p > 0.05) and average (β = 0.006, p > 0.05) performance groups. Thus, the moderating influence of psychological counselling on job burnout differs across the high, average, low, and non-performance groups. This finding suggests that H a 2 is not substantiated.

To further understand the influence of psychological counselling on burnout among the four performance groups, longitudinal data analysis was conducted on the groups receiving counselling over four years. Illustrated in Fig. 4 , the trend revealed that from 2019 to 2023, academics participating in psychological counselling exhibited lower burnout levels compared to those who do not participate in counselling.

Comparing the role of psychological counselling on job burnout among four groups (2019 to 2023)

Similarly, Fig. 5 shows that regardless of the frequency of psychological counselling and interventions, the KPI scores or performance of academics remain consistent. Thus, these results suggest that while psychological counselling helps to reduce burnout among academics, supporting Ha3, it does not positively affect their performance.

Comparison of academics KPI performance based on their frequency of psychological counselling (2019 to 2023)

Job-performance vs job burnout

Studies by Lei et al. and LePine et al. [ 9 , 54 ] explained that academics who strive and function well would endeavour to overcome various stressors in the workplace and therefore avoid burnout. Conversely, those who struggle to perform well in their jobs will eventually suffer burnout due to their inability to cope with the demands made on them [ 12 ]. Similar to this research [ 12 ], our study found that job performance remains a significant factor influencing job burnout, even after controlling for variables such as gender, age, marital status and others.

Additionally, in the process of improving performance, academics become more expert in their tasks and what they accomplish, which has can create individual benefits (for example, promotion or job recognition) from the organization as reported by Weng et al. [ 55 ]. This finding also supports Taris and Schaufeli [ 56 ] and provides further evidence that the job resources (job performance) acquired can alleviate or reduce job burnout also expands the conservation of job demands resources model [ 2 ].

This study contributes to the research on job burnout scenarios by explaining the relationship that exists between job performance and job burnout amongst academics, resulting into valuable practical outcomes. By expanding job burnout research and backing a different perception on this issue, this study makes valid and substantial theoretical contributions. While most studies typically consider minimizing employee burnout to improve their performance [ 57 , 58 ], this study proposes a new methodological path to exploring the relationship between job performance and burnout.

The role of psychological counselling in treating burnout: post-cautionary measurement vs pre-cautionary measurement

As one of the post-measurements, psychological counselling has proven its effectiveness in reducing job burnout. This proves that H a 3 is valid. The results are largely consistent with prior research on using psychological counselling to alleviate job burnout in other contexts [ 44 , 59 ]. As well, the findings offer empirical evidence that psychological counselling has a moderating effect in both low and non-performance groups.

However, psychological counselling does not demonstrate a moderating effect among high and average performance groups. This stems from the conclusion drawn regarding the first research question (RQ1), suggesting that academics who perform poorly are more likely to experience burnout and consequently seek help from counselling services. Conversely, those who have high performance levels typically experience less burnout. Therefore, the necessity for counselling intervention is negated. Hence, the role of psychological counselling as a post-measure to alleviate burnout remains pronounced.

Furthermore, the observed pattern on the relationship between job performance, psychological counselling and job burnout may indicate that individuals experiencing burnout may engage in a cyclical process, attempting to reduce burnout through psychological counselling. However, it should be noted that although psychological counselling may mitigate burnout supporting [ 44 , 60 ] findings, it does not necessarily enhance performance as suggested by [ 61 ]. Hence, the academics may find themselves trapped in a cycle in which poor performance may experiencer recurring burnout and scenarios where stress is all-pervading. Relying on post-measurement for burnout treatment may not be sufficient for permanent resolution [ 62 , 63 ] and the significance of pre-measurements, as elucidated in H a 4 warrants in-depth exploration.

In this context, the confirmation of the “prevention is better than cure” principle within job burnout research means that H a 4 can be supported as opined by [ 64 , 65 ]. However, the relevance of academic recruitment has been either ignored or underestimated in the contemporary scholarly debate on higher education and job burnout [ 66 ]. Hence, to mitigate job burnout amongst academics and enhance their performance, a proactive recruitment system as a pre-measurement strategy should be implemented to avert any signs of a job burnout crisis. In effect, those who are recruited should be able to avoid signs of burnout.

Since counselling is not ideally meant to improve workplace performance, counselling does not automatically lead to competent, re-energized, motivated, passionate and competent staff. Conversely, a decline in performance may contribute to the persistence of burnout. In light of these findings, it is recommended that a comprehensive assessment of all candidates’ skills and attributes be incorporated into human resources recruitment processes. This means examining potential staff members’ mental, academic and psychological domains.

Furthermore, looking at the modern era which has witnessed a dramatic expansion in higher education, many individuals especially in developing countries wrongly assume that working as academics translate into being able to work less and having less or minimal commitment to their workplace [ 67 ]. This assumption should be changed before and after employment commences. Hence, university recruitment systems should incorporate psychological counselling tests to back up competency skills if these institutions want to employ competent, passionate, and self-motived individuals who are ready to work as academics.

Applicants should be comprehensively assessed, ensuring their ability to work very hard and diligently, and establishing their psychological fitness by evaluating motivations, passions and determinations relevant to the academic role. After the recruitment of right personnel, arrangements should be made for continuous professional development [ 68 ] (both academic and psychological) so that they have the ability to cope with ongoing changes in the higher education system and especially with rapid advances in technology [ 69 ]. Moreover, the university management teams should improve training programs that can enhance staff members’ job performance and expertise by addressing where their skills are lacking and enhancing their mental health [ 70 ].

Limitations and future studies

Although this study employed a different path to explore whether job performance influences burnout, it has some limitations. Firstly, this study proposed psychological tests should be included during the recruitment drives, but it did not specify the psychological parameters to be used in these tests. Secondly, the generalizability of the findings may be constrained because the samples originating from only one province in China. It is essential to recognize the diverse nature of workplaces, cultural practices, geographies, industries, traditions, and contexts given that China is not a homogenous country. To ensure the universality of the findings, future research should include a more diverse and larger sample.

Conclusions

The study expanded on the job burnout research to present findings that establish the influence of job performance on burnout. Indicated by the results is that performance is one of the causes of job burnout in university settings. The study also discovered that psychological counselling moderates the relationship between job performance and burnout. Although the findings confirmed that burnout can be resolved through psychological counselling, this does not mean that a non-performing group can be turned into a performing group. Therefore, to prevent job burnout, universities should refine and focus their recruitment strategies. A panel of psychologists should be included to assess the cognitive and emotional fitness of candidates, and not overly relying on their academic skills and medical screenings.

Availability of data and materials

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the first author (ML) upon reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Annual Compensation Review

Individual Work Performance Questionnaire

Research Question

World Health Organization

Maslach C, Schaufeli WB, Leiter MP. Job Burnout. Annu Rev Psychol. 2001;52(1):397–422.

Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar

Bakker AB, Demerouti E. Job demands–resources theory: taking stock and looking forward. J Occup Health Psychol. 2017;22(3):273–85.

Article PubMed Google Scholar

Schaufeli WB, Bakker AB. Job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. J Organ Behav. 2004;25(3):293–315.

Article Google Scholar

Greere A. Training for quality assurance in higher education: practical insights for effective design and successful delivery. Qual High Educ. 2023;29(2):165–91.

Casteen JT. Effective university management in difficult times. In Liu, N.C., Wang, Q., Cheng, Y. (Eds.), Paths to a World-Class University: Lessons from Practices and Experiences (pp. 137–157). Global Perspectives on Higher Education, vol. 23. New York: Brill; 2011.

Chen X, Ran L, Zhang Y, Yang J, Yao H, Zhu S, Tan X. Moderating role of job satisfaction on turnover intention and burnout among workers in primary care institutions: a cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health. 2019;19(1):1526.

Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

Brown AR, Walters JE, Jones AE. Pathways to retention: job satisfaction, burnout, & organizational commitment among social workers. J Evid Based Soc Work. 2019;16(6):577–94.

Van Bogaert P, Peremans L, Van Heusden D, Verspuy M, Kureckova V, Van de Cruys Z, Franck E. Predictors of burnout, work engagement and nurse reported job outcomes and quality of care: a mixed method study. BMC Nurs. 2017;16(1):5.

Lei W, Li J, Li Y, Castaño G, Yang M, Zou B. The boundary conditions under which teaching–research conflict leads to university teachers’ job burnout. Stud High Educ. 2021;46(2):406–22.

Montero-Marín J, Prado-Abril J, Carrasco JM, Asensio-Martínez Á, Gascón S, García-Campayo J. Causes of discomfort in the academic workplace and their associations with the different burnout types: a mixed-methodology study. BMC Public Health. 2013;13(1):1240.

Watts J, Robertson N. Burnout in university teaching staff: a systematic literature review. Educ Res. 2011;53(1):33–50.

Leiter MP, Maslach C. Motivation, competence, and job burnout. In: Elliot AJ, Dweck CS, Yeager DS, editors. Handbook of competence and motivation: Theory and application (2nd ed., pp. 370–384). New York: The Guilford Press; 2017.

Stankovic M, Papp L, Ivánkovits L, Lázár G, Pető Z, Töreki A. Psychological immune competency predicts burnout syndrome among the high-risk healthcare staff: a cross-sectional study. Int Emerg Nurs. 2022;60:101114.

Otto MCB, Van Ruysseveldt J, Hoefsmit N, Van Dam K. Examining the mediating role of resources in the temporal relationship between proactive burnout prevention and burnout. BMC Public Health. 2021;21(1):599.

Fazey DMA, Fazey JA. The potential for autonomy in learning: perceptions of competence, motivation and locus of control in first-year undergraduate students. Stud High Educ. 2001;26(3):345–61.

Blaskova M, Blasko R, Figurska I, Sokol A. Motivation and development of the university teachers’ motivational competence. Procedia Soc Behav Sci. 2015;182:116–26.

Gillespie M. The motivations, attitudes, perceptions and skills of customer service staff working in Australian university student administration. J High Educ Policy Manag. 2018;40(5):501–13.

Rieckmann M. Future-oriented higher education: which key competencies should be fostered through university teaching and learning? Futures. 2012;44(2):127–35.

Seashore Louis K, Lee M. Teachers’ capacity for organizational learning: the effects of school culture and context. Sch Eff Sch Improv. 2016;27(4):534–56.

National Bureau of Statistics of China. China statistical yearbook. Beijing: China Statistics Press, 2021.

National Bureau of Statistics of China. http://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/ndsj/2022/indexch.htm , 2022.

Maslach C, Leiter MP. Understanding the burnout experience: recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry. 2016;15(2):103–11.

Alrawashdeh HM, Al-Tammemi AB, Alzawahreh MKh, Al-Tamimi A, Elkholy M, Al Sarireh F, et al. Occupational burnout and job satisfaction among physicians in times of COVID-19 crisis: a convergent parallel mixed-method study. BMC Public Health. 2021;21(1):811.

Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

Arvidsson I, Leo U, Larsson A, Håkansson C, Persson R, Björk J. Burnout among school teachers: quantitative and qualitative results from a follow-up study in southern Sweden. BMC Public Health. 2019;19(1):655.

Taris TW, Leisink PLM, Schaufeli WB. Applying occupational health theories to educator stress: contribution of the job demands-resources model. In: McIntyre T, McIntyre S, Francis D, editors. Educator stress. Aligning perspectives on health, safety and well-being. Cham: Springer; 2017.

Google Scholar

Angelini G. Big five model personality traits and job burnout: a systematic literature review. BMC Psychol. 2023;11(1):49.

Terry DL, Woo MJ. Burnout, job satisfaction, and work-family conflict among rural medical providers. Psychol Health Med. 2021;26(2):196–203.

Oosterholt BG, Maes JHR, Van der Linden D, Verbraak MJPM, Kompier MAJ. Cognitive performance in both clinical and non-clinical burnout. Stress. 2014;17(5):400–9.

Taris TW. Is there a relationship between burnout and objective performance? A critical review of 16 studies. Work Stress. 2006;20(4):316–34.

Alam GM, Giacosa E, Mazzoleni A. Does MBA’s paradigm transformation follow business education’s philosophy—a comparison of academic and job-performance and SES among five types of MBAian, Journal of Business Research. 2022;139(2):881–92.

Paudel KP. Level of academic performance among faculty members in the context of Nepali higher educational institution. J Comp Int High Educ. 2021;13(2):98–111.

Allui A, Sahni J. Strategic human resource management in higher education institutions: empirical evidence from Saudi. Procedia Soc Behav Sci. 2016;23(5):361–71.

Musah MB, Tahir LM, Ali HM, Al-Hudawi SVH, Issah M, Farah AM, Abdallah AK, Kamil NM. Testing the validity of academic staff performance predictors and their effects on workforce performance. Int J Eval Res Educ (IJERE). 2023;12(2):941.

Purohit B, Martineau T. Is the annual confidential report system effective? A study of the government appraisal system in Gujarat. India Hum Resour Health. 2016;14(1):33–44.

Khan I, Ahmad DA, Jan DS. Measuring the effectiveness and validity of employees Annual Confidential Report (ACR) and its applicability: a case study of Abdul Wali Khan University. Mardan J Bus Tourism. 2016;2(2):83–99.

Koopmans L, Bernaards CM, Hildebrandt VH, de Vet HCW, van der Beek AJ. Construct validity of the individual work performance questionnaire. J Occup Environ Med. 2014;56(3):331–7.

Santalla-Banderali Z, Alvarado JM. Factorial structure of individual work performance questionnaire (Version 1.0) revisited: evaluation of acquiescence bias. PLoS One. 2022;17(7):e0271830.

Jahangirian M, Taylor SJE, Young T, Robinson S. Key performance indicators for successful simulation projects. J Oper Res Soc. 2017;68(7):747–65.

Karkoulian S, Assaker G, Hallak R. An empirical study of 360-degree feedback, organizational justice, and firm sustainability. J Bus Res. 2016;69(5):1862–7.

Lavy S, Garcia JA, Dixit MK. Establishment of KPIs for facility performance measurement: review of literature. Facilities. 2010;28(9/10):440–64.

Lemonaki R, Xanthopoulou D, Bardos AN, Karademas EC, Simos PG. Burnout and job performance: a two-wave study on the mediating role of employee cognitive functioning. Eur J Work Organ Psy. 2021;30(5):692–704.

Sunjaya DK, Herawati DMD, Siregar AYM. Depressive, anxiety, and burnout symptoms on health care personnel at a month after COVID-19 outbreak in Indonesia. BMC Public Health. 2021;21(1):227.

WHO. Mental health at work. 2022. Available at https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-at-work .

Isaksson Ro KE, Tyssen R, Hoffart A, Sexton H, Aasland OG, Gude T. A three-year cohort study of the relationships between coping, job stress and burnout after a counselling intervention for help-seeking physicians. BMC Public Health. 2010;10(1):213.

UNESCO. Teachers in tertiary education programmes, both sexes (number). Washington, DC: UNESCO; 2019.

Creswell JW. Research design in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 2014.

Ministry of Education of China. Ministerial Office of 211 Project, China. Report on 211 Project 1995–2005. Beijing: Higher Education Press, 2007.

The Research Advisors. Sample size table from the research advisors. 2006.

Adam S, Mohos A, Kalabay L, et al. Potential correlates of burnout among general practitioners and residents in Hungary: the significant role of gender, age, dependant care and experience. BMC Fam Pract. 2018;19:193.

Fiorilli C, Barni D, Russo C, Marchetti V, Angelini G, Romano L. Students’ burnout at University: the role of gender and worker status. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;19(18):11341.

Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. The Guiding Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Assessment and Evaluation System for Universities Teachers. Beijing: Ministry of Education; 2016.

Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee. Regulations on the Assessment of Staff in Public Institutions. Beijing: Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee; 2023.

National Health Commission. The Guiding Opinions on Strengthening Psychological Health Services. Beijing: National Health Commission; 2017.

LePine MA, Zhang Y, Crawford ER, Rich BL. Turning their pain to gain: charismatic leader influence on follower stress appraisal and job performance. Acad Manag J. 2016;59(3):1036–59.

Weng Q, McElroy JC, Morrow PC, Liu R. The relationship between career growth and organizational commitment. J Vocat Behav. 2010;77(3):391–400.

Taris TW, Schaufeli WB. The Job Demands‐Resources Model. In The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of the Psychology of Occupational Safety and Workplace Health. New Gersey: Wiley; 2015. p. 155–80.

Dyrbye LN, Shanafelt TD, Johnson PO, Johnson LA, Satele D, West CP. A cross-sectional study exploring the relationship between burnout, absenteeism, and job performance among American nurses. BMC Nurs. 2019;18(1):57.

Xie YJ, Cao DP, Sun T, Yang LB. The effects of academic adaptability on academic burnout, immersion in learning, and academic performance among Chinese medical students: a cross-sectional study. BMC Med Educ. 2019;19(1):211.

Mafishiraz M. Job Burnout in women and the need to use psychological services and counselling in workplaces. J Educ Soc Behav Sci. 2023;36(5):44–54.

Isaksson Ro KE, Tyssen R, Gude T, Aasland OG. Will sick leave after a counselling intervention prevent later burnout? A 3-year follow-up study of Norwegian doctors. Scand J Public Health. 2012;40(3):278–85.

Anjalee GO, Mohammad MA, Ramakant Z. Counselling: a supportive tool to enhance the academic performance of first year M.B.B.S. students. Indian J Clin Anat Physiol. 2020;5(1):9–12.

Salmela-aro K, Näätänen P, Nurmi J. The role of work-related personal projects during two burnout interventions: a longitudinal study. Work Stress. 2004;18(3):208–30.

van den Berg AE, Beute F. Walk it off! The effectiveness of walk and talk coaching in nature for individuals with burnout- and stress-related complaints. J Environ Psychol. 2021;76:101641.

Pandita A, Sharma D, Pandita D, Pawar S, Kaul A, Tariq M. Childhood obesity: prevention is better than cure. Diabetes Metab Syndr Obes: Targets Ther. 2016;83:90783.

Pokludová L. Prevention Is Better Than Cure. In Antimicrobials in Livestock 1: Regulation, Science, Practice. Berlin: Springer International Publishing; 2020. p. 125–65.

Anwar N, Nik Mahmood NH, Yusliza MY, Ramayah T, Noor Faezah J, Khalid W. Green human resource management for organisational citizenship behaviour towards the environment and environmental performance on a university campus. J Clean Prod. 2020;256:120401.

Fernet C, Lavigne GL, Vallerand RJ, Austin S. Fired up with passion: investigating how job autonomy and passion predict burnout at career start in teachers. Work Stress. 2014;28(3):270–88.

Knighton SC, Gilmartin HM, Reese SM. Factors affecting annual compensation and professional development support for infection preventionists: implications for recruitment and retention. Am J Infect Control. 2018;46(8):865–9.

Liu Q, Geertshuis S, Grainger R. Understanding academics’ adoption of learning technologies: a systematic review. Comput Educ. 2020;151:103857.

Nauman S, Bhatti S, Jalil F, Bint E, Riaz M. How training at work influences employees’ job satisfaction: roles of affective commitment and job performance. Int J Train Res. 2021;19(1):61–76.

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank all the sampled universities that voluntarily provided secondary data.

This research received no external funding.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Student Affairs Division, Yancheng Teachers University, Yancheng, Jiangsu, China

Department of Foundation of Education, Faculty of Educational Studies, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Miao Lei, Gazi Mahabubul Alam, Karima Bashir & Gui Pingping

Department of Economics, East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Gazi Mahabubul Alam

Department of Education, Faculty of Education, Kebbi State University of Science and Technology, Aliero, Kebbi State, Nigeria

Karima Bashir

Center for Faculty Development, Sias University, Xinzheng, Henan, China

Gui Pingping

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

GMA worked on conceptualization and design of this study. ML collected the data. GMA, ML and GPP analyzed the data. GMA, ML and KB wrote the first draft of the manuscript. GMA and KB revised successive drafts of the manuscript. GMA supervised the overall study. All authors read and approved the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gazi Mahabubul Alam .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

As part of a doctoral research, ethical approval for this study was firstly obtained from the Ethics Committee for Research involving Human Subjects of University Putra Malaysia-UPM (JKEUPM) (REFERENCE NO: JKEUPM-2023-676). The first author is a doctoral candidate at the UPM, working under the supervision of the second author.

The Yancheng Teachers University, Jiangsu, China was accountable to supervise and monitor the research fieldwork which was conducted in Jiangsu province of China. Therefore, in addition to the UPM ethical approval, the Academic Committee of Yancheng Teachers University examined the research proposal thoroughly and ensured all ethical considerations were respected. Subsequently, the Academic Committee waived the “Informed/participant Consent Statement” with a reference number YCTU20221017.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Lei, M., Alam, G.M., Bashir, K. et al. Does the job performance of academics’ influence burnout and psychological counselling? A comparative analysis amongst high-, average-, low-, and non-performers. BMC Public Health 24 , 1708 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-19224-z

Download citation

Received : 27 February 2024

Accepted : 21 June 2024

Published : 26 June 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-19224-z

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Job performance
Psychological counselling

BMC Public Health

ISSN: 1471-2458

General enquiries: [email protected]

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

Knowledge Base

Methodology

How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes . Revised on September 11, 2023.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic .

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

Search for relevant literature
Evaluate sources
Identify themes, debates, and gaps
Outline the structure
Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes , and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes

What is the purpose of a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1 – search for relevant literature, step 2 – evaluate and select sources, step 3 – identify themes, debates, and gaps, step 4 – outline your literature review’s structure, step 5 – write your literature review, free lecture slides, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions, introduction.

Quick Run-through
Step 1 & 2

When you write a thesis , dissertation , or research paper , you will likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.

Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

Don't submit your assignments before you do this

The academic proofreading tool has been trained on 1000s of academic texts. Making it the most accurate and reliable proofreading tool for students. Free citation check included.

Try for free

Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions .

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:

Your university’s library catalogue
Google Scholar
Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
EconLit (economics)
Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your search.

Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research question.

For each publication, ask yourself:

What question or problem is the author addressing?
What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
What are the key theories, models, and methods?
Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
What are the results and conclusions of the study?
How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible , and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can use our template to summarize and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to download.

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:

Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

Most research has focused on young women.
There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.

Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, you can follow these tips:

Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers — add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts

In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.

When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services !

This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review.

Scribbr slides are free to use, customize, and distribute for educational purposes.

Open Google Slides Download PowerPoint

If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Sampling methods
Simple random sampling
Stratified sampling
Cluster sampling
Likert scales
Reproducibility

Statistics

Null hypothesis
Statistical power
Probability distribution
Effect size
Poisson distribution

Research bias

Optimism bias
Cognitive bias
Implicit bias
Hawthorne effect
Anchoring bias
Explicit bias

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

To familiarize yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .

An annotated bibliography is a list of source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a paper .

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

McCombes, S. (2023, September 11). How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates. Scribbr. Retrieved June 24, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/literature-review/

Is this article helpful?

Shona McCombes

Other students also liked, what is a theoretical framework | guide to organizing, what is a research methodology | steps & tips, how to write a research proposal | examples & templates, get unlimited documents corrected.

✔ Free APA citation check included ✔ Unlimited document corrections ✔ Specialized in correcting academic texts

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Presenting Your Research

49 Writing a Research Report in American Psychological Association (APA) Style

Learning objectives.

Identify the major sections of an APA-style research report and the basic contents of each section.
Plan and write an effective APA-style research report.

Sections of a Research Report

Title page and abstract.

Sex Differences in Coping Styles and Implications for Depressed Mood
Effects of Aging and Divided Attention on Memory for Items and Their Contexts
Computer-Assisted Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Child Anxiety: Results of a Randomized Clinical Trial
Virtual Driving and Risk Taking: Do Racing Games Increase Risk-Taking Cognitions, Affect, and Behavior?

It’s Soooo Cute! How Informal Should an Article Title Be?

“Smells Like Clean Spirit: Nonconscious Effects of Scent on Cognition and Behavior”
“Time Crawls: The Temporal Resolution of Infants’ Visual Attention”
“Scent of a Woman: Men’s Testosterone Responses to Olfactory Ovulation Cues”
“Apocalypse Soon?: Dire Messages Reduce Belief in Global Warming by Contradicting Just-World Beliefs”
“Serial vs. Parallel Processing: Sometimes They Look Like Tweedledum and Tweedledee but They Can (and Should) Be Distinguished”
“How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Words: The Social Effects of Expressive Writing”

Introduction

The Opening

The opening , which is usually a paragraph or two in length, introduces the research question and explains why it is interesting. To capture the reader’s attention, researcher Daryl Bem recommends starting with general observations about the topic under study, expressed in ordinary language (not technical jargon)—observations that are about people and their behavior (not about researchers or their research; Bem, 2003 [1] ). Concrete examples are often very useful here. According to Bem, this would be a poor way to begin a research report:

Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance received a great deal of attention during the latter part of the 20th century (p. 191)

The following would be much better:

Breaking the Rules

The Literature Review

Another example of this phenomenon comes from the work of Williams (2004).

Williams (2004) offers one explanation of this phenomenon.

An alternative perspective has been provided by Williams (2004).

We used a method based on the one used by Williams (2004).

The Closing

Thus the introduction leads smoothly into the next major section of the article—the method section.

The method section is where you describe how you conducted your study. An important principle for writing a method section is that it should be clear and detailed enough that other researchers could replicate the study by following your “recipe.” This means that it must describe all the important elements of the study—basic demographic characteristics of the participants, how they were recruited, whether they were randomly assigned to conditions, how the variables were manipulated or measured, how counterbalancing was accomplished, and so on. At the same time, it should avoid irrelevant details such as the fact that the study was conducted in Classroom 37B of the Industrial Technology Building or that the questionnaire was double-sided and completed using pencils.

Three Ways of Organizing an APA-Style Method. Image description available.

The results section is where you present the main results of the study, including the results of the statistical analyses. Although it does not include the raw data—individual participants’ responses or scores—researchers should save their raw data and make them available to other researchers who request them. Many journals encourage the open sharing of raw data online, and some now require open data and materials before publication.

Although there are no standard subsections, it is still important for the results section to be logically organized. Typically it begins with certain preliminary issues. One is whether any participants or responses were excluded from the analyses and why. The rationale for excluding data should be described clearly so that other researchers can decide whether it is appropriate. A second preliminary issue is how multiple responses were combined to produce the primary variables in the analyses. For example, if participants rated the attractiveness of 20 stimulus people, you might have to explain that you began by computing the mean attractiveness rating for each participant. Or if they recalled as many items as they could from study list of 20 words, did you count the number correctly recalled, compute the percentage correctly recalled, or perhaps compute the number correct minus the number incorrect? A final preliminary issue is whether the manipulation was successful. This is where you would report the results of any manipulation checks.

Remind the reader of the research question.
Give the answer to the research question in words.
Present the relevant statistics.
Qualify the answer if necessary.
Summarize the result.

The discussion is the last major section of the research report. Discussions usually consist of some combination of the following elements:

Summary of the research
Theoretical implications
Practical implications
Limitations
Suggestions for future research

Finally, some researchers are quite good at ending their articles with a sweeping or thought-provoking conclusion. Darley and Latané (1968) [4] , for example, ended their article on the bystander effect by discussing the idea that whether people help others may depend more on the situation than on their personalities. Their final sentence is, “If people understand the situational forces that can make them hesitate to intervene, they may better overcome them” (p. 383). However, this kind of ending can be difficult to pull off. It can sound overreaching or just banal and end up detracting from the overall impact of the article. It is often better simply to end by returning to the problem or issue introduced in your opening paragraph and clearly stating how your research has addressed that issue or problem.

Appendices, Tables, and Figures

Appendices, tables, and figures come after the references. An appendix is appropriate for supplemental material that would interrupt the flow of the research report if it were presented within any of the major sections. An appendix could be used to present lists of stimulus words, questionnaire items, detailed descriptions of special equipment or unusual statistical analyses, or references to the studies that are included in a meta-analysis. Each appendix begins on a new page. If there is only one, the heading is “Appendix,” centered at the top of the page. If there is more than one, the headings are “Appendix A,” “Appendix B,” and so on, and they appear in the order they were first mentioned in the text of the report.

Sample APA-Style Research Report

Image Description

Figure 11.1 image description: Table showing three ways of organizing an APA-style method section.

Bem, D. J. (2003). Writing the empirical journal article. In J. M. Darley, M. P. Zanna, & H. R. Roediger III (Eds.), The complete academic: A practical guide for the beginning social scientist (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. ↵
Darley, J. M., & Latané, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4 , 377–383. ↵
Bem, D. J. (2003). Writing the empirical journal article. In J. M. Darley, M. P. Zanna, & H. R. Roediger III (Eds.), The complete academic: A practical guide for the beginning social scientist (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. ↵
Darley, J. M., & Latané, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4 , 377–383. ↵

An article that presents the results of one or more new studies.

A brief summary of the study's research question, methods, results and conclusions.

Describes relevant previous research on the topic and can be anywhere from several paragraphs to several pages in length.

Where you present the main results of the study, including the results of the statistical analyses.

Research Methods in Psychology Copyright © 2023 by William L. Kelemen, Rajiv S. Jhangiani, I-Chant A. Chiang, Carrie Cuttler, & Dana C. Leighton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Open access
Published: 26 June 2024

Health behavior and psychological treatment utilization in adults with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder symptoms

Julia Enya Engelkamp 1 ,
Andrea Sabrina Hartmann 1 ,
Katja Petrowski 2 ,
Benedict Herhaus 2 ,
Jörg Michael Fegert 3 ,
Cedric Sachser 3 ,
Peter Kropp 4 ,
Britta Müller 4 ,
Elmar Brähler 5 , 6 &
Anja Hilbert 5

Journal of Eating Disorders volume 12 , Article number: 88 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

30 Accesses

Metrics details

Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), an eating disorder not associated with weight and shape concerns, results in nutrient or energy deficiencies related with further health consequences and a pronounced need for specialized treatment. These interventions need to be tailored to individual health behavior. However, research about health behavior and treatment utilization in ARFID is scarce, particularly in adults, as ARFID is more common in children despite occurring across the lifespan. One important aspect of health behavior is the individual’s health regulatory focus (i.e., health prevention and health promotion). Additionally, symptoms of eating disorders have generally been associated with various health risk behaviors, such as smoking, drinking, or unhealthy physical (in)activity. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate health behavior and psychological treatment utilization in adults with symptoms of ARFID.

A representative adult population sample ( N = 2415) completed several self-report questionnaires assessing symptoms of eating disorders and health behavior. Differences between groups (symptoms of ARFID vs. no symptoms of ARFID) were tested with analysis of variance, Mann-Whitney-U-tests, and binary logistic regression.

Individuals with symptoms of ARFID ( n = 20) did not differ in their health regulatory focus, smoking status, physical activity or psychological treatment utilization from individuals without symptoms of ARFID ( n = 2395). However, they reported higher alcohol misuse than individuals without symptoms of ARFID.

The findings suggest a relevance of further exploration of the relationship between alcohol misuse and ARFID, given the preliminary nature of these results. This exploration could inform treatment strategies for addressing potential comorbid substance misuse. Furthermore, the low psychological treatment utilization in adults with symptoms of ARFID suggest a need for more specialized psychological treatment services, public education about ARFID being an indication for psychological treatment, and further research about treatment barriers.

Plain English Summary

Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), an eating disorder not associated with body image or weight concerns, results in nutrient or energy deficiencies related with further health consequences. It is most common in children, but can occur across the lifespan, although there is little research in adults. Therefore, the study investigated if adults with symptoms of ARFID differ from adults without symptoms of ARFID in health behaviors. A total of 2415 adults from a German national population sample completed questionnaires assessing symptoms of ARFID, health regulatory focus (health promotion focus with the aim of improving one’s health and health prevention focus aiming to avoid any deterioration in health), alcohol misuse, smoking behavior, physical activity and psychological treatment utilization. Adults with symptoms of ARFID did not differ from those without symptoms of ARFID in treatment utilization or any of the assessed health behaviors except reporting higher alcohol misuse. We, therefore, suggest to further explore potential alcohol misuse in individuals with ARFID. Furthermore, more research about treatment barriers in ARFID and more specialized psychological treatment services as well as public education about ARFID being an indication for psychological treatment, are needed to address the low psychological treatment utilization.

Introduction

Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is associated with several health consequences and a high need for specialized treatments [ 1 , 2 ]. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM-5; 3) ARFID results in nutrient or energy deficiencies and can be associated with significant weight loss (or failure to achieve expected growth in children), significant nutritional deficiency, dependence on enteral feeding or nutritional supplements, and/or marked interference with psychosocial functioning [ 3 , 4 ]. Research in children and adults suggests that these health consequences are also linked to further health risk, for instance, decreased bone density [ 5 ] and higher rates of medical comorbidities (e.g., endocrine dysfunction and asthma [ 2 ]). In contrast to other eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa, ARFID is not associated with body image and weight concerns [ 3 ]. According to the DSM-5, ARFID can manifest in heterogenous presentation, individually or in combination, such as lack of interest in eating, fear of aversive consequences of eating, and food avoidance based on sensory sensitivity to food characteristics [ 3 ]. While ARFID can occur across the lifespan, it is more prevalent in younger children, which is in contrast to other eating disorders which occur more frequently later in adolescence [ 6 ]. As a consequence of higher childhood prevalence rates, previous research about health behavior (e.g., physical activity) and treatment utilization focuses predominantly on children and adolescents [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Thus, more research into adult samples is needed.

Children and adults with eating disorders in general exhibit high utilization of mental healthcare services [ 10 , 11 ]. They utilize health care services more frequently than matched healthy individuals with similar rates across different diagnoses [ 9 , 10 ]. In ARFID, research about treatment utilization is comparably scarce. This is not surprising, considering the relatively recent introduction of the diagnosis in the DSM-5 [ 3 ]. Furthermore, the heterogenous presentation of ARFID and the high need for multidisciplinary treatments raises difficulties for treatment centers to correctly diagnose and adopt treatments to the specific needs of patients with ARFID [ 1 ]. Limited research on psychiatric and psychotherapy utilization in ARFID has demonstrated comparable treatment utilization in children with ARFID versus other eating disorders [ 9 ]. In adults, there is some evidence that readmission rates for ARFID are lower than those for other eating disorders, but overall psychological treatment utilization in adults is unclear [ 12 ].

Beyond the treatment focus on disorder-specific symptoms and the reported health risks, interventions need to consider an individual’s general health behavior (e.g., activity levels) and health motivation to reduce health consequences [ 13 ]. One important aspect of health behavior is an individual’s health regulatory focus [ 13 , 14 , 15 ]. According to regulatory focus theory, health behavior can be driven by two independent foci, a promotion focus (i.e., approaching desirable outcomes) and a prevention focus (i.e., avoiding undesirable outcomes; [ 16 ]). In the context of health behavior, individuals with a high promotion focus seek to advance their current health state, while individuals with a high prevention focus are motivated to maintain their current health and to avoid any deterioration [ 13 , 14 , 15 ]. The prevention focus has been associated with lower subjective health and greater somatic and psychological symptoms in German adults (e.g., depression and anxiety [ 13 , 17 ]), while the promotion focus has been associated with better subjective health and optimism [ 13 ]. Additionally, a promotion focus has been associated with health behavior and health behavior intentions such as physical activity, reduction of alcohol consumption and quitting smoking [ 14 , 15 ].

In contrast, findings for health prevention are mixed. While one study reported a negative association of health prevention to health behavior [ 14 ], another yielded a negative correlation only to some health behavior intentions (e.g., to be physically active), but revealed a positive relation to quitting smoking [ 15 ]. Interestingly, in adults, a general prevention focus has been associated with emotional eating (i.e., coping with negative emotions), and a promotion focus has been related to external eating (i.e., eating to external cues, such as the smell or appearance of food [ 18 ]). Given that low interest in eating – and therefore a low reactivity to external cues such as palatable food – is one of the proposed presentations of ARFID [ 19 ], the promotion focus might be relatively low in individuals with ARFID. However, evidence about the regulatory focus motivating health behavior in ARFID is lacking across all ages and different presentations of ARFID. Importantly, most behaviors are assumed to be not inherently promotive or preventive in general, and considering an individual’s regulatory focus in behavioral intervention (e.g., by matching the framing of a health goal to the respective focus) can enhance health behavior intentions [ 20 ]. Hence, knowledge about promotion and prevention focus in individuals with ARFID could potentially benefit health interventions in ARFID to reduce health risks.

Apart from general health behavioral tendencies, symptoms of eating disorders have generally been associated with various health risk behaviors. First, adults with eating disorders are at higher risk for smoking [ 21 , 22 ]. In particular, restrictive eating disorders have been associated with smoking status [ 23 ]. Second, in adults, eating disorders have been shown to co-occur with alcohol misuse and dependence [ 22 , 24 ]. In ARFID, relatively little is known about substance misuse behaviors, although a case study in an adult with ARFID suggests comorbidities with alcohol substance disorder [ 25 ]. Third, eating disorders have been associated with inadequate physical activity in adults, depending on the diagnosis, with some cases involving too much physical activity (e.g., compensatory behavior in anorexia nervosa [ 26 ]) and others involving insufficient physical activity [ 27 ]. Interestingly, picky eating has been associated with physical inactivity in young children [ 7 , 8 ], but if and how this association also occurs in adulthood is unknown.

Despite its severe health consequences, information about health behavior in adults with ARFID is currently lacking. It is unclear whether smoking and alcohol misuse are elevated, similar to other eating disorders [ 22 ], and whether physical inactivity associated with picky eating in childhood [ 7 ] extends into adulthood. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate health behavior and psychological treatment utilization in adults with symptoms of ARFID. In line with previous research on eating disorders, we hypothesized that adults with symptoms of ARFID would more likely be physically inactive, smoke, and misuse alcohol than those without symptoms of ARFID. Furthermore, given the positive association of a promotion focus with health behaviors which are less common in eating disorders [ 14 , 15 ], as well as its association with external eating – an eating behavior not strongly present in some individuals with ARFID – we hypothesized a lower health promotion focus in adults with symptoms of ARFID than those without. Similarly, based on the association of the prevention focus with lower subjective health and greater psychological symptoms [ 13 , 17 ], we hypothesized that adults with symptoms of ARFID would show higher health prevention focus than those without symptoms of ARFID.

Additionally, adults with symptoms of ARFID were hypothesized to be more likely to have sought psychological treatment (not necessarily ARFID-related) than those without symptoms of ARFID.

Participants and design

USUMA (Berlin, Germany), an independent of market, opinion, and social research agency collected the data on a representative German sample aged ≥14 years and fluent in German as inclusion criteria. The recruitment period comprised September to November 2016. The sampling procedure used sampling regions from 258 defined point regions in Germany, a random route procedure to select households, and a Kish selection grid to choose individuals within these households. The detailed procedure has been described elsewhere [ 28 ]. N = 2510 participants out of 4902 selected households participated. Reasons for nonparticipation of households included refusal ( n = 738), households were unreachable ( n = 723), or did not met the inclusion criteria ( n = 15); individuals targeted in the households refused participation ( n = 715), were unreachable within four contact attempts ( n = 111) or had other/unknown reasons ( n = 81) [ 28 ]. For the present analysis, only adults were included (exclusion of n = 86 individuals due to age < 18 years). Nine individuals were excluded because of missing items critical for determining symptoms of ARFID. N = 45 individuals exhibited symptoms of eating disorders (ED) other than ARFID (EDE-Q8 score > 97% percentile [ 29 ]) and were therefore excluded. Additionally, for n = 12 data on symptoms of eating disorders was not available and they were therefore also excluded, resulting in a final sample of N = 2358.

Trained research assistants visited participants at home to provide information about the procedure, obtain informed consent, and supervise the self-report assessment. Participants did not receive an incentive for participation. The procedure followed the ethical guidelines of the International Code of Marketing and Social Research Practice by the International Chamber of Commerce and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research, and ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the University of Leipzig [ 28 ]. Additional information about the quality control of the data assessment is provided in the Additional file 1.

Eating disorders in youth-questionnaire (EDY-Q)

The EDY-Q [ 30 ] measures self-reported restricted eating disturbances. This questionnaire consists of 14 items rated on a 7-point Likert scale (0 = “never” to 6 = “always”), with 12 items necessary to measure symptoms of ARFID.

Low interest in food, fear of aversive consequences, sensory sensitivity and problems with underweight are each assessed with one item. Two items measure shape and weight concerns serving as exclusion criteria for symptoms of ARFID. The EDY-Q only assesses problems with underweight as a consequence of restrictive eating, therefore other potential consequences (e.g., psychosocial impairments) that might indicate the presence of symptoms of ARFID in the absence of significant weight loss could not be considered.

Thus, ratings ≥ 4 (= often) on at least one of the three inclusion items measuring food restriction, ratings ≥ 4 (often) for weight problems, and ratings of 2 (= less than sometimes) or lower on the exclusion items suggested symptoms of ARFID. The EDY-Q has been previously validated in the present adult population data, showing satisfactory discriminant and divergent validity, and internal consistency Cronbach’s α = 0.67 [ 28 ]. However, for the present analyses the total score was not used, only the individual items addressing the symptoms of ARFID were employed.

Health regulatory focus scale (HRFS)

The Health Regulatory Focus Scale (HRFS) is an eight-item self-report questionnaire assessing health promotion and prevention focus. The translated German-language version from Schmalbach et al. (2017) was used [ 13 ]. All items are rated on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = “strongly disagree” to 7 = “strongly agree”). The average of the items for the health promotion subscale (5 items) and health prevention subscale (3 items) were used as an aggregated score in the analysis. The internal consistency in the present data set was acceptable to high, with α = 0.92 for health promotion and α = 0.76 for health prevention.

Cut-down annoyed guilty eyeopener (CAGE)

The Cut-down Annoyed Guilty Eyeopener (CAGE [ 31 ]), is a self-report questionnaire assessing alcohol misuse. It consists of 4 items with dichotomous answer options (1 = “yes”; 0 = “no”). The items measure perceived need to cut down (item 1), feeling bad or guilty (item 2) or having been criticized (item 3) about drinking, or using alcohol as an eyeopener (item 4). The total score was calculated as an aggregated score. Additionally, the recommended cut-off value of ≥ 2 was used to identify individuals with problematic alcohol misuse [ 32 ]. The internal consistency in the present sample was acceptable, with α = 0.79.

Smoking status

The single-item self-report question “Do you smoke?” was used to measure smoking status via the dichotomous answer option 1 = “yes” versus 0 = “no”.

Physical inactivity

The single-item self-report question “Do you exercise regularly (i.e., on average at least 2–3 times a week for 30 min or longer)?” was used to measure physical inactivity via the dichotomous answer option 0 = ”yes” versus 1 = “no”.

Psychological treatment utilization

Two items measured the utilization of psychological (defined as psychosomatic/psychiatric/psychotherapeutic) treatment, one for outpatient and one for inpatient settings. Participants rated the frequency of received treatments on 5-point ordinal scales (1 = “never”, 2 = “1 to 3 times”, 3 = “4 to 6 times”, 4 = “7 to 9 times”, 5 = “more than 10 times”). For the analysis, psychological treatment had to be recoded in dichotomous answer options as either psychological treatment received (coded as 1) or as not received (coded as 0), due to an absence of ratings across all categories.

Eating disorder examination-questionnaire-8 (EDE-Q8)

To control for eating disorder symptomology other than ARFID, global eating disorder psychopathology was assessed via the EDE-Q8 to identify individuals with symptoms of other eating disorders beyond ARFID. This short form of the EDE-Q [ 33 , 34 ] consists of eight items rated on a 7-point Likert scale (0 = “not present” to 6 = “present every day/in extreme form”) measuring restrained eating and eating, weight, and shape concern. Individuals with a mean score above the 97th percentile [ 29 ] were categorized as having symptoms of an eating disorder. Internal consistency in the present data set was high, α = 0.91.

Patient health questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4)

The PHQ-4 self-report questionnaire consists of four items, two items assessing symptoms of depression and anxiety, respectively. All items are rated on a 4-point Likert scale (0 = “not at all” to 3 = “nearly every day”). The aggregated sum score was used for the analyses. The questionnaire has been validated in population studies [ 35 ] showing good construct validity. Internal consistency in the present sample was good, α = 0.88.

Sociodemographic and clinical variables

Participants self-reported their age, gender, and ethnicity. Subsequently, individuals were divided into three age groups (18–39 years, 40–59 years, ≥ 60 years). Additionally, the Body Mass Index (BMI; kg/m 2 ) was derived from self-reported weight and height and all individuals were divided into weight status groups (underweight, < 18.5 kg/m 2 , normal weight, 18.5–24.9 kg/m 2 , overweight, 25.0–29.9 kg/m 2 , obesity, ≥ 30 kg/m 2 ).

Statistical analysis

All analyses were preregistered at OSF [ 36 ]. For statistical reasons, a few deviations from the original planned and preregistered analysis were necessary and are highlighted in the method and results sections. Individuals with and without symptoms of ARFID were identified based on the described items in the EDY-Q. Similarly, individuals with symptoms of other eating disorders were categorized based on the EDE-Q8. χ 2 tests were applied for group comparisons among age groups, gender, and weight status. The Shapiro-Wilks normality test was conducted to test for normality in the group of adults with symptoms of ARFID. Given the large sample size in the group of adults without symptoms of ARFID, the recommended measures for normality testing in large sample sizes (absolute skewness < 2 and kurtosis level < 4) [ 37 ] were applied. Differences between groups (symptoms of ARFID vs. no symptoms of ARFID) in health promotion, health prevention, and alcohol misuse were tested with analysis of variance (ANOVA), and in case of normality violation with Mann-Whitney-U-tests. For dichotomous variables (binary), logistic regression was conducted to assess group differences in smoking, physical activity, and psychological treatment utilization. Individuals that have not filled out at least 80% of the items per scale were excluded listwise from the analysis of the respective scale and missing at random was assumed. All analyses were repeated with individuals with eating disorder symptoms other than ARFID included in the control group (see Additional file 2).

Sample characteristics

The complete sample consisted of N = 2358 individuals with a mean age of 49.56 years ( SD = 17.48). Approximately half of the sample identified as female ( n = 1251, 53.05%) and the majority were of German nationality ( n = 2281; 96.73%). The average BMI was 25.79 kg/m 2 ( SD = 4.54) and n = 1820 individuals (77.18%) had less than 12 years of education. Individuals with symptoms of ARFID ( n = 20, 0.85%) did not differ from individuals without symptoms of ARFID in age or gender (see Additional file 1), but in weight status. Furthermore, individuals with symptoms of ARFID had higher depression and anxiety levels compared to individuals without symptoms of ARFID F (1, 2350) = 9.47, p = .002; η 2 = 0.004.

Health regulatory focus

Adults with symptoms of ARFID did not differ from adults without symptoms of ARFID in health promotion, or prevention focus as displayed in Table 1 .

Health behaviors and psychological treatment utilization

Reported in Table 2 is the prevalence of health behaviors in individuals with and without symptoms of ARFID. Regression models suggested no significant difference in alcohol misuse, smoking status, or physical inactivity (Table 3 ) with odd ratios (OR) ranging from 0.5 to 2.3. Furthermore, individuals with and without symptoms of ARFID did not differ significantly in outpatient or inpatient psychological treatment utilization (Table 3 ). The non-parametric Mann-Whitney-U-test revealed significantly higher alcohol misuse in individuals with versus those without symptoms of ARFID ( U = 27034.50, p = .03). However, the higher misuse in individuals with symptoms of ARFID ( OR = 2.3), did not significantly predict alcohol misuse vs. non-misuse in a binary regression model ( p = .11), suggesting no significant difference in alcohol (non)-misuse status (Table 3 ). All analyses revealed similar results when individuals with other eating disorders ( n = 48) were not excluded from the overall data set (see Additional file 2 for detailed results).

This study aimed to investigate health behaviors and psychological treatment utilization in adults with versus those without symptoms of ARFID in a representative adult German population survey. Findings did not yield differences between adults with and those without symptoms of ARFID in their health regulatory focus, smoking status, or physical inactivity. However, those with symptoms of ARFID reported significantly higher alcohol misuse. Rates of psychological treatment utilization were not significantly different between adults with and without symptoms of ARFID.

The present nonsignificant findings of differences in health promotion are in line with previous population-based studies suggesting low to non-existent associations for health promotion focus with mental health [ 17 ]. The finding, however, is surprising provided that previous research has shown an association between general not health-related promotion focus with external eating [ 18 ]. Given the fact that some individuals with ARFID show low interest in food [ 3 ] and thus, might be less likely to engage in external eating, one might have expected low promotion focus in individuals with ARFID. The nonsignificant difference in the promotion focus between groups in our study suggests that the above-mentioned finding on associations with external eating might not transfer from a general to a health context-specific regulatory focus. This is supported by research showing that health regulatory focus, but not general promotion or prevention focus predict health behaviors (e.g., dentist visits, use of prescription drugs; [ 14 ]). However, the results should be interpreted with caution due to the small effect sizes of the analysis and the small number of adults with symptoms of ARFID, which also did not allow to investigate for group differences among the presentations of ARFID and their association with external eating. Additionally, the findings are limited to individuals with symptoms of ARFID who reported problems with underweight. Further research investigating the relationship of symptoms of ARFID, external eating tendencies and health promotion is needed.

In contrast to previous studies revealing an association of general psychopathology with high health prevention focus [ 13 , 17 ], adults with symptoms of ARFID did not show a significant difference in prevention focus compared to those without symptoms of ARFID. The findings, however, should be interpreted considering the afore-mentioned limitations of the analysis, including the unequal group sizes, the low number of individuals with symptoms of ARFID and the inclusion of only individuals with symptoms of ARFID reporting problems with underweight. Additionally, the lack of significant findings might be due to the population-based sample, as previous studies indicated lower correlations between mental health and health prevention focus in population-based studies [ 17 ] than in convenience samples [ 13 ]. Also, greater correlations have been found in younger as opposed to older samples [ 13 , 17 ]. Thus, the size of the association might depend on personal characteristics (e.g., age).

Regarding specific health behaviors, symptoms of ARFID did not predict physical activity or smoking status. Interestingly, in the present sample, the regression analysis for being physical inactive, revealed a lower odds ratio to be inactive for individuals with symptoms of ARFID than without. These findings contrast with studies in children associating picky eating with physical inactivity reported by parents [ 7 , 8 ]. However, given the difference in both sample age and report (self- versus other-rating), compatibility of these studies with our findings can be called into question. Additionally, our binary assessment did not allow for comparisons of a broader range of the activity level beyond the amount of physical activity assessed (i.e., two to three times per week for 30 min). Moreover, as previously pointed out, the present study focussed only on individuals with symptoms of ARFID who had a low to normal BMI and reported problems with underweight. Further research in ARFID is needed to investigate differences in physical activity for different weight groups. Furthermore, although the presence of symptoms of ARFID did not significantly predict smoking status, smoking status was generally quite high in individuals with symptoms of ARFID (50%) and descriptively the odds were nearly twice as high in individuals with symptoms of ARFID to be a smoker compared to individuals without. Since smoking can reduce sensory sensitivity and alter taste [ 38 , 39 ], it would be interesting to further investigate smoking motivation in individuals with ARFID presenting with food avoidance based on sensory characteristics of food (e.g., as a potential coping mechanism for food sensory sensitivity).

Individuals with symptoms of ARFID exhibited higher alcohol misuse than individuals without symptoms of ARFID. This result is in line with research reporting co-occurrence of alcohol use and eating disorders [ 22 , 23 ]. Thus, individuals with ARFID might be more vulnerable to unhealthy drinking, which is also consistent with findings from an adult case study [ 25 ]. However, symptoms of ARFID alone did not significantly predict alcohol misuse, which could be attributed to the very small effect sizes in the present analyses, but odds ratio indicated more than twice as high odds for individuals with symptoms of ARFID to misuse alcohol compared to individuals without. More research with formal diagnoses of alcohol misuse is necessary to confirm the findings and to further explore the relationship between ARFID and alcohol misuse.

A second aim of the present study was to investigate psychological treatment utilization in ARFID. The vast majority of individuals with symptoms of ARFID in our sample were untreated, and the number of out- and inpatient psychological treatments did not differ significantly for individuals with versus those without symptoms of ARFID. This is in line with the fact that overall psychological treatment utilization in the present sample was comparable to a previous psychological treatment utilization study reporting that 9.7% of the German population utilized psychological treatment at least once in the assessed 12-month period [ 40 ]. However, these findings should be interpreted with care, due to the absence of a formal ARFID diagnosis or inclusion of other mental disorders or medical conditions. Additionally, due to the low number of adults with symptoms of ARFID who received treatment and absence of individuals with more than three treatments, we could not investigate group differences in the frequency of treatments. However, given that most of our participants with symptoms of ARFID never received psychological treatment, it could be argued that they either did not consider their symptoms to be an indication for psychological treatment or did not find specialized treatment programs.

Several strengths and limitations should be considered when interpreting our results. The large representative sample provided a unique opportunity to assess health behavior and symptoms of ARFID balanced for gender and age. The response rate of contacted individuals of 51% is comparable to standard response rates of surveys in Germany [ 41 , 42 ]. In comparison to data of the Federal Statistical Office 2016, we had slightly more adults younger than 60 years (69.1% compared to 66.9%), and slightly more females (53.1% compared to 50.7%) in the data set. Therefore, the generalizability of the present findings is slightly limited. Furthermore, in comparison to objective assessment, self-reported weight and height indicated lower prevalence of obesity in the present sample (14.7% in women and 12.5% in men) compared to studies applying objective measures (23.9% in women and 23.3% in men; [ 43 ]), but rather similar for reported underweight (1.3% in women and 0.7% in men compared to 2.3% in women and 0.7% in men [ 43 ]).

Moreover, the focus on adults with symptoms of ARFID extends research findings predominantly focusing on children with ARFID. However, the present findings are limited by the self-reported assessment of health behaviors and symptoms of ARFID without a confirmed clinical diagnosis. Additionally, the present study focused only on individuals with symptoms of ARFID who reported problems with underweight. This is due to the fact that this is the only consequence assessed with the EDY-Q. The EDY-Q was developed prior to the release of the DSM-5. While it has items to assess the different presentations of the disorder (low interest in food, fear of aversive consequences, sensory sensitivity), it does not yet reflect the different manifestations (e.g., social impairment) of the three presentations beyond underweight. Thus, the applicability of the present findings to individuals with symptoms of ARFID exhibiting other common impairments remains to be shown. Furthermore, we did not evaluate the potential impact of other symptoms of mental disorders on health behavior, as this was beyond the scope of the paper, which may have impacted the self-reported health behaviors. Overall, the present analyses were limited by the unequal group sizes, the small group of individuals with symptoms of ARFID in the sample, the focus on individuals with symptoms of ARFID reporting problem with underweight and the use of a dichotomous health behavior classification (e.g., treatment utilization). Thus, findings from – in particular - the regression analyses need to be interpreted with care. It was also not possible to investigate the association of health behaviors with different presentations of ARFID, due to the small number of individuals with symptoms of ARFID. Their connection to sensory sensitivity or lack of interest in food needs to be further investigated.

The present findings have implications for research and clinical practice for ARFID. If increased alcohol misuses and smoking in adults with symptoms of ARFID are replicated, screening for potential substance use disorders and related health behaviors could inform clinical interventions. Further research is needed to investigate potential linkages between smoking behavior and restrictive eating in ARFID (e.g., to decrease sensory sensitivity through smoking [ 44 ]). Furthermore, since smoking and physical inactivity are associated with medical comorbidities of ARFID, such as asthma [ 2 , 45 , 46 ], further investigations are necessary for shedding more light on the interplay of comorbid medical conditions, health behaviors, and symptoms of ARFID. The low endorsement of treatment utilization by individuals with symptoms of ARFID implies a need for further investigation into causes of low treatment utilization and treatment barriers.

Overall, the present study first provided insight into health regulatory focus, prevalence of alcohol misuse, smoking, physical inactivity and psychological treatment utilization in adults with symptoms of ARFID. The findings suggest that adults with symptoms of ARFID do not differ from those without symptoms of ARFID with regard to health regulatory focus or specific health behaviors with the exception of alcohol misuse. The rather low utilization of psychological treatments found in the present sample, despite potentially associated severe health consequences, underline the twin needs for raising public awareness about the condition and for improving the clinical care of individuals with ARFID in Germany.

Data availability

The datasets analyzed during the current study are not publicly available related to the ethical approval, but can be obtained from the last author (AH) upon reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Analysis of variance

Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder

Regression coefficient

Body Mass Index

Cut-down Annoyed Guilty Eyeopener

Confidence Interval

Eating Disorders in Youth-Questionnaire

Health Regulatory Focus Scale

Lower Level

Reference group

Standard error

Upper Level

Norris ML, Obeid N, Santos A, Valois DD, Isserlin L, Feder S, et al. Treatment needs and rates of mental health comorbidity in adolescent patients with ARFID. Front Psychiatry. 2021;12:680298.

Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

Aulinas A, Marengi DA, Galbiati F, Asanza E, Slattery M, Mancuso CJ, et al. Medical comorbidities and endocrine dysfunction in low-weight females with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder compared to anorexia nervosa and healthy controls. Int J Eat Disord. 2020;53(4):631–6.

American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 5th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association; 2013.

Book Google Scholar

World Health Organization. International classification of diseases (ICD). 11th revision. (2022). https://icd.who.int/ Accessed 29 Nov 2023.

Proctor KB, Rodrick E, Belcher S, Sharp WG, Kindler JM. Bone health in avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder: a narrative review. J Eat Disorders. 2023;11(1):44.

Article Google Scholar

Forman SF, McKenzie N, Hehn R, Monge MC, Kapphahn CJ, Mammel KA, et al. Predictors of outcome at 1 year in adolescents with DSM-5 restrictive eating disorders: report of the national eating disorders quality improvement collaborative. J Adolesc Health. 2014;55(6):750–6.

Article PubMed Google Scholar

Sandvik P, Ek A, Somaraki M, Hammar U, Eli K, Nowicka P. Picky eating in Swedish preschoolers of different weight status: application of two new screening cut-offs. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Activity. 2018;15(1):1–12.

Qazaryan K, Karim SK. The clinical link of preschoolers’ picky eating behavior with their growth, development, nutritional status, and physical activity in Iraq/Kurdistan region. Highlights Med Med Sci. 2019;5:119–32.

Google Scholar

Couturier J, Gayowsky A, Findlay S, Webb C, Sami S, Chan A et al. A diagnostic subgroup comparison of health care utilization patterns in individuals with eating disorders diagnosed in childhood and/or adolescence. Int J Eat Disord. 2023.

Striegel-Moore R, DeBar L, Wilson G, Dickerson J, Rosselli F, Perrin N, et al. Health services use in eating disorders. Psychol Med. 2008;38(10):1465–74.

Ágh T, Kovács G, Supina D, Pawaskar M, Herman BK, Vokó Z et al. A systematic review of the health-related quality of life and economic burdens of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. Eating and Weight Disorders-Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity. 2016;21:353 – 64.

Gorrell S, Le Grange D, Blalock DV, Hutchinson V, Johnson M, Duffy A, et al. Care utilization in eating disorders: for whom are multiple episodes of care more likely? Eating and Weight disorders-studies on Anorexia. Bulimia Obes. 2022;27(8):3543–51.

Schmalbach B, Spina R, Steffens-Guerra I, Franke GH, Kliem S, Michaelides MP, et al. Psychometric properties of the German version of the health regulatory focus scale. Front Psychol. 2017;8:2005.

Gomez P, Borges A, Pechmann CC. Avoiding poor health or approaching good health: does it matter? The conceptualization, measurement, and consequences of health regulatory focus. J Consumer Psychol. 2013;23(4):451–63.

Ferrer RA, Lipkus IM, Cerully JL, McBride CM, Shepperd JA, Klein WM. Developing a scale to assess health regulatory focus. Soc Sci Med. 2017;195:50–60.

Higgins ET. Promotion and prevention: Regulatory focus as a motivational principle. Adv Exp Soc Psychol. 1998;1–46.

Schmalbach B, Zenger M, Brähler E, Petrowski K. Norm values and psychometric properties for the German health regulatory focus scale–results of a representative survey. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2020;20:1–7.

Pfattheicher S, Sassenrath C. A regulatory focus perspective on eating behavior: how prevention and promotion focus relates to emotional, external, and restrained eating. Front Psychol. 2014;5:1314.

Thomas JJ, Lawson EA, Micali N, Misra M, Deckersbach T, Eddy KT. Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder: a three-dimensional model of neurobiology with implications for etiology and treatment. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2017;19:1–9.

Kim Y-J. The role of regulatory focus in message framing in antismoking advertisements for adolescents. J Advertising. 2006;35(1):143–51.

Anzengruber D, Klump KL, Thornton L, Brandt H, Crawford S, Fichter MM, et al. Smoking in eating disorders. Eat Behav. 2006;7(4):291–9.

Bahji A, Mazhar MN, Hudson CC, Nadkarni P, MacNeil BA, Hawken E. Prevalence of substance use disorder comorbidity among individuals with eating disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychiatry Res. 2019;273:58–66.

Galmiche M, Godefroy C, Achamrah N, Grigioni S, Colange G, Folope V, et al. Mental health and health behaviours among patients with eating disorders: a case–control study in France. J Eat Disorders. 2022;10(1):160.

Gadalla T, Piran N. Co-occurrence of eating disorders and alcohol use disorders in women: a meta analysis. Arch Women Ment Health. 2007;10(4):133–40.

Steen E, Wade TD. Treatment of co-occurring food avoidance and alcohol use disorder in an adult: possible avoidant restrictive food intake disorder? Int J Eat Disord. 2018;51(4):373–7.

Melissa R, Lama M, Laurence K, Sylvie B, Jeanne D, Odile V, et al. Physical activity in eating disorders: a systematic review. Nutrients. 2020;12(1):183.

Article PubMed Central Google Scholar

Carr MM, Lydecker JA, White MA, Grilo CM. Examining physical activity and correlates in adults with healthy weight, overweight/obesity, or binge-eating disorder. Int J Eat Disord. 2019;52(2):159–65.

Hilbert A, Zenger M, Eichler J, Brähler E. Psychometric evaluation of the Eating disorders in Youth-Questionnaire when used in adults: prevalence estimates for symptoms of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder and population norms. Int J Eat Disord. 2021;54(3):399–408.

Kliem S, Mößle T, Zenger M, Strauß B, Brähler E, Hilbert A. The eating disorder examination-questionnaire 8: a brief measure of eating disorder psychopathology (EDE‐Q8). Int J Eat Disord. 2016;49(6):613–6.

Van Dyck Z, Hilbert A. Eating disorder in youth-questionnaire. German version. University of Leipzig: https://www.ulqucosade/api/qucosa%3A13435/attachment/ATT-0/ . 2016. Accessed 29 Nov 2023.

Mayfield D, McLeod G, Hall P. The CAGE questionnaire: validation of a new alcoholism screening instrument. Am J Psychiatry. 1974;131(10):1121–3.

Skogen JC, Øverland S, Knudsen AK, Mykletun A. Concurrent validity of the CAGE questionnaire. The Nord-Trøndelag Health Study. Addict Behav. 2011;36(4):302–7.

Fairburn CG, Beglin SJ. Assessment of eating disorders: interview or self-report questionnaire? Int J Eat Disord. 1994;16(4):363–70.

Hilbert A, Tuschen-Caffier B. Eating disorder Examination—Questionnaire: Deutschsprachige Übersetzung. Tübingen: dgvt-; 2016.

Löwe B, Wahl I, Rose M, Spitzer C, Glaesmer H, Wingenfeld K, et al. A 4-item measure of depression and anxiety: validation and standardization of the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4) in the general population. J Affect Disord. 2010;122(1–2):86–95.

Engelkamp JE, Hartmann AS, Hilbert A. Health Behavior in Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). OSF; 2022. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/YMGJB . Accessed 29 Nov 2023.

Kim H-Y. Statistical notes for clinical researchers: assessing normal distribution (2) using skewness and kurtosis. Restor Dentistry Endodontics. 2013;38(1):52–4.

Da Ré AF, Gurgel LG, Buffon G, Moura WER, Vidor DCGM, Maahs MAP. Tobacco influence on taste and smell: systematic review of the literature. Int Archives Otorhinolaryngol. 2018;22:81–7.

Berube L, Duffy VB, Hayes JE, Hoffman HJ, Rawal S. Associations between chronic cigarette smoking and taste function: results from the 2013–2014 national health and nutrition examination survey. Physiol Behav. 2021;240:113554.

Rommel A, Bretschneider J, Kroll LE, Prütz F, Thom J. The utilization of psychiatric and psychotherapeutic services in Germany–individual determinants and regional differences. J Health Monit. 2017;2(4):3.

PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

Peters A, German National Cohort (NAKO) Consortium, Peters A, Greiser KH, Göttlicher S, Ahrens W, et al. Framework and baseline examination of the German National Cohort (NAKO). Eur J Epidemiol. 2022;37(10):1107–24.

Schmidt CO, Raspe H, Pfingsten M, Hasenbring M, Basler HD, Eich W, et al. Back pain in the German adult population: prevalence, severity, and sociodemographic correlates in a multiregional survey. Spine. 2007;32(18):2005–11.

Mensink G, Schienkiewitz A, Haftenberger M, Lampert T, Ziese T, Scheidt-Nave C. Übergewicht und adipositas in deutschland. 2013.

Fernandes TMP, NLd A, NAd S. Effects of smoking and smoking abstinence on spatial vision in chronic heavy smokers. Sci Rep. 2017;7(1):1690.

Eijkemans M, Mommers M, Draaisma JMT, Thijs C, Prins MH. Physical activity and asthma: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS ONE. 2012;7(12):e50775.

Yawn BP, Rank MA, Bertram SL, Wollan PC. Obesity, low levels of physical activity and smoking present opportunities for primary care asthma interventions: an analysis of baseline data from the Asthma Tools Study. NPJ Prim Care Respiratory Med. 2015;25(1):1–7.

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Deutscher Hochschulverband proof editing service and all participants in this study.

The study received internal funds from the Behavioral Medicine Research Unit, Integrated Research and Treatment Center Adiposity Diseases, Leipzig University Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany.

Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy of Childhood and Adolescence, Konstanz University, Universitätstr. 10, 78464, Konstanz, Germany

Julia Enya Engelkamp & Andrea Sabrina Hartmann

Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Medical Centre of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Langenbeckstr. 1, 55131, Mainz, Germany

Katja Petrowski & Benedict Herhaus

Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Ulm, Krankenhausweg 3, 89075, Ulm, Germany

Jörg Michael Fegert & Cedric Sachser

Institute of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Medical Center Rostock, Gehlsheimer Str. 20, 18147, Rostock, Germany

Peter Kropp & Britta Müller

Behavioral Medicine Research Unit, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Integrated Research and Treatment Center AdiposityDiseases, Leipzig University Medical Center, Stephanstr. 9a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

Elmar Brähler & Anja Hilbert

Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Centre of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Untere Zahlbacher Str. 8, 55131, Mainz, Germany

Elmar Brähler

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Conceptualization: JE; ASH; AH; Data Acquisition: KP; BH; JMF; CS; PK; BM; EB; AH; Funding acquisition: KP; BH; JMF; CS; PK; BM; EB; AH; Data Analysis: JE; Data interpretation: JE; ASH; AH; First manuscript draft written by: JE, Manuscript editing, and final approval: all authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julia Enya Engelkamp .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

All participants provided their written informed consent. The procedure followed the ethical guidelines of the International Code of Marketing and Social Research Practice set by the International Chamber of Commerce and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research. The Ethics Committee of the University of Leipzig provided its ethical approval (No. 297/16-ek).

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

Dr. Hartmann reported receiving grants from the German Research Foundation and the Else Kröner -Fresenius-Stifung outside the submitted work; royalties for a book on body dysmorphic disorder with Hogrefe; and honoraria for workshops on eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorder and their treatment. Dr Hilbert reported receiving grants from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, German Research Foundation, and Roland Ernst Foundation for Healthcare outside the submitted work; royalties for books on the treatment of eating disorders and obesity with Hogrefe and Kohlhammer; honoraria for workshops and lectures on eating disorders and obesity and their treatment; honoraria as editor of the International Journal of Eating Disorders and the journal Psychotherapeut; honoraria as a reviewer from Mercator Research Center Ruhr, Oxford University Press, and the German Society for Nutrition; and honoraria as a consultant for WeightWatchers, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, and Takeda. No other competing interests were reported. No other competing interests were reported.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary Material 1

Supplementary material 2, rights and permissions.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Engelkamp, J.E., Hartmann, A.S., Petrowski, K. et al. Health behavior and psychological treatment utilization in adults with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder symptoms. J Eat Disord 12 , 88 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-024-01049-1

Download citation

Received : 30 December 2023

Accepted : 18 June 2024

Published : 26 June 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-024-01049-1

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Avoidant/Restrictive food intake disorder
Health behavior
Alcohol misuse
Treatment utilization

Journal of Eating Disorders

ISSN: 2050-2974

General enquiries: [email protected]

COMMENTS

APA Sample Paper: Experimental Psychology
Writing the Experimental Report: Methods, Results, and Discussion. Tables, Appendices, Footnotes and Endnotes. References and Sources for More Information. APA Sample Paper: Experimental Psychology. Style Guide Overview MLA Guide APA Guide Chicago Guide OWL Exercises. Purdue OWL. Subject-Specific Writing.
Writing a Research Report in American Psychological Association (APA
Figures 11.2, 11.3, 11.4, and 11.5 show some sample pages from an APA-style empirical research report originally written by undergraduate student Tomoe Suyama at California State University, Fresno. The main purpose of these figures is to illustrate the basic organization and formatting of an APA-style empirical research report, although many ...
Lab Report Format: Step-by-Step Guide & Examples
A typical lab report would include the following sections: title, abstract, introduction, method, results, and discussion. The title page, abstract, references, and appendices are started on separate pages (subsections from the main body of the report are not). Use double-line spacing of text, font size 12, and include page numbers.
PDF B.S. Research Paper Example (Literature Review)
Talwar and Lee (2002) wanted to examine verbal and nonverbal behaviors of lying and. truth-telling children aged three- to seven-years-old. They hypothesized that young children were. more likely to incriminate themselves verbally. Talwar and Lee used a resistant temptation.
Psychological Report Writing
In research report there are usually six sub-sections: (1) Abstract: This is always written last because it is a very brief summary: Include a one sentence summary, giving the topic to be studied. This may include the hypothesis and some brief theoretical background research, for example the name of the researchers whose work you have replicated.
PDF Sample Paper: One-Experiment Paper
Sample One-Experiment Paper (continued) emotional detection than young adults, or older adults could show a greater facilitation than. young adults only for the detection of positive information. The results lent some support to the. first two alternatives, but no evidence was found to support the third alternative.
PDF Guide to Writing a Psychology Research Paper
Component 1: The Title Page. • On the right side of the header, type the first 2-3 words of your full title followed by the page number. This header will appear on every page of you report. • At the top of the page, type flush left the words "Running head:" followed by an abbreviation of your title in all caps.
PDF Reporting Qualitative Research in Psychology
oping comprehensive reports that will support their review. Guidance is provided for how to best present qualitative research, with rationales and illustrations. The reporting standards for qualitative meta-analyses, which are integrative analy-ses of findings from across primary qualitative research, are presented in Chapter 8.
PDF Writing Your Psychology Research Paper
My students tell me that writing research papers is hard for at least two reasons. First, a blank document is overwhelming—a 10-page paper feels unreachable, especially when the first page is coming along so slowly. Second, writing well—clear, coherent, and thoughtful prose—does not come naturally.
Writing a Research Report in American Psychological Association (APA
Sample APA-Style Research Report. Figures 11.2, 11.3, 11.4, and 11.5 show some sample pages from an APA-style empirical research report originally written by undergraduate student Tomoe Suyama at California State University, Fresno. ... This is worth considering because people who volunteer to participate in psychological research have been ...
PDF Reporting Quantitative Research in Psychology
In many ways, the report of a psychology research project contains a recipe. Without accurate descriptions of the ingredients (the manipulations and measures) and the ... Examples of these types of studies would be ones that simply observe people's behav-ior, ask them to complete questionnaires, or use records that already exist. ...
PDF GUIDE TO WRITING RESEARCH REPORTS
A useful rule of thumb is to try to write four concise sentences describing: (1) Why you did it, (2) What you did, (3) What results you found and (4) What you concluded. Write the Abstract. afteryou have written the rest of the report. You may find it difficult to write a short abstract in one go.
PDF B.S. Research Paper Example (Empirical Research Paper)
B.S. Research Paper Example (Empirical Research Paper) This is an example of a research paper that was written in fulfillment of the B.S. research paper requirement. It uses APA style for all aspects except the cover sheet (this page; the cover sheet is required by the department). It describes research that the author was involved in while ...
PDF Reports: Psychology example
Reports: Psychology example Reports in the discipline of Psychology usually present on empirical research. They consist of clear sections that reflect stages in the research process. The different sections in the report usually appear in a sequence of stages: • Title: informs the reader about the study
PDF APA 7th ed. (Student version) Sample Paper (Final)
APA Citation Style: A Sample . m. Student's Name . Department's name, University of Hawai'i - West O'ahu . PSY 250: Social Psychology . Instructor's name . October 23, 2020 . This paper follows the Student version . of the 7th edition of the APA manual. Note that there is no Running head in the Student version of the 7th edition of the ...
Research Paper Structure
A complete research paper in APA style that is reporting on experimental research will typically contain a Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and References sections. 1 Many will also contain Figures and Tables and some will have an Appendix or Appendices. These sections are detailed as follows (for a more in ...
11.2 Writing a Research Report in American Psychological Association
In some areas of psychology, the titles of many empirical research reports are informal in a way that is perhaps best described as "cute." They usually take the form of a play on words or a well-known expression that relates to the topic under study. Here are some examples from recent issues of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
PDF RESEARCH REPORT (PSYCHOLOGY)
A psychology Research Report, or Lab Report, gives an account of an experiment about humanbehaviour. The account not only includes the information about the process of the experiment, but also communicates the relevance, validity, and reliability of the research in a well-developed line of argument.
Free APA Journal Articles
Recently published articles from subdisciplines of psychology covered by more than 90 APA Journals™ publications. For additional free resources (such as article summaries, podcasts, and more), please visit the Highlights in Psychological Research page. Browse and read free articles from APA Journals across the field of psychology, selected by ...
PDF Research Report Writing—L2 Psychology
Report Writing Assessment Criteria Students will be assessed along three main areas: 1) Quality of the research carried out. For a research report, this includes both: - Literature Search and Literature Review - Practical Research Skills 2) Level of knowledge, comprehension and evaluation of the topic 3) Quality of the academic communication
Ivy Tech Libraries: Psychology: Sample APA paper
PSYC 212 - Research Methods in Psychology; PSYC 240 - Human Sexuality; PSYC 253 - Intro to Social Psychology; Online Databases: Research Resources; Formatting an APA paper; In-Text Citations; References Page; Sample APA paper; Sample APA Paper. Sample APA paper. Sample APA paper from Purdue Owl << Previous: References Page; Last Updated: Jun 20 ...
Does the job performance of academics' influence burnout and
Extensive research has been conducted treating burnout as an independent variable and performance as a dependent variable to proffer possible solutions to burnout and job performance among academics. Despite this, the burnout crises persist and are exacerbated by the ongoing global proliferation of higher education. Acknowledging this, the current study explored whether performance may ...
Working conditions, psychological distress and suicidal ideation: Cross
Background: Evidence attests a link between junior doctors' working conditions and psychological distress. Despite increasing concerns around suicidality among junior doctors, little is known about its relationship to their working conditions. Aims: To (a) establish the prevalence of suicidal ideation among junior doctors in the National Health Service; (b) examine the relationships between ...
How to Write a Literature Review
Example literature review #4: "Learners' Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review" (Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.) You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.
PDF Guide to Writing a Psychology Research Paper
ve any questions or concerns.The Title PageOn the right side of the header, type the first 2-3 words of. your full title followed by the page number. This he. er will appear on every page of you report.At the top of the page, type flush left the words "Running head:" followed.
Writing a Research Report in American Psychological Association (APA
Figures 11.2, 11.3, 11.4, and 11.5 show some sample pages from an APA-style empirical research report originally written by undergraduate student Tomoe Suyama at California State University, Fresno. The main purpose of these figures is to illustrate the basic organization and formatting of an APA-style empirical research report, although many ...
Health behavior and psychological treatment utilization in adults with
Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), an eating disorder not associated with weight and shape concerns, results in nutrient or energy deficiencies related with further health consequences and a pronounced need for specialized treatment. These interventions need to be tailored to individual health behavior. However, research about health behavior and treatment utilization in ARFID ...