Discussion

Discussion & References Draft (100 points)

PLEASE READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY. Note that you will turn in an electronic copy on Blackboard. The assignment is due online by the time of your regularly scheduled class. Check your class’s syllabus to double check the due date. If you do not turn in your assignment on time, it will be considered late. Please refer to your syllabus to see what web browser you should use to open Blackboard to submit your homework. The syllabus also details what file formats are acceptable for submitting your homework on Blackboard. Everything should be included in a single document. Blackboard will not allow you to submit more than one file.

You will submit this homework electronically through SafeAssign on Blackboard. Please refer to your syllabus to see what web browser you should use to open Blackboard to submit your homework. The syllabus also details what file formats are acceptable for submitting your homework on Blackboard.

Your task is to write an APA style draft of the discussion section of an empirical paper based on the online experiment your lab section is writing about. You also need to include the full APA style reference page, as well. While writing, keep in mind the purpose and style of this section of a research paper and what information needs to be included. In particular, you need to briefly review the hypotheses for this study, summarize the results in non-technical language, and then discuss the greater implications of the findings and this study. You will want to draw connections between this study and past research and will need to cite at least 2 articles that you have read for class. Refer to the handout about the Discussion section provided earlier in class (Week 6). Also look at the APA sample papers and research papers you have read for this course to see how to implement the appropriate formatting and to see some examples of the writing style in a discussion section. Be sure to refer back to the Writing Suggestions handout for ideas on how to approach your writing and how to improve the clarity and organization of your writing. DO NOT USE DIRECT QUOTES!

For the references section keep in mind that APA style calls for a very specific way of referencing, so be sure to make use of all relevant handouts and supplemental materials that you were provided with earlier in the course. You should take a look at the APA sample papers to evaluate how they structured their references sections. Also be sure to check out the following websites to get more information about formatting references in APA style:

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_basic_rules.html

For this assignment you will need to include the following:

Make sure to include a TITLE page formatted to look similar to a student APA-styled manuscript title page with the following:

o Page Number header (top right corner)
o Title (bold, top quarter of page)
o Your name (spaced two lines from title)
o University name (centered)
o Class – PSYC ####, Name of class
o Date

1. For the Discussion section, you will need to include the following:

o Type the word “Discussion” for the heading of this section. This should be centered and bolded.

o Summarize/discuss the findings in non-technical language (discuss without reporting the numbers). You will report the numbers in the results section but interpret the results in this section. You want to explain clearly to the reader what the results actually mean.

o Review the hypotheses and state whether or not the hypotheses were supported.

o Discuss how the findings relate to previous research from at least 2 of the empirical articles you have read for class. Be sure to draw connections between this study and those 2 empirical articles and include in-text citations for the articles. Specifically, state if the findings of the online experiment are consistent or are not consistent with past research studies. Remember to include in-text citations for any empirical articles you include in the discussion.

o Discuss any limitations of the current study. This could be anything regarding the sampling technique used, properties of the sample, aspects of the design of the study or the methods, potential sources of bias, issues with data analysis, etc. However, you will want to avoid spending too much of your discussion section on this. You don’t want to undercut the research that was done. Instead, think about how you can address some limitations in future work and make sure that you still take time in your discussion to discuss the strengths and merits of the current study.

o Discuss ideas about future research that could be done to address these limitations, advance this work, or address any remaining unanswered questions.

o Discuss your overall conclusions and be sure to highlight the implications of the current study.

2. References – Refer back to the References section handout from Week 6 for more information on what to include. Make sure for this section that you do the following:

o Type the word “References” for your heading. This should be centered and bolded.

o Alphabetize the references by the first author’s last name and make sure that your individual references and their overall organization follow APA formatting guidelines. Include hanging indents in the correct places, use italics where APA style calls for this, and be sure to double space the entire section.

o Add an image of the FIRST PAGE of EACH article by using Print Screen, the snip tool or some other format right after your references section in your assignment. These images should be included in the same document as the rest of your assignment. IF you are not sure how to do this, please contact your lab section leader for help.

o ONLY include references on your reference page that you cited in earlier sections of your paper (e.g. Introduction, Discussion). This means that at a minimum you should have 4 references in your reference page, but you may have more. These 4 references MUST be from peer-reviewed empirical journal articles. If you include more references than these 4, they can include book chapters and review articles.

Some useful online sites which provide information about APA style include the following:

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/index.html

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_basic_rules.html