Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Eight Common Misconceptions About Psychology Papers
- 2 How to Generate, Evaluate, and Sell Your Ideas for Research and Papers
- 3 Literature Research
- 4 Writing a Literature Review
- 5 Planning and Writing the Experimental Research Paper
- 6 A Word About Content, Language, and Style
- 7 Commonly Misused Words
- 8 American Psychological Association Guidelines for Psychology Papers
- 9 Guidelines for Data Presentation
- 10 What Makes a Good Paper Great? Standards for Evaluating Psychology Papers
- 11 Ethics in Research and Writing
- 12 Submitting a Paper to a Journal
- 13 How to Make Your Paper Even Better: Proofreading, Revising, and Editing
- 14 Writing a Grant or Contract Proposal
- 15 How to Find a Book Publisher
- 16 Writing a Lecture
- 17 Article Writing 101
- References
- Appendix: Sample Psychology Paper
- Index
5 - Planning and Writing the Experimental Research Paper
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Eight Common Misconceptions About Psychology Papers
- 2 How to Generate, Evaluate, and Sell Your Ideas for Research and Papers
- 3 Literature Research
- 4 Writing a Literature Review
- 5 Planning and Writing the Experimental Research Paper
- 6 A Word About Content, Language, and Style
- 7 Commonly Misused Words
- 8 American Psychological Association Guidelines for Psychology Papers
- 9 Guidelines for Data Presentation
- 10 What Makes a Good Paper Great? Standards for Evaluating Psychology Papers
- 11 Ethics in Research and Writing
- 12 Submitting a Paper to a Journal
- 13 How to Make Your Paper Even Better: Proofreading, Revising, and Editing
- 14 Writing a Grant or Contract Proposal
- 15 How to Find a Book Publisher
- 16 Writing a Lecture
- 17 Article Writing 101
- References
- Appendix: Sample Psychology Paper
- Index
Summary
When research psychologists talk about writing a paper, they are talking about a lengthy and complicated chain of events that includes a great deal more than just reporting research results. In this chapter, we outline these events from start to finish:
PLANNING EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
Getting an Idea
The basis of any good research is a viable idea that results in a study that contributes to the current state of knowledge. However, getting ideas, and especially getting good ideas, often turns out to be one of the hardest parts of research. If you need help forming ideas for your research, please read Chapter 2.
Selecting Independent Variables
After you have come up with an idea, you need a way to test it. To test the idea, you need one or more independent variables. Independent variables are those variables that are manipulated by the experimenter. In an experiment to test people's susceptibility to persuasive communications, for example, possible independent variables include (a) amount of exposure to persuasive communications, (b) content of persuasive communications, and (c) level of agreement between participants' initial attitudes and the position advocated by the persuasive communications. Once you have chosen your independent variable(s), you must decide how many and what level of them to use.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Psychologist's CompanionA Guide to Writing Scientific Papers for Students and Researchers, pp. 80 - 117Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010