Download
1 / 13
200 likes | 636 Views
APA Method Section. APA Method. Things to keep in mind... Purpose: Replication Assess reliability & validity Make design clear Keep it precise, concise, and clear. APA Method. Subdivided 1. Participants 2. Materials 3. Procedure. APA Method. Participants Number Sex Age
E N D
APA Method • Things to keep in mind... • Purpose: • Replication • Assess reliability & validity • Make design clear Keep it precise, concise, and clear
APAMethod • Subdivided 1. Participants 2. Materials 3. Procedure
APAMethod • Participants • Number • Sex • Age • General demographic characteristics • Selection & assignment of participants • Type of sampling procedure • Recruitment procedures • Incentives used to encourage participation • Did you have to exclude any participants, and why?
APAMethod • Which heading do I use: Materials or Apparatus? • Describe what was used in the study • Apparatus • Special equipment used • Materials • Questionnaires, written or videotaped sketches, etc • Don’t include ordinary items like paper, pen, etc.
APAMethod • Materials • Operationally define each variable • Describe each variable • What it is • How it was measured • Describe questionnaires (if applicable)
APAMethod • Procedure • Step-by-step description of precisely how the study was conducted • Enough detail for replication • Include: • Experimental manipulations • How were participants recruited and assigned to groups? • IV (levels), DV (how you measured it) • All research procedures: • Location of study • Instructions given to participants • Actions performed by participants • Amount of time participants were given to complete the tasks • Rewards for participation
Example Method Participants 260 undergraduate students (216 female, 42 male, 2 other, Mage = 21.5 years, age range: 18-59 years) were recruited from the SUNY New Paltz subject pool. All data from participants who reported a previous diagnosis of OCD personality disorder were excluded from analysis; therefore, this sample was considered to be representative of a nonclinical population.
Materials The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) checklist was adapted from Goodman et al. (1989a). The Y-BOCS checklist includes eight categories of symptoms of obsession (i.e. aggression, contamination, somatic, sexual, hoarding/saving, religious, symmetry, and miscellaneous) and seven categories of symptoms of compulsions (i.e. cleaning/washing, checking, repeating rituals, counting, ordering/arranging, hoarding/collecting, and miscellaneous). The checklist contained 61 items measuring the presence and severity of both obsessive (39 items) and compulsive (22 items) symptoms; however, 17 items identified as miscellaneous were removed from analysis because a category has not yet been agreed upon for these items. The checklist was reformatted from the original interview format into a self-report questionnaire so that the survey could be administered online. The answer options included: “yes, currently”, “yes, in the past”, and “no, never” (see Appendix). The checklist was followed by two demographic questions pertaining to the participants sex and age, as well as a question about whether or not the participant had any previous diagnosis of OCD (see Appendix).
ProcedureParticipants completed the checklist online using surveymonkey.com. The entire survey took around 20-25 minutes to complete.
