Below are a few tips on how to write papers in psychology based upon: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 4 ed.
You also may find How to Write About A Study in A Psychology Paper useful.
Described below are several central aspects of publication style as recommended by the American Psychological Association. These rules are the standard for the vast majority of psychological journals, and, except where specifically noted, they are required for all papers completed in psychology courses. This is only a selective summary. In all cases, clarification or final arbitration of the proper thing to do will revert to the full manual (Available in the Library).
The organization and the clarity of your paper can affect your grade. It is recommended that you consult Ch. 2, "Expression of Ideas" in the Publication Manual for some guidlines to improve your writing. Ch. 1, "Content and Organization of a Manuscript" may also be useful, especially if you are writing a paper which reports some research.
Other references that may be useful to you are:
Bem, D.J. (1995). Writing a review article for Psychological Bulletin. Psychological Bulletin, 118, 172-177.
Bem, D.J. (1987). Writing the empirical journal article. In M.P. Zanna & J.M. Darley (Eds.). The compleat academic: A practical guide for the beginning social scientist. (pp. 171-201). New York: Random House
Hyman, R.J. (1995). How to critique a published article. Psychological Bulletin, 118, 178-182.
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All papers are to be typed.
All material is to be double-spaced (and only double spaced). This includes all text, abstracts, headers, block quotations, & references. Except in extraordinary situations, you should never use triple or quadruple spacing. Single spacing and 1.5 spacing should never be used.
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All margins (top, bottom, left, & right) should be at least 1 inch.
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Papers should have a page number in the upper right hand corner of each page. Ennumeration should start with the title page, making the first page of text page 2. (This page may be an abstract, for some assignments). Papers submitted to journals are also required to have a "running head" in the upper left-hand corner. This may not be a requirement in every psychology class. (See the publication manual, section 1.06 for more details).
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Quotations of less than 40 words should be incorporated in the text, and surrounded by double quotation marks ("). If something in the original was in double-quotation marks, it should be included in single quotation marks (') in your quotation.
Quotations of more than 40 words should be put in a block quotation. A block quotation should begin on a new line. It should be indented 5 spaces from the left margin for the extent of the quotation. Block quotations should not be enclosed in quotation marks. Do not add extra blank lines to mark off a block quotation. (Cf., Sections 3.34 - 3.41 in the Publication Manual for more detail).
Quotations should be referenced in the same format as other in-text references , but the page number should be included, in parentheses, preceded by the letter p and a period. For example, if I wanted to quote the APA Publication manual, I would say: "Direct quotations must be accurate...the quotation must follow the wording, spelling, and interior punctuation of the original source, even if the source is incorrect." (American Psychological Association, 1983, p. 69).
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Paragraphs should be indented 5 spaces.
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The topic of references is sufficiently complex that the discussion will be broken down into several sections. First, I will discuss the format and placement of references in the text, and then I will briefly discuss the format of references in the reference section. For both topics, but especially for the format of references in the reference section, you are strongly encouraged to study the Publication Manual.
Generally, there are two reasons to cite references. You should cite references whenever you make a statement of "fact", and you should cite references when you are reporting ideas that were first stated by someone else (other than you). Some examples of these two situations follow.
Statements of fact:
WRONG: Some studies have shown that people are attracted to similar others.
RIGHT: In a number of studies, Byrne and his colleagues (e.g., Byrne & Blaylock, 1963; Byrne, Clore, & Smeaton, 1986; Byrne, Clore, & Worchel, 1966; Byrne, Ervin, & Lamberth, 1970) have shown that people are attracted to similar others. For example, Byrne and Nelson (1965) found that the more attitudes that were shared by a hypothetical other person, the more that hypothetical other was liked by the subject.
COMMENT: Here, the statement of fact is that people are attracted to similar others. However, you need to explain how you know this fact -- in this case because there is a large body of empirical research that supports this contention.
WRONG: Schizophrenia is genetic.
RIGHT: Many researchers and theorists have supported the notion that schizophrenia has a genetic component (Gottesman & Shields, 1982).
COMMENT: Here, again, you want to make the statement of fact that schizophrenia is genetically caused. Notice two things. First of all, the first (WRONG) version is not only wrong because of the absence of a reference, it is also wrong because it is ambiguous. At most, the research suggests that your genetic makeup can enhance the likelihood that you will develop schizophrenia. Environment is also important. However, more on topic, the first example is wrong because the reader must again be provided with information about the basis for your statement -- again, empirical research.
WRONG: All psychologists believe that self-awareness is a crucial component of self-regulation.
RIGHT: Many psychologists have argued that self-awareness is a crucial component of self-regulation (e.g., Carver & Scheier, 1982; Baumeister, 1990).
COMMENT: Here, the statement of fact refers to what people believe. But, if you are going to say that certain people believe something, you should provide examples of people who have actually expressed that belief (and note, to say that all psychologists believe something would be, of course, ridiculous).
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WRONG: I believe that we can examine the human psyche by conceptualizing it in three parts -- the id, the ego, & the superego.
RIGHT: I believe that the human psyche can best be conceptualized by maintaining Freud's (e.g., 1940) 3-part division of personality into the id, the ego, and the superego.
WRONG: People have a need to avoid feeling responsible for producing aversive consequences.
RIGHT: The finding that people are only likely to change their attitude in the direction of the counter-attitudinal essay when they believe that essay will produce aversive consequences (e.g., Scher & Cooper, 1988) can best be explained by proposing a motivation to avoid feeling responsible for producing aversive consequences (Cooper & Fazio, 1984).
[NOTE: The reference to Scher & Cooper, 1988, falls under the category "statement of fact," the reference to Cooper & Fazio, 1984 falls under the category of "reference to the ideas of others".]
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Sometimes, you will wish to cite a source that you did not actually consult, but which is mentioned in something you did consult. First of all, you should try to get the original source. However, if you cannot, you should cite the source the text, and refer to the source you actually did read. In the reference section, include only the source that you actually consulted. For example, suppose you read the paper by Alder and Scher (1994), and in that paper they refer to a paper by Cronbach & Furby (1970). If you did not actually read Cronbach & Furby (1970) yourself, then in the text, you might say:
Cronbach & Furby (1970, as cited in Alder & Scher, 1994) suggest that the difference score is an unacceptable means of measuring change.
In the reference section, you would include a reference for Alder & Scher (1994), but not for Cronbach & Furby (1970).
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References in text should be given by listing the last names of the authors and the year. No other information is generally given in the text. In general, neither the first names of the authors, the title of the article (or book), nor the page numbers are given. This latter information will be included in the reference list (see below), and anyone who wants it can look for it there. There are occasionaly exceptions, but these are quite rare.
Another important thing to note is that APA-style does not include reference footnotes. If you want to reference something, it should be included in the text in one of the two ways mentioned below. Footnotes are only to be used to include information which you feel is ancillary to the text. They should be used sparingly.
There are two ways to list references within the body of a paper -- by encorporating them into the text or by placing them in parentheses. In the examples above, the Byrne and Nelson (1965) and Freud (1940) references are instances of the former method, and the other examples are instances of the latter.
References incorporated into the text have the authors' names as part of a sentence, followed by the year of publication in parentheses. References included in parentheses have the names of the authors, followed by a comma, and then the year of publication.
References to more than one paper must be listed in parentheses (although one of the papers could be incorporated into the text, followed by a list of other papers in parentheses). A list of references in parentheses should follow the format for references listed in parentheses. Each seperate paper should be seperated by a semi-colon (;). The exception to this is for papers by (exactly) the same author(s). For these papers, list the authors' names only once, with the years of each publication separated by commas.
An example that demonstrates both of these latter ideas is given below:
A number of theorists have begun to examine the way that affect arises out of discrepancies between our current selves and our standards (e.g., Carver & Scheier, 1982, 1989; Higgins, 1987, 1988; Higgins, Klein, & Strauman, 1985; Strauman & Higgins, 1987).
Several things to note about this example:
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A reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It should be an alphabeitcal listing of all of the references you have included in your text. You must list every reference from the text in the reference list. On the other hand, only those references that you explicitly reference in the body of your paper should be included in a reference list.
There are far too many types of references to include examples of all of them here. You should consult the appropriate pages of the Publication Manual for further details. Examples of three common types of references, however, are given below:
Note: Depending on the browser you use, some important elements of this formatting may not appear correctly. For example, "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology" in the reference below may appear italicized. It should, in fact, be underlined. All italicized items should be understood to be underlined.
Higgins, E.T., Bond, R.M., Klein, R., & Strauman, T. (1986). Self-discrepencies and emotional variability: How magnitude, accessibility and type of discrepency influence affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1-15.
Higgins, E.T., Klein, R., & Strauman, T. (1985). Self-concept discrepancy theory: A psychological model for distinguishing among different aspects of depression and anxiety. Social Cognition, 3, 51-76.
Note that in this example the two seperate references are seperated only by a double-spaced line, just like lines within the reference. This should be the case for the entire reference section (Refer to "Line Spacing" above).
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Note: Depending on the browser you use, some important elements of this formatting may not appear correctly. For example, "The person and the situation: Perspective of social psychology" in the reference below may appear italicized. It should, in fact, be underlined. All italicized items should be understood to be underlined.
Ross, L. & Nisbett, R.E. (1991). The person and the situation: Perspective of social psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
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Note: Depending on the browser you use, some important elements of this formatting may not appear correctly. For example, "Aging in the 1980s: Psychological issues" in the reference below may appear italicized. It should, in fact, be underlined. All italicized items should be understood to be underlined.
Hartley, J.T., Harker, J.O., & Walsh, D.A. (1980). Contemporary issues and new directions in adult development of learning and memory. In L.W. Poon (Ed.), Aging in the 1980s: Psychological issues (pp. 239-252). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
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Original document prepared by Steve Scher.