Writing a Psychology Report: Sections Explained

Half of all published psychology papers that use significance testing contain at least one p-value that does not match its own test statistic (Nuijten et al., 2016). Psychology report sections exist so readers can catch mistakes like that.

Every psychology student eventually has to turn a study into a written report, whether it is a class practical, a coursework project or a first-year university lab report. Researchers do the same thing for journals, and the same basic structure is used from the A level classroom right up to the journals your textbook studies come from.

That shared structure is not a matter of tradition. It is one of the features of science in action. A report written in a standard order lets a reader find the method quickly, check whether the statistics add up, and repeat the study to see if the result holds. It is also what reviewers work through during peer review before a study is published.

This guide works through each section in the order it appears, using one small example study throughout so you can see how the sections fit together. It covers what goes in each part, how to write it, the mistakes that cost marks, and how the AQA A level exam tests the topic. One point first: this article is about the research report, the write-up of a study. A “psychological report” written by a clinical or educational psychologist about one person, for a court or a school, is a different kind of document with different rules.

What Are the Sections of a Psychology Report?

The sections of a psychology report are the abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion and references, always in that order. The AQA A level specification lists exactly these six under “reporting psychological investigations” (AQA, 2015). Most reports also open with a title and can end with appendices holding materials such as the standardised instructions or the raw data.

Each section has one job. If you know the question a section answers, you know what belongs in it, and what does not.

Students often ask why a report does not simply tell the story of the study from start to finish. The answer is that different readers want different things. A busy researcher reads the abstract to decide whether the study is relevant. Someone planning a replication goes straight to the method. A reviewer checking the analysis reads the results closely. A fixed order means each reader can go straight to the part they need.

Where the Structure Came From

The core of the structure is often called IMRaD, short for Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. It is younger than most people assume. Sollaci and Pereira (2004) tracked four leading medical journals from 1935 onwards and found no IMRaD articles at all in 1935. Only in the 1970s did more than 80% of articles use it, and by 1985 it was universal in all four journals.

Psychology uses the same pattern, and the American Psychological Association (APA) sets out in detail what each part should contain. Its Journal Article Reporting Standards, known as JARS, list the information a quantitative study must report, section by section (Appelbaum et al., 2018). Your A level report is a simpler version of the same thing.

The Hourglass Shape

A psychology report is shaped like an hourglass: wide at the top, narrow in the middle and wide again at the bottom. Bem (2003) describes it this way. The introduction starts with broad statements about the topic and narrows down to the specific study. The method and results are the narrow neck, full of precise detail. The discussion then widens out again, from what this study found to what it means for the topic as a whole.

The hourglass is worth remembering because it explains two things students often get wrong. The introduction should end with the hypothesis, not begin with it. And the discussion should end on the big picture, not on a small detail of the procedure.

The Example Study Used in This Guide

To show how the sections connect, this guide follows one small, invented study from start to finish. The data are made up for teaching, but every statistic has been calculated properly so the example holds together.

A student wants to know whether revising with music on affects memory. Twenty students are split into two groups of ten. One group learns a list of 20 words in silence. The other learns the same list with lyrical music playing. Each student then writes down as many words as they can remember. The question is whether the music group remembers fewer words.

What Should the Title of a Psychology Report Include?

The title of a psychology report should name the variables that were studied, so a reader knows what the report is about before reading anything else. For an experiment, that means the independent variable (IV), the thing the researcher changes, and the dependent variable (DV), the thing that is measured.

Bem (2003) recommends a title of 10 to 12 words that makes sense on its own. For the example study, “The Effect of Background Music on Recall of a Word List” names both the IV (background music) and the DV (recall of a word list). A title such as “Music and Memory” is too vague: it could describe dozens of different studies.

The same rule applies to graphs and tables inside the report. When AQA asks students to draw a graph, one of the marks goes to a title that refers to the IV and the DV (AQA, 2018).

How Do You Write an Abstract for a Psychology Report?

An abstract is a short summary of the whole psychology report, placed first but written last. It gives the aim, the method, the participants, the main results and the conclusion in a single paragraph, so a reader can decide whether the full report is worth reading.

AQA’s mark scheme for a question on the abstract gives one mark each for three points: that it is the first section, that it is a brief summary of roughly 100 to 300 words, and that it contains the aims, method, results and conclusions (AQA, 2022). Those three points are the answer to learn for the exam.

How Long Should an Abstract Be?

Under current APA style an abstract should usually be no longer than 250 words (American Psychological Association, 2020). You may see a much lower figure in older guides. Bem (2003), writing when the fifth edition of the APA manual was current, advised a maximum of 120 words. For an A level practical, 150 to 200 words is a sensible target. The limit is part of the skill: an abstract that runs to a page has stopped being a summary.

An Example Abstract

Here is an abstract for the example study. Each sentence covers one part of the report, in the same order as the report itself.

This study investigated whether background music affects the recall of a word list. Research on working memory suggests that background sound may compete with the rehearsal of words. Twenty sixth-form students, recruited by opportunity sampling, were randomly allocated to learn 20 words either in silence or with lyrical music playing, in an independent groups design. The mean number of words recalled was 13.2 in silence and 10.5 with music. A Mann-Whitney U test showed that the difference was significant (U = 14.5, p < .05, two-tailed). The findings suggest that lyrical music may interfere with learning verbal material, and that students revising word-based content may do better in silence.

That is about 110 words. Notice what is left out: there are no references, no discussion of limitations and no background beyond one sentence. Those belong in the full report.

Why the Abstract Is Written Last

The abstract is written last because it summarises results and conclusions that do not exist until the rest of the report is finished. Bem (2003) makes the same point: compose the title and abstract once the article is complete and you have a firm view of what it says. Writing it first usually produces a summary of what you hoped to find rather than what you did find.

What Goes in the Introduction of a Psychology Report?

The introduction of a psychology report explains why the study was done. It reviews the earlier research and theory that the study builds on, explains the gap or question that research leaves open, and ends by stating the aim and the hypotheses.

Following the hourglass, the introduction moves from general to specific. It usually has three parts.

1. The background. Relevant theories and studies, described briefly and linked to one another. For the example study, that would be research on working memory and on how background sound affects learning.
2. The rationale. Why this particular study is worth doing. Perhaps earlier research used instrumental music and no one has tested lyrical music, or earlier studies used adults rather than students.
3. The aim and hypotheses. A clear statement of what the study sets out to investigate, followed by the predictions it will test.

Writing the Background Research

The background research should be selective. APA guidance, quoted by Bem (2003), is to discuss the literature without an exhaustive history, and to cite only work that bears directly on the question. A good introduction reads like an argument that leads the reader towards your hypothesis, not a list of every study you found.

Each study you mention needs an in-text citation, the author’s surname and the year, such as (Loftus & Palmer, 1974). The full details go in the references section at the end. If you are describing a classic study, such as Loftus and Palmer’s car crash experiment, give only the details that matter to your argument, not a full summary.

Stating the Aim and Hypotheses

The aim is a general statement of what the study investigates. The hypothesis is a precise, testable prediction. For the example study:

• Aim: to investigate whether background music affects the recall of a word list.
• Experimental hypothesis (non-directional): there will be a difference in the number of words correctly recalled from a list of 20 between participants who learn the list in silence and participants who learn it with lyrical music playing.
• Null hypothesis: there will be no difference in the number of words correctly recalled between the two conditions.

A good hypothesis is operationalised, which means the variables are stated in a form that can be measured. “Music affects memory” is not operationalised. “The number of words correctly recalled from a list of 20” is. Whether you write a directional or a non-directional hypothesis depends on what earlier research predicts. The guide to aims and hypotheses covers how to choose.

What Goes in the Method Section of a Psychology Report?

The method section of a psychology report describes exactly how the study was carried out, in enough detail that another researcher could repeat it. It is usually split into subsections: design, participants, materials, procedure and ethics.

Replication is the reason the method matters so much. A finding that cannot be repeated cannot be checked. When the Open Science Collaboration (2015) repeated 100 studies from three psychology journals, only 36% of the repeat studies produced a statistically significant result. A repeat study can only test the original if the original method was reported clearly enough to follow.

A useful test: could a classmate who has never seen your study run it from your method section alone, without asking you a single question? If not, something is missing. The method is written in the past tense, because it describes what was done (Bem, 2003).

Design

The design subsection names the research method and, for an experiment, the experimental design, and gives a brief reason for choosing it. It also states the IV and DV, and any controls used, such as random allocation or counterbalancing.

For the example study: “A laboratory experiment was used with an independent groups design, to avoid order effects from learning two similar word lists. The IV was the learning condition (silence or lyrical music). The DV was the number of words correctly recalled out of 20. Participants were randomly allocated to conditions.” The types of experiment guide explains how to justify the choice of a laboratory, field, natural or quasi-experiment.

Participants

The participants subsection describes who took part and how they were chosen. It gives the number of participants, relevant characteristics such as age range and gender, the target population and the sampling technique.

For the example study: “Twenty sixth-form students aged 16 to 18 (12 female, 8 male) took part. They were recruited by opportunity sampling from one college. The target population was sixth-form students.” Naming the sampling method matters because it tells the reader how far the results can be generalised. An opportunity sample from one college may not represent students elsewhere, which the discussion will need to acknowledge.

Materials or Apparatus

The materials subsection lists everything used to run the study: word lists, questionnaires, stimuli, timers, recordings and so on. Anything a replicator would need to recreate goes here, with the full version in an appendix.

For the example study, that means the list of 20 words and how they were chosen (for instance, common two-syllable nouns), the piece of music and how loud it was played, a stopwatch, and the recall sheet. If a questionnaire or interview was used, say how many questions it had, give examples, and put the full version in an appendix.

Procedure

The procedure is a step-by-step account of what happened to a participant, from arriving to leaving. Bem (2003) suggests describing it from the participant’s point of view: what they were told, what they saw and what they were asked to do, in order.

The procedure should mention the standardised instructions, which were read out word for word to every participant so they all had the same experience. It should give timings, such as two minutes to learn the list and two minutes to recall it, and describe the debrief at the end. The standardised instructions and the debrief script usually go in an appendix, with the procedure referring to them.

Ethics

The method should say how ethical issues were handled, following the British Psychological Society’s Code of Human Research Ethics (British Psychological Society, 2021). That usually means informed consent (and parental consent for anyone under 16), the right to withdraw, confidentiality and a debrief.

Some students put ethics in its own subsection and others fold it into the procedure. Either is acceptable as long as it is there. For studies on sensitive topics, the wider consequences of the research also need thought, which the article on social sensitivity and research ethics explores.

What Goes in the Results Section of a Psychology Report?

The results section of a psychology report presents what was found, without interpreting it. It usually gives descriptive statistics first, then a table or graph, then the inferential test and whether the result was significant. Explaining what the results mean is left to the discussion.

Bem (2003) warns against simply throwing numbers at readers. The results should be written in sentences that tell the reader what each number shows, with tables and graphs supporting the text rather than replacing it. Raw data, meaning each participant’s individual scores, go in an appendix rather than the results.

Descriptive Statistics

Descriptive statistics summarise the data. The usual choice is a measure of central tendency and a measure of dispersion for each condition, such as the mean and the standard deviation. For the example study, they fit neatly in a table.

Every table and graph needs a number and a title, and the text should refer to it: “Table 1 shows that participants in the silence condition recalled more words on average than those in the music condition.” For a comparison of two conditions, a bar chart of the two means is the usual graph, with the bars not touching, the axes labelled and a title that names the IV and DV (AQA, 2018).

Inferential Statistics

The inferential test tells you whether the difference or relationship is big enough to be unlikely to have happened by chance. The results should name the test, give a brief reason for choosing it, report the calculated value and the critical value, and state whether the result was significant and at what level.

For the example study, the design is independent groups, the study looks for a difference, and the recall scores are treated as ordinal data. Those three facts point to the Mann-Whitney U test. The guide to choosing a statistical test walks through the same decision for any study.

The results would read: “A Mann-Whitney U test was used because the study looked for a difference between two independent groups and the data were treated as ordinal. The calculated value of U was 14.5. The critical value for N1 = 10 and N2 = 10 at p < .05 (two-tailed) is 23. As the calculated value is less than the critical value, the difference is significant, and the null hypothesis can be rejected.”

Notice that the sentence stops there. It does not say the result proves that music damages memory, or explain why the result happened. Those claims belong in the discussion. If the terms significance level and null hypothesis are unfamiliar, the guide to statistical significance and p-values explains them.

Reporting Statistics in APA Style

APA style has a few conventions for writing statistics that are worth following even at A level:

• Statistical symbols are written in italics: M for mean, SD for standard deviation, p for probability, U for the Mann-Whitney statistic.
• A p value has no zero before the decimal point, because it can never be greater than 1: write p = .03, not p = 0.03.
• Exact p values are given to two or three decimal places, and anything smaller than .001 is written as p < .001.

A worked example: “Participants in the silence condition (M = 13.2, SD = 1.93) recalled more words than those in the music condition (M = 10.5, SD = 1.58), U = 14.5, p < .05.” At A level you will usually compare the calculated value with a critical value table, so reporting p < .05 rather than an exact figure is fine.

Accuracy matters more than formatting. The Nuijten et al. (2016) study in the opening line used a program to check over 250,000 p-values from eight major psychology journals, and found that one paper in eight contained a p-value so inconsistent with its test statistic that it may have changed the conclusion. Check that every number in your results matches your calculations, and that the same figure is not reported differently in the abstract.

Qualitative Results

Not every study produces numbers. If you collected qualitative data, such as interview answers, the results section presents the themes or categories you identified, with short quotations from participants as evidence for each one. The same rule applies: present what you found here, and interpret it in the discussion. The difference between the two kinds of data is covered in quantitative vs qualitative analysis.

What Goes in the Discussion Section of a Psychology Report?

The discussion section of a psychology report explains what the results mean. It opens by saying whether the hypothesis was supported, relates the findings to the research described in the introduction, considers the study’s limitations, and ends with the wider implications and ideas for future research.

In the hourglass, the discussion is the lower half, moving from the specific study back out to the wider topic. Bem (2003) notes that its sequence of topics is often the mirror image of the introduction. The studies you introduced at the start are the ones you return to at the end.

Summarising the Findings

Start with a clear, plain statement of the main finding and what it means for the hypothesis. For the example study: “Participants who learned the word list with lyrical music playing recalled significantly fewer words than those who learned it in silence, so the experimental hypothesis was supported.” Do not repeat all the numbers from the results. One sentence of summary is enough.

Relating Results to Earlier Research

Next, explain how the findings fit with the theories and studies in the introduction. Do they support them, contradict them or add something new? If your result was unexpected, suggest possible reasons, but Bem (2003) warns against building elaborate theories to explain away every result that did not go to plan. A result that does not support the hypothesis is still a result, and reporting it honestly is part of good science.

Limitations and Improvements

Every study has limitations, and a good discussion names the ones that matter most, explains how each could have affected the results, and suggests a realistic improvement. Useful headings to think with are validity, reliability, sampling and ethics.

For the example study, limitations might include the small opportunity sample from one college, which limits how far the findings generalise; individual differences between the two groups, such as memory ability, which an independent groups design cannot rule out; and low ecological validity, because learning a word list for two minutes is not the same as revising for an exam. A matched pairs design, a larger random sample, or a task closer to real revision would each address one of these.

Avoid vague limitations such as “the sample was too small” with no explanation of why that matters. Say what effect it could have: a small sample makes it harder to detect a real difference and easier for one unusual participant to distort the mean.

Implications and Future Research

Finally, explain why the findings matter beyond the study. For the example study, the implication is practical: students revising word-based material may benefit from turning off music with lyrics. Suggest a future study that follows on logically, such as comparing lyrical and instrumental music to see whether it is the words that cause the interference.

Bem (2003) points out that ending with “further research is needed” is common but dull. The last sentence of the discussion is the bottom of the hourglass, and it should leave the reader with the broadest point the study can honestly support.

How Do You Write the References Section of a Psychology Report?

The references section of a psychology report lists full details of every source cited in the report, in alphabetical order by the first author’s surname. Psychology normally uses APA style, and every in-text citation must have a matching entry in the list, and every entry in the list must be cited in the text.

AQA has asked students why reports include a referencing section. The mark scheme accepts that it lets readers track down the sources used, gives credit to other researchers for their ideas, and helps avoid plagiarism (AQA, 2019).

In-Text Citations

In APA 7, an in-text citation gives the author’s surname and the year. The rules for more than one author are simple:

• One author: (Bem, 2003) or Bem (2003) argued…
• Two authors: name both every time, with “&” inside brackets and “and” in a sentence: (Loftus & Palmer, 1974) or Loftus and Palmer (1974) found…
• Three or more authors: give the first author followed by “et al.” every time, including the first: (Nuijten et al., 2016).

Formatting a Reference

A journal article reference in APA style follows this pattern: authors’ surnames and initials, the year in brackets, the article title, then the journal name, volume, issue and page numbers, with the journal name and volume in italics. For example:

Sollaci, L. B., & Pereira, M. G. (2004). The introduction, methods, results, and discussion (IMRAD) structure: A fifty-year survey. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 92(3), 364–371.

A book reference gives the author, year, title in italics and publisher. APA 7 lists up to 20 authors in full in the reference list, and each entry uses a hanging indent, where every line after the first is indented. Where a DOI (a permanent link to an online article) exists, it goes at the end of the reference.

Appendices

Appendices come after the references and hold material that would interrupt the report but that a reader, or a replicator, might need: standardised instructions, consent forms, the debrief, word lists or questionnaires, and raw data. Label them Appendix A, Appendix B and so on, and refer to each one in the main text, as in “the standardised instructions are shown in Appendix A”.

Practice: Which Section of the Report Does It Belong In?

The quickest way to learn the sections of a psychology report is to sort real sentences into them. Each sentence below comes from a write-up of the music and memory example study. Pick the section you think it belongs in, then check your answers.

How Are Psychology Report Sections Tested in the A Level Exam?

Psychology report sections are an A level topic only on the AQA specification. They are not on the AS course, and they usually appear as short questions in the research methods part of Paper 2 (AQA, 2015). The questions tend to test whether you know what belongs in each section, rather than asking you to write a full report.

Recent questions show the pattern:

• Describe features of the abstract (3 marks). One mark each for saying it comes first, that it is a brief summary, and that it covers the aims, method, results and conclusions (AQA, 2022).
• Which sections would refer to the results? (1 mark, multiple choice). The correct answer was the abstract, the results and the discussion (AQA, 2020). The trap is forgetting that the abstract and discussion both mention findings too.
• Give one reason why reports include a referencing section (1 mark). Tracing sources, crediting other researchers and avoiding plagiarism were all accepted (AQA, 2019).

Report sections also appear indirectly. A question asking you to write a hypothesis, identify a sampling method, suggest a graph title or explain a limitation is really asking you to write part of an introduction, a method, a results section or a discussion. Knowing the structure helps with all of them.

Common Mistakes in Psychology Reports

The most common mistakes in psychology reports come from putting material in the wrong section. Most of the others are about missing detail. These are the ones worth checking before you hand a report in.

1. Interpreting in the results. Words like "this shows that music damages memory" belong in the discussion. The results only say what was found.
2. A method too vague to repeat. "Participants learned some words" gives a replicator nothing to work with. How many words, which words, for how long?
3. New results in the discussion. Every finding the discussion mentions should already have appeared in the results.
4. An abstract written first. It ends up describing the plan, not the findings.
5. Hypotheses that are not operationalised. The DV must be something you can count or measure.
6. Raw data in the results. A table of every participant's score belongs in an appendix. The results give the summary.
7. Citations with no reference, or references never cited. The two lists must match exactly.
8. Generic limitations. "The sample was small" earns little unless you explain how it affected the results and what you would do instead.
9. Overclaiming. One small study "suggests" or "supports". It does not "prove".

A final read-through with the table at the top of this guide beside you catches most of these. For each paragraph, ask which question it answers, and check it is in the section that answers that question.

How Psychology Reporting Is Changing

Psychology reporting is changing to make studies easier to check and harder to bend. The replication problems found by the Open Science Collaboration (2015) pushed journals towards more detailed methods, shared data and plans that are fixed before the data are collected.

The clearest example is the registered report, introduced at the journal Cortex in 2013 (Chambers, 2013). In a registered report, the introduction and method go through peer review before the study is run. If the plan is sound, the journal gives it in-principle acceptance: it will publish the study whatever the results show, as long as the approved plan is followed. That removes the temptation to change the hypothesis after seeing the data, or to leave out results that did not work.

The basic sections have not changed. What has changed is how much detail is expected in them. When the APA revised its reporting standards in 2018, it asked authors to label every hypothesis and analysis as primary, secondary or exploratory, so readers can tell which tests were planned in advance, and it added new standards for reporting replication studies (Appelbaum et al., 2018). The direction of travel is the same one that runs through this whole guide: write the report so that someone else can check it.

Conclusion

A psychology report follows a fixed order: title, abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion and references, with appendices where needed. Each section answers one question, and most problems in a report come from answering a question in the wrong place.

The abstract summarises everything and is written last. The introduction moves from broad research to a precise hypothesis. The method gives enough detail for anyone to repeat the study. The results present the findings without interpreting them. The discussion explains what they mean, admits the limitations and widens out to the bigger picture. The references let readers trace every source.

Behind the structure is one idea that runs through all the features of science in psychology: a finding only counts if someone else can check it. Writing a clear report is how you make that possible.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the sections of a psychology report?

A psychology research report has a title followed by six sections: abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion and references. Appendices can be added at the end for materials and raw data. The method is normally split into design, participants, materials and procedure.

What is the structure of a psychology lab report?

A psychology lab report uses the same structure as a journal article, known as IMRaD: introduction, method, results and discussion, with an abstract before them and references after. It runs from general background, to the specific details of the study, and back out to what the findings mean.

What is a psychology report?

The phrase has two meanings. In research, a psychology report is the written account of a study, set out in standard sections so others can evaluate and repeat it. In professional practice, a psychological report is an assessment of one person by a qualified psychologist, written for a court, school or health service.

How do you write a psychology report introduction?

1. Open with the general topic and why it matters.
2. Summarise the most relevant theories and studies, citing each one.
3. Explain the gap or question this research leaves open.
4. State the aim of your study.
5. Finish with operationalised experimental and null hypotheses.

What should be in an abstract for a psychology report?

An abstract should contain one or two sentences each on the aim, the participants and method, the key results including whether they were significant, and the conclusion. It should make sense to someone who reads nothing else, so avoid abbreviations that are only defined later in the report.

How long is an abstract in a psychology report?

APA style sets a usual maximum of 250 words. AQA's mark scheme credits a description of the abstract as roughly 100 to 300 words. For a school or college practical, aim for around 150 to 200 words in a single paragraph.

What is included in the method section of a psychology report?

What goes in the discussion of a psychology report?

The discussion interprets the findings. It states whether the hypothesis was supported, compares the results with earlier studies, evaluates the study's weaknesses with suggested improvements, and considers practical implications and future research. No new results should appear here.

What referencing style is used in a psychology report?

Psychology usually uses APA style, currently in its seventh edition. Sources are cited in the text by author and year, and listed in full in alphabetical order at the end. Some schools and universities accept Harvard referencing instead, so check what your teacher or department expects.

References

• American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). American Psychological Association.
• 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), 3–25.
• AQA. (2015). AS and A-level Psychology specification (7181, 7182). AQA.
• AQA. (2018). A-level Psychology 7182/2 Paper 2 Psychology in context: Mark scheme, June 2018. AQA.
• AQA. (2019). A-level Psychology 7182/2 Paper 2 Psychology in context: Mark scheme, June 2019. AQA.
• AQA. (2020). A-level Psychology 7182/2 Paper 2 Psychology in context: Mark scheme, June 2020. AQA.
• AQA. (2022). A-level Psychology 7182/2 Paper 2 Psychology in context: Mark scheme, June 2022. AQA.
• Bem, D. J. (2003). Writing the empirical journal article. In J. M. Darley, M. P. Zanna, & H. L. Roediger III (Eds.), The compleat academic: A practical guide for the beginning social scientist (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association.
• British Psychological Society. (2021). BPS code of human research ethics. British Psychological Society.
• Chambers, C. D. (2013). Registered reports: A new publishing initiative at Cortex. Cortex, 49(3), 609–610.
• Loftus, E. F., & Palmer, J. C. (1974). Reconstruction of automobile destruction: An example of the interaction between language and memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 13(5), 585–589.
• Nuijten, M. B., Hartgerink, C. H. J., van Assen, M. A. L. M., Epskamp, S., & Wicherts, J. M. (2016). The prevalence of statistical reporting errors in psychology (1985–2013). Behavior Research Methods, 48(4), 1205–1226.
• Open Science Collaboration. (2015). Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science, 349(6251), aac4716.
• Sollaci, L. B., & Pereira, M. G. (2004). The introduction, methods, results, and discussion (IMRAD) structure: A fifty-year survey. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 92(3), 364–371.

Further Reading and Research

Recommended Articles

• Features of Science: Falsifiability and Paradigms
• Peer Review in Psychology
• Choosing the Right Statistical Test

Suggested Books

• Coolican, H. (2024). Research methods and statistics in psychology (8th ed.). Routledge.
  • A standard textbook for A level and undergraduate psychology, covering design, statistics and how to write up a practical report.
• American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). American Psychological Association.
  • The official guide to APA style, including the structure of a research paper, reporting statistics and formatting references.
• Silvia, P. J. (2018). How to write a lot: A practical guide to productive academic writing (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association.
  • A short, readable book on the habits behind academic writing, from a psychologist, useful for anyone moving on to university reports.

Recommended Websites

• Purdue Online Writing Lab: APA Formatting and Style Guide
  • Free, clear guidance on APA 7 paper format, in-text citations, reference lists and reporting statistics.
• APA Style (apastyle.apa.org)
  • The APA's own site, with sample papers and the Journal Article Reporting Standards tables.
• AQA A-level Psychology (aqa.org.uk)
  • The specification, past papers and mark schemes, showing exactly how report sections are examined.

Kathy Brodie

Kathy Brodie is an Early Years Professional, Trainer and Author of multiple books on Early Years Education and Child Development. She is the founder of Early Years TV and the Early Years Summit.

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To cite this article please use:

Early Years TV Writing a Psychology Report: Sections Explained. Available at: https://www.earlyyears.tv/psychology-report-sections-how-to-write/ (Accessed: 11 October 2026).