How to Write a Psychology Research Paper

How to Write a Good Psychology Research Paper?

Are you preparing for your next psychology research paper but aren’t sure you will score the highest marks possible? Do you seek practical ways to boost your chances of fetching good grades in your upcoming psychology research assignment? If you answered “Yes” to the above questions, then you are on the right page.

This post shares psychology research paper guidelines to help you draft a high-quality research paper that will fetch you excellent grades. Stay on this page to learn more and accelerate your writing skills to the peak.

What Is a Psychology Research Paper?

Let’s define a psychology research paper before delving into the details of composing an A+ assignment. In short, it is an academic assignment requiring you to analyze a psychology-related topic and describe its findings. Additionally, you will identify the subject’s strengths and weaknesses before evaluating them.

Typically, your assignment follows the basic APA format, including a title page, abstract, introduction, methodology, findings, discussion, and references. A psychology paper can come in two forms, briefly discussed below.

• Literature review. Your instructor may ask you to draft a literature review on a psychology topic. Here, you will summarize the research and findings others compiled on this topic. This genre includes an intro, body, and conclusion. The number of cited studies and pages varies depending on your instructor’s brief.
• Psychology lab report. Unlike the genre described above, this task lets you conduct your own empirical experiment and develop personalized findings. This assignment will include a title page, an abstract, an intro, methodology, results, discussion, and references.

How to Start a Psychology Research Paper?

How do you approach the start of this academic writing piece? Below are guidelines to help you approach your assignment correctly.

1. Select a topic. You should select a relevant topic that interests you and resonates well with your readers. The topic must not be too wide to exhaust within your paper’s scope. It must also be difficult enough to challenge your thinking but without being too challenging to discuss the content successfully.
2. Read and take notes. Start reading relevant materials you wish to use to compose your assignment. Take notes as you read to keep the main points you will use in drafting the paper.
3. Formulate a thesis. You need to draft a thesis statement to give you a strategic focus and direction to avoid swerving off your determined path.
4. Outline your paper. Next, wireframe your assignment to decide on where you will include your researched materials and findings.
5. Read again. This stage helps you assimilate your research materials before composing the essay.
6. Rethink your thesis statement. You’ll need to revise your thesis statement if needed before proceeding.
7. Draft the body parts. Next, compose your paper’s main body parts.
8. Revise your paper. This step ensures the piece is grammatically, stylistically, and syntactically flawless.
9. Add the intro and conclusion. You can add these parts after writing the main body.
10. Proofread your paper. This stage guarantees the assignment has no typos or technical flaws.

How to Structure a Psychology Research Paper?

Your assignment’s structure is equally important because it helps you order your thoughts logically for easier understanding. A typical psychology research paper features an introduction, methodology, findings, and discussion. Each of these sections serves the following purposes:

• The introduction captures the problem you intend to address and presents the research question.
• The methodology outlines what you did to answer the research question.
• The results section presents your collected data and observations.
• The discussion section shows what you think the results mean.

If your paper is a literature review, it will feature the following structure:

• The author and their professional affiliation.
• Introduction.
• Literature review section that discusses other scholars’ writings on the topic.
• A methodology section.
• Results.
• Discussion section.
• Conclusions.
• Reference list with citations.

How to End a Psychology Research Paper?

How you end your research paper determines many basic things. This section is like a pilot landing his airplane after cruising the skies for hours. Similarly, academic writing rules require you to give a reader a “safe landing” to achieve your desired positive outcome.

Your paper’s ending will depend on various factors, such as its style and research topic. You may use one of three main types of conclusions, as discussed below:

• Summarizing. This conclusion usually wraps up the main points of your topic and thesis statement. It’s the most common form of conclusion.
• Externalizing. An externalizing conclusion presents points or ideas you may not have directly stated. Yet, they are relevant to how you presented your research and thesis. This ending can be effective because it presents fresh ideas that build on the topic you originally presented in your research.
• This method presents your concluding ideas or commentary. It connects your thoughts to the research you present and might state how you feel about the outcomes, results, or topic in general.

Tips for Ending a Psychology Research Paper

Here are additional and beneficial tips to help you compose a punchy conclusion.

• Keep your thesis and main arguments clear and brief, and summarize the facts.
• When you feel overwhelmed with data, stick to a basic summarizing format for your conclusion.
• Synthesize your data by offering questions and answers, results, suggestions, or resolutions to your arguments.
• Only include the most relevant ideas and thoughts in your conclusion unless you are using the second type of conclusion we discussed above.

Psychology Research Paper Outline

Gathering the best research materials and crafting a good thesis isn’t enough to start drafting your paper. You must outline your work before composing it. An outline creates an orderly framework that saves you precious time, frustration, and hassles while writing. It also assists you in spotting potential challenges with your work’s structure and flow.

Moreover, you are better placed to know how your ideas will flow systematically. You must begin by noting the paper’s three most important parts: the intro, body, and conclusion. Later, you can create the subsections based on the type of research paper you’re writing.

A more detailed outline makes your work easier than a simple one. Below is the ideal structure of a psychology research paper:

• A title page containing your paper’s title, name, and other course details.
• An abstract featuring a 120-150-word summary mentioning the research question/topic and briefly discussing the research method used and findings.
• An introduction that introduces the topic while giving context and background information. It ends with the thesis statement or hypothesis.
• A methodology section explaining the research methodology in length, including the number of participants, materials employed, and procedure you undertook.
• A results section presenting your research’s results.
• A conclusion that discusses the results and findings while establishing their connection to your hypothesis.
• A bibliography that cites references in the APA format

Psychology Research Paper Introduction

Pay attention to your paper’s introduction because it justifies your reasons for writing on a topic. It introduces the topic to readers, provides an overview of previous research on the topic, and identifies your hypothesis.

This section briefly describes the research question and shows the reader what your study attempts to demonstrate. It also shows what you are researching. Remember, your introduction should focus on informing the reader why the paper is important rather than what the paper is about.

Therefore, research the paper well to let your intro give a well-rounded summary of previous research relevant to your paper. This way, you will be better positioned to give readers a comprehensive overview of the historical context of the issues you wish to discuss.

You should only focus on hitting the main points and introduce the most relevant studies. Don’t shy away from showing readers why your study is unique or enhances previous research work. Show your audience any gaps in previous studies and any unanswered questions. Afterward, you can end your introduction with your hypothesis to show what you expected to find in your study or experiment.

Psychology Research Paper Body

This section’s main purpose is to review the findings and place them into the broader context of your study. It ties up all its preceding and successive sections to let readers see how these various parts harmoniously tie up. Here, you interpret, analyze, and explain the findings.

All body sections show readers why the results are significant and where they fit in the current literature. This section must also be self-appraising and open about the study’s shortcomings.

Your paper’s structure will vary depending on its subject. However, the following six principles apply to every section.

• Summarize your key findings and connect them to the initial research question to show what readers will take away from this paper.
• Contextualize the findings by reverting to the literature review section and analyzing how the results fit into previous research.
• Mention and discuss any unexpected results by describing them and reasonably explaining why they surfaced in your investigation.
• Address your research limitations or weaknesses to build your credibility because readers see the shortcomings of your method and trust you more when they realize you’re honest about these issues.
• Briefly look at potential follow-up research studies by recommending a few areas where further research may be necessary, but limit your suggestions lest they leave readers focusing on the gaps instead of the findings.
• Conclude by restating the most important findings and their implications. Explain why the research is critical and remind your audience of its connections to outside material, for instance, existing literature.

Psychology Research Paper Conclusion

As previously stated in a previous section, your paper’s conclusion can make or break everything you labored on. Thus, you should pay particular attention to it.

This section sheds more light on what this crucial part entails and how to compose it well. Drafting it correctly leaves readers with a strong, positive last impression of your work. Its three main goals include the following:

Rephrase the Problem

This goal reminds your readers of your research problem or question. You should restate it so it doesn’t look like its original phrasing in the introduction.

Summarize the Paper

This goal summarizes how the paper’s body discussed the research problem and the conclusion this method led to. Your paper type will determine whether you will restate your thoughts and thesis or summarize overall findings.

• Argumentative paper. When writing an argumentative paper, you will summarize your main arguments to show how they contributed to proving your thesis statement. You may also mention some counterarguments you discussed and how your thesis statement debunks them. Avoid delving into the details of your evidence, but only focus on outlining them broadly.
• Empirical paper. This paper type requires summarizing your main findings and avoiding many details here because you already did that in the discussion and results. Freely describe your main findings and explain the overall conclusion they led you to, even if you didn’t expect them.

Discuss the Implications/Suggest Takeaways

After summarizing, your conclusion must end by exploring the broader implications of your research. Thus, you can express key theoretical or practical takeaways as a call for action or a suggestion for further research.

• Argumentative paper: Write a strong closing statement. If your arguments are practical, make calls to action, and if they’re theoretical, show the significance of your arguments, for instance, by proposing future research.
• Empirical paper: Offer future research directions. When writing an empirical paper, end by recommending practice changes or suggesting future research directions.

APA Formatting for Your Psychology Paper

So, how should you format your psychology paper using APA? This section highlights the general requirements on how to write a psychology research paper in APA format. An average research paper will take the following format:

• A title page
• An abstract
• Double-spaced text with one-inch margins on all sides
• Times New Roman 12 pt as the broadly accepted font
• Left-aligned text
• Author-date citations inside the text
• A reference page with citations listed in alphabetical order in line with APA conventions.
• Tables and figures (optional)
• Appendix (optional)

Closing Remarks

Writing a psychology research paper that fetches good grades isn’t reserved for a few chosen geeks. You, too, can master this art and get the best out of your assignments. We hope you will use the insights and tips we discussed to elevate your game in this field and enjoy excellent grades for timely progression.