Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsWhat to Include in an APA Results SectionJustify ClaimsSummarize ResultsReport All Relevant ResultsReport Statistical FindingsInclude Tables and FiguresWhat Not to Include in an APA Results SectionMore Tips

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Table of Contents

What to Include in an APA Results Section

Justify Claims

Summarize Results

Report All Relevant Results

Report Statistical Findings

Include Tables and Figures

What Not to Include in an APA Results Section

More Tips

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Psychology papers generally follow a specific structure. One important section of a paper is known as the results section. An APA results section of apsychology papersummarizes the data that was collected and the statistical analyses that were performed. The goal of this section is to report the results of your study or experiment without any type of subjective interpretation.

At a GlanceThe results section is a vital part of an APA paper that summarizes a study’s findings and statistical analysis. This section often includes descriptive text, tables, and figures to help summarize the findings.The focus is purely on summarizing and presenting the findings and should not include any interpretation, since you’ll cover that in the subsequent discussion section.This article covers how to write an APA results section, including what to include and what to avoid.

At a Glance

The results section is a vital part of an APA paper that summarizes a study’s findings and statistical analysis. This section often includes descriptive text, tables, and figures to help summarize the findings.The focus is purely on summarizing and presenting the findings and should not include any interpretation, since you’ll cover that in the subsequent discussion section.This article covers how to write an APA results section, including what to include and what to avoid.

The results section is a vital part of an APA paper that summarizes a study’s findings and statistical analysis. This section often includes descriptive text, tables, and figures to help summarize the findings.

The focus is purely on summarizing and presenting the findings and should not include any interpretation, since you’ll cover that in the subsequent discussion section.

This article covers how to write an APA results section, including what to include and what to avoid.

The results section is the third section of a psychology paper. It will appear after theintroductionandmethodssections and before the discussion section.

The results section should include:

Results Should Justify Your Claims

Report data in order to sufficiently justify your conclusions.Since you’ll be talking about your own interpretation of the results in the discussion section, you need to be sure that the information reported in the results section justifies your claims.

Summarize Your Results

Remember, you are summarizing the results of your psychological study, not reporting them in full detail. The results section should be a relatively brief overview of your findings, not a complete presentation of every single number and calculation.

If you choose, you can create a supplemental online archive where other researchers can access the raw data if they choose.

How long should a results section be?The length of your results section will vary depending on the nature of your paper and the complexity of your research. In most cases, this will be the shortest section of your paper.

How long should a results section be?

The length of your results section will vary depending on the nature of your paper and the complexity of your research. In most cases, this will be the shortest section of your paper.

Just as the results section of your psychology paper should sufficiently justify your claims, it should also provide an accurate look at what you found in your study. Be sure to mentionallrelevant information.

Don’t omit findings simply because they failed to support your predictions.

Your hypothesis may have expected more statistically significant results or your study didn’t support yourhypothesis, but that doesn’t mean that the conclusions you reach are not useful. Provide data about what you found in your results section, then save your interpretation for what the results might mean in the discussion section.

While your study might not have supported your original predictions, your finding can provide important inspiration for future explorations into a topic.

How is the results section different from the discussion section?The results section provides the results of your study orexperiment. The goal of the section is to report what happened and the statistical analyses you performed. The discussion section is where you will examine what these results mean and whether they support or fail to support your hypothesis.

How is the results section different from the discussion section?

The results section provides the results of your study orexperiment. The goal of the section is to report what happened and the statistical analyses you performed. The discussion section is where you will examine what these results mean and whether they support or fail to support your hypothesis.

Report Your Statistical Findings

Always assume that your readers have a solid understanding of statistical concepts. There’s no need to explain what a t-test is or how a one-way ANOVA works. Your responsibility is to report the results of your study, not to teach your readers how to analyze or interpret statistics.

Include Effect SizesThePublication Manual of the American Psychological Associationrecommends including effect sizes in your results section so that readers can appreciate the importance of your study’s findings.

Include Effect Sizes

ThePublication Manual of the American Psychological Associationrecommends including effect sizes in your results section so that readers can appreciate the importance of your study’s findings.

Why Are Statistics in Psychology Necessary?

Your results section should include both text and illustrations. Presenting data in this way makes it easier for readers to quickly look at your results.

Structure your results section around tables or figures that summarize the results of your statistical analysis. In many cases, the easiest way to accomplish this is to first create your tables and figures and then organize them in a logical way. Next, write the summary text to support your illustrative materials.

Only include tables and figures if you are going to talk about them in the body text of your results section.

In addition to knowing what you should include in the results section of your psychology paper, it’s also important to be aware of things that you should avoid putting in this section:

Cause-and-Effect Conclusions

Don’t draw cause-effect conclusions. Avoid making any claims suggesting that your result “proves” that something is true.

What Is a Correlation?

Interpretations

Statistics Without Context

Don’t include statistics without narration. The results section should not be a numbers dump. Instead, you should sequentially narrate what these numbers mean.

Raw Data

Don’t include the raw data in the results section. The results section should be a concise presentation of the results. If there is raw data that would be useful, include it in theappendix.

Text Alone

Don’t only rely on descriptive text. Use tables and figures to present these findings when appropriate. This makes the results section easier to read and can convey a great deal of information quickly.

Repeated Data

Don’t present the same data twice in your illustrative materials. If you have already presented some data in a table, don’t present it again in a figure. If you have presented data in a figure, don’t present it again in a table.

All of Your Findings

Don’t feel like you have to include everything. If data is irrelevant to the research question, don’t include it in the results section.

But Don’t Skip Relevant Data

Don’t leave out results because they don’t support your claims. Even if your data does not support your hypothesis, including it in your findings is essential if it’s relevant.

More Tips for Writing a Results Section

If you are struggling, there are a few things to remember that might help:

What This Means For YouRemember, the results section of your paper is all about providing the data from your study. This section is often the shortest part of your paper, and in most cases, the most clinical.Be sure not to include any subjective interpretation of the results. Simply relay the data in the most objective and straightforward way possible. You can then provide your own analysis of what these results mean in the discussion section of your paper.

What This Means For You

Remember, the results section of your paper is all about providing the data from your study. This section is often the shortest part of your paper, and in most cases, the most clinical.Be sure not to include any subjective interpretation of the results. Simply relay the data in the most objective and straightforward way possible. You can then provide your own analysis of what these results mean in the discussion section of your paper.

Remember, the results section of your paper is all about providing the data from your study. This section is often the shortest part of your paper, and in most cases, the most clinical.

Be sure not to include any subjective interpretation of the results. Simply relay the data in the most objective and straightforward way possible. You can then provide your own analysis of what these results mean in the discussion section of your paper.

50+ Research Topics for Psychology Papers

6 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Bavdekar SB, Chandak S.Results: Unraveling the findings.J Assoc Physicians India. 2015 Sep;63(9):44-6. PMID:27608866.Snyder N, Foltz C, Lendner M, Vaccaro AR.How to write an effective results section.Clin Spine Surg. 2019;32(7):295-296. doi:10.1097/BSD.0000000000000845American Psychological Association.Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association(7th ed.). Washington DC: The American Psychological Association; 2019.Purdue Online Writing Lab.APA sample paper: Experimental psychology.Berkeley University.Reviewing test results.Tuncel A, Atan A.How to clearly articulate results and construct tables and figures in a scientific paper?Turk J Urol. 2013;39(Suppl 1):16-19. doi:10.5152/tud.2013.048

6 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Bavdekar SB, Chandak S.Results: Unraveling the findings.J Assoc Physicians India. 2015 Sep;63(9):44-6. PMID:27608866.Snyder N, Foltz C, Lendner M, Vaccaro AR.How to write an effective results section.Clin Spine Surg. 2019;32(7):295-296. doi:10.1097/BSD.0000000000000845American Psychological Association.Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association(7th ed.). Washington DC: The American Psychological Association; 2019.Purdue Online Writing Lab.APA sample paper: Experimental psychology.Berkeley University.Reviewing test results.Tuncel A, Atan A.How to clearly articulate results and construct tables and figures in a scientific paper?Turk J Urol. 2013;39(Suppl 1):16-19. doi:10.5152/tud.2013.048

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Bavdekar SB, Chandak S.Results: Unraveling the findings.J Assoc Physicians India. 2015 Sep;63(9):44-6. PMID:27608866.Snyder N, Foltz C, Lendner M, Vaccaro AR.How to write an effective results section.Clin Spine Surg. 2019;32(7):295-296. doi:10.1097/BSD.0000000000000845American Psychological Association.Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association(7th ed.). Washington DC: The American Psychological Association; 2019.Purdue Online Writing Lab.APA sample paper: Experimental psychology.Berkeley University.Reviewing test results.Tuncel A, Atan A.How to clearly articulate results and construct tables and figures in a scientific paper?Turk J Urol. 2013;39(Suppl 1):16-19. doi:10.5152/tud.2013.048

Bavdekar SB, Chandak S.Results: Unraveling the findings.J Assoc Physicians India. 2015 Sep;63(9):44-6. PMID:27608866.

Snyder N, Foltz C, Lendner M, Vaccaro AR.How to write an effective results section.Clin Spine Surg. 2019;32(7):295-296. doi:10.1097/BSD.0000000000000845

American Psychological Association.Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association(7th ed.). Washington DC: The American Psychological Association; 2019.

Purdue Online Writing Lab.APA sample paper: Experimental psychology.

Berkeley University.Reviewing test results.

Tuncel A, Atan A.How to clearly articulate results and construct tables and figures in a scientific paper?Turk J Urol. 2013;39(Suppl 1):16-19. doi:10.5152/tud.2013.048

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