Content and Formating Guidelines for your Observational Research Paper.
The main components of your paper include: A Title page, Introduction, Method, Results, Conclusions (or Discussion), References, your diagram of the room layout and your observation notes/checklist. For the page count only the Introduction, Method, Results and Conclusions/discussion are counted.
Please refer to the link below for how to format your paper (this shows you how to set up your title page, how to use headers, etc).
The following is important information for you on what and how to write the various sections of your paper. Please read it carefully and refer to it when writing your paper. Organization and presentation is worth 5 pts.
Introduction : (This should be 1/2 to 1 page long. ) 10 points
1. Introduce the question . Try to be concise and stay focused on your question. Don't have a long, philosophical discussion of the general importance or wonder about a larger issue
Bad Example : For centuries philosophers and scientists have marvelled and wondered at the processes that enable a single cell to develop into the complex, mulifaceted, unpredictable organism we call the child. How does this immobile blob transform itself into a sentient being that can move with dexterity around his ever changing environment?
Good Example : Physical and motor development during the first 18 months includes a number of important milestones, such as sitting, crawling and walking. Of particular interest to developmental psychologists is how and when these motor skills develop and transform.
2. Discuss relevant research . Describe research that addressed the question that you are looking at.
Example: When first learning to talk, around 12 months of age, infants' speech is characterized by single word utterances that can have many meanings, such as using "ball" to mean "there is the ball", "give me the ball", or "take the ball away" (Someone, 1954). By the time a child is three years old, they are talking in complex sentences, although they may make grammatical errors, such as saying "foots" instead of "feet" or "goed" instead of "went" (Pinker, 1986).
When citing research, one study must include a brief description of the method (what did they do and who did they do it to), the results (what did they find), and the conclusion (what did they infer). Each of these need only be 1 or two sentences. You don't need detail or numbers. For example: (in parentheses I indicate what type of material is presented)
(This is not a real reference)
In a study by Thelen (1990) 24 six-month-olds were either given stepping experience on a treadmill or in the water or were given no stepping experience. (this is the method) She found that the infants given stepping experience did not learn to walk any earlier than the infants with no stepping experience. (this is the result) Thus stepping experience by itself does not promote early walking. (this is the conclusion).
Two other studies must be presented but you only have to present their results or conclusions. For example: Infants who were given extensive training in stepping and balancing from six to 10 months of age did walk earlier than a control group (Adoph, 1999)
3. Introduce your study. Briefly state what your question is and how you will investigate it.
Example: In this study I will use an observational method to examine the differences between younger and older toddlers in their child-to-child and child-to-adult communication behaviors.
Method (less than 1/2 a page) ( 10 points)
Divide this section of your paper into subheadings: Participants & Procedure. Under procedure, include a reference to your notes and diagram of the space.
Participants . This section describes the critical characteristics of the participants. If you only observed a specific subset of children include that information.
Example: Three infants between the ages of four and 7 months (younger infants) and three infants between the ages of 7 and 14 months (older infants) who attended the Cyert Center were observed.
Procedure . State how you conducted your observation - number of sessions, time of day, how you recorded the information.
Example: Children were observed through a viewing window for 30 minutes on two consecutive mornings (see room layout). On the first day the younger infants were observed and on the second day the older infants were observed. A behavioral checklist was used to record each instance of a listed behavior during the 30 minute period (See checklist).
OR Children were observed from a corner of the room for two 30-minute periods during the afternoon free play period, two days apart. Younger toddlers were observed on day one and older toddlers were observed on day two. All behaviors related to physical and motor activity were recorded and later categorized as fine or gross motor.
Results (depends on how extensive you were but between 1 to 1.5 pages) (15 points)
Present what you found. If you used a checklist and counted frequency of behavior you can report that - you don't have to report every item. You can group them or drop ones with very low frequencies. If you took notes, describe how the two groups were different or not. Address the questions that were listed under the question on the assignment description. Report the most interesting findings, even if it was that there were no differences between the two groups. But remember, your focus is the comparison of the two groups on the behavior of interest so make sure you compare them
Example: Older toddlers verbalized more often, had longer utterances, and talked to their peers more than the younger toddlers. Younger toddlers mostly used single word utterances and never had an utterance more than 4 words long. OR
Forty percent of the young toddlers utterances were single word compared to only two percent of the older toddlers. In contrast, 80% of the older toddlers utterances were five or more words compared to 6% of the younger toddlers.
Conclusion/Discussion: (Use either Conclusion or Discussion). 10 points.
How do your findings relate to theories or previous research. Do they support or contradict previous work or our current theories? Do they support one theory and contradict another? Briefy summarize your result and then discuss its implication.
Example: I found that the younger toddlers primarily used single word utterances whereas the older toddlers used more complex and longer utterances. This is similar to the findings by Nelson (1986) and others. Furthermore, the high frequency of overregularizing verbs in the older but not the younger toddlers supports Pinker's view that over time children change from producing heard words only to applying abstracted grammatical rules to produce words (Pinker, 1987).
References. See the Style page