Psych 101: Introductory Psychology Lab

Introduction Section

An Introduction is exactly what it sounds like, a way of introducing your experiment. In the introduction, you want to provide the background and history that leads up to the experiment. You want the reader to understand what has already been done in areas that are relevant to your experiment. Discuss both the concepts and the research that is relevant. Basically, you are explaining the purpose of the lab by providing its history in the existing research. (The lab manual discusses the introduction on pages 312-313.)

This section is where you would discuss your references. For example, when you do your IRP, you would want to talk about the research that you found in the literature and explain what the existing research tells about the subject matter of your experiment. In your IRP, this section is where you would cite the references that you found.

For this lab, you want to present the background and history of the relevant concepts regarding Freud's psychoanalytic theory. Your lab manual, textbook, and lecture will provide all the background information that you need for this assignment. The references should include the author and year of publication. Remember you need to be able to identify what information is relevant and important for your lab and include that in the introduction section. However, you need to be thorough and make sure you provide all the information that is relevant from your lab manual and textbook.

ALL QUOTED AND PARAPHRASED INFORMATION MUST BE CITED!!!!!!! In empirical research, claims are informed by evidence (not superstition or bias). Consider information from other sources to be a "claim" that must be backed up with evidence- in this case reference to a source. If you use a phrase, clause, sentence or even a term/ phraseology from another source, you must provide a reference for that source. Failure to provide a reference is plagiarism and will result in failure. Always err on the side of citing; there is no problem with having a citation for each sentence in the Introduction.

Present your introduction in an orderly and logical manner. Do not make unclear references. Be very careful about structuring your sentences in a clear manner to make sure that you are conveying the point that you intend to convey. Avoid broad generalizations without also providing more detailed information. Make sure that you provide complete information. Do not just throw out concepts. The concepts need to be presented in an orderly manner and cover the relevant background material.

You want to conclude your introduction with a brief explanation of what your hypothesis is. Do NOT discuss results or procedures or anything else from the methods section in your introduction.

Be precise, thorough, and lucid, so that the reader can fully understand the implications of the hypothesis.

Note: Although we will be generating data this week, make sure your introduction includes information for that section only. There are no other subheadings for this section (see lab manual, page 311).

References are cited in two ways: parenthetically in the text, and in the references section at the close of the paper. Whenever a claim is made, it is followed by a parenthetic citation of the reference that includes the author and the year of publication. If you are using a direct quotation, include the page number from which you found the statement.

When you cite work, make it clear in your writing:

• "Cho, Lee, and Wang (1991) theorized that....."
• "It has been argued that individuals in a distracted condition perform less well than those in a quiet condition (Samsung, 1995; Routie, Aron, & Boling, 1984). "

All citations in the manuscript must appear in the reference list, and all references must be cited in text. The reference list should be succinct, not exhaustive; simply provide sufficient reference to support your research. In the reference section, follow the examples below.

Periodical:
Herman, L. M., Kuczaj, S. A., III, & Holder, M. D. (1993). Responses to anomalous gestural sequences by a language-trained dolphin: Evidence for processing of semantic relations and syntactic information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 122, 184-194.

Magazine Article:
Posner, M. I. (1993, October 29). Seeing the mind. Science, 262, 673-674.

Entire Book:
Cone, J. D., & Foster, S. L. (1993). Dissertations and theses from start to finish: Psychology and related fields. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Last update: 3 May 1998