research papers on psychology

Psychological Science

Prospective submitters of manuscripts are encouraged to read Editor-in-Chief Simine Vazire’s editorial , as well as the editorial by Tom Hardwicke, Senior Editor for Statistics, Transparency, & Rigor, and Simine Vazire.

Psychological Science , the flagship journal of the Association for Psychological Science, is the leading peer-reviewed journal publishing empirical research spanning the entire spectrum of the science of psychology. The journal publishes high quality research articles of general interest and on important topics spanning the entire spectrum of the science of psychology. Replication studies are welcome and evaluated on the same criteria as novel studies. Articles are published in OnlineFirst before they are assigned to an issue. This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) .

Quick Facts

Read the February 2022 editorial by former Editor-in-Chief Patricia Bauer, “Psychological Science Stepping Up a Level.”

Read the January 2020 editorial by former Editor Patricia Bauer on her vision for the future of  Psychological Science .

Read the December 2015 editorial on replication by former Editor Steve Lindsay, as well as his April 2017 editorial on sharing data and materials during the review process.

Watch Geoff Cumming’s video workshop on the new statistics.

Current Issue

Online First Articles

List of Issues

Editorial Board

Submission Guidelines

Editorial Policies

Featured research from psychological science.

Teens Who View Their Homes as More Chaotic Than Their Siblings Have Poorer Mental Health in Adulthood

Many parents ponder why one of their children seems more emotionally troubled than the others. A new study in the United Kingdom reveals a possible basis for those differences.

Rewatching Videos of People Shifts How We Judge Them, Study Indicates

Rewatching recorded behavior, whether on a Tik-Tok video or police body-camera footage, makes even the most spontaneous actions seem more rehearsed or deliberate, new research shows.

Loneliness Bookends Adulthood, Study Shows

Loneliness in adulthood follows a U-shaped pattern: It’s higher in younger and older adulthood, and lowest during middle adulthood, according to new research that examined nine longitudinal studies from around the world.

Privacy Overview

• Reference Manager
• Simple TEXT file

People also looked at

Review article, the use of research methods in psychological research: a systematised review.

• 1 Community Psychosocial Research (COMPRES), School of Psychosocial Health, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
• 2 WorkWell Research Institute, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Research methods play an imperative role in research quality as well as educating young researchers, however, the application thereof is unclear which can be detrimental to the field of psychology. Therefore, this systematised review aimed to determine what research methods are being used, how these methods are being used and for what topics in the field. Our review of 999 articles from five journals over a period of 5 years indicated that psychology research is conducted in 10 topics via predominantly quantitative research methods. Of these 10 topics, social psychology was the most popular. The remainder of the conducted methodology is described. It was also found that articles lacked rigour and transparency in the used methodology which has implications for replicability. In conclusion this article, provides an overview of all reported methodologies used in a sample of psychology journals. It highlights the popularity and application of methods and designs throughout the article sample as well as an unexpected lack of rigour with regard to most aspects of methodology. Possible sample bias should be considered when interpreting the results of this study. It is recommended that future research should utilise the results of this study to determine the possible impact on the field of psychology as a science and to further investigation into the use of research methods. Results should prompt the following future research into: a lack or rigour and its implication on replication, the use of certain methods above others, publication bias and choice of sampling method.

Introduction

Psychology is an ever-growing and popular field ( Gough and Lyons, 2016 ; Clay, 2017 ). Due to this growth and the need for science-based research to base health decisions on ( Perestelo-Pérez, 2013 ), the use of research methods in the broad field of psychology is an essential point of investigation ( Stangor, 2011 ; Aanstoos, 2014 ). Research methods are therefore viewed as important tools used by researchers to collect data ( Nieuwenhuis, 2016 ) and include the following: quantitative, qualitative, mixed method and multi method ( Maree, 2016 ). Additionally, researchers also employ various types of literature reviews to address research questions ( Grant and Booth, 2009 ). According to literature, what research method is used and why a certain research method is used is complex as it depends on various factors that may include paradigm ( O'Neil and Koekemoer, 2016 ), research question ( Grix, 2002 ), or the skill and exposure of the researcher ( Nind et al., 2015 ). How these research methods are employed is also difficult to discern as research methods are often depicted as having fixed boundaries that are continuously crossed in research ( Johnson et al., 2001 ; Sandelowski, 2011 ). Examples of this crossing include adding quantitative aspects to qualitative studies ( Sandelowski et al., 2009 ), or stating that a study used a mixed-method design without the study having any characteristics of this design ( Truscott et al., 2010 ).

The inappropriate use of research methods affects how students and researchers improve and utilise their research skills ( Scott Jones and Goldring, 2015 ), how theories are developed ( Ngulube, 2013 ), and the credibility of research results ( Levitt et al., 2017 ). This, in turn, can be detrimental to the field ( Nind et al., 2015 ), journal publication ( Ketchen et al., 2008 ; Ezeh et al., 2010 ), and attempts to address public social issues through psychological research ( Dweck, 2017 ). This is especially important given the now well-known replication crisis the field is facing ( Earp and Trafimow, 2015 ; Hengartner, 2018 ).

Due to this lack of clarity on method use and the potential impact of inept use of research methods, the aim of this study was to explore the use of research methods in the field of psychology through a review of journal publications. Chaichanasakul et al. (2011) identify reviewing articles as the opportunity to examine the development, growth and progress of a research area and overall quality of a journal. Studies such as Lee et al. (1999) as well as Bluhm et al. (2011) review of qualitative methods has attempted to synthesis the use of research methods and indicated the growth of qualitative research in American and European journals. Research has also focused on the use of research methods in specific sub-disciplines of psychology, for example, in the field of Industrial and Organisational psychology Coetzee and Van Zyl (2014) found that South African publications tend to consist of cross-sectional quantitative research methods with underrepresented longitudinal studies. Qualitative studies were found to make up 21% of the articles published from 1995 to 2015 in a similar study by O'Neil and Koekemoer (2016) . Other methods in health psychology, such as Mixed methods research have also been reportedly growing in popularity ( O'Cathain, 2009 ).

A broad overview of the use of research methods in the field of psychology as a whole is however, not available in the literature. Therefore, our research focused on answering what research methods are being used, how these methods are being used and for what topics in practice (i.e., journal publications) in order to provide a general perspective of method used in psychology publication. We synthesised the collected data into the following format: research topic [areas of scientific discourse in a field or the current needs of a population ( Bittermann and Fischer, 2018 )], method [data-gathering tools ( Nieuwenhuis, 2016 )], sampling [elements chosen from a population to partake in research ( Ritchie et al., 2009 )], data collection [techniques and research strategy ( Maree, 2016 )], and data analysis [discovering information by examining bodies of data ( Ktepi, 2016 )]. A systematised review of recent articles (2013 to 2017) collected from five different journals in the field of psychological research was conducted.

Grant and Booth (2009) describe systematised reviews as the review of choice for post-graduate studies, which is employed using some elements of a systematic review and seldom more than one or two databases to catalogue studies after a comprehensive literature search. The aspects used in this systematised review that are similar to that of a systematic review were a full search within the chosen database and data produced in tabular form ( Grant and Booth, 2009 ).

Sample sizes and timelines vary in systematised reviews (see Lowe and Moore, 2014 ; Pericall and Taylor, 2014 ; Barr-Walker, 2017 ). With no clear parameters identified in the literature (see Grant and Booth, 2009 ), the sample size of this study was determined by the purpose of the sample ( Strydom, 2011 ), and time and cost constraints ( Maree and Pietersen, 2016 ). Thus, a non-probability purposive sample ( Ritchie et al., 2009 ) of the top five psychology journals from 2013 to 2017 was included in this research study. Per Lee (2015) American Psychological Association (APA) recommends the use of the most up-to-date sources for data collection with consideration of the context of the research study. As this research study focused on the most recent trends in research methods used in the broad field of psychology, the identified time frame was deemed appropriate.

Psychology journals were only included if they formed part of the top five English journals in the miscellaneous psychology domain of the Scimago Journal and Country Rank ( Scimago Journal & Country Rank, 2017 ). The Scimago Journal and Country Rank provides a yearly updated list of publicly accessible journal and country-specific indicators derived from the Scopus ® database ( Scopus, 2017b ) by means of the Scimago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator developed by Scimago from the algorithm Google PageRank™ ( Scimago Journal & Country Rank, 2017 ). Scopus is the largest global database of abstracts and citations from peer-reviewed journals ( Scopus, 2017a ). Reasons for the development of the Scimago Journal and Country Rank list was to allow researchers to assess scientific domains, compare country rankings, and compare and analyse journals ( Scimago Journal & Country Rank, 2017 ), which supported the aim of this research study. Additionally, the goals of the journals had to focus on topics in psychology in general with no preference to specific research methods and have full-text access to articles.

The following list of top five journals in 2018 fell within the abovementioned inclusion criteria (1) Australian Journal of Psychology, (2) British Journal of Psychology, (3) Europe's Journal of Psychology, (4) International Journal of Psychology and lastly the (5) Journal of Psychology Applied and Interdisciplinary.

Journals were excluded from this systematised review if no full-text versions of their articles were available, if journals explicitly stated a publication preference for certain research methods, or if the journal only published articles in a specific discipline of psychological research (for example, industrial psychology, clinical psychology etc.).

The researchers followed a procedure (see Figure 1 ) adapted from that of Ferreira et al. (2016) for systematised reviews. Data collection and categorisation commenced on 4 December 2017 and continued until 30 June 2019. All the data was systematically collected and coded manually ( Grant and Booth, 2009 ) with an independent person acting as co-coder. Codes of interest included the research topic, method used, the design used, sampling method, and methodology (the method used for data collection and data analysis). These codes were derived from the wording in each article. Themes were created based on the derived codes and checked by the co-coder. Lastly, these themes were catalogued into a table as per the systematised review design.

Figure 1 . Systematised review procedure.

According to Johnston et al. (2019) , “literature screening, selection, and data extraction/analyses” (p. 7) are specifically tailored to the aim of a review. Therefore, the steps followed in a systematic review must be reported in a comprehensive and transparent manner. The chosen systematised design adhered to the rigour expected from systematic reviews with regard to full search and data produced in tabular form ( Grant and Booth, 2009 ). The rigorous application of the systematic review is, therefore discussed in relation to these two elements.

Firstly, to ensure a comprehensive search, this research study promoted review transparency by following a clear protocol outlined according to each review stage before collecting data ( Johnston et al., 2019 ). This protocol was similar to that of Ferreira et al. (2016) and approved by three research committees/stakeholders and the researchers ( Johnston et al., 2019 ). The eligibility criteria for article inclusion was based on the research question and clearly stated, and the process of inclusion was recorded on an electronic spreadsheet to create an evidence trail ( Bandara et al., 2015 ; Johnston et al., 2019 ). Microsoft Excel spreadsheets are a popular tool for review studies and can increase the rigour of the review process ( Bandara et al., 2015 ). Screening for appropriate articles for inclusion forms an integral part of a systematic review process ( Johnston et al., 2019 ). This step was applied to two aspects of this research study: the choice of eligible journals and articles to be included. Suitable journals were selected by the first author and reviewed by the second and third authors. Initially, all articles from the chosen journals were included. Then, by process of elimination, those irrelevant to the research aim, i.e., interview articles or discussions etc., were excluded.

To ensure rigourous data extraction, data was first extracted by one reviewer, and an independent person verified the results for completeness and accuracy ( Johnston et al., 2019 ). The research question served as a guide for efficient, organised data extraction ( Johnston et al., 2019 ). Data was categorised according to the codes of interest, along with article identifiers for audit trails such as authors, title and aims of articles. The categorised data was based on the aim of the review ( Johnston et al., 2019 ) and synthesised in tabular form under methods used, how these methods were used, and for what topics in the field of psychology.

The initial search produced a total of 1,145 articles from the 5 journals identified. Inclusion and exclusion criteria resulted in a final sample of 999 articles ( Figure 2 ). Articles were co-coded into 84 codes, from which 10 themes were derived ( Table 1 ).

Figure 2 . Journal article frequency.

Table 1 . Codes used to form themes (research topics).

These 10 themes represent the topic section of our research question ( Figure 3 ). All these topics except, for the final one, psychological practice , were found to concur with the research areas in psychology as identified by Weiten (2010) . These research areas were chosen to represent the derived codes as they provided broad definitions that allowed for clear, concise categorisation of the vast amount of data. Article codes were categorised under particular themes/topics if they adhered to the research area definitions created by Weiten (2010) . It is important to note that these areas of research do not refer to specific disciplines in psychology, such as industrial psychology; but to broader fields that may encompass sub-interests of these disciplines.

Figure 3 . Topic frequency (international sample).

In the case of developmental psychology , researchers conduct research into human development from childhood to old age. Social psychology includes research on behaviour governed by social drivers. Researchers in the field of educational psychology study how people learn and the best way to teach them. Health psychology aims to determine the effect of psychological factors on physiological health. Physiological psychology , on the other hand, looks at the influence of physiological aspects on behaviour. Experimental psychology is not the only theme that uses experimental research and focuses on the traditional core topics of psychology (for example, sensation). Cognitive psychology studies the higher mental processes. Psychometrics is concerned with measuring capacity or behaviour. Personality research aims to assess and describe consistency in human behaviour ( Weiten, 2010 ). The final theme of psychological practice refers to the experiences, techniques, and interventions employed by practitioners, researchers, and academia in the field of psychology.

Articles under these themes were further subdivided into methodologies: method, sampling, design, data collection, and data analysis. The categorisation was based on information stated in the articles and not inferred by the researchers. Data were compiled into two sets of results presented in this article. The first set addresses the aim of this study from the perspective of the topics identified. The second set of results represents a broad overview of the results from the perspective of the methodology employed. The second set of results are discussed in this article, while the first set is presented in table format. The discussion thus provides a broad overview of methods use in psychology (across all themes), while the table format provides readers with in-depth insight into methods used in the individual themes identified. We believe that presenting the data from both perspectives allow readers a broad understanding of the results. Due a large amount of information that made up our results, we followed Cichocka and Jost (2014) in simplifying our results. Please note that the numbers indicated in the table in terms of methodology differ from the total number of articles. Some articles employed more than one method/sampling technique/design/data collection method/data analysis in their studies.

What follows is the results for what methods are used, how these methods are used, and which topics in psychology they are applied to . Percentages are reported to the second decimal in order to highlight small differences in the occurrence of methodology.

Firstly, with regard to the research methods used, our results show that researchers are more likely to use quantitative research methods (90.22%) compared to all other research methods. Qualitative research was the second most common research method but only made up about 4.79% of the general method usage. Reviews occurred almost as much as qualitative studies (3.91%), as the third most popular method. Mixed-methods research studies (0.98%) occurred across most themes, whereas multi-method research was indicated in only one study and amounted to 0.10% of the methods identified. The specific use of each method in the topics identified is shown in Table 2 and Figure 4 .

Table 2 . Research methods in psychology.

Figure 4 . Research method frequency in topics.

Secondly, in the case of how these research methods are employed , our study indicated the following.

Sampling −78.34% of the studies in the collected articles did not specify a sampling method. From the remainder of the studies, 13 types of sampling methods were identified. These sampling methods included broad categorisation of a sample as, for example, a probability or non-probability sample. General samples of convenience were the methods most likely to be applied (10.34%), followed by random sampling (3.51%), snowball sampling (2.73%), and purposive (1.37%) and cluster sampling (1.27%). The remainder of the sampling methods occurred to a more limited extent (0–1.0%). See Table 3 and Figure 5 for sampling methods employed in each topic.

Table 3 . Sampling use in the field of psychology.

Figure 5 . Sampling method frequency in topics.

Designs were categorised based on the articles' statement thereof. Therefore, it is important to note that, in the case of quantitative studies, non-experimental designs (25.55%) were often indicated due to a lack of experiments and any other indication of design, which, according to Laher (2016) , is a reasonable categorisation. Non-experimental designs should thus be compared with experimental designs only in the description of data, as it could include the use of correlational/cross-sectional designs, which were not overtly stated by the authors. For the remainder of the research methods, “not stated” (7.12%) was assigned to articles without design types indicated.

From the 36 identified designs the most popular designs were cross-sectional (23.17%) and experimental (25.64%), which concurred with the high number of quantitative studies. Longitudinal studies (3.80%), the third most popular design, was used in both quantitative and qualitative studies. Qualitative designs consisted of ethnography (0.38%), interpretative phenomenological designs/phenomenology (0.28%), as well as narrative designs (0.28%). Studies that employed the review method were mostly categorised as “not stated,” with the most often stated review designs being systematic reviews (0.57%). The few mixed method studies employed exploratory, explanatory (0.09%), and concurrent designs (0.19%), with some studies referring to separate designs for the qualitative and quantitative methods. The one study that identified itself as a multi-method study used a longitudinal design. Please see how these designs were employed in each specific topic in Table 4 , Figure 6 .

Table 4 . Design use in the field of psychology.

Figure 6 . Design frequency in topics.

Data collection and analysis —data collection included 30 methods, with the data collection method most often employed being questionnaires (57.84%). The experimental task (16.56%) was the second most preferred collection method, which included established or unique tasks designed by the researchers. Cognitive ability tests (6.84%) were also regularly used along with various forms of interviewing (7.66%). Table 5 and Figure 7 represent data collection use in the various topics. Data analysis consisted of 3,857 occurrences of data analysis categorised into ±188 various data analysis techniques shown in Table 6 and Figures 1 – 7 . Descriptive statistics were the most commonly used (23.49%) along with correlational analysis (17.19%). When using a qualitative method, researchers generally employed thematic analysis (0.52%) or different forms of analysis that led to coding and the creation of themes. Review studies presented few data analysis methods, with most studies categorising their results. Mixed method and multi-method studies followed the analysis methods identified for the qualitative and quantitative studies included.

Table 5 . Data collection in the field of psychology.

Figure 7 . Data collection frequency in topics.

Table 6 . Data analysis in the field of psychology.

Results of the topics researched in psychology can be seen in the tables, as previously stated in this article. It is noteworthy that, of the 10 topics, social psychology accounted for 43.54% of the studies, with cognitive psychology the second most popular research topic at 16.92%. The remainder of the topics only occurred in 4.0–7.0% of the articles considered. A list of the included 999 articles is available under the section “View Articles” on the following website: https://methodgarden.xtrapolate.io/ . This website was created by Scholtz et al. (2019) to visually present a research framework based on this Article's results.

This systematised review categorised full-length articles from five international journals across the span of 5 years to provide insight into the use of research methods in the field of psychology. Results indicated what methods are used how these methods are being used and for what topics (why) in the included sample of articles. The results should be seen as providing insight into method use and by no means a comprehensive representation of the aforementioned aim due to the limited sample. To our knowledge, this is the first research study to address this topic in this manner. Our discussion attempts to promote a productive way forward in terms of the key results for method use in psychology, especially in the field of academia ( Holloway, 2008 ).

With regard to the methods used, our data stayed true to literature, finding only common research methods ( Grant and Booth, 2009 ; Maree, 2016 ) that varied in the degree to which they were employed. Quantitative research was found to be the most popular method, as indicated by literature ( Breen and Darlaston-Jones, 2010 ; Counsell and Harlow, 2017 ) and previous studies in specific areas of psychology (see Coetzee and Van Zyl, 2014 ). Its long history as the first research method ( Leech et al., 2007 ) in the field of psychology as well as researchers' current application of mathematical approaches in their studies ( Toomela, 2010 ) might contribute to its popularity today. Whatever the case may be, our results show that, despite the growth in qualitative research ( Demuth, 2015 ; Smith and McGannon, 2018 ), quantitative research remains the first choice for article publication in these journals. Despite the included journals indicating openness to articles that apply any research methods. This finding may be due to qualitative research still being seen as a new method ( Burman and Whelan, 2011 ) or reviewers' standards being higher for qualitative studies ( Bluhm et al., 2011 ). Future research is encouraged into the possible biasness in publication of research methods, additionally further investigation with a different sample into the proclaimed growth of qualitative research may also provide different results.

Review studies were found to surpass that of multi-method and mixed method studies. To this effect Grant and Booth (2009) , state that the increased awareness, journal contribution calls as well as its efficiency in procuring research funds all promote the popularity of reviews. The low frequency of mixed method studies contradicts the view in literature that it's the third most utilised research method ( Tashakkori and Teddlie's, 2003 ). Its' low occurrence in this sample could be due to opposing views on mixing methods ( Gunasekare, 2015 ) or that authors prefer publishing in mixed method journals, when using this method, or its relative novelty ( Ivankova et al., 2016 ). Despite its low occurrence, the application of the mixed methods design in articles was methodologically clear in all cases which were not the case for the remainder of research methods.

Additionally, a substantial number of studies used a combination of methodologies that are not mixed or multi-method studies. Perceived fixed boundaries are according to literature often set aside, as confirmed by this result, in order to investigate the aim of a study, which could create a new and helpful way of understanding the world ( Gunasekare, 2015 ). According to Toomela (2010) , this is not unheard of and could be considered a form of “structural systemic science,” as in the case of qualitative methodology (observation) applied in quantitative studies (experimental design) for example. Based on this result, further research into this phenomenon as well as its implications for research methods such as multi and mixed methods is recommended.

Discerning how these research methods were applied, presented some difficulty. In the case of sampling, most studies—regardless of method—did mention some form of inclusion and exclusion criteria, but no definite sampling method. This result, along with the fact that samples often consisted of students from the researchers' own academic institutions, can contribute to literature and debates among academics ( Peterson and Merunka, 2014 ; Laher, 2016 ). Samples of convenience and students as participants especially raise questions about the generalisability and applicability of results ( Peterson and Merunka, 2014 ). This is because attention to sampling is important as inappropriate sampling can debilitate the legitimacy of interpretations ( Onwuegbuzie and Collins, 2017 ). Future investigation into the possible implications of this reported popular use of convenience samples for the field of psychology as well as the reason for this use could provide interesting insight, and is encouraged by this study.

Additionally, and this is indicated in Table 6 , articles seldom report the research designs used, which highlights the pressing aspect of the lack of rigour in the included sample. Rigour with regards to the applied empirical method is imperative in promoting psychology as a science ( American Psychological Association, 2020 ). Omitting parts of the research process in publication when it could have been used to inform others' research skills should be questioned, and the influence on the process of replicating results should be considered. Publications are often rejected due to a lack of rigour in the applied method and designs ( Fonseca, 2013 ; Laher, 2016 ), calling for increased clarity and knowledge of method application. Replication is a critical part of any field of scientific research and requires the “complete articulation” of the study methods used ( Drotar, 2010 , p. 804). The lack of thorough description could be explained by the requirements of certain journals to only report on certain aspects of a research process, especially with regard to the applied design (Laher, 20). However, naming aspects such as sampling and designs, is a requirement according to the APA's Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS-Quant) ( Appelbaum et al., 2018 ). With very little information on how a study was conducted, authors lose a valuable opportunity to enhance research validity, enrich the knowledge of others, and contribute to the growth of psychology and methodology as a whole. In the case of this research study, it also restricted our results to only reported samples and designs, which indicated a preference for certain designs, such as cross-sectional designs for quantitative studies.

Data collection and analysis were for the most part clearly stated. A key result was the versatile use of questionnaires. Researchers would apply a questionnaire in various ways, for example in questionnaire interviews, online surveys, and written questionnaires across most research methods. This may highlight a trend for future research.

With regard to the topics these methods were employed for, our research study found a new field named “psychological practice.” This result may show the growing consciousness of researchers as part of the research process ( Denzin and Lincoln, 2003 ), psychological practice, and knowledge generation. The most popular of these topics was social psychology, which is generously covered in journals and by learning societies, as testaments of the institutional support and richness social psychology has in the field of psychology ( Chryssochoou, 2015 ). The APA's perspective on 2018 trends in psychology also identifies an increased amount of psychology focus on how social determinants are influencing people's health ( Deangelis, 2017 ).

This study was not without limitations and the following should be taken into account. Firstly, this study used a sample of five specific journals to address the aim of the research study, despite general journal aims (as stated on journal websites), this inclusion signified a bias towards the research methods published in these specific journals only and limited generalisability. A broader sample of journals over a different period of time, or a single journal over a longer period of time might provide different results. A second limitation is the use of Excel spreadsheets and an electronic system to log articles, which was a manual process and therefore left room for error ( Bandara et al., 2015 ). To address this potential issue, co-coding was performed to reduce error. Lastly, this article categorised data based on the information presented in the article sample; there was no interpretation of what methodology could have been applied or whether the methods stated adhered to the criteria for the methods used. Thus, a large number of articles that did not clearly indicate a research method or design could influence the results of this review. However, this in itself was also a noteworthy result. Future research could review research methods of a broader sample of journals with an interpretive review tool that increases rigour. Additionally, the authors also encourage the future use of systematised review designs as a way to promote a concise procedure in applying this design.

Our research study presented the use of research methods for published articles in the field of psychology as well as recommendations for future research based on these results. Insight into the complex questions identified in literature, regarding what methods are used how these methods are being used and for what topics (why) was gained. This sample preferred quantitative methods, used convenience sampling and presented a lack of rigorous accounts for the remaining methodologies. All methodologies that were clearly indicated in the sample were tabulated to allow researchers insight into the general use of methods and not only the most frequently used methods. The lack of rigorous account of research methods in articles was represented in-depth for each step in the research process and can be of vital importance to address the current replication crisis within the field of psychology. Recommendations for future research aimed to motivate research into the practical implications of the results for psychology, for example, publication bias and the use of convenience samples.

Ethics Statement

This study was cleared by the North-West University Health Research Ethics Committee: NWU-00115-17-S1.

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Aanstoos, C. M. (2014). Psychology . Available online at: http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/eds/detail/detail?sid=18de6c5c-2b03-4eac-94890145eb01bc70%40sessionmgr4006&vid$=$1&hid$=$4113&bdata$=$JnNpdGU9ZWRzL~WxpdmU%3d#AN$=$93871882&db$=$ers

Google Scholar

American Psychological Association (2020). Science of Psychology . Available online at: https://www.apa.org/action/science/

Appelbaum, M., Cooper, H., Kline, R. B., Mayo-Wilson, E., Nezu, A. M., and Rao, S. M. (2018). Journal article reporting standards for quantitative research in psychology: the APA Publications and Communications Board task force report. Am. Psychol. 73:3. doi: 10.1037/amp0000191

PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar

Bandara, W., Furtmueller, E., Gorbacheva, E., Miskon, S., and Beekhuyzen, J. (2015). Achieving rigor in literature reviews: insights from qualitative data analysis and tool-support. Commun. Ass. Inform. Syst. 37, 154–204. doi: 10.17705/1CAIS.03708

CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar

Barr-Walker, J. (2017). Evidence-based information needs of public health workers: a systematized review. J. Med. Libr. Assoc. 105, 69–79. doi: 10.5195/JMLA.2017.109

Bittermann, A., and Fischer, A. (2018). How to identify hot topics in psychology using topic modeling. Z. Psychol. 226, 3–13. doi: 10.1027/2151-2604/a000318

Bluhm, D. J., Harman, W., Lee, T. W., and Mitchell, T. R. (2011). Qualitative research in management: a decade of progress. J. Manage. Stud. 48, 1866–1891. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2010.00972.x

Breen, L. J., and Darlaston-Jones, D. (2010). Moving beyond the enduring dominance of positivism in psychological research: implications for psychology in Australia. Aust. Psychol. 45, 67–76. doi: 10.1080/00050060903127481

Burman, E., and Whelan, P. (2011). Problems in / of Qualitative Research . Maidenhead: Open University Press/McGraw Hill.

Chaichanasakul, A., He, Y., Chen, H., Allen, G. E. K., Khairallah, T. S., and Ramos, K. (2011). Journal of Career Development: a 36-year content analysis (1972–2007). J. Career. Dev. 38, 440–455. doi: 10.1177/0894845310380223

Chryssochoou, X. (2015). Social Psychology. Inter. Encycl. Soc. Behav. Sci. 22, 532–537. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.24095-6

Cichocka, A., and Jost, J. T. (2014). Stripped of illusions? Exploring system justification processes in capitalist and post-Communist societies. Inter. J. Psychol. 49, 6–29. doi: 10.1002/ijop.12011

Clay, R. A. (2017). Psychology is More Popular Than Ever. Monitor on Psychology: Trends Report . Available online at: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/11/trends-popular

Coetzee, M., and Van Zyl, L. E. (2014). A review of a decade's scholarly publications (2004–2013) in the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology. SA. J. Psychol . 40, 1–16. doi: 10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1227

Counsell, A., and Harlow, L. (2017). Reporting practices and use of quantitative methods in Canadian journal articles in psychology. Can. Psychol. 58, 140–147. doi: 10.1037/cap0000074

Deangelis, T. (2017). Targeting Social Factors That Undermine Health. Monitor on Psychology: Trends Report . Available online at: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/11/trend-social-factors

Demuth, C. (2015). New directions in qualitative research in psychology. Integr. Psychol. Behav. Sci. 49, 125–133. doi: 10.1007/s12124-015-9303-9

Denzin, N. K., and Lincoln, Y. (2003). The Landscape of Qualitative Research: Theories and Issues , 2nd Edn. London: Sage.

Drotar, D. (2010). A call for replications of research in pediatric psychology and guidance for authors. J. Pediatr. Psychol. 35, 801–805. doi: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsq049

Dweck, C. S. (2017). Is psychology headed in the right direction? Yes, no, and maybe. Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 12, 656–659. doi: 10.1177/1745691616687747

Earp, B. D., and Trafimow, D. (2015). Replication, falsification, and the crisis of confidence in social psychology. Front. Psychol. 6:621. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00621

Ezeh, A. C., Izugbara, C. O., Kabiru, C. W., Fonn, S., Kahn, K., Manderson, L., et al. (2010). Building capacity for public and population health research in Africa: the consortium for advanced research training in Africa (CARTA) model. Glob. Health Action 3:5693. doi: 10.3402/gha.v3i0.5693

Ferreira, A. L. L., Bessa, M. M. M., Drezett, J., and De Abreu, L. C. (2016). Quality of life of the woman carrier of endometriosis: systematized review. Reprod. Clim. 31, 48–54. doi: 10.1016/j.recli.2015.12.002

Fonseca, M. (2013). Most Common Reasons for Journal Rejections . Available online at: http://www.editage.com/insights/most-common-reasons-for-journal-rejections

Gough, B., and Lyons, A. (2016). The future of qualitative research in psychology: accentuating the positive. Integr. Psychol. Behav. Sci. 50, 234–243. doi: 10.1007/s12124-015-9320-8

Grant, M. J., and Booth, A. (2009). A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Info. Libr. J. 26, 91–108. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x

Grix, J. (2002). Introducing students to the generic terminology of social research. Politics 22, 175–186. doi: 10.1111/1467-9256.00173

Gunasekare, U. L. T. P. (2015). Mixed research method as the third research paradigm: a literature review. Int. J. Sci. Res. 4, 361–368. Available online at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2735996

Hengartner, M. P. (2018). Raising awareness for the replication crisis in clinical psychology by focusing on inconsistencies in psychotherapy Research: how much can we rely on published findings from efficacy trials? Front. Psychol. 9:256. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00256

Holloway, W. (2008). Doing intellectual disagreement differently. Psychoanal. Cult. Soc. 13, 385–396. doi: 10.1057/pcs.2008.29

Ivankova, N. V., Creswell, J. W., and Plano Clark, V. L. (2016). “Foundations and Approaches to mixed methods research,” in First Steps in Research , 2nd Edn. K. Maree (Pretoria: Van Schaick Publishers), 306–335.

Johnson, M., Long, T., and White, A. (2001). Arguments for British pluralism in qualitative health research. J. Adv. Nurs. 33, 243–249. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2648.2001.01659.x

Johnston, A., Kelly, S. E., Hsieh, S. C., Skidmore, B., and Wells, G. A. (2019). Systematic reviews of clinical practice guidelines: a methodological guide. J. Clin. Epidemiol. 108, 64–72. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2018.11.030

Ketchen, D. J. Jr., Boyd, B. K., and Bergh, D. D. (2008). Research methodology in strategic management: past accomplishments and future challenges. Organ. Res. Methods 11, 643–658. doi: 10.1177/1094428108319843

Ktepi, B. (2016). Data Analytics (DA) . Available online at: https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/eds/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=24c978f0-6685-4ed8-ad85-fa5bb04669b9%40sessionmgr101&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=113931286&db=ers

Laher, S. (2016). Ostinato rigore: establishing methodological rigour in quantitative research. S. Afr. J. Psychol. 46, 316–327. doi: 10.1177/0081246316649121

Lee, C. (2015). The Myth of the Off-Limits Source . Available online at: http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/research/

Lee, T. W., Mitchell, T. R., and Sablynski, C. J. (1999). Qualitative research in organizational and vocational psychology, 1979–1999. J. Vocat. Behav. 55, 161–187. doi: 10.1006/jvbe.1999.1707

Leech, N. L., Anthony, J., and Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2007). A typology of mixed methods research designs. Sci. Bus. Media B. V Qual. Quant 43, 265–275. doi: 10.1007/s11135-007-9105-3

Levitt, H. M., Motulsky, S. L., Wertz, F. J., Morrow, S. L., and Ponterotto, J. G. (2017). Recommendations for designing and reviewing qualitative research in psychology: promoting methodological integrity. Qual. Psychol. 4, 2–22. doi: 10.1037/qup0000082

Lowe, S. M., and Moore, S. (2014). Social networks and female reproductive choices in the developing world: a systematized review. Rep. Health 11:85. doi: 10.1186/1742-4755-11-85

Maree, K. (2016). “Planning a research proposal,” in First Steps in Research , 2nd Edn, ed K. Maree (Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers), 49–70.

Maree, K., and Pietersen, J. (2016). “Sampling,” in First Steps in Research, 2nd Edn , ed K. Maree (Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers), 191–202.

Ngulube, P. (2013). Blending qualitative and quantitative research methods in library and information science in sub-Saharan Africa. ESARBICA J. 32, 10–23. Available online at: http://hdl.handle.net/10500/22397 .

Nieuwenhuis, J. (2016). “Qualitative research designs and data-gathering techniques,” in First Steps in Research , 2nd Edn, ed K. Maree (Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers), 71–102.

Nind, M., Kilburn, D., and Wiles, R. (2015). Using video and dialogue to generate pedagogic knowledge: teachers, learners and researchers reflecting together on the pedagogy of social research methods. Int. J. Soc. Res. Methodol. 18, 561–576. doi: 10.1080/13645579.2015.1062628

O'Cathain, A. (2009). Editorial: mixed methods research in the health sciences—a quiet revolution. J. Mix. Methods 3, 1–6. doi: 10.1177/1558689808326272

O'Neil, S., and Koekemoer, E. (2016). Two decades of qualitative research in psychology, industrial and organisational psychology and human resource management within South Africa: a critical review. SA J. Indust. Psychol. 42, 1–16. doi: 10.4102/sajip.v42i1.1350

Onwuegbuzie, A. J., and Collins, K. M. (2017). The role of sampling in mixed methods research enhancing inference quality. Köln Z Soziol. 2, 133–156. doi: 10.1007/s11577-017-0455-0

Perestelo-Pérez, L. (2013). Standards on how to develop and report systematic reviews in psychology and health. Int. J. Clin. Health Psychol. 13, 49–57. doi: 10.1016/S1697-2600(13)70007-3

Pericall, L. M. T., and Taylor, E. (2014). Family function and its relationship to injury severity and psychiatric outcome in children with acquired brain injury: a systematized review. Dev. Med. Child Neurol. 56, 19–30. doi: 10.1111/dmcn.12237

Peterson, R. A., and Merunka, D. R. (2014). Convenience samples of college students and research reproducibility. J. Bus. Res. 67, 1035–1041. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.08.010

Ritchie, J., Lewis, J., and Elam, G. (2009). “Designing and selecting samples,” in Qualitative Research Practice: A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers , 2nd Edn, ed J. Ritchie and J. Lewis (London: Sage), 1–23.

Sandelowski, M. (2011). When a cigar is not just a cigar: alternative perspectives on data and data analysis. Res. Nurs. Health 34, 342–352. doi: 10.1002/nur.20437

Sandelowski, M., Voils, C. I., and Knafl, G. (2009). On quantitizing. J. Mix. Methods Res. 3, 208–222. doi: 10.1177/1558689809334210

Scholtz, S. E., De Klerk, W., and De Beer, L. T. (2019). A data generated research framework for conducting research methods in psychological research.

Scimago Journal & Country Rank (2017). Available online at: http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?category=3201&year=2015

Scopus (2017a). About Scopus . Available online at: https://www.scopus.com/home.uri (accessed February 01, 2017).

Scopus (2017b). Document Search . Available online at: https://www.scopus.com/home.uri (accessed February 01, 2017).

Scott Jones, J., and Goldring, J. E. (2015). ‘I' m not a quants person'; key strategies in building competence and confidence in staff who teach quantitative research methods. Int. J. Soc. Res. Methodol. 18, 479–494. doi: 10.1080/13645579.2015.1062623

Smith, B., and McGannon, K. R. (2018). Developing rigor in quantitative research: problems and opportunities within sport and exercise psychology. Int. Rev. Sport Exerc. Psychol. 11, 101–121. doi: 10.1080/1750984X.2017.1317357

Stangor, C. (2011). Introduction to Psychology . Available online at: http://www.saylor.org/books/

Strydom, H. (2011). “Sampling in the quantitative paradigm,” in Research at Grass Roots; For the Social Sciences and Human Service Professions , 4th Edn, eds A. S. de Vos, H. Strydom, C. B. Fouché, and C. S. L. Delport (Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers), 221–234.

Tashakkori, A., and Teddlie, C. (2003). Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social & Behavioural Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE publications.

Toomela, A. (2010). Quantitative methods in psychology: inevitable and useless. Front. Psychol. 1:29. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00029

Truscott, D. M., Swars, S., Smith, S., Thornton-Reid, F., Zhao, Y., Dooley, C., et al. (2010). A cross-disciplinary examination of the prevalence of mixed methods in educational research: 1995–2005. Int. J. Soc. Res. Methodol. 13, 317–328. doi: 10.1080/13645570903097950

Weiten, W. (2010). Psychology Themes and Variations . Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Keywords: research methods, research approach, research trends, psychological research, systematised review, research designs, research topic

Citation: Scholtz SE, de Klerk W and de Beer LT (2020) The Use of Research Methods in Psychological Research: A Systematised Review. Front. Res. Metr. Anal. 5:1. doi: 10.3389/frma.2020.00001

Received: 30 December 2019; Accepted: 28 February 2020; Published: 20 March 2020.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2020 Scholtz, de Klerk and de Beer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Salomé Elizabeth Scholtz, 22308563@nwu.ac.za

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Front Res Metr Anal

The Use of Research Methods in Psychological Research: A Systematised Review

Salomé elizabeth scholtz.

1 Community Psychosocial Research (COMPRES), School of Psychosocial Health, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Werner de Klerk

Leon t. de beer.

2 WorkWell Research Institute, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Research methods play an imperative role in research quality as well as educating young researchers, however, the application thereof is unclear which can be detrimental to the field of psychology. Therefore, this systematised review aimed to determine what research methods are being used, how these methods are being used and for what topics in the field. Our review of 999 articles from five journals over a period of 5 years indicated that psychology research is conducted in 10 topics via predominantly quantitative research methods. Of these 10 topics, social psychology was the most popular. The remainder of the conducted methodology is described. It was also found that articles lacked rigour and transparency in the used methodology which has implications for replicability. In conclusion this article, provides an overview of all reported methodologies used in a sample of psychology journals. It highlights the popularity and application of methods and designs throughout the article sample as well as an unexpected lack of rigour with regard to most aspects of methodology. Possible sample bias should be considered when interpreting the results of this study. It is recommended that future research should utilise the results of this study to determine the possible impact on the field of psychology as a science and to further investigation into the use of research methods. Results should prompt the following future research into: a lack or rigour and its implication on replication, the use of certain methods above others, publication bias and choice of sampling method.

Introduction

Psychology is an ever-growing and popular field (Gough and Lyons, 2016 ; Clay, 2017 ). Due to this growth and the need for science-based research to base health decisions on (Perestelo-Pérez, 2013 ), the use of research methods in the broad field of psychology is an essential point of investigation (Stangor, 2011 ; Aanstoos, 2014 ). Research methods are therefore viewed as important tools used by researchers to collect data (Nieuwenhuis, 2016 ) and include the following: quantitative, qualitative, mixed method and multi method (Maree, 2016 ). Additionally, researchers also employ various types of literature reviews to address research questions (Grant and Booth, 2009 ). According to literature, what research method is used and why a certain research method is used is complex as it depends on various factors that may include paradigm (O'Neil and Koekemoer, 2016 ), research question (Grix, 2002 ), or the skill and exposure of the researcher (Nind et al., 2015 ). How these research methods are employed is also difficult to discern as research methods are often depicted as having fixed boundaries that are continuously crossed in research (Johnson et al., 2001 ; Sandelowski, 2011 ). Examples of this crossing include adding quantitative aspects to qualitative studies (Sandelowski et al., 2009 ), or stating that a study used a mixed-method design without the study having any characteristics of this design (Truscott et al., 2010 ).

The inappropriate use of research methods affects how students and researchers improve and utilise their research skills (Scott Jones and Goldring, 2015 ), how theories are developed (Ngulube, 2013 ), and the credibility of research results (Levitt et al., 2017 ). This, in turn, can be detrimental to the field (Nind et al., 2015 ), journal publication (Ketchen et al., 2008 ; Ezeh et al., 2010 ), and attempts to address public social issues through psychological research (Dweck, 2017 ). This is especially important given the now well-known replication crisis the field is facing (Earp and Trafimow, 2015 ; Hengartner, 2018 ).

Due to this lack of clarity on method use and the potential impact of inept use of research methods, the aim of this study was to explore the use of research methods in the field of psychology through a review of journal publications. Chaichanasakul et al. ( 2011 ) identify reviewing articles as the opportunity to examine the development, growth and progress of a research area and overall quality of a journal. Studies such as Lee et al. ( 1999 ) as well as Bluhm et al. ( 2011 ) review of qualitative methods has attempted to synthesis the use of research methods and indicated the growth of qualitative research in American and European journals. Research has also focused on the use of research methods in specific sub-disciplines of psychology, for example, in the field of Industrial and Organisational psychology Coetzee and Van Zyl ( 2014 ) found that South African publications tend to consist of cross-sectional quantitative research methods with underrepresented longitudinal studies. Qualitative studies were found to make up 21% of the articles published from 1995 to 2015 in a similar study by O'Neil and Koekemoer ( 2016 ). Other methods in health psychology, such as Mixed methods research have also been reportedly growing in popularity (O'Cathain, 2009 ).

A broad overview of the use of research methods in the field of psychology as a whole is however, not available in the literature. Therefore, our research focused on answering what research methods are being used, how these methods are being used and for what topics in practice (i.e., journal publications) in order to provide a general perspective of method used in psychology publication. We synthesised the collected data into the following format: research topic [areas of scientific discourse in a field or the current needs of a population (Bittermann and Fischer, 2018 )], method [data-gathering tools (Nieuwenhuis, 2016 )], sampling [elements chosen from a population to partake in research (Ritchie et al., 2009 )], data collection [techniques and research strategy (Maree, 2016 )], and data analysis [discovering information by examining bodies of data (Ktepi, 2016 )]. A systematised review of recent articles (2013 to 2017) collected from five different journals in the field of psychological research was conducted.

Grant and Booth ( 2009 ) describe systematised reviews as the review of choice for post-graduate studies, which is employed using some elements of a systematic review and seldom more than one or two databases to catalogue studies after a comprehensive literature search. The aspects used in this systematised review that are similar to that of a systematic review were a full search within the chosen database and data produced in tabular form (Grant and Booth, 2009 ).

Sample sizes and timelines vary in systematised reviews (see Lowe and Moore, 2014 ; Pericall and Taylor, 2014 ; Barr-Walker, 2017 ). With no clear parameters identified in the literature (see Grant and Booth, 2009 ), the sample size of this study was determined by the purpose of the sample (Strydom, 2011 ), and time and cost constraints (Maree and Pietersen, 2016 ). Thus, a non-probability purposive sample (Ritchie et al., 2009 ) of the top five psychology journals from 2013 to 2017 was included in this research study. Per Lee ( 2015 ) American Psychological Association (APA) recommends the use of the most up-to-date sources for data collection with consideration of the context of the research study. As this research study focused on the most recent trends in research methods used in the broad field of psychology, the identified time frame was deemed appropriate.

Psychology journals were only included if they formed part of the top five English journals in the miscellaneous psychology domain of the Scimago Journal and Country Rank (Scimago Journal & Country Rank, 2017 ). The Scimago Journal and Country Rank provides a yearly updated list of publicly accessible journal and country-specific indicators derived from the Scopus® database (Scopus, 2017b ) by means of the Scimago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator developed by Scimago from the algorithm Google PageRank™ (Scimago Journal & Country Rank, 2017 ). Scopus is the largest global database of abstracts and citations from peer-reviewed journals (Scopus, 2017a ). Reasons for the development of the Scimago Journal and Country Rank list was to allow researchers to assess scientific domains, compare country rankings, and compare and analyse journals (Scimago Journal & Country Rank, 2017 ), which supported the aim of this research study. Additionally, the goals of the journals had to focus on topics in psychology in general with no preference to specific research methods and have full-text access to articles.

The following list of top five journals in 2018 fell within the abovementioned inclusion criteria (1) Australian Journal of Psychology, (2) British Journal of Psychology, (3) Europe's Journal of Psychology, (4) International Journal of Psychology and lastly the (5) Journal of Psychology Applied and Interdisciplinary.

Journals were excluded from this systematised review if no full-text versions of their articles were available, if journals explicitly stated a publication preference for certain research methods, or if the journal only published articles in a specific discipline of psychological research (for example, industrial psychology, clinical psychology etc.).

The researchers followed a procedure (see Figure 1 ) adapted from that of Ferreira et al. ( 2016 ) for systematised reviews. Data collection and categorisation commenced on 4 December 2017 and continued until 30 June 2019. All the data was systematically collected and coded manually (Grant and Booth, 2009 ) with an independent person acting as co-coder. Codes of interest included the research topic, method used, the design used, sampling method, and methodology (the method used for data collection and data analysis). These codes were derived from the wording in each article. Themes were created based on the derived codes and checked by the co-coder. Lastly, these themes were catalogued into a table as per the systematised review design.

Systematised review procedure.

According to Johnston et al. ( 2019 ), “literature screening, selection, and data extraction/analyses” (p. 7) are specifically tailored to the aim of a review. Therefore, the steps followed in a systematic review must be reported in a comprehensive and transparent manner. The chosen systematised design adhered to the rigour expected from systematic reviews with regard to full search and data produced in tabular form (Grant and Booth, 2009 ). The rigorous application of the systematic review is, therefore discussed in relation to these two elements.

Firstly, to ensure a comprehensive search, this research study promoted review transparency by following a clear protocol outlined according to each review stage before collecting data (Johnston et al., 2019 ). This protocol was similar to that of Ferreira et al. ( 2016 ) and approved by three research committees/stakeholders and the researchers (Johnston et al., 2019 ). The eligibility criteria for article inclusion was based on the research question and clearly stated, and the process of inclusion was recorded on an electronic spreadsheet to create an evidence trail (Bandara et al., 2015 ; Johnston et al., 2019 ). Microsoft Excel spreadsheets are a popular tool for review studies and can increase the rigour of the review process (Bandara et al., 2015 ). Screening for appropriate articles for inclusion forms an integral part of a systematic review process (Johnston et al., 2019 ). This step was applied to two aspects of this research study: the choice of eligible journals and articles to be included. Suitable journals were selected by the first author and reviewed by the second and third authors. Initially, all articles from the chosen journals were included. Then, by process of elimination, those irrelevant to the research aim, i.e., interview articles or discussions etc., were excluded.

To ensure rigourous data extraction, data was first extracted by one reviewer, and an independent person verified the results for completeness and accuracy (Johnston et al., 2019 ). The research question served as a guide for efficient, organised data extraction (Johnston et al., 2019 ). Data was categorised according to the codes of interest, along with article identifiers for audit trails such as authors, title and aims of articles. The categorised data was based on the aim of the review (Johnston et al., 2019 ) and synthesised in tabular form under methods used, how these methods were used, and for what topics in the field of psychology.

The initial search produced a total of 1,145 articles from the 5 journals identified. Inclusion and exclusion criteria resulted in a final sample of 999 articles ( Figure 2 ). Articles were co-coded into 84 codes, from which 10 themes were derived ( Table 1 ).

Journal article frequency.

Codes used to form themes (research topics).

These 10 themes represent the topic section of our research question ( Figure 3 ). All these topics except, for the final one, psychological practice , were found to concur with the research areas in psychology as identified by Weiten ( 2010 ). These research areas were chosen to represent the derived codes as they provided broad definitions that allowed for clear, concise categorisation of the vast amount of data. Article codes were categorised under particular themes/topics if they adhered to the research area definitions created by Weiten ( 2010 ). It is important to note that these areas of research do not refer to specific disciplines in psychology, such as industrial psychology; but to broader fields that may encompass sub-interests of these disciplines.

Topic frequency (international sample).

In the case of developmental psychology , researchers conduct research into human development from childhood to old age. Social psychology includes research on behaviour governed by social drivers. Researchers in the field of educational psychology study how people learn and the best way to teach them. Health psychology aims to determine the effect of psychological factors on physiological health. Physiological psychology , on the other hand, looks at the influence of physiological aspects on behaviour. Experimental psychology is not the only theme that uses experimental research and focuses on the traditional core topics of psychology (for example, sensation). Cognitive psychology studies the higher mental processes. Psychometrics is concerned with measuring capacity or behaviour. Personality research aims to assess and describe consistency in human behaviour (Weiten, 2010 ). The final theme of psychological practice refers to the experiences, techniques, and interventions employed by practitioners, researchers, and academia in the field of psychology.

Articles under these themes were further subdivided into methodologies: method, sampling, design, data collection, and data analysis. The categorisation was based on information stated in the articles and not inferred by the researchers. Data were compiled into two sets of results presented in this article. The first set addresses the aim of this study from the perspective of the topics identified. The second set of results represents a broad overview of the results from the perspective of the methodology employed. The second set of results are discussed in this article, while the first set is presented in table format. The discussion thus provides a broad overview of methods use in psychology (across all themes), while the table format provides readers with in-depth insight into methods used in the individual themes identified. We believe that presenting the data from both perspectives allow readers a broad understanding of the results. Due a large amount of information that made up our results, we followed Cichocka and Jost ( 2014 ) in simplifying our results. Please note that the numbers indicated in the table in terms of methodology differ from the total number of articles. Some articles employed more than one method/sampling technique/design/data collection method/data analysis in their studies.

What follows is the results for what methods are used, how these methods are used, and which topics in psychology they are applied to . Percentages are reported to the second decimal in order to highlight small differences in the occurrence of methodology.

Firstly, with regard to the research methods used, our results show that researchers are more likely to use quantitative research methods (90.22%) compared to all other research methods. Qualitative research was the second most common research method but only made up about 4.79% of the general method usage. Reviews occurred almost as much as qualitative studies (3.91%), as the third most popular method. Mixed-methods research studies (0.98%) occurred across most themes, whereas multi-method research was indicated in only one study and amounted to 0.10% of the methods identified. The specific use of each method in the topics identified is shown in Table 2 and Figure 4 .

Research methods in psychology.

Research method frequency in topics.

Secondly, in the case of how these research methods are employed , our study indicated the following.

Sampling −78.34% of the studies in the collected articles did not specify a sampling method. From the remainder of the studies, 13 types of sampling methods were identified. These sampling methods included broad categorisation of a sample as, for example, a probability or non-probability sample. General samples of convenience were the methods most likely to be applied (10.34%), followed by random sampling (3.51%), snowball sampling (2.73%), and purposive (1.37%) and cluster sampling (1.27%). The remainder of the sampling methods occurred to a more limited extent (0–1.0%). See Table 3 and Figure 5 for sampling methods employed in each topic.

Sampling use in the field of psychology.

Sampling method frequency in topics.

Designs were categorised based on the articles' statement thereof. Therefore, it is important to note that, in the case of quantitative studies, non-experimental designs (25.55%) were often indicated due to a lack of experiments and any other indication of design, which, according to Laher ( 2016 ), is a reasonable categorisation. Non-experimental designs should thus be compared with experimental designs only in the description of data, as it could include the use of correlational/cross-sectional designs, which were not overtly stated by the authors. For the remainder of the research methods, “not stated” (7.12%) was assigned to articles without design types indicated.

From the 36 identified designs the most popular designs were cross-sectional (23.17%) and experimental (25.64%), which concurred with the high number of quantitative studies. Longitudinal studies (3.80%), the third most popular design, was used in both quantitative and qualitative studies. Qualitative designs consisted of ethnography (0.38%), interpretative phenomenological designs/phenomenology (0.28%), as well as narrative designs (0.28%). Studies that employed the review method were mostly categorised as “not stated,” with the most often stated review designs being systematic reviews (0.57%). The few mixed method studies employed exploratory, explanatory (0.09%), and concurrent designs (0.19%), with some studies referring to separate designs for the qualitative and quantitative methods. The one study that identified itself as a multi-method study used a longitudinal design. Please see how these designs were employed in each specific topic in Table 4 , Figure 6 .

Design use in the field of psychology.

Design frequency in topics.

Data collection and analysis —data collection included 30 methods, with the data collection method most often employed being questionnaires (57.84%). The experimental task (16.56%) was the second most preferred collection method, which included established or unique tasks designed by the researchers. Cognitive ability tests (6.84%) were also regularly used along with various forms of interviewing (7.66%). Table 5 and Figure 7 represent data collection use in the various topics. Data analysis consisted of 3,857 occurrences of data analysis categorised into ±188 various data analysis techniques shown in Table 6 and Figures 1 – 7 . Descriptive statistics were the most commonly used (23.49%) along with correlational analysis (17.19%). When using a qualitative method, researchers generally employed thematic analysis (0.52%) or different forms of analysis that led to coding and the creation of themes. Review studies presented few data analysis methods, with most studies categorising their results. Mixed method and multi-method studies followed the analysis methods identified for the qualitative and quantitative studies included.

Data collection in the field of psychology.

Data collection frequency in topics.

Data analysis in the field of psychology.

Results of the topics researched in psychology can be seen in the tables, as previously stated in this article. It is noteworthy that, of the 10 topics, social psychology accounted for 43.54% of the studies, with cognitive psychology the second most popular research topic at 16.92%. The remainder of the topics only occurred in 4.0–7.0% of the articles considered. A list of the included 999 articles is available under the section “View Articles” on the following website: https://methodgarden.xtrapolate.io/ . This website was created by Scholtz et al. ( 2019 ) to visually present a research framework based on this Article's results.

This systematised review categorised full-length articles from five international journals across the span of 5 years to provide insight into the use of research methods in the field of psychology. Results indicated what methods are used how these methods are being used and for what topics (why) in the included sample of articles. The results should be seen as providing insight into method use and by no means a comprehensive representation of the aforementioned aim due to the limited sample. To our knowledge, this is the first research study to address this topic in this manner. Our discussion attempts to promote a productive way forward in terms of the key results for method use in psychology, especially in the field of academia (Holloway, 2008 ).

With regard to the methods used, our data stayed true to literature, finding only common research methods (Grant and Booth, 2009 ; Maree, 2016 ) that varied in the degree to which they were employed. Quantitative research was found to be the most popular method, as indicated by literature (Breen and Darlaston-Jones, 2010 ; Counsell and Harlow, 2017 ) and previous studies in specific areas of psychology (see Coetzee and Van Zyl, 2014 ). Its long history as the first research method (Leech et al., 2007 ) in the field of psychology as well as researchers' current application of mathematical approaches in their studies (Toomela, 2010 ) might contribute to its popularity today. Whatever the case may be, our results show that, despite the growth in qualitative research (Demuth, 2015 ; Smith and McGannon, 2018 ), quantitative research remains the first choice for article publication in these journals. Despite the included journals indicating openness to articles that apply any research methods. This finding may be due to qualitative research still being seen as a new method (Burman and Whelan, 2011 ) or reviewers' standards being higher for qualitative studies (Bluhm et al., 2011 ). Future research is encouraged into the possible biasness in publication of research methods, additionally further investigation with a different sample into the proclaimed growth of qualitative research may also provide different results.

Review studies were found to surpass that of multi-method and mixed method studies. To this effect Grant and Booth ( 2009 ), state that the increased awareness, journal contribution calls as well as its efficiency in procuring research funds all promote the popularity of reviews. The low frequency of mixed method studies contradicts the view in literature that it's the third most utilised research method (Tashakkori and Teddlie's, 2003 ). Its' low occurrence in this sample could be due to opposing views on mixing methods (Gunasekare, 2015 ) or that authors prefer publishing in mixed method journals, when using this method, or its relative novelty (Ivankova et al., 2016 ). Despite its low occurrence, the application of the mixed methods design in articles was methodologically clear in all cases which were not the case for the remainder of research methods.

Additionally, a substantial number of studies used a combination of methodologies that are not mixed or multi-method studies. Perceived fixed boundaries are according to literature often set aside, as confirmed by this result, in order to investigate the aim of a study, which could create a new and helpful way of understanding the world (Gunasekare, 2015 ). According to Toomela ( 2010 ), this is not unheard of and could be considered a form of “structural systemic science,” as in the case of qualitative methodology (observation) applied in quantitative studies (experimental design) for example. Based on this result, further research into this phenomenon as well as its implications for research methods such as multi and mixed methods is recommended.

Discerning how these research methods were applied, presented some difficulty. In the case of sampling, most studies—regardless of method—did mention some form of inclusion and exclusion criteria, but no definite sampling method. This result, along with the fact that samples often consisted of students from the researchers' own academic institutions, can contribute to literature and debates among academics (Peterson and Merunka, 2014 ; Laher, 2016 ). Samples of convenience and students as participants especially raise questions about the generalisability and applicability of results (Peterson and Merunka, 2014 ). This is because attention to sampling is important as inappropriate sampling can debilitate the legitimacy of interpretations (Onwuegbuzie and Collins, 2017 ). Future investigation into the possible implications of this reported popular use of convenience samples for the field of psychology as well as the reason for this use could provide interesting insight, and is encouraged by this study.

Additionally, and this is indicated in Table 6 , articles seldom report the research designs used, which highlights the pressing aspect of the lack of rigour in the included sample. Rigour with regards to the applied empirical method is imperative in promoting psychology as a science (American Psychological Association, 2020 ). Omitting parts of the research process in publication when it could have been used to inform others' research skills should be questioned, and the influence on the process of replicating results should be considered. Publications are often rejected due to a lack of rigour in the applied method and designs (Fonseca, 2013 ; Laher, 2016 ), calling for increased clarity and knowledge of method application. Replication is a critical part of any field of scientific research and requires the “complete articulation” of the study methods used (Drotar, 2010 , p. 804). The lack of thorough description could be explained by the requirements of certain journals to only report on certain aspects of a research process, especially with regard to the applied design (Laher, 20). However, naming aspects such as sampling and designs, is a requirement according to the APA's Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS-Quant) (Appelbaum et al., 2018 ). With very little information on how a study was conducted, authors lose a valuable opportunity to enhance research validity, enrich the knowledge of others, and contribute to the growth of psychology and methodology as a whole. In the case of this research study, it also restricted our results to only reported samples and designs, which indicated a preference for certain designs, such as cross-sectional designs for quantitative studies.

Data collection and analysis were for the most part clearly stated. A key result was the versatile use of questionnaires. Researchers would apply a questionnaire in various ways, for example in questionnaire interviews, online surveys, and written questionnaires across most research methods. This may highlight a trend for future research.

With regard to the topics these methods were employed for, our research study found a new field named “psychological practice.” This result may show the growing consciousness of researchers as part of the research process (Denzin and Lincoln, 2003 ), psychological practice, and knowledge generation. The most popular of these topics was social psychology, which is generously covered in journals and by learning societies, as testaments of the institutional support and richness social psychology has in the field of psychology (Chryssochoou, 2015 ). The APA's perspective on 2018 trends in psychology also identifies an increased amount of psychology focus on how social determinants are influencing people's health (Deangelis, 2017 ).

This study was not without limitations and the following should be taken into account. Firstly, this study used a sample of five specific journals to address the aim of the research study, despite general journal aims (as stated on journal websites), this inclusion signified a bias towards the research methods published in these specific journals only and limited generalisability. A broader sample of journals over a different period of time, or a single journal over a longer period of time might provide different results. A second limitation is the use of Excel spreadsheets and an electronic system to log articles, which was a manual process and therefore left room for error (Bandara et al., 2015 ). To address this potential issue, co-coding was performed to reduce error. Lastly, this article categorised data based on the information presented in the article sample; there was no interpretation of what methodology could have been applied or whether the methods stated adhered to the criteria for the methods used. Thus, a large number of articles that did not clearly indicate a research method or design could influence the results of this review. However, this in itself was also a noteworthy result. Future research could review research methods of a broader sample of journals with an interpretive review tool that increases rigour. Additionally, the authors also encourage the future use of systematised review designs as a way to promote a concise procedure in applying this design.

Our research study presented the use of research methods for published articles in the field of psychology as well as recommendations for future research based on these results. Insight into the complex questions identified in literature, regarding what methods are used how these methods are being used and for what topics (why) was gained. This sample preferred quantitative methods, used convenience sampling and presented a lack of rigorous accounts for the remaining methodologies. All methodologies that were clearly indicated in the sample were tabulated to allow researchers insight into the general use of methods and not only the most frequently used methods. The lack of rigorous account of research methods in articles was represented in-depth for each step in the research process and can be of vital importance to address the current replication crisis within the field of psychology. Recommendations for future research aimed to motivate research into the practical implications of the results for psychology, for example, publication bias and the use of convenience samples.

Ethics Statement

This study was cleared by the North-West University Health Research Ethics Committee: NWU-00115-17-S1.

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

• Aanstoos C. M. (2014). Psychology . Available online at: http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/eds/detail/detail?sid=18de6c5c-2b03-4eac-94890145eb01bc70%40sessionmgr4006&vid$=$1&hid$=$4113&bdata$=$JnNpdGU9ZWRzL~WxpdmU%3d#AN$=$93871882&db$=$ers
• American Psychological Association (2020). Science of Psychology . Available online at: https://www.apa.org/action/science/
• 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 . Am. Psychol. 73 :3. 10.1037/amp0000191 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bandara W., Furtmueller E., Gorbacheva E., Miskon S., Beekhuyzen J. (2015). Achieving rigor in literature reviews: insights from qualitative data analysis and tool-support . Commun. Ass. Inform. Syst. 37 , 154–204. 10.17705/1CAIS.03708 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Barr-Walker J. (2017). Evidence-based information needs of public health workers: a systematized review . J. Med. Libr. Assoc. 105 , 69–79. 10.5195/JMLA.2017.109 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bittermann A., Fischer A. (2018). How to identify hot topics in psychology using topic modeling . Z. Psychol. 226 , 3–13. 10.1027/2151-2604/a000318 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bluhm D. J., Harman W., Lee T. W., Mitchell T. R. (2011). Qualitative research in management: a decade of progress . J. Manage. Stud. 48 , 1866–1891. 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2010.00972.x [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Breen L. J., Darlaston-Jones D. (2010). Moving beyond the enduring dominance of positivism in psychological research: implications for psychology in Australia . Aust. Psychol. 45 , 67–76. 10.1080/00050060903127481 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Burman E., Whelan P. (2011). Problems in / of Qualitative Research . Maidenhead: Open University Press/McGraw Hill. [ Google Scholar ]
• Chaichanasakul A., He Y., Chen H., Allen G. E. K., Khairallah T. S., Ramos K. (2011). Journal of Career Development: a 36-year content analysis (1972–2007) . J. Career. Dev. 38 , 440–455. 10.1177/0894845310380223 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Chryssochoou X. (2015). Social Psychology . Inter. Encycl. Soc. Behav. Sci. 22 , 532–537. 10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.24095-6 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Cichocka A., Jost J. T. (2014). Stripped of illusions? Exploring system justification processes in capitalist and post-Communist societies . Inter. J. Psychol. 49 , 6–29. 10.1002/ijop.12011 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Clay R. A. (2017). Psychology is More Popular Than Ever. Monitor on Psychology: Trends Report . Available online at: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/11/trends-popular
• Coetzee M., Van Zyl L. E. (2014). A review of a decade's scholarly publications (2004–2013) in the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology . SA. J. Psychol . 40 , 1–16. 10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1227 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Counsell A., Harlow L. (2017). Reporting practices and use of quantitative methods in Canadian journal articles in psychology . Can. Psychol. 58 , 140–147. 10.1037/cap0000074 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Deangelis T. (2017). Targeting Social Factors That Undermine Health. Monitor on Psychology: Trends Report . Available online at: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/11/trend-social-factors
• Demuth C. (2015). New directions in qualitative research in psychology . Integr. Psychol. Behav. Sci. 49 , 125–133. 10.1007/s12124-015-9303-9 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Denzin N. K., Lincoln Y. (2003). The Landscape of Qualitative Research: Theories and Issues , 2nd Edn. London: Sage. [ Google Scholar ]
• Drotar D. (2010). A call for replications of research in pediatric psychology and guidance for authors . J. Pediatr. Psychol. 35 , 801–805. 10.1093/jpepsy/jsq049 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Dweck C. S. (2017). Is psychology headed in the right direction? Yes, no, and maybe . Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 12 , 656–659. 10.1177/1745691616687747 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Earp B. D., Trafimow D. (2015). Replication, falsification, and the crisis of confidence in social psychology . Front. Psychol. 6 :621. 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00621 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ezeh A. C., Izugbara C. O., Kabiru C. W., Fonn S., Kahn K., Manderson L., et al.. (2010). Building capacity for public and population health research in Africa: the consortium for advanced research training in Africa (CARTA) model . Glob. Health Action 3 :5693. 10.3402/gha.v3i0.5693 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ferreira A. L. L., Bessa M. M. M., Drezett J., De Abreu L. C. (2016). Quality of life of the woman carrier of endometriosis: systematized review . Reprod. Clim. 31 , 48–54. 10.1016/j.recli.2015.12.002 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Fonseca M. (2013). Most Common Reasons for Journal Rejections . Available online at: http://www.editage.com/insights/most-common-reasons-for-journal-rejections
• Gough B., Lyons A. (2016). The future of qualitative research in psychology: accentuating the positive . Integr. Psychol. Behav. Sci. 50 , 234–243. 10.1007/s12124-015-9320-8 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Grant M. J., Booth A. (2009). A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies . Health Info. Libr. J. 26 , 91–108. 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Grix J. (2002). Introducing students to the generic terminology of social research . Politics 22 , 175–186. 10.1111/1467-9256.00173 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gunasekare U. L. T. P. (2015). Mixed research method as the third research paradigm: a literature review . Int. J. Sci. Res. 4 , 361–368. Available online at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2735996 [ Google Scholar ]
• Hengartner M. P. (2018). Raising awareness for the replication crisis in clinical psychology by focusing on inconsistencies in psychotherapy Research: how much can we rely on published findings from efficacy trials? Front. Psychol. 9 :256. 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00256 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Holloway W. (2008). Doing intellectual disagreement differently . Psychoanal. Cult. Soc. 13 , 385–396. 10.1057/pcs.2008.29 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ivankova N. V., Creswell J. W., Plano Clark V. L. (2016). Foundations and Approaches to mixed methods research , in First Steps in Research , 2nd Edn. K. Maree (Pretoria: Van Schaick Publishers; ), 306–335. [ Google Scholar ]
• Johnson M., Long T., White A. (2001). Arguments for British pluralism in qualitative health research . J. Adv. Nurs. 33 , 243–249. 10.1046/j.1365-2648.2001.01659.x [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Johnston A., Kelly S. E., Hsieh S. C., Skidmore B., Wells G. A. (2019). Systematic reviews of clinical practice guidelines: a methodological guide . J. Clin. Epidemiol. 108 , 64–72. 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2018.11.030 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ketchen D. J., Jr., Boyd B. K., Bergh D. D. (2008). Research methodology in strategic management: past accomplishments and future challenges . Organ. Res. Methods 11 , 643–658. 10.1177/1094428108319843 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ktepi B. (2016). Data Analytics (DA) . Available online at: https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/eds/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=24c978f0-6685-4ed8-ad85-fa5bb04669b9%40sessionmgr101&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=113931286&db=ers
• Laher S. (2016). Ostinato rigore: establishing methodological rigour in quantitative research . S. Afr. J. Psychol. 46 , 316–327. 10.1177/0081246316649121 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lee C. (2015). The Myth of the Off-Limits Source . Available online at: http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/research/
• Lee T. W., Mitchell T. R., Sablynski C. J. (1999). Qualitative research in organizational and vocational psychology, 1979–1999 . J. Vocat. Behav. 55 , 161–187. 10.1006/jvbe.1999.1707 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Leech N. L., Anthony J., Onwuegbuzie A. J. (2007). A typology of mixed methods research designs . Sci. Bus. Media B. V Qual. Quant 43 , 265–275. 10.1007/s11135-007-9105-3 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Levitt H. M., Motulsky S. L., Wertz F. J., Morrow S. L., Ponterotto J. G. (2017). Recommendations for designing and reviewing qualitative research in psychology: promoting methodological integrity . Qual. Psychol. 4 , 2–22. 10.1037/qup0000082 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lowe S. M., Moore S. (2014). Social networks and female reproductive choices in the developing world: a systematized review . Rep. Health 11 :85. 10.1186/1742-4755-11-85 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Maree K. (2016). Planning a research proposal , in First Steps in Research , 2nd Edn, ed Maree K. (Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers; ), 49–70. [ Google Scholar ]
• Maree K., Pietersen J. (2016). Sampling , in First Steps in Research, 2nd Edn , ed Maree K. (Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers; ), 191–202. [ Google Scholar ]
• Ngulube P. (2013). Blending qualitative and quantitative research methods in library and information science in sub-Saharan Africa . ESARBICA J. 32 , 10–23. Available online at: http://hdl.handle.net/10500/22397 . [ Google Scholar ]
• Nieuwenhuis J. (2016). Qualitative research designs and data-gathering techniques , in First Steps in Research , 2nd Edn, ed Maree K. (Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers; ), 71–102. [ Google Scholar ]
• Nind M., Kilburn D., Wiles R. (2015). Using video and dialogue to generate pedagogic knowledge: teachers, learners and researchers reflecting together on the pedagogy of social research methods . Int. J. Soc. Res. Methodol. 18 , 561–576. 10.1080/13645579.2015.1062628 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• O'Cathain A. (2009). Editorial: mixed methods research in the health sciences—a quiet revolution . J. Mix. Methods 3 , 1–6. 10.1177/1558689808326272 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• O'Neil S., Koekemoer E. (2016). Two decades of qualitative research in psychology, industrial and organisational psychology and human resource management within South Africa: a critical review . SA J. Indust. Psychol. 42 , 1–16. 10.4102/sajip.v42i1.1350 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Onwuegbuzie A. J., Collins K. M. (2017). The role of sampling in mixed methods research enhancing inference quality . Köln Z Soziol. 2 , 133–156. 10.1007/s11577-017-0455-0 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Perestelo-Pérez L. (2013). Standards on how to develop and report systematic reviews in psychology and health . Int. J. Clin. Health Psychol. 13 , 49–57. 10.1016/S1697-2600(13)70007-3 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Pericall L. M. T., Taylor E. (2014). Family function and its relationship to injury severity and psychiatric outcome in children with acquired brain injury: a systematized review . Dev. Med. Child Neurol. 56 , 19–30. 10.1111/dmcn.12237 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Peterson R. A., Merunka D. R. (2014). Convenience samples of college students and research reproducibility . J. Bus. Res. 67 , 1035–1041. 10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.08.010 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ritchie J., Lewis J., Elam G. (2009). Designing and selecting samples , in Qualitative Research Practice: A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers , 2nd Edn, ed Ritchie J., Lewis J. (London: Sage; ), 1–23. [ Google Scholar ]
• Sandelowski M. (2011). When a cigar is not just a cigar: alternative perspectives on data and data analysis . Res. Nurs. Health 34 , 342–352. 10.1002/nur.20437 [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sandelowski M., Voils C. I., Knafl G. (2009). On quantitizing . J. Mix. Methods Res. 3 , 208–222. 10.1177/1558689809334210 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Scholtz S. E., De Klerk W., De Beer L. T. (2019). A data generated research framework for conducting research methods in psychological research .
• Scimago Journal & Country Rank (2017). Available online at: http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?category=3201&year=2015
• Scopus (2017a). About Scopus . Available online at: https://www.scopus.com/home.uri (accessed February 01, 2017).
• Scopus (2017b). Document Search . Available online at: https://www.scopus.com/home.uri (accessed February 01, 2017).
• Scott Jones J., Goldring J. E. (2015). ‘I' m not a quants person'; key strategies in building competence and confidence in staff who teach quantitative research methods . Int. J. Soc. Res. Methodol. 18 , 479–494. 10.1080/13645579.2015.1062623 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Smith B., McGannon K. R. (2018). Developing rigor in quantitative research: problems and opportunities within sport and exercise psychology . Int. Rev. Sport Exerc. Psychol. 11 , 101–121. 10.1080/1750984X.2017.1317357 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Stangor C. (2011). Introduction to Psychology . Available online at: http://www.saylor.org/books/
• Strydom H. (2011). Sampling in the quantitative paradigm , in Research at Grass Roots; For the Social Sciences and Human Service Professions , 4th Edn, eds de Vos A. S., Strydom H., Fouché C. B., Delport C. S. L. (Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers; ), 221–234. [ Google Scholar ]
• Tashakkori A., Teddlie C. (2003). Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social & Behavioural Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE publications. [ Google Scholar ]
• Toomela A. (2010). Quantitative methods in psychology: inevitable and useless . Front. Psychol. 1 :29. 10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00029 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Truscott D. M., Swars S., Smith S., Thornton-Reid F., Zhao Y., Dooley C., et al.. (2010). A cross-disciplinary examination of the prevalence of mixed methods in educational research: 1995–2005 . Int. J. Soc. Res. Methodol. 13 , 317–328. 10.1080/13645570903097950 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Weiten W. (2010). Psychology Themes and Variations . Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. [ Google Scholar ]

• Utility Menu

Department of Psychology

• https://twitter.com/PsychHarvard
• https://www.facebook.com/HarvardPsychology/
• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFBv7eBJIQWCrdxPRhYft9Q
• Participate

Publications

• EndNote XML

Comment on Cultural Group Selection Plays an Essential Role in Explaining Human Cooperation: A Sketch of the Evidence by Richerson et al. 

Comment on The Economic Origins of Ultrasociality  by Gowdy & Krall. 

Recent Publications

• Attentional bias for threat: Crisis or opportunity?
• Bereavement outcomes as causal systems: A network analysis of the co-occurrence of complicated grief and posttraumatic growth.
• Exercise and emotion dynamics: An experience sampling study.
• Clarifying the thought-action fusion bias in obsessive-compulsive disorder.
• The neuroscience of adolescent decision-making
• Assessing the fit between real-life coping and evidence-based psychotherapies for youth depression in early adolescence

• Bipolar Disorder
• Therapy Center
• When To See a Therapist
• Types of Therapy
• Best Online Therapy
• Best Couples Therapy
• Best Family Therapy
• Managing Stress
• Sleep and Dreaming
• Understanding Emotions
• Self-Improvement
• Healthy Relationships
• Student Resources
• Personality Types
• Guided Meditations
• Verywell Mind Insights
• 2024 Verywell Mind 25
• Mental Health in the Classroom
• Editorial Process
• Meet Our Review Board
• Crisis Support

50+ Research Topics for Psychology Papers

How to Find Psychology Research Topics for Your Student Paper

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital.

• Specific Branches of Psychology
• Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy
• Human Cognition
• Human Development
• Critique of Publications
• Famous Experiments
• Historical Figures
• Specific Careers
• Case Studies
• Literature Reviews
• Your Own Study/Experiment

Are you searching for a great topic for your psychology paper ? Sometimes it seems like coming up with topics of psychology research is more challenging than the actual research and writing. Fortunately, there are plenty of great places to find inspiration and the following list contains just a few ideas to help get you started.

Finding a solid topic is one of the most important steps when writing any type of paper. It can be particularly important when you are writing a psychology research paper or essay. Psychology is such a broad topic, so you want to find a topic that allows you to adequately cover the subject without becoming overwhelmed with information.

I can always tell when a student really cares about the topic they chose; it comes through in the writing. My advice is to choose a topic that genuinely interests you, so you’ll be more motivated to do thorough research.

In some cases, such as in a general psychology class, you might have the option to select any topic from within psychology's broad reach. Other instances, such as in an  abnormal psychology  course, might require you to write your paper on a specific subject such as a psychological disorder.

As you begin your search for a topic for your psychology paper, it is first important to consider the guidelines established by your instructor.

Research Topics Within Specific Branches of Psychology

The key to selecting a good topic for your psychology paper is to select something that is narrow enough to allow you to really focus on the subject, but not so narrow that it is difficult to find sources or information to write about.

One approach is to narrow your focus down to a subject within a specific branch of psychology. For example, you might start by deciding that you want to write a paper on some sort of social psychology topic. Next, you might narrow your focus down to how persuasion can be used to influence behavior .

Other social psychology topics you might consider include:

• Prejudice and discrimination (i.e., homophobia, sexism, racism)
• Social cognition
• Person perception
• Social control and cults
• Persuasion, propaganda, and marketing
• Attraction, romance, and love
• Nonverbal communication
• Prosocial behavior

Psychology Research Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy

Exploring a psychological disorder or a specific treatment modality can also be a good topic for a psychology paper. Some potential abnormal psychology topics include specific psychological disorders or particular treatment modalities, including:

• Eating disorders
• Borderline personality disorder
• Seasonal affective disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Antisocial personality disorder
• Profile a  type of therapy  (i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy, group therapy, psychoanalytic therapy)

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Cognition

Some of the possible topics you might explore in this area include thinking, language, intelligence, and decision-making. Other ideas might include:

• False memories
• Speech disorders
• Problem-solving

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Development

In this area, you might opt to focus on issues pertinent to  early childhood  such as language development, social learning, or childhood attachment or you might instead opt to concentrate on issues that affect older adults such as dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

Some other topics you might consider include:

• Language acquisition
• Media violence and children
• Learning disabilities
• Gender roles
• Child abuse
• Prenatal development
• Parenting styles
• Aspects of the aging process

Do a Critique of Publications Involving Psychology Research Topics

One option is to consider writing a critique paper of a published psychology book or academic journal article. For example, you might write a critical analysis of Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams or you might evaluate a more recent book such as Philip Zimbardo's  The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil .

Professional and academic journals are also great places to find materials for a critique paper. Browse through the collection at your university library to find titles devoted to the subject that you are most interested in, then look through recent articles until you find one that grabs your attention.

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Famous Experiments

There have been many fascinating and groundbreaking experiments throughout the history of psychology, providing ample material for students looking for an interesting term paper topic. In your paper, you might choose to summarize the experiment, analyze the ethics of the research, or evaluate the implications of the study. Possible experiments that you might consider include:

• The Milgram Obedience Experiment
• The Stanford Prison Experiment
• The Little Albert Experiment
• Pavlov's Conditioning Experiments
• The Asch Conformity Experiment
• Harlow's Rhesus Monkey Experiments

Topics of Psychology Research About Historical Figures

One of the simplest ways to find a great topic is to choose an interesting person in the  history of psychology  and write a paper about them. Your paper might focus on many different elements of the individual's life, such as their biography, professional history, theories, or influence on psychology.

While this type of paper may be historical in nature, there is no need for this assignment to be dry or boring. Psychology is full of fascinating figures rife with intriguing stories and anecdotes. Consider such famous individuals as Sigmund Freud, B.F. Skinner, Harry Harlow, or one of the many other  eminent psychologists .

Psychology Research Topics About a Specific Career

​Another possible topic, depending on the course in which you are enrolled, is to write about specific career paths within the  field of psychology . This type of paper is especially appropriate if you are exploring different subtopics or considering which area interests you the most.

In your paper, you might opt to explore the typical duties of a psychologist, how much people working in these fields typically earn, and the different employment options that are available.

Topics of Psychology Research Involving Case Studies

One potentially interesting idea is to write a  psychology case study  of a particular individual or group of people. In this type of paper, you will provide an in-depth analysis of your subject, including a thorough biography.

Generally, you will also assess the person, often using a major psychological theory such as  Piaget's stages of cognitive development  or  Erikson's eight-stage theory of human development . It is also important to note that your paper doesn't necessarily have to be about someone you know personally.

In fact, many professors encourage students to write case studies on historical figures or fictional characters from books, television programs, or films.

Psychology Research Topics Involving Literature Reviews

Another possibility that would work well for a number of psychology courses is to do a literature review of a specific topic within psychology. A literature review involves finding a variety of sources on a particular subject, then summarizing and reporting on what these sources have to say about the topic.

Literature reviews are generally found in the  introduction  of journal articles and other  psychology papers , but this type of analysis also works well for a full-scale psychology term paper.

Topics of Psychology Research Based on Your Own Study or Experiment

Many psychology courses require students to design an actual psychological study or perform some type of experiment. In some cases, students simply devise the study and then imagine the possible results that might occur. In other situations, you may actually have the opportunity to collect data, analyze your findings, and write up your results.

Finding a topic for your study can be difficult, but there are plenty of great ways to come up with intriguing ideas. Start by considering your own interests as well as subjects you have studied in the past.

Online sources, newspaper articles, books , journal articles, and even your own class textbook are all great places to start searching for topics for your experiments and psychology term papers. Before you begin, learn more about  how to conduct a psychology experiment .

What This Means For You

After looking at this brief list of possible topics for psychology papers, it is easy to see that psychology is a very broad and diverse subject. While this variety makes it possible to find a topic that really catches your interest, it can sometimes make it very difficult for some students to select a good topic.

If you are still stumped by your assignment, ask your instructor for suggestions and consider a few from this list for inspiration.

• Hockenbury, SE & Nolan, SA. Psychology. New York: Worth Publishers; 2014.
• Santrock, JW. A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development. New York: McGraw-Hill Education; 2016.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts

Collection  06 March 2024

Psychology Top 100 of 2023

This collection highlights the most downloaded* psychology research papers published by Scientific Reports in 2023. Featuring authors from around the world, these papers highlight valuable research from an international community.

You can also view the journal's overall Top 100 or the Top 100 within various subject areas . *Data obtained from SN Insights, which is based on Digital Science’s Dimensions.

Mild internet use is associated with epigenetic alterations of key neurotransmission genes in salivary DNA of young university students

• Eugenia Annunzi
• Loreta Cannito
• Claudio D’Addario

Association between cannabis use and blood pressure levels according to comorbidities and socioeconomic status

• Alexandre Vallée

Effect of breathwork on stress and mental health: A meta-analysis of randomised-controlled trials

• Guy William Fincham
• Clara Strauss
• Kate Cavanagh

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder traits are a more important predictor of internalising problems than autistic traits

• Luca D. Hargitai
• Lucy A. Livingston

Married women with children experience greater intrasexual competition than their male counterparts

• Joyce F. Benenson
• Henry Markovits

Treatment of 95 post-Covid patients with SSRIs

• Carla P. Rus
• Bert E. K. de Vries
• J. J. Sandra Kooij

Co-use of MDMA with psilocybin/LSD may buffer against challenging experiences and enhance positive experiences

• Richard J. Zeifman
• Hannes Kettner
• Robin L. Carhart-Harris

Learning and memory deficits produced by aspartame are heritable via the paternal lineage

• Sara K. Jones
• Deirdre M. McCarthy
• Pradeep G. Bhide

Exercising is good for the brain but exercising outside is potentially better

• Katherine Boere
• Kelsey Lloyd
• Olave E. Krigolson

Modulation of amygdala activity for emotional faces due to botulinum toxin type A injections that prevent frowning

• Shauna Stark
• Craig Stark
• Mitchell F. Brin

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide metabolism and arterial stiffness after long-term nicotinamide mononucleotide supplementation: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

• Takeshi Katayoshi
• Sachi Uehata
• Kentaro Tsuji-Naito

Measuring acute effects of subanesthetic ketamine on cerebrovascular hemodynamics in humans using TD-fNIRS

• Adelaida Castillo
• Julien Dubois
• Moriah Taylor

Cerebral hypoperfusion in post-COVID-19 cognitively impaired subjects revealed by arterial spin labeling MRI

• Miloš Ajčević
• Katerina Iscra
• Paolo Manganotti

Circulating microRNA expression signatures accurately discriminate myalgic encephalomyelitis from fibromyalgia and comorbid conditions

• Evguenia Nepotchatykh
• Iurie Caraus
• Alain Moreau

Examining the association between social media fatigue, cognitive ability, narcissism and misinformation sharing: cross-national evidence from eight countries

• Saifuddin Ahmed
• Muhammad Ehab Rasul

The illusion of the mind–body divide is attenuated in males

• Iris Berent

Genome-wide association study of school grades identifies genetic overlap between language ability, psychopathology and creativity

• Veera M. Rajagopal
• Andrea Ganna
• Ditte Demontis

Reverse effect of home-use binaural beats brain stimulation

• Michal Klichowski
• Andrzej Wicher
• Roman Golebiewski

Impacts of spaceflight experience on human brain structure

• Heather R. McGregor
• Kathleen E. Hupfeld
• Rachael D. Seidler

Frequency and characteristics of patients with bispectral index values of 60 or higher during the induction and maintenance of general anesthesia with remimazolam

• Byung-Moon Choi
• Ju-Seung Lee
• Gyu-Jeong Noh

Cognitive impairment in young adults with post COVID-19 syndrome

• Elena Herrera
• María del Carmen Pérez-Sánchez
• María González-Nosti

Giraffes make decisions based on statistical information

• Alvaro L. Caicoya
• Montserrat Colell
• Federica Amici

Genetic insights into the causal relationship between physical activity and cognitive functioning

• Boris Cheval
• Liza Darrous
• Matthieu P. Boisgontier

Nicotine exposure decreases likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 RNA expression and neuropathology in the hACE2 mouse brain but not moribundity

• Ayland C. Letsinger
• James M. Ward
• Jerrel L. Yakel

Presenting rose odor during learning, sleep and retrieval helps to improve memory consolidation: a real-life study

• Jessica Knötzele
• Dieter Riemann
• Jürgen Kornmeier

Brain activity during a working memory task after daily caffeine intake and caffeine withdrawal: a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial

• Yu-Shiuan Lin
• Janine Weibel
• Carolin Franziska Reichert

Autistic traits associated with dichotomic thinking mediated by intolerance of uncertainty

• Masahiro Hirai

Love and affectionate touch toward romantic partners all over the world

• Agnieszka Sorokowska
• Marta Kowal

Semaglutide and Tirzepatide reduce alcohol consumption in individuals with obesity

• Fatima Quddos
• Zachary Hubshman
• Warren K. Bickel

Daily exposure to virtual nature reduces symptoms of anxiety in college students

• Matthew H. E. M. Browning
• Seunguk Shin
• Wendy Heller

The role of cognitive flexibility in moderating the effect of school-related stress exposure

• Einat Levy-Gigi

Association of preexisting psychiatric disorders with post-COVID-19 prevalence: a cross-sectional study

• Mayumi Kataoka
• Megumi Hazumi
• Daisuke Nishi

Evaluating the complete (44-item), short (20-item) and ultra-short (10-item) versions of the Big Five Inventory (BFI) in the Brazilian population

• Raul Costa Mastrascusa
• Matheus Loli de Oliveira Fenili Antunes
• Tatiana Quarti Irigaray

Exposure to hate speech deteriorates neurocognitive mechanisms of the ability to understand others’ pain

• Agnieszka Pluta
• Joanna Mazurek
• Michał Bilewicz

Drug-induced social connection: both MDMA and methamphetamine increase feelings of connectedness during controlled dyadic conversations

• Hanna Molla
• Harriet de Wit

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in depression induces structural plasticity

• Mayank A Jog
• Cole Anderson
• Katherine Narr

A whole-brain model of the neural entropy increase elicited by psychedelic drugs

• Rubén Herzog
• Pedro A. M. Mediano
• Rodrigo Cofre

Impact and centrality of attention dysregulation on cognition, anxiety, and low mood in adolescents

• Clark Roberts
• Barbara J. Sahakian
• Graham K. Murray

Change in brain asymmetry reflects level of acute alcohol intoxication and impacts on inhibitory control

• Ryan M. Field

A generalized reinforcement learning based deep neural network agent model for diverse cognitive constructs

• Sandeep Sathyanandan Nair
• Vignayanandam Ravindernath Muddapu
• V. Srinivasa Chakravarthy

Exploring the role of empathy in prolonged grief reactions to bereavement

• Takuya Yoshiike
• Francesco Benedetti
• Kenichi Kuriyama

Children and adults rely on different heuristics for estimation of durations

• Sandra Stojić
• Vanja Topić
• Zoltan Nadasdy

Horses discriminate human body odors between fear and joy contexts in a habituation-discrimination protocol

• Plotine Jardat
• Alexandra Destrez
• Léa Lansade

Prognosis prediction in traumatic brain injury patients using machine learning algorithms

• Hosseinali Khalili
• Maziyar Rismani
• U. Rajendra Acharya

Results of a phase Ib study of SB-121, an investigational probiotic formulation, a randomized controlled trial in participants with autism spectrum disorder

• Lauren M. Schmitt
• Elizabeth G. Smith
• Craig A. Erickson

Light exposure behaviors predict mood, memory and sleep quality

• Mushfiqul Anwar Siraji
• Manuel Spitschan
• Shamsul Haque

Personality traits and dimensions of mental health

• Francois Steffens
• Antonio Malvaso

Neuroplasticity enables bio-cultural feedback in Paleolithic stone-tool making

• Erin Elisabeth Hecht
• Justin Pargeter
• Dietrich Stout

APOE ɛ4, but not polygenic Alzheimer’s disease risk, is related to longitudinal decrease in hippocampal brain activity in non-demented individuals

• Sofia Håglin
• Karolina Kauppi

Exploring regional aspects of 3D facial variation within European individuals

• Franziska Wilke
• Noah Herrick
• Susan Walsh

Personality traits and decision-making styles among obstetricians and gynecologists managing childbirth emergencies

• Gabriel Raoust
• Petri Kajonius
• Stefan Hansson

Greater traditionalism predicts COVID-19 precautionary behaviors across 27 societies

• Theodore Samore
• Daniel M. T. Fessler
• Xiao-Tian Wang

Gray matter differences associated with menopausal hormone therapy in menopausal women: a DARTEL-based VBM study

• Tae-Hoon Kim
• ByoungRyun Kim
• Young Hwan Lee

Prevalence and therapeutic impact of adverse life event reexperiencing under ceremonial ayahuasca

• Brandon Weiss
• Aleksandra Wingert
• W. Keith Campbell

Mindfulness may be associated with less prosocial engagement among high intelligence individuals

Proteomic association with age-dependent sex differences in Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance in healthy Thai subjects

• Bupachad Khanthiyong
• Sutisa Nudmamud-Thanoi

Contribution of sustained attention abilities to real-world academic skills in children

• Courtney L. Gallen
• Simon Schaerlaeken
• Adam Gazzaley

Synchrony to a beat predicts synchrony with other minds

• Sophie Wohltjen
• Brigitta Toth
• Thalia Wheatley

Spicy food intake predicts Alzheimer-related cognitive decline in older adults with low physical activity

• Jaeuk Hwang
• Young Min Choe
• Jee Wook Kim

Academic burnout among master and doctoral students during the COVID-19 pandemic

• Diego Andrade
• Icaro J. S. Ribeiro
• Orsolya Máté

Ketogenic diet for epilepsy control and enhancement in adaptive behavior

• Omnia Fathy El-Rashidy
• May Fouad Nassar
• Yasmin Gamal Abdou El Gendy

Imaginary pills and open-label placebos can reduce test anxiety by means of placebo mechanisms

• Sarah Buergler
• Dilan Sezer

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people with and without pre-existing mental health problems

• Ronja Kleine
• Artur Galimov
• Julia Hansen

Dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis and its influence on aging: the role of the hypothalamus

• Melanie Spindler
• Marco Palombo
• Christiane M. Thiel

LPS induces microglial activation and GABAergic synaptic deficits in the hippocampus accompanied by prolonged cognitive impairment

Dynamic effects of bilingualism on brain structure map onto general principles of experience-based neuroplasticity

• J. Treffers-Daller
• C. Pliatsikas

Alternative beliefs in psychedelic drug users

• Alexander V. Lebedev
• Predrag Petrovic

Psychological profiles of anti-vaccination argument endorsement

• Dawn L. Holford
• Angelo Fasce
• Stephan Lewandowsky

Memory compensation strategies in everyday life: similarities and differences between younger and older adults

• Madeleine J. Radnan
• Riley Nicholson
• Celia B. Harris

Long-lasting effects of World War II trauma on PTSD symptoms and embodiment levels in a national sample of Poles

• Marcin Rzeszutek
• Małgorzata Dragan
• Szymon Szumiał

Overlap in meaning is a stronger predictor of semantic activation in GPT-3 than in humans

• Jan Digutsch
• Michal Kosinski

Poorer sleep impairs brain health at midlife

• Tergel Namsrai
• Ananthan Ambikairajah
• Nicolas Cherbuin

Screen time, impulsivity, neuropsychological functions and their relationship to growth in adolescent attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms

• Jasmina Wallace
• Elroy Boers
• Patricia Conrod

Linguistic identity as a modulator of gaze cueing of attention

• Anna Lorenzoni
• Giulia Calignano
• Eduardo Navarrete

Serum ferritin level during hospitalization is associated with Brain Fog after COVID-19

• Teruyuki Ishikura
• Tomohito Nakano
• Takashi Naka

Articulatory effects on perceptions of men’s status and attractiveness

• Sethu Karthikeyan
• David A. Puts
• Glenn Geher

Altered functional connectivity of the ascending reticular activating system in obstructive sleep apnea

• Jung-Ick Byun
• Geon-Ho Jahng
• Won Chul Shin

Exploring individual differences in musical rhythm and grammar skills in school-aged children with typically developing language

• Rachana Nitin
• Daniel E. Gustavson
• Reyna L. Gordon

Experiencing sweet taste is associated with an increase in prosocial behavior

• Michael Schaefer
• Anja Kühnel
• Matti Gärtner

Hypnotic suggestions cognitively penetrate tactile perception through top-down modulation of semantic contents

• Marius Markmann
• Melanie Lenz
• Albert Newen

Long-term high-fat diet increases glymphatic activity in the hypothalamus in mice

• Christine Delle
• Neža Cankar

Emotional face expression recognition in problematic Internet use and excessive smartphone use: task-based fMRI study

• Szilvia Anett Nagy
• Gergely Darnai

Conflict experience and resolution underlying obedience to authority

• Felix J. Götz
• Vanessa Mitschke
• Andreas B. Eder

Comparative efficacy of onsite, digital, and other settings for cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia: a systematic review and network meta-analysis

• Laura Simon
• Lisa Steinmetz
• Harald Baumeister

Simultaneous multimodal fNIRS-EEG recordings reveal new insights in neural activity during motor execution, observation, and imagery

• Wan-Chun Su
• Hadis Dashtestani
• Amir Gandjbakhche

Facial emotion recognition in patients with depression compared to healthy controls when using human avatars

• Marta Monferrer
• Arturo S. García
• Patricia Fernández-Sotos

Evidence that the aesthetic preference for Hogarth’s Line of Beauty is an evolutionary by-product

• Ronald Hübner
• David M. G. Lewis
• Jonathon Flores

Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on structural brain development in early adolescence

• L. van Drunen
• Y. J. Toenders
• E. A. Crone

Improving stress management, anxiety, and mental well-being in medical students through an online Mindfulness-Based Intervention: a randomized study

• Teresa Fazia
• Francesco Bubbico
• Luisa Bernardinelli

Sex-related differences in parental rearing patterns in young adults with bipolar disorder

• Huifang Zhao
• Xujing Zhang
• Fengchun Wu

A follow-up study of early intensive behavioral intervention program for children with Autism in Syria

• Wissam Mounzer
• Donald M. Stenhoff
• Amal J. Al Khatib

Dog owner mental health is associated with dog behavioural problems, dog care and dog-facilitated social interaction: a prospective cohort study

• Ana Maria Barcelos
• Niko Kargas
• Daniel S. Mills

Languages with more speakers tend to be harder to (machine-)learn

• Alexander Koplenig
• Sascha Wolfer

How priming with body odors affects decision speeds in consumer behavior

• Mariano Alcañiz
• Irene Alice Chicchi Giglioli
• Gün R. Semin

Relationship between asymmetric nostril use and human emotional odours in cats

• Serenella d’Ingeo
• Marcello Siniscalchi
• Angelo Quaranta

Social support enhances the mediating effect of psychological resilience on the relationship between life satisfaction and depressive symptom severity

• Yun-Hsuan Chang
• Cheng-Ta Yang
• Shulan Hsieh

Predicting wellbeing over one year using sociodemographic factors, personality, health behaviours, cognition, and life events

• Miranda R. Chilver
• Elyse Champaigne-Klassen
• Justine M. Gatt

Multimodal assessment of the spatial correspondence between fNIRS and fMRI hemodynamic responses in motor tasks

• João Pereira
• Bruno Direito
• Teresa Sousa

Childhood maltreatment and emotion regulation in everyday life: an experience sampling study

• Mirela I. Bîlc
• Andrei C. Miu

Individual personality predicts social network assemblages in a colonial bird

• Fionnuala R. McCully
• Paul E. Rose

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar

IResearchNet

Psychology Research Papers

Forensic psychology.

Forensic Psychology provides students with an in-depth and insightful introduction to the clinical practice of forensic psychology. Incorporating two main themes, scope of practice and therapeutic jurisprudence, the text focuses on empirically supported clinical practice and exposes students to case and statutory laws necessary in the practice of forensic psychology. The text utilizes real world […]

Cognitive Development

“New ideas come into this world somewhat like falling  meteors,  with  a  flash  and  an  explosion  and perhaps somebody’s castle like roof perforated.” This quotation by Henry David Thoreau aptly captures the burst of insight that occurs when an infant discovers the link between their internal and external worlds; when a preschool child suddenly masters […]

Slight lapses in memory, such as forgetting to return  a  call  from  a  friend  or  to  pick  up  milk  at the grocery store, are normal and to be expected in healthy individuals. Amnesia is not a normal lapse of memory; rather, it is memory loss due to brain   damage or psychological trauma. Amnesias caused by […]

Confucianism

Confucianism is an omnibus term for a set of thoughts that compose an ethos, a sentiment, that has been shaping China for many millennia. Confucianism is a group of proposals for proper socioethical ways of life, providing a foundation to the individual’s commitment to sincerity, honesty, and interpersonal harmony. Its impacts are multidimensional in politics, […]

Teen Parents

Teenage parenthood is a social problem in Western culture. This is due, in part, to concerns about the ability of adolescents to meet their own needs for identity exploration and development while also meeting the developmental needs of an infant for stability and commitment. Further, teenage parenthood presents a long-term economic stress to society, as […]

Ohio State nav bar

The Ohio State University

• BuckeyeLink
• Find People
• Search Ohio State

• Ohio State University Libraries
• Research Guides

Psychology Department Research Guide

• Finding Scholarly Articles & More
• Getting Started
• Visual Media
• Tests & Measurements
• How Long Will This Take?

Recommended Databases

• Academic Search Complete [Selected Articles in Full Text] This link opens in a new window Academic Search Complete is comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
• CINAHL Plus with Full Text This link opens in a new window Contains citations from 1982 to present with abstracts to articles published in more than 650 English-language nursing and allied health journals as well as virtually all publications of the American Nurses' Association and the National League for Nursing. Covers relevant materials from biomedicine, management, behavioral sciences, health sciences librarianship, education, and consumer health. CINAHL provides references to new books, book chapters, pamphlets, audiovisuals, dissertations, educational software, selected conference proceedings, standards of professional practice, nurse practice acts, critical paths, and research instruments. Also contains database of limited indexing for newly published articles known as Pre-CINAHL.
• Electronic Theses and Dissertations (OhioLINK) [Selected Articles in Full Text] This link opens in a new window Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center (OhioLINK) is a free online database of masters' theses and doctoral dissertations from graduate students in participating Ohio colleges and universities.
• Embase This link opens in a new window With over 31 million indexed records and more than 8,500 indexed peer-reviewed journals, Embase is a highly versatile, multipurpose and up-to-date database covering the most important international biomedical literature from 1947 to the present day. All articles are indexed in depth using the Elsevier Life Science thesaurus Emtree®.
• Health and Psychosocial Instruments This link opens in a new window Provides access to information on measurement instruments (i.e., questionnaires, interview schedules, checklists, index measures, coding schemes/manuals, rating scales, projective techniques, vignettes/scenarios, tests) in the health fields, psychosocial sciences, organizational behavior, and library and information science.
• JoVE Core Social Psychology This link opens in a new window Video textbooks for introductory courses that can serve as effective primary or supplementary teaching resources. Key concepts are brought to life through high-impact animations and scientist-in-action videos of experiments conducted in laboratory settings.
• Oxford Bibliographies - Psychology This link opens in a new window This resource offers annotated bibliographies and research guides on the subject of psychology. It addresses the scientific study of behavior, encompassing perception, cognition, emotion, and action, as well as neuroscience and culture.
• ProQuest Dissertations & Theses [Selected Articles in Full Text] This link opens in a new window Contains citations for dissertations and theses done at U.S., Canadian and some foreign institutions including some OSU Master's nursing theses.
• PsychiatryOnline This link opens in a new window Includes the DSM Library, psychiatry journals and textbooks, American Psychiatric Association Practice Guidelines, Self-Assessment tools, and more. Self-Assessment quizzes are available through the library's subscription however CME must be purchased by individuals.
• Psychological Experiments Online This link opens in a new window Psychological Experiments Online is a multimedia collection that synthesizes the most important psychological experiments of the 20th and 21st centuries. These experiments have far-reaching impacts on fields as diverse as sociology, business, advertising, economics, political science, law, ethics, and the arts.
• Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection [Selected Articles in Full Text] This link opens in a new window A comprehensive database with more than 510 full text titles covering topics such as emotional and behavioral characteristics, psychiatry & psychology, mental processes, anthropology, and observational and experimental methods. A subset of Academic Search Premier.
• PsycINFO This link opens in a new window Provides access to the international literature in psychology and material relevant to psychology in the related disciplines of education, medicine, business, sociology, psychiatry and communications. Includes journals and dissertations from1967 to the present in one database, and book chapters and books from 1987 to the present in a second database. The databases are in English and the journals covered are in 30 languages from over 45 countries. The databases provide citations, content summaries (for all but the dissertations), and indexing using terms from the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms. Book records also contain the book's table of contents.
• PubMed This link opens in a new window PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine, provides access to over 15 million MEDLINE citations back to the mid-1950's and additional life science journals. PubMed includes links to many sites providing full text articles and other related resources.
• Scopus This link opens in a new window Scopus is a citation database of peer-reviewed literature and quality web sources with smart tools to track analyze and visualize research. Tools to sort, refine and quickly identify results help researchers focus on the outcome of their work.
• Web of Science (All Databases search) This link opens in a new window Web of Science (formerly Web of Knowledge) is a cross-searchable interface for numerous Thompson Reuters databases including: Web of Science Core Collection, BIOSIS Citation Index, BIOSIS Previews, Derwent Innovations Index, and Journal Citation Reports.

Faculty Editorship

• << Previous: Getting Started
• Next: Visual Media >>

© The Ohio State University - University Libraries 1858 Neil Avenue Mall, Columbus, OH 43210 Phone: (614) 292-OSUL (6785) | Fax: (614) 292-9101

Request an alternate format of this page | Accessibility | Privacy Policy

Print Page Login to LibApps

• Search This Site All UCSD Sites Faculty/Staff Search Term
• Contact & Directions
• Climate Statement
• Cognitive Behavioral Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Adjunct Faculty
• Non-Senate Instructors
• Researchers
• Psychology Grads
• Affiliated Grads
• New and Prospective Students
• Honors Program
• Experiential Learning
• Programs & Events
• Psi Chi / Psychology Club
• Prospective PhD Students
• Current PhD Students
• Area Brown Bags
• Colloquium Series
• Anderson Distinguished Lecture Series
• Speaker Videos
• Undergraduate Program
• Academic and Writing Resources

Writing Research Papers

• Research Paper Structure

Whether you are writing a B.S. Degree Research Paper or completing a research report for a Psychology course, it is highly likely that you will need to organize your research paper in accordance with American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines.  Here we discuss the structure of research papers according to APA style.

Major Sections of a Research Paper in APA Style

A complete research paper in APA style that is reporting on experimental research will typically contain a Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and References sections. 1  Many will also contain Figures and Tables and some will have an Appendix or Appendices.  These sections are detailed as follows (for a more in-depth guide, please refer to " How to Write a Research Paper in APA Style ”, a comprehensive guide developed by Prof. Emma Geller). 2

What is this paper called and who wrote it? – the first page of the paper; this includes the name of the paper, a “running head”, authors, and institutional affiliation of the authors.  The institutional affiliation is usually listed in an Author Note that is placed towards the bottom of the title page.  In some cases, the Author Note also contains an acknowledgment of any funding support and of any individuals that assisted with the research project.

One-paragraph summary of the entire study – typically no more than 250 words in length (and in many cases it is well shorter than that), the Abstract provides an overview of the study.

Introduction

What is the topic and why is it worth studying? – the first major section of text in the paper, the Introduction commonly describes the topic under investigation, summarizes or discusses relevant prior research (for related details, please see the Writing Literature Reviews section of this website), identifies unresolved issues that the current research will address, and provides an overview of the research that is to be described in greater detail in the sections to follow.

What did you do? – a section which details how the research was performed.  It typically features a description of the participants/subjects that were involved, the study design, the materials that were used, and the study procedure.  If there were multiple experiments, then each experiment may require a separate Methods section.  A rule of thumb is that the Methods section should be sufficiently detailed for another researcher to duplicate your research.

What did you find? – a section which describes the data that was collected and the results of any statistical tests that were performed.  It may also be prefaced by a description of the analysis procedure that was used. If there were multiple experiments, then each experiment may require a separate Results section.

What is the significance of your results? – the final major section of text in the paper.  The Discussion commonly features a summary of the results that were obtained in the study, describes how those results address the topic under investigation and/or the issues that the research was designed to address, and may expand upon the implications of those findings.  Limitations and directions for future research are also commonly addressed.

List of articles and any books cited – an alphabetized list of the sources that are cited in the paper (by last name of the first author of each source).  Each reference should follow specific APA guidelines regarding author names, dates, article titles, journal titles, journal volume numbers, page numbers, book publishers, publisher locations, websites, and so on (for more information, please see the Citing References in APA Style page of this website).

Tables and Figures

Graphs and data (optional in some cases) – depending on the type of research being performed, there may be Tables and/or Figures (however, in some cases, there may be neither).  In APA style, each Table and each Figure is placed on a separate page and all Tables and Figures are included after the References.   Tables are included first, followed by Figures.   However, for some journals and undergraduate research papers (such as the B.S. Research Paper or Honors Thesis), Tables and Figures may be embedded in the text (depending on the instructor’s or editor’s policies; for more details, see "Deviations from APA Style" below).

Supplementary information (optional) – in some cases, additional information that is not critical to understanding the research paper, such as a list of experiment stimuli, details of a secondary analysis, or programming code, is provided.  This is often placed in an Appendix.

Variations of Research Papers in APA Style

Although the major sections described above are common to most research papers written in APA style, there are variations on that pattern.  These variations include: 

• Literature reviews – when a paper is reviewing prior published research and not presenting new empirical research itself (such as in a review article, and particularly a qualitative review), then the authors may forgo any Methods and Results sections. Instead, there is a different structure such as an Introduction section followed by sections for each of the different aspects of the body of research being reviewed, and then perhaps a Discussion section. 
• Multi-experiment papers – when there are multiple experiments, it is common to follow the Introduction with an Experiment 1 section, itself containing Methods, Results, and Discussion subsections. Then there is an Experiment 2 section with a similar structure, an Experiment 3 section with a similar structure, and so on until all experiments are covered.  Towards the end of the paper there is a General Discussion section followed by References.  Additionally, in multi-experiment papers, it is common for the Results and Discussion subsections for individual experiments to be combined into single “Results and Discussion” sections.

Departures from APA Style

In some cases, official APA style might not be followed (however, be sure to check with your editor, instructor, or other sources before deviating from standards of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association).  Such deviations may include:

• Placement of Tables and Figures  – in some cases, to make reading through the paper easier, Tables and/or Figures are embedded in the text (for example, having a bar graph placed in the relevant Results section). The embedding of Tables and/or Figures in the text is one of the most common deviations from APA style (and is commonly allowed in B.S. Degree Research Papers and Honors Theses; however you should check with your instructor, supervisor, or editor first). 
• Incomplete research – sometimes a B.S. Degree Research Paper in this department is written about research that is currently being planned or is in progress. In those circumstances, sometimes only an Introduction and Methods section, followed by References, is included (that is, in cases where the research itself has not formally begun).  In other cases, preliminary results are presented and noted as such in the Results section (such as in cases where the study is underway but not complete), and the Discussion section includes caveats about the in-progress nature of the research.  Again, you should check with your instructor, supervisor, or editor first.
• Class assignments – in some classes in this department, an assignment must be written in APA style but is not exactly a traditional research paper (for instance, a student asked to write about an article that they read, and to write that report in APA style). In that case, the structure of the paper might approximate the typical sections of a research paper in APA style, but not entirely.  You should check with your instructor for further guidelines.

Workshops and Downloadable Resources

• For in-person discussion of the process of writing research papers, please consider attending this department’s “Writing Research Papers” workshop (for dates and times, please check the undergraduate workshops calendar).

Downloadable Resources

• How to Write APA Style Research Papers (a comprehensive guide) [ PDF ]
• Tips for Writing APA Style Research Papers (a brief summary) [ PDF ]
• Example APA Style Research Paper (for B.S. Degree – empirical research) [ PDF ]
• Example APA Style Research Paper (for B.S. Degree – literature review) [ PDF ]

Further Resources

How-To Videos     

• Writing Research Paper Videos

APA Journal Article Reporting Guidelines

• 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.
• Levitt, H. M., Bamberg, M., Creswell, J. W., Frost, D. M., Josselson, R., & Suárez-Orozco, C. (2018). Journal article reporting standards for qualitative primary, qualitative meta-analytic, and mixed methods research in psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board task force report . American Psychologist , 73 (1), 26.  

External Resources

• Formatting APA Style Papers in Microsoft Word
• How to Write an APA Style Research Paper from Hamilton University
• WikiHow Guide to Writing APA Research Papers
• Sample APA Formatted Paper with Comments
• Sample APA Formatted Paper
• Tips for Writing a Paper in APA Style

1 VandenBos, G. R. (Ed). (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.) (pp. 41-60).  Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

2 geller, e. (2018).  how to write an apa-style research report . [instructional materials]. , prepared by s. c. pan for ucsd psychology.

Back to top  

• Formatting Research Papers
• Using Databases and Finding References
• What Types of References Are Appropriate?
• Evaluating References and Taking Notes
• Citing References
• Writing a Literature Review
• Writing Process and Revising
• Improving Scientific Writing
• Academic Integrity and Avoiding Plagiarism
• Writing Research Papers Videos

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

•  We're Hiring!
•  Help Center
• Most Cited Papers
• Most Downloaded Papers
• Newest Papers
• Save to Library
• Last »
• Social Psychology Follow Following
• Cognitive Science Follow Following
• Emotion Follow Following
• Cognitive Psychology Follow Following
• Social Cognition Follow Following
• Developmental Psychology Follow Following
• Experimental Psychology Follow Following
• Social Identity Follow Following
• Evolutionary Psychology Follow Following
• Personality Psychology Follow Following

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• Academia.edu Publishing
•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

APA Sample Paper: Experimental Psychology

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

• Open access
• Published: 15 June 2024

Assessment of the impact of social media addiction on psychosocial behaviour like depression, stress, and anxiety in working professionals

• Vaishnavi Jahagirdar 1 ,
• Lenisha Ashlyn Sequeira 1 ,
• Nabeel Kinattingal 1 ,
• Tamsheel Fatima Roohi 1 ,
• Sultan Alshehri 2 ,
• Faiyaz Shakeel 2 &
• Seema Mehdi 1  

BMC Psychology volume  12 , Article number:  352 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

51 Accesses

Metrics details

Social media (SM), with its addictive nature and the accompanying psychosocial challenges such as stress, anxiety, and depression, is the primary factor exacerbating mental health problems and adversely impacting individuals’ wellbeing. Our study’s goal was to determine how SM affects employees’ psychosocial behaviours and assess the various factors that contributed to the employee’s excessive use of SM.

A cross-sectional correlational analysis was conducted. Using a relevant questionnaire on employees, the study was assessed to establish the relationship or association between SM addiction and psychosocial disorders like depression, anxiety, and stress. 200 people with a minimum age of 24 were enrolled in the study. The questionnaire contained the social networking addiction scale (SNAS) and the depression, anxiety, and stress-21 (DASS-21) scales; the data were statistically assessed.

The association between SM addiction and psychosocial behaviours has been examined using statistical tools including descriptive statistics and the Chi-square analysis. SM addiction has a strong, statistically significant correlation with depression ( p  = 0.001), stress ( p  = 0.001), and anxiety ( p  = 0.001).

This study discovered a connection between SM use and depression, stress, and anxiety among working employees, raising questions regarding worries about overuse and addiction to SM. Various factors influencing excessive usage included revealed that employees also majorly over used SM for entertainment, boredom avoidance, constant knowledge sharing, and relationship-building.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

A web-based tool called social media (SM) facilitates the development of social networks and interpersonal relationships between people who have similar experiences, passions, pursuits, and connections. The increase in the availability of gadgets like laptops, smartphones, and tablets is driving the use of SM networking sites. There is much potential for people to use these digital gadgets without regard to time or space constraints and virtually communicate [ 1 ]. Over 59% of the global population, totalling 4.76 billion people, engages in SM, with 137 million new users in the past year. The average daily time spent on these platforms is 2 h and 31 min as of January 2023. Over the last decade, browsing and swiping on social networking sites have become increasingly common. While SM use is largely harmless, a tiny proportion of Americans—between 5 and 10%—show addicted behaviours and use it obsessively [ 2 ] social media addiction (SMA) is characterized by excessive concern about SM, an insatiable urge to access or use SM, and a commitment of more time and energy to SM to the point that it interferes with other significant elements of life [ 3 ]. 36.6% of 16-24-year-olds spend their leisure time on SM, and 47.5% use it to communicate with friends and family. While 34.8% of users click on to read news stories, 31% of users log on to search for articles or videos.

Users use multiple social networks. Around the world, 7.4 platforms are utilized on a monthly average. The average number of SM platforms used per person is 8.7 in India, compared to 3.7 in Japan. Each platform is utilized for various purposes by users, Facebook (71.1%) for messaging, TikTok (77.4%) and Reddit (37.8%) for fun, and Snapchat (40.3%) and Instagram (69.9%) for sharing pictures and videos [ 4 ]. The average time a person spends on these channels daily is Facebook (33 min), LinkedIn (<1 min), Instagram (29 min), Whatsapp (28 min), Snapchat (31 min) and Twitter (31 min). Previous studies found that the main predictor of mental health problems was not age but rather gender, with women being far more likely than men to develop mental health issues [ 5 ].

Excessive SM use is linked to participants’ fear of missing out (FOMO), the desire for up-to-date information, and the cycle of notifications [ 6 ]. The time lost as a result of this over-engagement is sometimes overlooked [ 7 ]. SMA among workers adversely affects productivity by causing them to miss deadlines, compromise the quality of their work, and become easily distracted from their tasks [ 8 , 9 ]. Additionally damaging to their career and personal relationships, SMA makes people feel insecure and develop an inferiority complex [ 10 , 11 ]. The impact of SMA on employees’ physical and emotional welfare are depicted in Fig.  1 [ 12 ]. Excessive SM use is increasingly recognized as a behavioural addiction, sharing similarities with other addictive disorders [ 13 ]. Due to the similarities such as withdrawal, conflict, relapse, tolerance, and mood alteration, excessive SM use has lately been considered a behavioural addiction [ 14 , 15 ].

The impact of addiction to social media on employees’ physical and emotional welfare (Created with BioRender.com )

SM triggers dopamine, the ultimate feel-good chemical, in order to take advantage of our brain’s reward system. Our brains release the neurotransmitter dopamine whenever we have a happy experience. It’s how our brain remembers that engaging in certain activities will make us feel good, which encourages us to keep doing them. When we exercise, consume delicious cuisine, or get a notification that someone liked our photo, dopamine is released [ 16 ]. Our dopamine levels spike in response to a phone notification, which encourages us to check and use our phones longer than we otherwise would. The most extreme form of this drive is known by scientists as “phantom text syndrome”, in which a user perceives or hears a ringtone or alert even when none is there. The brain creates a false excuse—a phantom SMS—because it wants you to check your phone. This phenomenon bears resemblance to both addiction and wants [ 17 ]. It has been shown that there is a stronger correlation between depression and passively browsing SM posts as opposed to actively viewing them [ 18 , 19 ].

Extended use of social networking sites such as Facebook may be associated with negative symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress [ 20 , 21 ]. Face-to-face interaction with others is necessary to release the hormones that lower stress and improve your mood, physical health, and outlook on life [ 22 ]. Ironically, for a platform designed to foster community, excessive use of SM can exacerbate mental health conditions like anxiety and depression and leave you feeling alone and isolated [ 23 , 24 ].

This study aims to assess the impact of SMA on psychosocial behaviours including depression, stress, and anxiety in employees [97 teaching staffs (Lecturers, Assistant Professors, Associate Professors, and Professors and 108 non-teaching staffs), and identify the key factors influencing SMA characteristics.

Study design

The study conducted is a cross-sectional, correlational type of research. The study was conducted to assess the relationship or association of SMA with psychosocial problems like depression, anxiety, and stress using a suitable questionnaire, on employees/working professionals (97 teaching staffs and 108 non-teaching staffs) [ 25 ].

The study was conducted at JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research (JSS AHER) in Mysuru, Karnataka, India.

Participants

The study included N  = 200 participants of both genders. Among them, there were 200 employees/working professionals (97 teaching staffs and 108 non-teaching staffs) of > 24 years. The sample size of 200 was calculated using the Slovin or Yamane formula, where the standard of deviation, P  = 0.5; margin of error, e = 0.04; confidence interval is 95%; population size, N  = 2500 was considered [ 26 ]. The enrollment was not based on the history of depression, stress, and anxiety. However, the depression, stress, and anxiety were evaluated based on SMA. Inclusion criteria included employees/working professionals of either gender (age > 24), and participants willing to give their consent and participate in the study. Exclusion criteria included employees suffering from chronic diseases like heart disease, asthma, and cancer. This study was carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All study procedures were approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC Registration ECR/387/Inst/KA/2023/RR-19) at JSS Medical College, Mysuru, and obtained informed consent from all employees which was included in the Google Forms depicted in supplementary materials .

An online survey had been conducted for the assessment of the impact of SMA on psychosocial behaviours such as depression, stress, and anxiety. A link to a structural questionnaire created with ‘Google Forms’, was sent to employees via WhatsApp and email. The response collection tool was built by a combination of two scales: the DASS-21 and social networking addiction scale (SNAS). Demographical information was also included in the questionnaire. Before participation, consent was obtained from employees, and all information provided was assured of confidentiality. The process of the study is depicted in Fig.  2 . The questionnaire took an average of 5–10 min to complete. The form was completed by 205 employees (96 males and 109 females). When the forms were examined after the study, 5 forms were not evaluated due to incomplete data. Therefore, the data collection process was completed with 200 forms. The validity and reliability of questionnaire using the above-mentioned methods have been validated in the previous studies [ 17 , 27 , 28 ]. Therefore, the validity studies were not performed in the present study.

A pathway model analysis in the investigative study

Data collection tools

Sociodemographic characteristics.

The survey sought questions about age, gender, and courses of employees (teaching and non-teaching), area of residence (Urban, suburban and rural), family type (joint and nuclear), marital status (married and unmarried), family income (lower, lower middle, upper class, upper lower, upper middle), social history (alcohol, tobacco), and mental health conditions and general health conditions, to create a profile of the participants’ sociodemographic characteristics.

The DASS-21, which has been used to assess mental health, was used to assess respondents’ mental health status. Three self-report measures are included in the DASS-21, which is intended to evaluate anxiety, stress, and depression. The seven elements on each of the three DASS-21 scales are broken down into subscales containing relevant data. According to Lovibond and Lovibond depression severity ratings range from 0 to 9, with 0 representing normal, 10–13 representing mild, 14–20 representing moderate, 21–27 representing severe, and 28 representing extremely severe. Anxiety has severity levels ranging from 0 to 7, with 0 being normal, 8–9 being mild, 10–14 being moderate, 15–19 being severe, and 20 or more being extremely severe. Stress is classified as 0–14 normal, 15–18 mild, 19–25 Moderate, 26–33 severe, and 34 or more extremely severe [ 29 , 30 ].

A 21-item Likert scale with seven possible responses was presented by Shahnawaz and Rehman in order to gauge how much a person experiences social network addiction. The possible range of the score is 21–147. A score of more than 84 denotes addiction, which is diagnosed at three different levels: mild, moderate, and severe. Factorial analysis of the scale is necessary to identify and evaluate the cultural and environmental factors that may influence these levels. People’s level of SMA can be determined and evaluated using the SNAS [ 31 ].

Statistical analysis

The data was statistically analysed using the SPSS Statistics Base V 28 version of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software which is used to perform meta-analysis. Descriptive statistical methods (frequency, percentage, mean) were used to evaluate the study’s data which included the demographic details and SNAS and DASS-21 severity scoring; Chi-square analysis also called Pearson Chi-square analysis (a statistical test used to examine the differences between the categorical variables) which is a non-parametric test, was used to find the association of SMA with depression, stress, and anxiety. The results were assessed using a 95% confidence interval [ 32 ].

Preliminary analysis

By using descriptive statistics like frequency and percentage of categorical data, a summary of the preliminary investigations on the demographic characteristics of the employees demonstrated potential covariates. The study population included majorly subjects of age above 25 years, as the most active demographics on SM. Responses received from the female subjects were more as compared to male respondents. Table  1 provides the summary of sociodemographic characteristics among the employee covariates and Table  2 provides a summary of the demographic details among employees in association with disorders.

SNAS and DASS-21 severity scoring

Descriptive statistics on SMA revealed that 30.2% of employees are addicted to SM. Cut-off scores for conventional severity labels (normal, moderate, severe) for depression, stress, and anxiety are statistically represented using frequency and percentage (Table  3 ).

Main analysis

Association of depression, anxiety and stress with sma.

A χ² test was run to compare depression, anxiety and stress with SNAS. Since all predicted cell frequencies were higher than 5, the χ² test’s assumptions were satisfied.

Association of depression with SMA

Between SMA and depression, there was no statistically significant correlation (χ² (4) = 4.09, p  = 0.394). The calculated p -value of 0.394 is above z the defined significance level of 5%. As seen in Table  4 , the null hypothesis is not rejected and the χ² test is not significant.

Association of anxiety with SMA

Between SMA and anxiety, there was no statistically significant correlation (χ² (4) = 2.02, p  = 0.732). The calculated p -value of 0.732 is above the defined significance level of 5%. As seen in Table  5 , the null hypothesis is not rejected and the χ² test is not significant.

Association of stress with SMA

Between SMA and stress, there was no statistically significant correlation (χ² (4) = 0.39, p  = 0.983). The calculated p -value of 0.983 is above the defined significance level of 5%. As seen in Table  6 , the null hypothesis is not rejected and the χ² test is not significant.

Conceptual structure of factors influencing the overuse of SM in employees

It was found that employees excessively overused SM for enjoyment, to build relationship, to prevent boredom, loneliness and avoid exhaustion, for satisfaction, peer/parent influence and for continual knowledge and information exchange. This has been denoted in Table  7 .

Recent years have witnessed a significant expansion in the use of SM, impacting daily life globally [ 1 , 3 ]. Recent studies highlight a sharp rise in SM usage, sparking interest in this subject and potential drawback [ 3 ]. Increased use, particularly on social networking sites, raises the risk of addiction, termed “problematic social media use” [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. This overuse hinders regular functioning, characterized by addictive traits [ 4 ]. This is true despite the many benefits of technology, such as easy access to information, effortless interaction with communities around the world, entertainment, and business development. When utilising SM platforms, people may experience a wide range of emotions both positive and negative, which may have an effect on their mental health [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ].

In primary care settings, depression, stress, and anxiety are all common illnesses with a high risk of co-occurrence [ 3 , 10 , 13 ]. Depression and anxiety have been connected to negative emotional SM experiences [ 10 ]. There is significant discussion over the impact of pleasant feelings and distraction on users’ mental health [ 12 ]. While some researchers caution against the potential harms of online use, others advise against overstating its effects on mental health [ 13 , 14 , 15 ]. Therefore, this study’s outcomes may help in some manner to clarify the important controversy over inappropriate SM consumption. A few of the significant issues that depression is linked to are incomplete education, a higher incidence of unwanted pregnancies, significantly fewer affluent interpersonal connections, and an increased risk of drug abuse and suicidality. Depressed people are also more susceptible to being ingested by SM [ 15 , 16 , 17 ]. Stress is a defence mechanism that humans have developed as a means of enabling us to act quickly in the face of acute threats. On the other side, persistent stress can result in physical and mental chronic disorders [ 29 ]. Stress is defined as a sensation accompanied with predictable biochemical, physiological, and behavioural changes [ 29 , 30 ]. There are several hypotheses explaining how using SM may lead to stress, and these changes in the body’s psychological makeup might be brought on by doing so [ 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ]. This study examined the relationship between SMA and psychosocial behaviours including depression, stress, and anxiety in employees, and identified the key characteristics that led the group to use SM excessively. SM usage and mental health issues are often linked, even if our study’s results were not totally consistent.

Due to the fact that employees tend to overuse cell phones, we gathered the data using the DASS-21 and SNAS. Second, this study examine how SM affected employees’ psychosocial behaviours. Due to the fact that any individual’s demographic traits have a significant impact on the study’s findings, we have gathered a variety of demographic information from employees. First, more female employees gave replies than male employees did (Table  1 ), and most of the respondents were from metropolitan areas. A nuclear family made up 70% of them. Additionally, this study included a list of general health issues, which also includes mental health issues. Psychological issues may be attributed to people with any number of mental diseases, which may turn out to be the primary cause of SMA.

The SNAS was used to gauge the extent of addiction among the employees, and the findings showed that roughly 77.6% of the staff members had severe SM addiction (Table  3 ). This must have been caused due to onset of social anxiety. Health line recommends certain therapies for a such population to overcome their addiction. The therapies include; cognitive behavioural therapy, motivational interviewing, and group counselling sessions. The DASS-21 answers revealed that the majority of employees fell into the normal range, indicating that the rest of the population had depression scores ranging from mild to severely severe (Table  3 ). Numerous factors, including FOMO, academic pressure, poor sleep, financial difficulties, drug abuse, and loneliness, among others, may contribute to this. The findings of the Chi-square test used to analyse the link between depression, stress, anxiety, and SMA showed that the level of depression, stress, and anxiety, as well as the range of addiction to SM observed in employees, has been high and has demonstrated statistical significance ( p  = 0.001). These observations were in good agreement with those pointed out in the previous studies [ 2 , 6 , 9 , 11 , 27 , 28 ].

Additionally, it was found that employees heavily overused SM for enjoyment, to prevent boredom, and for continual knowledge and information exchange. To provide a more focused assessment, further future research is needed to look into the etiological pathways connecting SMA with psychological issues. Additionally, more investigation is required to determine the effect of SM on sleep quality and semantic memory.

In conclusion, this study demonstrated a significant association between SMA and psychosocial factors like depression, stress, and anxiety among the employee population. The health line elucidates certain therapies to treat these conditions; such as Psychotherapies, Alternative therapies like herbal remedies, massage, acupuncture, yoga, and medication. Additionally, to overcome addiction to SM, employees are recommended to seek help by obtaining preventive therapies. Responses collected from the population has shed information that the prime factors that led them to overuse SM were entertainment and to avoid boredom.

SM facilitates the development of relationships among individuals with similar backgrounds and interests. SMA is characterized by excessive worry, an insatiable need for access, and a commitment that interferes with other life aspects. While most users engage harmlessly, a small percentage exhibits addictive behaviour, leading to negative impacts on productivity and mental health, including depression, anxiety, and stress. The impact of excessive SM use is explored, including its link to the productivity issues among workers, and its negative effects on mental health, such as depression, anxiety, and stress. This study demonstrated a significant association between SMA and psychosocial factors like depression, stress, and anxiety among the employee population.

Data availability

No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

Abbreviations

Social media

• Social media addiction

Social networking addiction scale

Depression, anxiety, and stress scale-21

Statistical product and service solutions

Fear of missing out

JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research

Priyadarshini C, Dubey RK, Kumar YLN, Jha RR. Impact of social media addiction on employees’ wellbeing and work productivity. Qual Rep. 2020;25:181–96.

Google Scholar  

Elhai JD, Levine JC, Dvorak RD, Hall BJ. Fear of missing out, need for touch, anxiety and depression are related to problematic smartphone use. Comput Hum Behav. 2016;63:509–16.

Article   Google Scholar  

Karim F, Oyewande A, Abdalla LF, Chaudhry Ehsanullah R, Khan S. Social media use and its connection to mental health: a systematic review. Cureus. 2020;12:E8627.

PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Jojo CE, Sundaramoorthy J. Personality traits associated with internet addiction among college students in South India. Cog Edu. 2022;9:E2142455.

Muris P, Steerneman P. The revised version of the screen for child anxiety related emotional disorders (SCARED-R): first evidence for its reliability and validity in a clinical sample. Br J Clin Psychol. 2001;40:35–44.

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Hunt MG, Marx R, Lipson C, Young J. No more FOMO: limiting social media decreases loneliness and depression. J Soc Clin Psychol. 2018;37:751–68.

Zivnuska S, Carlson JR, Carlson DS, Harris RB, Harris KJ. Social media addiction and social media reactions: the implications for job performance. J Soc Psychol. 2019;159:746–60.

Chen Q, Hu J, Zhang W, Evans R, Ma X. Employee use of public social media: theories, constructs and conceptual frameworks. Behav Inf Technol. 2021;40:855–79.

Aydin S, Koçak O, Shaw TA, Buber B, Akpinar EZ, Younis MZ. Investigation of the effect of social media addiction on adults with depression. Healthcare. 2021;9:E450.

Eka Prasetya TA, Kusuma Wardani RW. Systematic review of social media addiction among health workers during the pandemic Covid-19. Heliyon. 2023;9:E16784.

Article   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Tunc-Aksan A, Akbay SE. Smartphone addiction, fear of missing out, and perceived competence as predictors of social media addiction of adolescents. Eur J Edu Res. 2019;8:559–66.

Tandon A, Kaur P, Dhir A, Mäntymäki M. Sleepless due to social media? Investigating problematic sleep due to social media and social media sleep hygiene. Comput Hum Behav. 2020;113:E106487.

Hou Y, Xiong D, Jiang T, Song L, Wang Q. Social media addiction: its impact, mediation, and intervention. Cyberpsychol. 2019;13:E4.

Yoon S, Wee S, Lee VSY, Lin J, Thumboo J. Patterns of use and perceived value of social media for population health among population health stakeholders: a cross-sectional web-based survey. BMC Public Health. 2021;21:E1312.

Keles B, McCrae N, Grealish A. A systematic review: the influence of social media on depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adolescents. Int J Adoles Youth. 2020;25:79–93.

Berridge KC, Robinson TE. Liking, wanting, and the incentive-sensitization theory of addiction. Am Psychol. 2016;71:670–9.

Lin YH, Chang LR, Lee YH, Tseng HW, Kuo TBJ, Chen SH. Development and validation of the smartphone addiction inventory (SPAI). PLoS ONE. 2014;9:E98312.

Baltacı Ö. The predictive relationships between the social media addiction and social anxiety, loneliness, and happiness. Int J Prog Edu. 2019;15:73–82.

Brunelli M, Niu L, Soghomonian C, Salandy A. Studying adolescent athletes for evaluation of mental health and substance use in an urban setting. Asp J Pediatr Child Health. 2021;3:18–29.

O’reilly M, Dogra N, Hughes J, Reilly P, George R, Whiteman N. Potential of social media in promoting mental health in adolescents. Health Promot Int. 2019;34:981–91.

Escobar-Viera CG, Whitfield DL, Wessel CB, Shensa A, Sidani JE, Brown AL, et al. For better or for worse? A systematic review of the evidence on social media use and depression among lesbian, gay, and bisexual minorities. JMIR Men Health. 2018;5:E10496.

Fardouly J, Magson NR, Rapee RM, Johnco CJ, Oar EL. The use of social media by Australian preadolescents and its links with mental health. J Clin Psychol. 2020;76:1304–26.

Brailovskaia J, Schillack H, Margraf J. Tell me why are you using social media (SM)! Relationship between reasons for use of SM, SM flow, daily stress, depression, anxiety, and addictive SM use–An exploratory investigation of young adults in Germany. Comput Hum Behav. 2020;113:E106511.

Haand R, Shuwang Z. The relationship between social media addiction and depression: a quantitative study among university students in Khost, Afghanistan. Int J Adolesc Youth. 2020;25:780–6.

Cao X, Yu L. Exploring the influence of excessive social media use at work: a three-dimension usage perspective. Int J Inf Manage. 2019;46:83–92.

Charan J, Biswas T. How to calculate sample size for different study designs in medical research? Indian J Psychol Med. 2013;35:121–6.

Cuadrado E, Rojas R, Tabernero C. Development and validation of the social network addiction scale (SNAddS-6S). Eur J Invetig Psychol Educ. 2020;10:763–78.

Bi S, Yuan J, Luo L. The social networking addiction scale: translation and validation study among Chinese college students. Int J Mental Health Promot. 2024;26:51–60.

González-Rivera JA, Pagán-Torres OM, Pérez-Torres EM. Depression, anxiety and stress scales (Dass-21): construct validity problem in hispanics. Eur J Investig Health Psychol Educ. 2020;10:375–89.

Ahmed O, Faisal RA, Alim S, Sharker T, Hiramoni FA. The psychometric properties of the Depression anxiety stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) Bangla version. Acta Psychol. 2022;223:E103509.

Shahnawaz MG, Rehman U. Social networking addiction scale. Cogent Psychol. 2020;7:E1832032.

McHugh ML. The Chi-square test of independence. Biochem Med. 2013;23:143–9.

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Researchers Supporting Project number (RSP2024R146), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for supporting this work. The authors also thank to JSS college of Pharmacy, and JSS Hospital, Mysuru for providing facilities and constant support for the completion of this research work.

This work was funded by the Researchers Supporting Project number (RSP2024R146), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Pharmacology, JSS College of Pharmacy, JSS Academy of Higher Education & Research, Mysore, Karnataka, 570015, India

Vaishnavi Jahagirdar, Lenisha Ashlyn Sequeira, Nabeel Kinattingal, Tamsheel Fatima Roohi & Seema Mehdi

Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia

Sultan Alshehri & Faiyaz Shakeel

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

Vaishnavi Jahagirdar was involved in designing the study, collecting, analysing and interpreting the data. Lenisha Ashlyn Sequeira was involved in analysing and interpreting the data along with statistical analysis, drafting the article, critical revision of the article for important intellectual content. Nabeel Kinattingal was involved in designing the study, collecting the data, analysing and interpreting the data, provision of the study materials or patients, administrative, technical or logistic support and final approval of article. Tamsheel Fatima Roohi was involved in analysing and interpreting the data, drafting the article and statistical expertise. Sultan Alshehri was involved in validating, editing, funding, visualization of the article. Faiyaz Shakeel was involved in the analysis and interpretation of data, critical revision of the article for important intellectual content, administrative, technical or logistic support and final approval of article. Seema Mehdi was involved in supervision, conceptualization, project administration, and validation of the studies. Finally, all authors have read, edited, and approved the final version of the article.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seema Mehdi .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

This study was carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee at JSS Medical College, Mysuru, and obtained informed consent from all employees which was included in the Google Forms.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary Material 1

Rights and permissions.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Jahagirdar, V., Sequeira, L.A., Kinattingal, N. et al. Assessment of the impact of social media addiction on psychosocial behaviour like depression, stress, and anxiety in working professionals. BMC Psychol 12 , 352 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-01850-2

Download citation

Received : 01 March 2024

Accepted : 10 June 2024

Published : 15 June 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-01850-2

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Mental health
• Psychological behaviours

BMC Psychology

ISSN: 2050-7283

• General enquiries: [email protected]

• school Campus Bookshelves
• menu_book Bookshelves
• perm_media Learning Objects
• login Login
• how_to_reg Request Instructor Account
• hub Instructor Commons

Margin Size

• Download Page (PDF)
• Download Full Book (PDF)
• Periodic Table
• Physics Constants
• Scientific Calculator
• Reference & Cite
• Tools expand_more
• Readability

selected template will load here

This action is not available.

11.3: Writing a Research Report in American Psychological Association (APA) Style

• Last updated
• Save as PDF
• Page ID 19672

• Rajiv S. Jhangiani, I-Chant A. Chiang, Carrie Cuttler, & Dana C. Leighton
• Kwantlen Polytechnic U., Washington State U., & Texas A&M U.—Texarkana

\( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \)

\( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)

\( \newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)

( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\)

\( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\)

\( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\)

\( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\)

\( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)

\( \newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\)

\( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\)

\( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\)

\( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\)

\( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\)

\( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\)

\( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\)

\( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

\( \newcommand{\vectorA}[1]{\vec{#1}}      % arrow\)

\( \newcommand{\vectorAt}[1]{\vec{\text{#1}}}      % arrow\)

\( \newcommand{\vectorB}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \)

\( \newcommand{\vectorC}[1]{\textbf{#1}} \)

\( \newcommand{\vectorD}[1]{\overrightarrow{#1}} \)

\( \newcommand{\vectorDt}[1]{\overrightarrow{\text{#1}}} \)

\( \newcommand{\vectE}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash{\mathbf {#1}}}} \)

Learning Objectives

• Identify the major sections of an APA-style research report and the basic contents of each section.
• Plan and write an effective APA-style research report.

In this section, we look at how to write an APA-style empirical research report , an article that presents the results of one or more new studies. Recall that the standard sections of an empirical research report provide a kind of outline. Here we consider each of these sections in detail, including what information it contains, how that information is formatted and organized, and tips for writing each section. At the end of this section is a sample APA-style research report that illustrates many of these principles.

Sections of a Research Report

Title page and abstract.

An APA-style research report begins with a title page . The title is centered in the upper half of the page, with each important word capitalized. The title should clearly and concisely (in about 12 words or fewer) communicate the primary variables and research questions. This sometimes requires a main title followed by a subtitle that elaborates on the main title, in which case the main title and subtitle are separated by a colon. Here are some titles from recent issues of professional journals published by the American Psychological Association.

• Sex Differences in Coping Styles and Implications for Depressed Mood
• Effects of Aging and Divided Attention on Memory for Items and Their Contexts
• Computer-Assisted Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Child Anxiety: Results of a Randomized Clinical Trial
• Virtual Driving and Risk Taking: Do Racing Games Increase Risk-Taking Cognitions, Affect, and Behavior?

Below the title are the authors’ names and, on the next line, their institutional affiliation—the university or other institution where the authors worked when they conducted the research. As we have already seen, the authors are listed in an order that reflects their contribution to the research. When multiple authors have made equal contributions to the research, they often list their names alphabetically or in a randomly determined order.

It’s Soooo Cute! How Informal Should an Article Title Be?

In some areas of psychology, the titles of many empirical research reports are informal in a way that is perhaps best described as “cute.” They usually take the form of a play on words or a well-known expression that relates to the topic under study. Here are some examples from recent issues of the Journal Psychological Science .

• “Smells Like Clean Spirit: Nonconscious Effects of Scent on Cognition and Behavior”
• “Time Crawls: The Temporal Resolution of Infants’ Visual Attention”
• “Scent of a Woman: Men’s Testosterone Responses to Olfactory Ovulation Cues”
• “Apocalypse Soon?: Dire Messages Reduce Belief in Global Warming by Contradicting Just-World Beliefs”
• “Serial vs. Parallel Processing: Sometimes They Look Like Tweedledum and Tweedledee but They Can (and Should) Be Distinguished”
• “How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Words: The Social Effects of Expressive Writing”

Individual researchers differ quite a bit in their preference for such titles. Some use them regularly, while others never use them. What might be some of the pros and cons of using cute article titles?

For articles that are being submitted for publication, the title page also includes an author note that lists the authors’ full institutional affiliations, any acknowledgments the authors wish to make to agencies that funded the research or to colleagues who commented on it, and contact information for the authors. For student papers that are not being submitted for publication—including theses—author notes are generally not necessary.

The abstract is a summary of the study. It is the second page of the manuscript and is headed with the word Abstract . The first line is not indented. The abstract presents the research question, a summary of the method, the basic results, and the most important conclusions. Because the abstract is usually limited to about 200 words, it can be a challenge to write a good one.

Introduction

The introduction begins on the third page of the manuscript. The heading at the top of this page is the full title of the manuscript, with each important word capitalized as on the title page. The introduction includes three distinct subsections, although these are typically not identified by separate headings. The opening introduces the research question and explains why it is interesting, the literature review discusses relevant previous research, and the closing restates the research question and comments on the method used to answer it.

The Opening

The opening , which is usually a paragraph or two in length, introduces the research question and explains why it is interesting. To capture the reader’s attention, researcher Daryl Bem recommends starting with general observations about the topic under study, expressed in ordinary language (not technical jargon)—observations that are about people and their behavior (not about researchers or their research; Bem, 2003 [1] ). Concrete examples are often very useful here. According to Bem, this would be a poor way to begin a research report:

Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance received a great deal of attention during the latter part of the 20th century (p. 191)

The following would be much better:

The individual who holds two beliefs that are inconsistent with one another may feel uncomfortable. For example, the person who knows that they enjoy smoking but believes it to be unhealthy may experience discomfort arising from the inconsistency or disharmony between these two thoughts or cognitions. This feeling of discomfort was called cognitive dissonance by social psychologist Leon Festinger (1957), who suggested that individuals will be motivated to remove this dissonance in whatever way they can (p. 191).

After capturing the reader’s attention, the opening should go on to introduce the research question and explain why it is interesting. Will the answer fill a gap in the literature? Will it provide a test of an important theory? Does it have practical implications? Giving readers a clear sense of what the research is about and why they should care about it will motivate them to continue reading the literature review—and will help them make sense of it.

Breaking the Rules

Researcher Larry Jacoby reported several studies showing that a word that people see or hear repeatedly can seem more familiar even when they do not recall the repetitions—and that this tendency is especially pronounced among older adults. He opened his article with the following humorous anecdote:

A friend whose mother is suffering symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) tells the story of taking her mother to visit a nursing home, preliminary to her mother’s moving there. During an orientation meeting at the nursing home, the rules and regulations were explained, one of which regarded the dining room. The dining room was described as similar to a fine restaurant except that tipping was not required. The absence of tipping was a central theme in the orientation lecture, mentioned frequently to emphasize the quality of care along with the advantages of having paid in advance. At the end of the meeting, the friend’s mother was asked whether she had any questions. She replied that she only had one question: “Should I tip?” (Jacoby, 1999, p. 3)

Although both humor and personal anecdotes are generally discouraged in APA-style writing, this example is a highly effective way to start because it both engages the reader and provides an excellent real-world example of the topic under study.

The Literature Review

Immediately after the opening comes the literature review , which describes relevant previous research on the topic and can be anywhere from several paragraphs to several pages in length. However, the literature review is not simply a list of past studies. Instead, it constitutes a kind of argument for why the research question is worth addressing. By the end of the literature review, readers should be convinced that the research question makes sense and that the present study is a logical next step in the ongoing research process.

Like any effective argument, the literature review must have some kind of structure. For example, it might begin by describing a phenomenon in a general way along with several studies that demonstrate it, then describing two or more competing theories of the phenomenon, and finally presenting a hypothesis to test one or more of the theories. Or it might describe one phenomenon, then describe another phenomenon that seems inconsistent with the first one, then propose a theory that resolves the inconsistency, and finally present a hypothesis to test that theory. In applied research, it might describe a phenomenon or theory, then describe how that phenomenon or theory applies to some important real-world situation, and finally suggest a way to test whether it does, in fact, apply to that situation.

Looking at the literature review in this way emphasizes a few things. First, it is extremely important to start with an outline of the main points that you want to make, organized in the order that you want to make them. The basic structure of your argument, then, should be apparent from the outline itself. Second, it is important to emphasize the structure of your argument in your writing. One way to do this is to begin the literature review by summarizing your argument even before you begin to make it. “In this article, I will describe two apparently contradictory phenomena, present a new theory that has the potential to resolve the apparent contradiction, and finally present a novel hypothesis to test the theory.” Another way is to open each paragraph with a sentence that summarizes the main point of the paragraph and links it to the preceding points. These opening sentences provide the “transitions” that many beginning researchers have difficulty with. Instead of beginning a paragraph by launching into a description of a previous study, such as “Williams (2004) found that…,” it is better to start by indicating something about why you are describing this particular study. Here are some simple examples:

Another example of this phenomenon comes from the work of Williams (2004).

• Williams (2004) offers one explanation of this phenomenon.
• An alternative perspective has been provided by Williams (2004).
• We used a method based on the one used by Williams (2004).

Finally, remember that your goal is to construct an argument for why your research question is interesting and worth addressing—not necessarily why your favorite answer to it is correct. In other words, your literature review must be balanced. If you want to emphasize the generality of a phenomenon, then of course you should discuss various studies that have demonstrated it. However, if there are other studies that have failed to demonstrate it, you should discuss them too. Or if you are proposing a new theory, then of course you should discuss findings that are consistent with that theory. However, if there are other findings that are inconsistent with it, again, you should discuss them too. It is acceptable to argue that the balance of the research supports the existence of a phenomenon or is consistent with a theory (and that is usually the best that researchers in psychology can hope for), but it is not acceptable to ignore contradictory evidence. Besides, a large part of what makes a research question interesting is uncertainty about its answer.

The Closing

The closing of the introduction—typically the final paragraph or two—usually includes two important elements. The first is a clear statement of the main research question and hypothesis. This statement tends to be more formal and precise than in the opening and is often expressed in terms of operational definitions of the key variables. The second is a brief overview of the method and some comment on its appropriateness. Here, for example, is how Darley and Latané (1968) [2] concluded the introduction to their classic article on the bystander effect:

These considerations lead to the hypothesis that the more bystanders to an emergency, the less likely, or the more slowly, any one bystander will intervene to provide aid. To test this proposition it would be necessary to create a situation in which a realistic “emergency” could plausibly occur. Each subject should also be blocked from communicating with others to prevent his getting information about their behavior during the emergency. Finally, the experimental situation should allow for the assessment of the speed and frequency of the subjects’ reaction to the emergency. The experiment reported below attempted to fulfill these conditions. (p. 378)

Thus the introduction leads smoothly into the next major section of the article—the method section.

The method section is where you describe how you conducted your study. An important principle for writing a method section is that it should be clear and detailed enough that other researchers could replicate the study by following your “recipe.” This means that it must describe all the important elements of the study—basic demographic characteristics of the participants, how they were recruited, whether they were randomly assigned to conditions, how the variables were manipulated or measured, how counterbalancing was accomplished, and so on. At the same time, it should avoid irrelevant details such as the fact that the study was conducted in Classroom 37B of the Industrial Technology Building or that the questionnaire was double-sided and completed using pencils.

The method section begins immediately after the introduction ends with the heading “Method” (not “Methods”) centered on the page. Immediately after this is the subheading “Participants,” left justified and in italics. The participants subsection indicates how many participants there were, the number of women and men, some indication of their age, other demographics that may be relevant to the study, and how they were recruited, including any incentives given for participation.

After the participants section, the structure can vary a bit. Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) shows three common approaches. In the first, the participants section is followed by a design and procedure subsection, which describes the rest of the method. This works well for methods that are relatively simple and can be described adequately in a few paragraphs. In the second approach, the participants section is followed by separate design and procedure subsections. This works well when both the design and the procedure are relatively complicated and each requires multiple paragraphs.

What is the difference between design and procedure? The design of a study is its overall structure. What were the independent and dependent variables? Was the independent variable manipulated, and if so, was it manipulated between or within subjects? How were the variables operationally defined? The procedure is how the study was carried out. It often works well to describe the procedure in terms of what the participants did rather than what the researchers did. For example, the participants gave their informed consent, read a set of instructions, completed a block of four practice trials, completed a block of 20 test trials, completed two questionnaires, and were debriefed and excused.

In the third basic way to organize a method section, the participants subsection is followed by a materials subsection before the design and procedure subsections. This works well when there are complicated materials to describe. This might mean multiple questionnaires, written vignettes that participants read and respond to, perceptual stimuli, and so on. The heading of this subsection can be modified to reflect its content. Instead of “Materials,” it can be “Questionnaires,” “Stimuli,” and so on. The materials subsection is also a good place to refer to the reliability and/or validity of the measures. This is where you would present test-retest correlations, Cronbach’s α, or other statistics to show that the measures are consistent across time and across items and that they accurately measure what they are intended to measure.

The results section is where you present the main results of the study, including the results of the statistical analyses. Although it does not include the raw data—individual participants’ responses or scores—researchers should save their raw data and make them available to other researchers who request them. Many journals encourage the open sharing of raw data online, and some now require open data and materials before publication.

Although there are no standard subsections, it is still important for the results section to be logically organized. Typically it begins with certain preliminary issues. One is whether any participants or responses were excluded from the analyses and why. The rationale for excluding data should be described clearly so that other researchers can decide whether it is appropriate. A second preliminary issue is how multiple responses were combined to produce the primary variables in the analyses. For example, if participants rated the attractiveness of 20 stimulus people, you might have to explain that you began by computing the mean attractiveness rating for each participant. Or if they recalled as many items as they could from study list of 20 words, did you count the number correctly recalled, compute the percentage correctly recalled, or perhaps compute the number correct minus the number incorrect? A final preliminary issue is whether the manipulation was successful. This is where you would report the results of any manipulation checks.

The results section should then tackle the primary research questions, one at a time. Again, there should be a clear organization. One approach would be to answer the most general questions and then proceed to answer more specific ones. Another would be to answer the main question first and then to answer secondary ones. Regardless, Bem (2003) [3] suggests the following basic structure for discussing each new result:

• Remind the reader of the research question.
• Give the answer to the research question in words.
• Present the relevant statistics.
• Qualify the answer if necessary.
• Summarize the result.

Notice that only Step 3 necessarily involves numbers. The rest of the steps involve presenting the research question and the answer to it in words. In fact, the basic results should be clear even to a reader who skips over the numbers.

The discussion is the last major section of the research report. Discussions usually consist of some combination of the following elements:

• Summary of the research
• Theoretical implications
• Practical implications
• Limitations
• Suggestions for future research

The discussion typically begins with a summary of the study that provides a clear answer to the research question. In a short report with a single study, this might require no more than a sentence. In a longer report with multiple studies, it might require a paragraph or even two. The summary is often followed by a discussion of the theoretical implications of the research. Do the results provide support for any existing theories? If not, how can they be explained? Although you do not have to provide a definitive explanation or detailed theory for your results, you at least need to outline one or more possible explanations. In applied research—and often in basic research—there is also some discussion of the practical implications of the research. How can the results be used, and by whom, to accomplish some real-world goal?

The theoretical and practical implications are often followed by a discussion of the study’s limitations. Perhaps there are problems with its internal or external validity. Perhaps the manipulation was not very effective or the measures not very reliable. Perhaps there is some evidence that participants did not fully understand their task or that they were suspicious of the intent of the researchers. Now is the time to discuss these issues and how they might have affected the results. But do not overdo it. All studies have limitations, and most readers will understand that a different sample or different measures might have produced different results. Unless there is good reason to think they would have, however, there is no reason to mention these routine issues. Instead, pick two or three limitations that seem like they could have influenced the results, explain how they could have influenced the results, and suggest ways to deal with them.

Most discussions end with some suggestions for future research. If the study did not satisfactorily answer the original research question, what will it take to do so? What new research questions has the study raised? This part of the discussion, however, is not just a list of new questions. It is a discussion of two or three of the most important unresolved issues. This means identifying and clarifying each question, suggesting some alternative answers, and even suggesting ways they could be studied.

Finally, some researchers are quite good at ending their articles with a sweeping or thought-provoking conclusion. Darley and Latané (1968) [4] , for example, ended their article on the bystander effect by discussing the idea that whether people help others may depend more on the situation than on their personalities. Their final sentence is, “If people understand the situational forces that can make them hesitate to intervene, they may better overcome them” (p. 383). However, this kind of ending can be difficult to pull off. It can sound overreaching or just banal and end up detracting from the overall impact of the article. It is often better simply to end by returning to the problem or issue introduced in your opening paragraph and clearly stating how your research has addressed that issue or problem.

The references section begins on a new page with the heading “References” centered at the top of the page. All references cited in the text are then listed in the format presented earlier. They are listed alphabetically by the last name of the first author. If two sources have the same first author, they are listed alphabetically by the last name of the second author. If all the authors are the same, then they are listed chronologically by the year of publication. Everything in the reference list is double-spaced both within and between references.

Appendices, Tables, and Figures

Appendices, tables, and figures come after the references. An appendix is appropriate for supplemental material that would interrupt the flow of the research report if it were presented within any of the major sections. An appendix could be used to present lists of stimulus words, questionnaire items, detailed descriptions of special equipment or unusual statistical analyses, or references to the studies that are included in a meta-analysis. Each appendix begins on a new page. If there is only one, the heading is “Appendix,” centered at the top of the page. If there is more than one, the headings are “Appendix A,” “Appendix B,” and so on, and they appear in the order they were first mentioned in the text of the report.

After any appendices come tables and then figures. Tables and figures are both used to present results. Figures can also be used to display graphs, illustrate theories (e.g., in the form of a flowchart), display stimuli, outline procedures, and present many other kinds of information. Each table and figure appears on its own page. Tables are numbered in the order that they are first mentioned in the text (“Table 1,” “Table 2,” and so on). Figures are numbered the same way (“Figure 1,” “Figure 2,” and so on). A brief explanatory title, with the important words capitalized, appears above each table. Each figure is given a brief explanatory caption, where (aside from proper nouns or names) only the first word of each sentence is capitalized. More details on preparing APA-style tables and figures are presented later in the book.

Sample APA-Style Research Report

Figures \(\PageIndex{1}\)-\(\PageIndex{5}\) show some sample pages from an APA-style empirical research report originally written by undergraduate student Tomoe Suyama at California State University, Fresno. The main purpose of these figures is to illustrate the basic organization and formatting of an APA-style empirical research report, although many high-level and low-level style conventions can be seen here too.

• Bem, D. J. (2003). Writing the empirical journal article. In J. M. Darley, M. P. Zanna, & H. R. Roediger III (Eds.), The complete academic: A practical guide for the beginning social scientist (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. ↵
• Darley, J. M., & Latané, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4 , 377–383. ↵

Psychology Essay Writer Required

$30-250 usd, about the project, looking to make some money, benefits of bidding on freelancer.

About the client

Client Verification

Similar jobs.