The Inner Workings of a Psychological Research Journal

Chassidie Liu

Joshua Smith

Writing 2: Academic Writing

June 14, 2020

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There are a multitude of academic disciplines within the world of education. Each

discipline has its own discourse communities and methodological approach to their research.

These literary practices and conventions both, affect how scholars within these disciplines write

about their findings and conclusions.

Psychology is a discipline that divides itself into various concentrations. Such as

biopsychology, social psychology, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology and clinical

psychology. One specific concentration I will be discussing to further explain the use of

conventions in psychological papers is psychopathology. Psychopathology is the scientific study

of mental disorders and is classified as a curriculum taught in clinical psychology.1 This class

primarily focuses on the concepts of different mental disorders, including diagnosis, causes,

preventions and treatments. Topics may include: exploration of the cultural influences, and social

consequences of current and historical definitions of mental disorders. From anxiety to substance

abuse use disorders this class delves into very obtrusive and stress-inducing topics. Although this

may be just one example of a concentration within psychology, it is important to note that these

concentrations integrate with one another to help produce a concrete writing convention, style,

and literary practice psychologists use in their research journals and articles. By using APA style

citations, psychological jargon, heading sections, and the scientific method it allows for a neat

background into psychology research journals. These neat backgrounds create foundations for

future research in the field of psychology.

Most of psychology’s literary practices are in the form of scholarly articles and

psychological research papers. Within these research papers there are different elements that

1
Krueger and Markon, ​Understanding Psychopathology​, 113
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encompass the discipline, such as statistical, observational and experimental evidence. Most, if

not all, psychological research papers are written in the standard convention, American

Psychological Association (APA). Although "American” is in the name of the citation, most

countries adopt this style. Within the citation it is always noted there is the author(s) last name,

and first initial followed by the date published, title of the article, journal the article was

published in, book and volume number, and the DOI. A DOI, or Digital Object Identifier, is a

unique alphanumeric string used to permanently identify an article. These DOI’s help readers

locate a document from a citation in supplement of a URL link. But what is the purpose of

creating a whole new citation only for psychological research journals? The purpose of APA

style citations allow for organization and consistency throughout all psychological research

papers. Most papers are drawn out to be used again in further research, so these citations provide

a clear and concise way for further researchers to find different studies and findings that relate to

their own research. In lamest terms, these “work cited” or “references” pages at the end of a

journal article are used for researchers to look upon other research that has been done in that

field so they do not repeat the same experiments. Also, they are written to give credit when credit

is due.

Within APA research articles, there is always a part titled, “Abstract.” In the abstract,

information about the study is highly condensed in a summarized form. When a reader reads

over the abstract, which is roughly around one hundred to three hundred words, the reader should

get the overall gist of the study and its findings. What is found in an abstract: a brief overview of

the study, population parameters, type of evidence used (observational, empirical, statistical),

assessments explored, and the results of the study. This allows for other researchers and students
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to get a glimpse of the experiment without having to read the whole paper, in order to know if a

certain journal article connects and is needed for other researchers to understand what they will

be experimenting throughout the duration of their study. It saves time, effort, and energy

especially by indicating to the reader if it is important for them to read based on the research they

are specifically looking for.

For example, in Mabe and Treiber’s study, they summarized the investigation of “clinical

utility of multitrait-multimethod assessments of internalizing and externalizing symptoms in

child psychiatric outpatients.”2 From this, we can already note that this study will be looking at

children’s psychopathology, hence the terms “child psychiatric outpatients.” We can also see

how they tested their experiment, “multitrait-multimethod assessments.” So if a psychologist was

looking to do research for child psychopathology, they would most likely read the entirety of the

article to get a better understanding of this area of study. But if they were researching cognitive

neuroscience, by reading the abstract it would allow them to realize this is not a paper they

should be reading. Also, to connect the point made previously about APA style citation, the

psychologist could also read the “work cited” page and find more journal articles that can relate

to this topic.

Referring to the article example above it is safe to assume most psychology abstracts

have an intellectual tone to them. By including psychology specific jargon, such as “assessment

and diagnosis” and “statistical evidence”3 we understand that these authors are speaking to an

audience of experts in psychology, since they expect their readers to know what these certain

phrases mean. Just as Boyd explained in her article, rhetorical jargon is used to fit the writing of

2
Treiber and Mabe, ​Child and Parent,​ 116
3
Treiber and Mabe, ​Child and Parent,​ 115
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the piece and to help audiences better understand their narrative.4 Although psychology related

jargon is used for scientific understanding, the inclusion of other basic psychological concepts

such as the “Methods” section can speak more to an undergraduate or non-expert audience that is

familiar with reading or writing research specific articles. The writing itself tends to be general

enough for non-experts to understand the point of the paper.

“Good” writing in terms of this discipline is the ability to convey to the reader the

purpose and results of the study, through means of the scientific method. Most psychological

research papers include different headings that read, “Methods”, “Discussion”, “Data”, and

“Results.” These headings separate each part of the study or experiment to allow for a better

reading of these papers due to a more organizational structure. Throughout the different sections,

parts of the scientific method are answered. Although not explicitly named, “hypotheses”, this

part of the scientific method is discussed in the “Introduction” portion of the paper. Another way

these papers have “good” writing, is if the true experiment is falsifiable. Meaning there can never

be a definite answer to an ongoing psychological topic. For example, in most psychological

research papers, the last section is titled “Discussion.” Within the discussion section it describes

the research that has been done, how the research conducted during the article changed those

prior perspectives and what further research needs to be done on these topics. It also explains the

threats to validity and limitations the experiment had. These discussions help notify the reader

and the psychologist that the research can be falsifiable, and falsifiable research leaves way for

more studies on a particular topic.

4
Boyd, ​Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking),​ 2
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The evidence the psychology community privileges is seen in many different forms.

From observational evidence to survey evidence, psychologists gather information in a variety of

ways. These different ways allow for a more diverse and thorough way of looking at different

psychological questions. For example, if we were looking at psychopathology rates in children

ages 10–17 of bipolar parents and their correlation of the severity of the psychopathology, we

could test for results in a variety of ways, which would yield different results each time. If

evidence was observed, it could present to be more accurate than a survey where people may feel

the need to lie. Yet, if results are similar, the methodology behind it is different. And that is the

purpose of these papers; to provide the reader and future researchers the information needed to

develop a new understanding of certain topics in which they can build off of.

The transfer of information through psychological research papers is the most important

factor when conducting psychological research, because they highlight the work that has been

done so future researchers can gain more insight on the field of study, benefit from the

limitations of the study, and learn what not to repeat. By having a plethora of research, any

psychologist can continue to create new findings within the realm of psychology.

The researchers, lecturers, and faculty, within this discipline engage and reproduce the

basic principles of a psychological research paper. From using American Psychological

Association citation to using psychology termed jargon, it illustrates a basic psychological

research paper. Although words, hypotheses, ideas, results, methods, data, content and much

more may be different within each paper, the body and format of it is similar. The goal of all

psychology research papers is to create new understandings of different mental disorders,

neurological functions, and many others, while also finding new data to help support or deny
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other hypotheses within the field. An important thing to note is that these papers are written for

documentation. The convention and literary practices of psychological papers is of utmost

importance because it allows for psychologists to transfer their work for future researchers to

understand.
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Bibliography

Boyd, Janet. “Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking).” ​Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, n​ o. 2

(2011).

Krueger, Robert F., and Markon, Kristian E. “Understanding Psychopathology

Melding Behavior Genetics, Personality, and Quantitative Psychology to Develop an
Empirically Based Model.” ​Current Directions in Psychological Science. 1​ 5, no. 3
(2006): 113–117.

Treiber, Frank A., and P. Alex Mabe. “Child and Parent Perceptions of Childrens
Psychopathology in Psychiatric Outpatient Children.” ​Journal of Abnormal Child
Psychology​ 15, no. 1 (1987): 115–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00916469.