The Psychology Field & APA Format

    

This weekend I watched a YouTube video called "APA Style and Literature Searches" posted on The Stockton University channel. It was a presentation done by Tom Kluxen centered around the American Psychological Association (APA) format. This format is often used and preferred in the social and behavioral sciences field (I know this first hand since I am a psychology major) and can also be applicable to the biology and chemistry field. Since the two key components to APA is the citing (to avoid plagiarism and easily track references) and the title page format (to keep things cohesive) it makes it perfect for identifying and referencing others' research and ideas, which is crucial in the psychology field. Being able to find the source easily allows the psych. researchers to form their own opinions and do their own research on the topic and being able to cite the source easily will help avoid the consequences of plagiarism. If you are interested in being apart of the psychology field, knowing how to write papers in APA format is important. 

Here is how to ensure that you are following proper APA formatting for your next psychology paper:

• Adjust your font to size 12, Times New Roman. 
• Double space your pages.
• Have a running head, page number and title in all capital letters.
• Have a title page consisting of your running head, the title of the work in the middle & centered as well as your name and institution/university. 
• At the bottom you can include an author's note.
• The next page will be the abstract, which summarizes the paper.
• Write about 250 words - 400 words for the abstract.
• The next page will be the start of your body. It helps to write an outline beforehand.
• Try to include three supporting pieces of evidence. A trick that I like to do is "PEEL". Point, evidence, elaboration and a linkage back to the initial point.
• Try to include peer-reviewed articles. This can be found through your institution's digital library or Google Scholar.
• Citing -
• In-text citations
• Last name, year and page number. If there is a page, place it at the end if not just complete it with a period.
• Reference page citations
• Last name, title, organization. Do not include sources on this page that were not cited or directly quoted in the body of your paper.
• Be careful paraphrasing or quoting articles. Try to avoid long paraphrasing or quotes. A psych. professor of mine once told me, when in doubt, cite it out. This will guarantee that what you write is not counted as plagiarism. 

If you're still confused, a great guide that I like to use is this one, published by Purdue University.

 

Good luck with your research!