APA

Simplified
Your Concise Guide
to the 7th Edition

Mark Hatala, Ph.D.

Greentop Academic Press • Greentop, Missouri

Copyright ©2020 by Mark Hatala

All rights reserved under

International and Pan-American copyright conventions
Published in the United States of America
by the Greentop Academic Press, Greentop, MO 63546
(pop 427)
09 08 07 06 05 1 2 3 4 5

APA Simplified: Your concise guide to the 7th edition

by Mark Hatala, Ph.D.

Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no
part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-933167-54-1
ISBN-10: 1-933167-54-8

Book Design: Charles Dunbar

The font used in this book is Times New Roman, which is an approved font of the
American Psychological Association; however, the interior uses a 10-point font to save
space - APA style requires a 12-point font.

To incorporate this book into your classroom, visit our website at APAcentral.com
Table of Contents
Why this book

Finding appropriate research

Wikipedia 7
Psychology databases - PsychINFO and PsychARTICLES 7
Google and Google Scholar 7
Data mining from research articles and textbooks 7
The bottom line 8

Writing your paper

Opening paragraph 8
The relevant literature on your topic 9
Methods and Results 9
The Conclusion or Discussion 10

Citations
Source with one author 10
Source with two authors 11
Source with three or more authors 11
Source with a group author (that can be abbreviated) 11

References
References - Textual Works
Research journals 13
The number of authors in a reference 13
What are DOI numbers? 13
Shortening DOI numbers 14
Books 14
Book chapters 14
Magazine article - In print or online 15
Newspaper article - in print or online 15
Dictionary 16
Wikipedia 16
The DSM-5 as an alternative to dictionaries and encyclopedias 17
Blog post 17
Press release 17
Doctoral dissertations and master’s theses 18

References - Audiovisual Media

YouTube 18
TED Talks 18
Television show - individual episode 19
Podcast 19
Music album and music video 20
Film 20

References - Online media

Social media
Twitter 20
Facebook post 20
Instagram photo 21
Websites and web pages
Website with a group author 22
Website with an individual author 22
The news website 23
The website with no date 23

Reference management software - all your problems solved? 23

Odds and ends

Fonts and formatting 24
Bias-free writing 24
A note on plagiarism 25
Quotations - direct and block 26
Numbers and percentages 27

Sample student paper (annotated) 28

Sample professional paper (annotated) 36

Thanks for the feedback!

Tables, figures, and data displays 45
Conference posters, presentations, and symposia 45
Headings 46

One last thing . . . 47

Why this book
Although I have written several books on APA style, this is my first “short” book
on the subject. So why now? A couple of reasons.
First, the Publication Manual has come out in a new 7th edition, and a number of
changes have been made to the way academic writing is presented, cited, and referenced.
So the timing is right.
Second, while the APA publishes its own “concise” guide to APA style for
students, it is 326 pages long! That is NOT concise, in my opinion, especially since the
full-blown Publication Manual is 427 pages. Concise is 50 pages or less, not 100 pages
shorter than the full guide that covers every possible contingency in writing. Also, the
APA guides use the EXACT SAME examples in both books, which I find unhelpful.
Third, most other “brief” guides are all about formatting, not writing. A two-
minute YouTube video can teach you all you need to know about formatting, but it takes
a book to teach you how to write an APA style paper.
Finally, I think that the other “brief” guides on the market are outdated. They
often have instructions on how to format your paper using Microsoft Word (as if we live
in 1998) and their “sample papers” are on non-academic topics like Oprah Winfrey (and
that’s not a misprint). They also provide no instruction on how to actually FIND academic
research.
Therefore, this book will guide you through the 7th edition of the APA style
Publication Manual in a way that is brief, concise, and relevant to papers written in the
2020s (and beyond).
In addition to my other books (which go into greater detail), I have a number
of videos explaining APA style on both YouTube and my website, APAcentral.com. The
website brings together videos, supplements, worksheets, reference lists, and just about
anything else you would need to write a successful APA style paper, which is why I say
that all of my writing is “powered by APA Central.” So check it out.
You made the right (or “write”) choice in buying this book.

Mark Hatala, Ph.D.

Professor of Psychology
Truman State University
7

Finding appropriate research

You have your topic - now what? First of all, congratulations! If you also have a
working title for your paper, it’s pretty much halfway written at this point. However, now
you need to find appropriate academic research on your topic, and that search is going to
start on the web.

Wikipedia
While using Wikipedia as a reference in your paper tells your professor “I didn’t
try, and I don’t care,” specific research topics are based on cited research, and the citations
are referenced at the bottom of the Wikipedia webpage. For example, a broad topic like
PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) has 267 (!) research articles cited on Wikipedia,
and these articles are literally a click away from being incorporated into a research paper.
Even a narrow topic like “mnemonics” has 29 cited research articles.

Psychology databases - PsychINFO and PsychARTICLES

PsycINFO and PsychARTICLES are available through academic libraries and
are both published by the American Psychological Association (otherwise known as the
APA), although they differ in the level of access they provide. PsycINFO searches much
more broadly (literally millions of articles, dissertations, theses, papers, etc.), but often
only provides the abstract (or summary) of an article. PsychARTICLES provides full text
for articles which are published by the APA, but only searches the 90 journals that are part
of this database. Since both PsycINFO and PsychARTICLES are published by the APA,
all of the information in PsychARTICLES is redundant with PsychINFO, which means
that anything that can be found in PsychARTICLES will also be found (including the full-
text component) in PsychINFO.

Google and Google Scholar

Google Scholar (scholar.google.com) is an even broader database than PsycINFO
and PsychARTICLES, and includes cross-disciplinary research that might not appear in
the psychology databases. Google Scholar (and just plain old Google.com) also contains
links to websites, and many times information from a website is the most up-to-date
source for a particular topic. Information from sources like the Mayo Clinic (mayoclinic.
org) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc.gov) are credible and cover
a variety of scientific topics.

Data mining from research articles and textbooks

The truth is that someone with a Ph.D. has already done your literature search for
you - the people who write research articles and textbooks. Authors of academic works
cite the research that is relevant to their topic, and these are easily found in the reference
section of a research paper or a textbook. This method is a gift that keeps on giving
because it creates a positive feedback loop of published researchers doing your work for
you. It frees you from having to determine whether an article is “important” or not, and
it provides a wide range of relevant research articles to choose from. Your professor will
know what research is important, and by using this method to find articles, you won’t be
8

blindsided by them asking “Why didn’t you use the most famous article on this topic in
your paper?!”

The bottom line

I believe that incorporating all of the above methods is the best and most
exhaustive way of finding appropriate research on your topic. Use Wikipedia to help find
a topic that is interesting to you, then find more relevant articles using the full-text feature
available through the psychology databases. Next, find a general textbook (or even better,
a more specific textbook that covers your topic) and see what foundational research they
cite. Finally, use Google Scholar to find the most up-to-date web-based information. In
this way, all of your bases are covered - you’ll have a variety of sources for your topic,
from the foundational work to the most recent research on your topic.

Writing your paper

Now that you have collected and read all of your articles, you are ready to start
writing! Academic papers tend to be very “dry” and to the point - just the facts - with
little need to entertain the reader. APA style papers can seem “formulaic” and that is
appropriate, because you are essentially writing according to a formula. The same kinds
of things are expected in all academic papers - a review of the literature, citation of
research, references, etc. Departing from the formula does not make you creative so much
as it makes you wrong. This is not to say that writing to a formula is easy. It is, however,
very straightforward.
Here is a point that I cannot stress enough - write from an outline! The time it
takes to write an outline is more than made up in the time it saves you when it comes
time to write your paper. Both student and “professional” (meaning a paper submitted for
publication) APA style papers follow a basic structure. Student papers are introduction,
body, and conclusion. Since professional papers contain original research, they also have
specific sections devoted to methodology and statistical results. The “shape” of both types
of manuscripts are the same - like an hourglass - broad at the beginning, narrow in the
middle, and broad at the end. In other words, your paper should begin and end in fairly
broad generalities, and discuss specific research in the middle.

Opening paragraph
So how should you begin? I tell my students to always start their paper by just
plugging in the phrase: “People have always wondered about [insert topic] and how it
influences them and changes their lives.” The introduction can pretty much go anywhere
after that! I don’t want students to actually USE that phrase, but it acts as a placeholder
in their mind of how the paper should begin. And see, they’ve already started writing!
Begin with a universal “hook” to engage the reader, and then get into the research.
The thesis statement provides a concise summary of what the paper is going to
be about, and it appears as the last sentence of the introduction. The thesis statement is
important because it informs the reader about the organization of the rest of the paper. In
a student paper, the body of the paper will unfold from the thesis. In a professional paper,
9

the “thesis” is usually encompassed in a “Purpose of the Present Study” section that,
while more detailed and specific (because it’s about THEIR study), serves the exact same
purpose as a thesis statement.

The relevant literature on your topic

Once you have your opening paragraph, the rest of your paper writes itself. Well,
almost. The body of your paper, to go back to the hourglass analogy, is where your paper
begins to get specific and you talk about individual research studies. How much should
you talk about each study? Well, here the APA style manual becomes oddly specific.
While discouraging single-sentence paragraphs, the ideal is to write paragraphs of three
to five sentences without going over one typed page.
But how do you get to that point? In a student paper, try to identify three “themes”
or “commonalities” to guide your writing. The “themes” will vary from paper to paper
based on the topic you choose and the research which is available, but there are a number
of common themes which work across a variety of papers. For example, many conditions
have multiple treatments which are available, so you might examine each of these in a
different paragraph. This is effective in that it also allows you to “compare and contrast”
the different treatments. The paper writes itself.
Many topics in clinical psychology can follow a “definition, causes, symptoms,
and treatments” format. Whether you are writing about agoraphobia, body dysmorphic
disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), or trichotillomania (TTM), you can
have a paragraph which defines the disorder, followed by one which discusses the causes
(if they are known, but this can be speculation too), followed by one on the symptoms, and
then one on the treatment (or treatments) available.
Although my examples are from psychology, the number of topics you might
choose to write about using APA style is pretty much infinite, so the number of “themes” is
even more infinite (if such a thing is possible). Oftentimes the themes which you identify
will be something subject specific, such as a comparison of different approaches to the
same topic (like early child education), or ways of measuring the topic of interest (like
parenting). Don’t be afraid to go where the research takes you - the “themes” discussed
above are just ones which are the easiest to identify.
In a professional paper, the literature review follows the hypotheses stated in the
“Purpose of the Present Study” section. Basically, you’re writing about the research that
supports your hypotheses, and how the methodology used in those studies is relevant to
the design of your own study.

Methods and Results

These sections are only going to appear in a professional paper where you
actually perform a research study.
The Methods section provides information about how the data was collected, how
participants were selected, the research design, and how the study was actually conducted.
This information is important because it will allow other researchers to replicate the study.
The Results section is a summary of the statistical results of your study. The
specific values obtained from statistical tests (such as t tests, F ratios, etc.) are presented
in this section, along with supplementary information about effect sizes, confidence
10

intervals, and the probability of obtaining those results (the p values).

The Conclusion or Discussion

The final part of your paper, logically enough, is the conclusion (or Discussion,
if it’s a professional paper). So how should your paper end? Remembering our hourglass
analogy, the paper ends by broadening the discussion back to how the topic is related to
the future of humanity or otherwise improves the human condition.
An ideal thing to discuss in the conclusion are future areas of research, because
nothing shows greater insight than making intelligent suggestions about where you see
future research on a particular topic heading. Suggestions for future research are also a
subtle way to insert your own thoughts and opinions about the research into your paper.

Citations
Citations get their own section because of the many problems they cause.
It seems easy enough - you should use a citation in your paper whenever you are
paraphrasing, discussing someone else’s ideas, or taking a direct quote from another
manuscript. Basically, it should be clear, when you’re writing about someone else’s
research, whose research it is that you’re writing about. If you’re writing about your
own thoughts, you don’t need a citation. When you start writing about someone else’s,
you need to give them attribution or credit.
The way sources are cited in APA style depends on how many authors there
are. When there are one or two, citation is simple because you just list everyone every
time the source is cited. When there are three or more authors, things are slightly more
complicated - you have to list the first author followed by “et al.” - but still pretty simple!
When sources are from a “group author” things get even more complicated, so I included
a special section on that!
Citations can occur in the text of a sentence (a narrative citation) or parenthetically
(a parenthetical citation), and I will provide examples of how each would be used with
the same source material. To keep things congruent, all the sources deal with the topic of
conformity.

Source with one author

When a source has one author, the last name of the author should be provided
every time the source is cited, whether it is an initial or subsequent citation, and regardless
of whether the citation is narrative or parenthetical. For example:

Source
Pasupathi, M. (1999). Age differences in response to conformity pressure for emotional
and nonemotional material. Psychology and Aging, 14(1), 170-174.
http://doi.org/dnftfh

Narrative format
Pasupathi (1999) found that . . .
11

Parenthetical format
. . . however, others (Pasupathi, 1999) have found that . . .

Source with two authors

When a source has two authors, BOTH authors should be provided every time the
source is cited, regardless of whether it is an initial or subsequent citation, and regardless
of whether the citation is narrative or parenthetical. The only difference is that since there
are now two authors, you need to include “and” between the authors names for a narrative
citation, and an ampersand (“&”) between the authors names for a parenthetical citation.
For example:

Source
Santee, R. T., & Jackson, S. E. (1982). Identity implications of conformity: Sex differences
in normative and attributional judgments. Social Psychology Quarterly, 45(2),
121-125. https://doi.org/10.2307/3033935

Narrative format
Santee and Jackson (1982) found that . . .

Parenthetical format
. . . however, others (Santee & Jackson, 1982) have found that . . .

Source with three or more authors

Citation simplifies again when a source has three or more authors, because you
just need to provide the last name of the first author followed by “et al.” whenever the
work appears in your paper. For an example of a source with three authors:

Source
Stowell, J. R., Oldham, T., & Bennett, D. (2010). Using student response systems
(“clickers”) to combat conformity and shyness. Teaching of Psychology, 37(2),
135-140. http://doi.org/cr9bjx

Narrative format
Stowell et al. (2010) found that . . .

Parenthetical format
. . . however, others (Stowell et al., 2010) have found that . . .

Source with a group author (that can be abbreviated)

Citation becomes a little more complicated when using a source with group
authors, mostly because when the “group authors” can be abbreviated, this causes
a difference in the formatting of initial and subsequent citations. For example, maybe
you’re working on a paper on health risks and outcomes and want to provide information
on the social determinants of health (SDOH) in the United States. It turns out that the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have a web page dedicated to that exact topic!
12

So far, so good! However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is abbreviated
as CDC (who knows where the “P” goes, but I think there’s a joke there), so when cited
as a source in a paper, things change from the initial to subsequent citations. For example,
here is the source reference:

Source
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018, January 29). Social determinants of
health: Know what affects health. https://www.cdc.gov/socialdeterminants/
index.htm

This is the exact page on the CDC’s website where this material appears. It
includes a date, which identifies the most recent edit, on January 29th, 2018 - the source
which will be cited. Since there is no individual author for the page, the “group author”
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is provided.
Here’s where things get complicated. The “group author” name should be
provided the first time the source is cited, but if the group author name can be abbreviated,
subsequent citations should just be the abbreviation. For our example on health risks, it
would appear as:

Narrative format
1st citation - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2018) found that . . .
Subsequent citation - The CDC (2018) found that . . .

Parenthetical format
1st citation - . . . however, others (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC],
2018) have found that . . .
Subsequent citation - . . . however, others (CDC, 2018) have found that . . .

Please note the brackets around “CDC” in the initial parenthetical citation of this
source. Can it be complicated to use a group author as a source? Yes! But is there a logic
behind how to reference and cite such a source? Yes.
13

References
The way sources are referenced in APA style depends on whether they are a
textual work (which includes journal articles, books, book chapters, etc.), audiovisual
media (podcasts, YouTube videos, you name it), online media (websites, tweets, and
social media) or just about anything else (primarily data sets and software). All references
contain the same information: the author (or authors), the year of publication, the title of
the work, and information about where it was published (so that the reader can retrieve it).

References - Textual Works

Research journals
The majority of sources in an academic paper should be work published in peer-
reviewed research journals. A generic example of a journal reference would be pretty
meaningless, so here’s an actual one, and then a breakdown of the component parts:

Lee, A. Y. (2002). Effects of implicit memory on memory-based versus stimulus-based

brand choice. Journal of Marketing Research, 39(4), 440-454.
http://doi.org/c4j8zv

So, to deconstruct the reference, it takes the following form:

First author last name, First author first name initial. First author middle name initial.
(#### year of publication). Title of the journal article. Name of the Periodical,
## volume number of periodical(#issue number of periodical - if available),
### page numbers of article. http://doi.org/######## - if available

All the information to find the reference is there: author, year, title, and publication
information. To point out a few things though, you might notice that the name and volume
number of the periodical is in italics. If there is an issue number for the periodical, it is put
in parentheses right next to the volume number, so there is no space between them.

The number of authors in a reference

You include up to 20 authors in a reference, BUT if there are over 20 authors,
the first 19 are listed, then an ellipses, and then the last author. I’ve never actually seen a
source with over 20 authors, and can only imagine what a meeting to determine authorship
with 20 authors would be like.

What are DOI numbers?

DOI (digital object identifier) numbers identify where a particular source is
“permanently” stored in a digital network, and have become standard for periodicals (less
so for books) since they were introduced in 2000. DOI numbers are presented at the end
of a reference as a hyperlink, meaning that they have the whole http://doi.org . . . set-up.
This is so that the reader can find the reference by literally pasting the link into their
browser. According to the 7th edition you can use either the underlined “blue” default
14

for a hyperlink in your paper, or you can write the DOI link as plain text. Just try to be
consistent! I’ve chosen to use plain text throughout this book so that I don’t have to pay
extra for two-color printing!
What do you do if you find a journal article without an assigned DOI? You leave
it off the reference. Really, if there’s no assigned DOI, what else can you do?

Shortening DOI numbers

Why do DOI numbers have to be so long?! Why isn’t there a service to shorten
them? Well, there is! Just go to the website provided by the International DOI Foundation
(http://shortdoi.org) and plug the long DOI into their “shortener.” For example, the Lee
(2002) article’s assigned DOI is http://dx.doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.39.4.440.19119 and it’s
“shortened” DOI is http://doi.org/c4j8zv. I have tried to use the shortened DOIs throughout
this book, but the Publication Manual says that you don’t need to remain consistent in
your paper on this matter.

Books
Books are a useful source of information when you’re writing a paper. As with
research journals, a generic example of a book reference is a little silly without context,
so here’s an actual book reference, and then a breakdown:

Plunkett, J. M. (2011). Bipolar disorder: Causes, diagnosis and treatment. Nova Science
Publishers.

Taking the reference apart, it looks like:

First author last name, First author first name initial. First author middle name initial.
(#### year the book was published). Title of the book. Name of the publisher.

Books don’t usually have a DOI number assigned to them, but if you find one
that does, just put it at the end of the reference, the same way you would for a journal
article.

Book chapters
Book chapters are treated as a hybrid of a book and a journal because books, like
journals, have editors. Journals have editors too, but they’re not listed in the references.
Why? Who knows? Again, it’s unclear, so here’s an example:

Foa, E. B., & Franklin, M. E. (2001). Obsessive-compulsive disorder. In D. H. Barlow

(Ed.), Clinical handbook of psychological disorders: A step-by-step treatment
manual (3rd ed., pp. 209-263). The Guilford Press.

All of the references contain different combinations of the same information, but
there are a few unique aspects of book chapters that I want to make note of. For example,
you might notice that where the author of the chapter is listed last name first, the editors
are listed last name last, which switches things up. The names of the editors are also
15

followed by either “(Ed.)” or “(Eds.)” depending on how many of them there are. Similar
to a journal article, you list the page numbers of the chapter, but unlike a journal article,
you precede this with “pp.” (if there are multiple pages).

Magazine article - In print or online

You might decide to use a magazine article to provide some “pop culture” or
“edgy” material to your introduction. My recommendation would be to use this source
material very sparingly. With that warning in mind, here is how you would reference a
magazine article, in this case an article about the cultural importance of the television
show Sex and the City.

In print:
Armstrong, J. K. (2018, May 11). Sex and the City and us: How four single women
changed the way we think, live, and love. Entertainment Weekly, 1514, 32-35.

Online:
Armstrong, J. K. (2018, May 5). Sex and the City and us: How four single women changed
the way we think, live, and love. Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/
article/2018/05/05/sex-and-the-city-and-us

You may notice that the dates are different on the “in print” and “online” editions
of the same article. Both are actually correct, and my guess is that for Entertainment
Weekly, information appears on their website before it appears in print. Or who knows?
Print media is dead anyway.
Additionally, if you just wanted to cite the book itself rather than a magazine
article about it, the book reference would look like this:

Armstrong, J. K. (2018). Sex and the City and us: How four single women changed the
way we think, live, and love. Simon & Schuster.

Newspaper article - in print or online

Newspapers can be a more up-to-date source for a particular topic. Although I
feel some trepidation in encouraging the use of newspapers as sources in academic papers,
here is how a reference looks for a newspaper article on agoraphobia:

In print:
Lukits, A. (2016, September 19). Fear of open spaces may be linked to animal instincts.
The Wall Street Journal, D4.

Note: “D4” refers to the page number the article appeared on in the physical newspaper.

Online:
Lukits, A. (2016, September 19). Fear of open spaces may be linked to animal instincts.
The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/fear-of-open-spaces-may-
be-linked-to-animal-instincts-1474290002
16

Dictionary
For general spelling, APA style uses the Meriam-Webster.com Dictionary;
therefore, so should you, but only if it is absolutely necessary! A number of very poor
student papers include the phrase “Webster’s defines ____ as _______ .” as if they were
giving a speech and believe a dictionary is an appropriate source for a college paper. With
that said, here is how you would reference a dictionary entry for the word “memory” (if
you REALLY had to):

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Memory. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved June

12, 2018, from http://merriam-webster.com/dictionary/memory

Note: Since this dictionary is constantly updated and previous versions are not archived
(see the Wikipedia discussion below), you should use “n.d.” (for “no date”) as the
publication year, and include a retrieval date.

Wikipedia
Have you heard of Wikipedia? If you haven’t, you should check it out! Wikipedia
is a good example that we are all familiar with to tease apart the issues with citing and
referencing a “textual” source found online. One would think that Wikipedia would be
considered to be “online media” by the criteria set by the Publication Manual because
“online” is the only way to retrieve it, but one would be WRONG! It turns out that
Wikipedia, although it is only accessible online, is considered to be a “textual work”
because it is like an encyclopedia, and encyclopedias are “textual works.” Forget about
the whole “online” and “website” thing. Also, forget that Wikipedia is constantly edited
and updated (online), so entries can change from day to day. There are archived and
“stable” Wikipedia pages for a particular topic, even if they are only “stable” for a few
moments. Since I believe that you should never actually use Wikipedia as a source for
your paper, this section is something of a moot point, but let’s continue!
Ironically, Wikipedia has an entry for “APA style.” Let’s use it in our example!
How would we cite and reference a Wikipedia entry? Since Wikipedia is
“editable” and always changing, we would provide the date that WE accessed the website.
So, a narrative citation might look something like:

According to “APA style” (2019), researchers have been given guidance on how to format
academic papers.

And a parenthetical citation would look like:

Researchers have been given guidance on how to format academic papers (“APA style,”
2019).

Now for the reference! Since Wikipedia is archived and “stable,” we need to
provide both a retrieval date and a link to the page we used, so theoretically, someone
could see what the Wikipedia entry for “APA style” was from that particular day in the
past. Would that actually ever happen? Seems unlikely. But again, APA style doesn’t have
17

to make sense, we just have to do what it says. Using the date that I’m writing this (in
Belgrade, Serbia, of all places), the reference would look like:

APA style. (2019, June 27). In Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APA_style

All of the information is there. Since there is no “author” we just put the topic,
the date is the day we accessed it, we got the information from Wikipedia (which is in
italics, because it’s a type of encyclopedia), and we provide a link to the web page. It’s just
that easy!

The DSM-5 as an alternative to dictionaries and encyclopedias

You might be asking yourself what to do if you’re writing a paper and just can’t
find the definition of a term or clinical diagnosis. Rather than turn to a dictionary or
encyclopedia, I would recommend using the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders, which is published by the American Psychiatric Association.
We’re now in the fifth edition of the book, which is why it is known in psychology as the
DSM-5. It’s not easy material to get through, and reading about symptoms and diagnoses
might cause you to begin diagnosing yourself, your roommate, and members of your
family with many disorders that they don’t have. But, if you’re looking for a definition of
PTSD, OCD, SAD, or just about anything else in clinical psychology, here is your source:

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental

disorders (5th ed.). http://doi.org/brfw

Note: The DSM-5 also has an assigned DOI number, and I have put the “shortened” version in
the reference, as the “long” version is: http://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596

Blog post
I find it interesting that even though blogs only appear online (“blog” derives
from “web log”), APA style considers them to be a “textual work” rather than “online
media.”
The reference does not need to be identified as a blog post, and the “publisher” is
in italics (like a research journal!), followed by the URL.

Serdar, K. L. (2014, July 16). Female body image and the mass media: Perspectives on
how women internalize the ideal beauty standard. The Myriad. http://d-
muntyan1215-dc.blogspot.com/2014/07/female-body-image-and-mass-media

Press release
Press releases can be good because they present the most up-to-date information
available. The problem is that if you’re citing a press release from several years ago, the
material might already be dated, or incorrect. The APA website featuring this press release
explicitly states that a press release might contain “outdated science or missing details” by
the time it is accessed. So, unless the press release has been issued within the past year, I
would avoid including it in your paper, but I’m going to violate that rule in the example:
18

American Psychological Association. (2010, August 13). Memory researchers explain

latest findings on improving the mind, stopping memory loss [Press release].
http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2010/08/memory-loss

Doctoral dissertations and master’s theses

These are sources that you are unlikely to use in your paper, but you may
run across them while conducting a search of online psychology databases. Doctoral
dissertations and master’s theses are identified as such (in brackets) after the title of the
work (which is italicized). Unpublished doctoral dissertations are usually “unpublished”
for a reason, and so you probably won’t use them as a source.

Hatala, M. N. (1993). A test of the additive unique-features model using consumer product
preferences [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Ohio University.

Note: This is my actual dissertation and it has a $20 bill taped to the title page. The last
time I visited it in Ohio University’s Alden Library (in 2004), the $20 was still there.

References - Audiovisual Media

Lots of great information can be gleaned from YouTube, TED Talks, or podcasts
(or in the next section, Twitter or Facebook), and APA style teaches how to reference it!

YouTube
The title of a YouTube video is italicized in a reference, and whoever uploaded
the video is considered to be the “author.” The “date” is when it was uploaded.
In the spirit of self-promotion, here is one of my YouTube videos on the changes
to the APA style manual from the 6th to 7th edition with a discussion group of college
students:

Hatala, M. [Hatala Testing]. (2019, November 18). Top 10 changes in the APA
style manual - 6th to 7th edition [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/
watch??v=YDp9T4eCOJM

The Publication Manual provides guidance if you wanted to provide a direct

quote of some of my wisdom from this video. It would include a “time stamp” for the
beginning of the quotation, and would look like this:

In earlier editions of APA style there was “a difference between the initial and subsequent
citation” (Hatala, 2019, 7:43) of sources within a manuscript.

TED Talks
The interesting thing about TED Talks (although there are MANY interesting
things about them) is that they are cited and referenced differently based on whether they
are watched on YouTube or the TED website (although they might appear on both)!
Confused? Me too! For example, social psychologist Amy Cuddy has a very
19

interesting TED Talk on body language and how it impacts how people view us, as well
as how we view ourselves. If you watch it on YouTube, then TED is credited as the author,
a parenthetical citation would look like “(TED, 2012)” and the reference looks like:

TED. (2012, October 1). Amy Cuddy: Your body language may shape who you are [Video].
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-_Mh1QhMc&t=328s

However, if the exact same video is viewed on the TED website, you would
credit Cuddy as the author, a parenthetical citation would look like “(Cuddy, 2012)” and
the reference would look like:

Cuddy, A. (2012, June). Your body language may shape who you are [Video]. TED
Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_
may_shape_who_you_are?language=en

Why?! I’m unwilling to try to explain the logic here, because I don’t understand
it either, but I think it follows the same logic as making a blog post a “textual work” rather
than “online media.”

Television show - individual episode

I’m a huge fan of Arrested Development, and this is one of the best episodes,
where the characters try to find a guy named “Hermano” because they don’t realize that
it is Spanish for “brother.” Why would you include an episode of Arrested Development
in your paper? Good question! However, the reference contains information about the
writers, director, original airdate, title, season and episode number, producers, the title
of the series, and the production companies involved in making the episode. A narrative
citation would include the writers (so, “Hurwitz et al. (2004)”) and a parenthetical citation
the same thing (“(Hurwitz et al., 2004)”), except in parentheses.

Hurwitz, M., Rosenstock, R., & Martin, C. (Writers), & Chandrasekhar, J. (Director).
(2004, February 15). Beef consomme (Season 1, Episode 13) [TV series
episode]. In M. Hurwitz (Executive producer), Arrested Development. Imagine
Television; The Hurwitz Company; Twentieth Century Fox Television.

Podcast
Like for many people, podcasts have replaced radio in my life. I still haven’t had
occasion to reference a podcast, but if you had to, this is how you would do it:

Carlson, B., & Batnick, M. (Hosts). (2020, January 15). The 10 best jobs in America
(No. 121) [Audio podcast episode]. In Animal Spirits. https://awealthof
commonsense.com/2020/01/animal-spirits-the-10-best-jobs-in-america/

Note: This is a podcast about personal finance that I like quite a bit.
20

Music album and music video

Vampire Weekend. (2019). This Life [Song]. On Father of the bride. Columbia.

Now you can judge me on my taste in music, but I need an example, so I’m going
to use something that I like. The group is considered to be the “author” if you need to
make a citation (“Vampire Weekend (2019)” in a narrative citation, for example). If you
want to know what Ezra Koenig is going to look like in 30 years, flip to the back cover
and take a look at my picture. If you wanted to cite the music video of the song, it would
be referenced as follows:

Vampire Weekend. (2019, May 20). Vampire Weekend - This Life [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwkrrU2WYKg

Film

Forman, M. (Director). (1984). Amadeus [Film]. Orion Pictures.

I’m a big fan of Mozart, so his biopic gets to be the “film” example. The director
is credited as the “author,” and so is listed in a narrative or parenthetical citation.

References - Online media

Online media has deserved a dedicated section of APA style coverage, and with
the 7th edition, finally receives one. The Publication Manual breaks “online media” into
social media and websites, so I will discuss each of them in turn.

Social media

Twitter
I value my sanity, so I stay off Twitter, but famous people have been known to
tweet important information. You should retain the spelling and capitalization in a tweet,
and reproduce any emojis (if possible). In order to avoid any political issues, here is an
innocuous tweet from Barack Obama wishing his wife Michelle a happy birthday:

Obama, B. [@BarackObama] (2020, January 15). In every scene, you are my star,
@MichelleObama! Happy birthday baby! [Image attached] [Tweet]. Twitter.
https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1218174463046553600

Note: If you wanted to make a parenthetical citation of this tweet, it would look like:
(Obama, 2020)

Facebook post
Social media posts are interesting because it makes a difference whether
someone’s account is “public” or not. If a Facebook post can only be accessed by someone
21

who is a “friend,” then it is classified as a “personal communication,” which means that

it’s like a letter, phone conversation, or an email. Personal communications don’t require
a reference, just a citation. If a Facebook account is “public” (like celebrities, politicians,
and public figures), then both a reference and citation are required.
In keeping with non-political examples from famous people, here is a Facebook
post from Barack Obama about MLK Day. His account is public, so anyone can see his
posts. Here is how the post would be referenced (note that it gets cut off after the first 20
words, so you don’t need to write the entire post):

Obama, B. (2020, January 20). Every so often, I re-read Dr. King’s Letter from a
Birmingham Jail. While some of the injustices may have changed [Image
attached] [Status update]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/barackobama/
posts/10157369262941749

Note: An appropriate question to ask when using a Facebook status update in an academic
paper would be, “Why am I using a Facebook status update in an academic paper? What
am I THINKING?!” Great question! Really, it’s a mystery.

Further note: This format should also be used for other social media sites which, in my
opinion, should never appear in an academic paper, like LinkedIn, Tumblr, etc.

Instagram photo
Why might someone use Instagram as a source? Because there ARE unique things
to access via social media! For example, Phillip Zimbardo occasionally posts archival
photos from his (in)famous Stanford Prison Experiment, such as the newspaper ad used to
recruit student participants. As with tweets, Facebook updates, etc, this outlet should be
used VERY sparingly. Here is his post for winning the APA’s Gold Medal Award:

Phillip Zimbardo [@phillip_zimbardo]. (2015, November 17). Phil Zimbardo has been
chosen to receive the APA’s Gold Medal Award for Lifetime Achievement in the
Science of Psychology [Photograph]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/-
M4HeaBoxc/

Websites and web pages

The Publication Manual points out that the term “website” can cause confusion
because it is so all-encompassing. For example, although most journal articles are
available online, they are considered to be “textual works” for purposes of reference. So
what is “online media?” Basically, a source is classified as “online media” if that is the
only way to retrieve it. You might then ask why Wikipedia and blogs are considered to
be “textual works” when they’re only found online? Well, according to the Publication
Manual, if a source is found online, and it doesn’t fit into any other category, then it gets
classified as a website or web page.
22

Website with a group author

A consideration when using websites as sources is whether they would be
considered to be “legitimate.” There are times when a website may provide you with
the most up-to-date information on a particular topic or a definition that you cannot find
elsewhere. Information from sources like the Centers for Disease Control (cdc.gov), the
National Institute of Mental Health (nimh.nih.gov), and the Mayo Clinic (mayoclinic.org)
are credible, legitimate, and cover a variety of scientific topics.
The information from these sources usually comes from a “group author,”
meaning the organization itself. In the first two examples below, the “author” is the
organization, the date is the most recent update to the page (NOT the day you accessed
the information), the title of the information is in italics, and the URL of the web page is
provided.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017, September 6). Stroke facts.
http://www.cdc.gov/stroke/facts

National Institute of Mental Health. (2019, May). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/
index.shtml

Sometimes sites will list an author, such as “Mayo Clinic Staff.” In these cases,
use that as the “author” (Mayo Clinic Staff) and include the organization they are a part
of (Mayo Clinic) in the reference. Otherwise, the retrieval information is the same, and
would look like:

Mayo Clinic Staff. (2017, October 25). Seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Mayo Clinic.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/
symptoms-causes/syc-20364651

Mayo Clinic Staff. (2019, June 1). Diseases and conditions: Stroke. Mayo Clinic.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/stroke/basics/definition/
con-20042884

Website with an individual author

The problem with websites is that unlike research journals, they are not peer-
reviewed, so any author can pretty much write anything, and who knows if it has any
validity? However, many students will use information from websites to provide examples
and anecdotes for their paper.
The reference follows the same basic pattern as the previous examples - author,
date, title of the material (in italics), source (or “publisher”) of the material, and retrieval
information (the URL). Examples follow:

McIntosh, J. (2014, September 5). What is stroke? What causes strokes? Medical News
Today. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/7624.php#treatment_and_
prevention
23

Paddock, M., & Nordqvist, C. (2014, September 26). What is claustrophobia? What
causes claustrophobia? Medical News Today. http://www.medicalnewstoday.
com/articles/37062.php

Sher, D. (2018, October 27). Claustrophobia and anxiety: Causes and solutions. Calm
Clinic. http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/symptoms/claustrophobia

The news website

Who reads a physical newspaper anymore? Many people get their news from
the web, and the same basic format works for any “news” website you choose. Examples
follow:

Brunner, J. (2014, March 4). On the 110th anniversary of Dr. Seuss’s birth his quotes
continue to inspire. HuffPost. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeryl-brunner/on-
the-100th-anniversary-_b_4891306.html

Strickland, A. (2020, January 24). Some Mount Vesuvius victims suffered slowly and one
victim’s brain turned to glass, new research says. CNN. https://www.cnn.
com/2020/01/23/world/mount-vesuvius-herculaneum-skeletons-scn/index.html

The website with no date

APA style makes it clear that if there is no identifiable date on a web page, using
“n.d.” for “no date” is acceptable. The following example is set up like the “group author”
examples above, except for the “date” information:

Duke General Psychiatry Division. (n.d.). Virtual reality therapy for phobias.
http://psychiatry.duke.edu/divisions/general-psychiatry/virtual-reality-therapy-
phobias

Reference management software - all your problems solved?

There’s a technological solution for every problem, and the same is true for
citation and reference. I would feel remiss if I closed this section without discussing
reference management software programs like Zotero, RefWorks, Mendeley, and about
20 others! Basically, after you scale the learning curve of how to use them, they correctly
construct your citations and references in whatever format you choose - APA, MLA,
Vancouver, Bratislavan, Chicago, and any other system in their database. So what’s not to
love? The learning curve.
If you’re writing a few APA style papers on different topics over the course
of your college career, I don’t think that reference management software is worth the
time. It’s the equivalent of bringing a howitzer to kill a housefly. If you’re a professor or
graduate student writing multiple articles on the same topic for years though, it’s the best
thing since sliced bread, mostly because it organizes the hundreds (if not thousands) of
sources you’re likely to use over your academic writing career.
24

Odds and ends

Fonts and formatting

APA style requires writers to use only a few approved fonts. For example,
11-point Calibri, Arial, or Georgia, 10-point Lucinda Sans Unicode, or 12-point Times
New Roman are all acceptable in the body of a paper. This might seem obvious, but you
should pick a font and stick with it throughout the paper; DON’T change fonts between
sections, paragraphs, etc. If you include figures in your manuscript, any of the above fonts
are acceptable as long as the type remains between 8 and 14 points.
APA style requires that papers are double-spaced with 1 inch (2.54 cm) margins
all around (top, bottom, left, right) the manuscript. The sample student paper and journal
submission both follow this format.
Although many books on APA style include a section (often running to 20-30
pages) on how to use Microsoft Word or Google Docs to set up an APA style paper, I
think this is a topic where “showing” through an instructional video is much better than
trying to learn from screen shots inserted into a book. However, if you would like more
guidance on how to use a word processing program, a very simple solution is to google
“APA style google doc” or “APA style MS Word” and you will immediately be presented
with a number of templates and “fill-in-the-blank” sample papers, many of which are very
good! The templates are usually distributed by educators who care about writing.

Bias-free writing
Part of writing clearly involves using specific, acceptable, and appropriate terms
for the people who participate in research. For example, when writing about older adults,
“older persons” and “persons 65 years and older” are appropriate, where “the elderly” or
“seniors” are not. Similarly, the terms “child,” “girl,” and “boy” (and more specifically,
“transgender girl” or “gender-fluid child”) are appropriate when referring to people under
12 years old, and “young woman” or “young man” (or “female adolescent,” “agender
adolescent,” etc.) are appropriate for people between the ages of 13 and 17.
Terms for sexual orientation should be specific and sensitive, and so “lesbians,”
“gay men,” “straight,” “queer,” etc. are acceptable. I would note that “sexual orientation”
is the proper term, rather than “sexual preference” or “sexual identity.”
Terms for racial and ethnic identity follow the same logic of being specific and
appropriate. In general, be as specific as you need to be, so if you are studying people in
Cuba, it is appropriate to refer to them as Cubans. If you are studying people from Cuba
who are living in the United States, they are Cuban Americans (no hyphen). “Blacks” and
“Whites” are considered proper nouns and are capitalized. Census categories of people
are considered to be appropriate for APA style.
Finally, in terms of pronouns, APA style endorses the use of the singular “they”
as a generic third-person singular pronoun. For years, the use of the singular “they”
was discouraged in academic writing as being non-specific, but in the last decade many
publishers have embraced the term, and so now it is part of APA style.
25

A note on plagiarism
The detection of plagiarism in student papers has gotten vastly easier over the
past decade with the introduction of online tools such as TurnItIn.com and SafeAssign.
Both of these tools compare a paper not just to every journal article in their databases, but
to every website, and every other paper ever submitted to the service. This means that you
could get flagged for rewriting one of your OWN papers that you had turned in for another
class.
However, most professors don’t need a program to detect plagiarism. The
“voice” of the paper just changes, or students begin using words and phrases that make it
clear that they’re copying down someone else’s words or ideas. Students oftentimes don’t
understand that they’ve plagiarized if they’ve included a citation.
So how do you know when you’ve stepped over a line? Perhaps you’re familiar
with the “general rule” that’s out there that if you use five identical words in a row
without a direct quote citation, you’ve plagiarized. Well, maybe. It’s not that difficult to
paraphrase the writing of others; it just requires a little effort.
Let’s take a look at an actual student paper on conformity. This was a “D” paper
because it had numerous other issues (like the student misspelling the author they were
plagiarizing). We can start out with the source they used, and then compare that to what
the student wrote - the words that are plagiarized are in bold.

Source:
Natarajan, R. C. (2009). Halo effect in trust. IUP Journal of Management Research, 8(1),
26-59.

What the student wrote:

A study by RC Natarjan demonstrates about how a principal may trust an agent due to
either the latter’s ability to carry out the task as competence trust or to the perception
that the latter will not act in a manner detrimental to the relationship or the former
(goodwill trust).

Natarajan (2009) source:

A principal may trust an agent either due to the latter’s ability to carry out the task as
desired (competence trust) or due to the perception that the latter will not act in a manner
detrimental to the relationship of the former (goodwill trust).

A few comments. First, be sure to correctly spell the names of the authors you
are plagiarizing. Second, in a 50 word sentence, 40 of the words are “identical words in a
row” without a direct quote citation. While I would admit that the source material is not
the clearest writing, a corrected, non-plagiarizing paraphrasing of the same source would
read as follows:

A study by Natarajan (2009) demonstrates how a person might trust another person
by either their ability to complete a task (called “competence trust”) or their actions in
26

building a relationship (called “goodwill trust”).

The author is cited correctly (without including their first and middle name
initials) and the sentence has been put through the “de-jargoning machine” to distill the
essence of what the researcher is trying to say, while also including the critical terms they
discuss.

Here’s another example from the same paper, again with the words that are the
same in bold:

According to Natarjan, competence trust is formed through the principal’s awareness

and conviction regarding the agent’s skills, financial ability and consistency in
performance.

Natarajan (2009) source:

For example, competence trust is formed through the principal’s awareness and conviction
regarding the agent’s skills, financial ability and consistency in performance - thus
providing reliability.

If anything, this is an even more egregious example because in a 23 word

sentence, 20 of the words are “identical words in a row.” The student didn’t even correct
for the improper lack of an Oxford (or serial) comma after the word “ability!”

Correction:

According to Natarajan (2009), competence trust is created through “the principal’s

awareness and conviction regarding the agent’s skills, financial ability and consistency in
performance” (p. 50).

In this case, a direct quote is appropriate because there’s no really good way to
paraphrase this sentence. As always, quotations should be used sparingly, but too many
properly cited quotes is better than outright plagiarism.
I hope this section has made it evident that while often inadvertent, plagiarism is
easily avoided by taking the time and effort to paraphrase a source or by simply using a
direct quotation.

Quotations - Direct and block

Sometimes we need to use a direct quote in a paper in order to get the wording
exactly right; however, I strongly discourage my students from using direct quotes very
frequently. Like block quotes (to be discussed momentarily), direct quotes can be used to
pad out the length of a paper, and that can be pretty obvious to a professor. Some papers
I’ve read are really just strings of direct quotes bound together with some intervening
explanatory sentences. There have also been a number of times I’ve scratched my head
and asked, “Why did they need to take a direct quote of THAT?!” Nothing shows an
27

inability to paraphrase like the overuse of direct quotes.

Whenever you use a direct quotation from one of your sources, be sure to always
specify an author, year, and page (or paragraph, in the case of websites and some other
media) in the citation of the quotation. Direct quotations are only appropriate if they are
40 words or less. If they’re more than 40 words, they should be incorporated into a block
quotation (and indented ½ inch from the left margin).
A direct quotation must faithfully reproduce the spelling, wording, and
punctuation of the original source material, so you can’t edit or change it. If there is a
particular word (or words) that you want to emphasize within the quotation, put them into
italics followed by [emphasis added] in brackets. Also, if your direct quotation contains a
citation, include it in the quotation (after all, you’re “faithfully reproducing” the original
source), but don’t add it to your reference list: you’re not using it as a source, the other
author of the quotation is. If you’re taking a direct quote from an online source that
doesn’t have page numbers (and not many do), use the paragraph number that the quote
appears in, and use the abbreviation “para.” in your citation.

Numbers and percentages

One might say that there are a number of rules for writing about numbers. In
general, numerals (e.g. 11, 51, 136) should be used to express numbers starting with the
number 10 (and higher). However, there are a number of exceptions to this! For example,
words should be used to indicate numbers when a number begins a sentence, a text heading,
or a title. Words should also be used to indicate numbers less than 10 (which logically
follows if you’re using numerals for numbers 10 and higher). When you’re dealing with
decimal fractions (like 0.012 or 0.15), a zero should be placed before the decimal point
only in cases where the statistic (such as a t value or F value) can be greater than one.
If the decimal fraction cannot be greater than one (like in a p value), there’s no need to
include a zero (e.g., p < .001, p = .012).
Numerals should also be used to represent units of time, dates, ages, points on a
scale, and exact units of money.
Okay, so that’s numbers, but what about percentages? Those are numbers, right?
Actually, the same rules apply! Sort of. According to APA style, you should use the “%”
symbol when it is preceded by a numeral, which it almost always is, so you would write
“5%” even though “5” is a number less than 10 (and so would usually be written out as a
word). You should use the word “percent” or “percentage” when it is preceded by a word
(so, for example, at the beginning of a sentence).
So, you would write “23%” rather than “twenty-three percent” or “23 percent”
and “8%” rather than “eight percent” or “eight %” (personally, my favorite permutation -
the word WITH the symbol).
28

Sample student paper

It’s one thing to understand the rules of APA style, and another to apply them
in an actual paper. Therefore, this section includes an annotated student paper from my
Experimental Psychology class. The student who wrote it later became one of my teaching
assistants, and the paper is reproduced with their permission.
I’ve included “comment bubbles” throughout the paper, but wanted to point out
a few things.

1. While the paper includes an abstract, this is not required in an APA style student paper
unless the professor requests one. I requested one.

2. The paper includes sources from websites and TED Talks. These should be used
sparingly!

3. The paper includes great examples of how to incorporate direct quotes into a manuscript,
including when you have to cut material (and use an ellipsis to show where the cut was
made) or insert explanatory information (with [brackets]).

4. Throughout the paper, there are examples of how to properly write about numbers -
when you should use numerals and when you should spell them out (like at the beginning
of a sentence).

5. Throughout the paper are examples of how to properly cite sources with one, two, and
three or more authors.

6. The reference list contains a good example of how to alphabetize when you have
two sources by the same author (HINT: You alphabetize by the last name of the second
author!).

7. If you would like to see the manuscript without all the “comment bubbles,” I have put
a “clean” version of it up on my APACentral.com website!
29

! ! 1!

A!Running!Head!is!NOT!required! Your!title!page!is!
in!a!student!paper,!but!some! labeled!as!page!1!
professors!may!request!one!

There!is!no!limit!to!the! This!is!written!in!“title!case,”!which!
number!of!words!in!a!title,!but! means!that!the!important!words!are!
a!concise!title!should!be!12! capitalized,!but!others!are!not!
words!or!less!(this!one!is!11)!

Effectiveness of Mindfulness Meditation as a Treatment for Social Anxiety Disorder

The!author’s!name!(first!name,!
middle!initial,!last!name)!goes!
below!the!title!of!the!paper! The!title!is!in!bold!
Example A. Paper

Department of Psychology, Truman State University

PSYC 266: Experimental Psychology Include!the!course!

Institutional!affiliation!is! name!in!a!student!
Dr. Mark Hatala paper!
the!school!that!you!are!
attending!(this!is!a!paper!
December 11, 2019
from!Truman!State)!
Class!instructor.!
That’s!me!!

Include!the!due!date!
on!a!student!paper!

Be!sure!to!center!the!
title,!author’s!name,!
author’s!institutional!
affiliation,!etc.!

The!paper!font!is!12K
point!Times!New!
Roman,!but!other! There!are!1Kinch!
fonts!are!also! margins!all!around!
acceptable!(see!notes)! this!paper!!
30

! 2!

The!
The!abstract!is!NOT! abstract!
indented! is!on!
Abstract page!2!
Mindfulness meditation is an effective, low-cost treatment for social anxiety disorder (SAD).

One of the main characteristics of social anxiety disorder is self-referential processing (SRP), or
Many!terms!are!easily!
the tendencyabbreviated,!but!initially!appear!
of those with the disorder to hyper-evaluate their own social success. SRP also
in!full,!with!the!abbreviation!
immediately!after!in!parentheses!
results in a warped interpretation of others’ body language and facial expressions, contributing to

the anxiety. By emphasizing that patients focus on the moment and avoid judging any rising

thoughts during the meditation, the treatment attempts to weaken the hold of SRP over SAD
After!term’s!abbreviation!is!
patients. Studies and experiments consistently demonstrate the effectiveness of mindfulness
established,!subsequent!uses!can!
just!be!the!abbreviation!
meditation as an anxiety and social anxiety treatment, including one neurological study that

showed significantly less activity in SRP brain areas of social anxiety patients after a

mindfulness meditation treatment. Although cognitive behavioral group therapy (CBGT) was

proven a more effective treatment, mindfulness meditation is less expensive, more effective than

aerobic exercise, and its effectiveness increases with practice and a spiritual focus.

Keywords: mindfulness meditation, social anxiety disorder, self-referential processing

Keywords!are!
used!in!the!search!
Keywords!is!indented!and!
function!of!
in!italics!
databases!

An!abstract!is!not!
required!for!a!student!
An!abstract!is!a! paper,!but!some!
150K250!word! professors!request!
summary!of!your! them,!so!I’ve!included!
paper! this!example!
31

! 3!

Effectiveness of Mindfulness Meditation as a Treatment for Social Anxiety Disorder

The teenage boy stumbles into a bathroom stall. He is at school, but his teary eyes,
The!
sweaty brow, and quickened breath suggest some great trauma has pushed him over the edge. body!of!
the!
His social anxiety disorder has won again. From drugs to therapy, he has tried everything to paper!
Begin!a!paper!with! begins!
a!“hook”!to!draw!
defeat his anxiety, but nothing can abate the rush of cruelThe!title!is!centered,!in!
faces he sees swarming his high on!page!
the!reader!in! 3!
bold,!and!in!title!case!
school’s halls every day. They only reflect what he expects and what he inflicts upon himself:

judgment. That one word summarizes the daily internal war those afflicted with social anxiety

disorder (SAD), like the teenage boy, endure. Social anxiety disorder is an intense, persistent

A!citation!with!three!authors!
phobia of social situations (Goldin et al., 2009), due to a heightened fixation on self-evaluation in
lists!just!the!first!author!
followed!by!!“et!al.”!
social settings (Goldin et al., 2013). One potential treatment for social anxiety is mindfulness

meditation, which involves focusing attention for a period of time without evaluating any rising
The!introduction!
concludes!with!a!
thoughts (Goldin et al., 2009). In theory, the meditation could combat distorted self-judgment
thesis!statement!
during social interactions, a key symptom of social anxiety. This paper evaluates the

effectiveness of mindfulness meditation in treating social anxiety, compares the treatment to

other treatments for social anxiety, and explores ways to improve the effectiveness of the

treatment. This!is!a!TED!talk!on!YouTube!
A!citation!with!two!authors!
lists!both!authors!every!time!
By learning how to acknowledge perceptions without analyzing them, mindfulness

meditation can help socially anxious individuals gain control over their self-evaluation in social

situations (TED, 2014). According to Edenfield and Saeed’s (2012) review of mindfulness

meditation studies, gaining control over self-judgment encourages patients to socialize without as
A!direct!quotation!
contains!the!page!#!
much discomfort, countering isolation and avoidance behaviors feeding the anxiety. As a
where!it!appears!in!
treatment for the!original!source!
social anxiety, Goldin et al. (2013) reported that mindfulness meditation has been

successful, with “improved mood, functionality and quality of life in patients with SAD” (p.

244). Additionally, Edenfield and Saeed (2012) said in their review of mindfulness meditation
32

! 4!

Numerals!should!be!
research that one meta-analysis reported the treatment had a significantly greater effect than a
used!to!express!
numbers!10!and!above!
placebo treatment.

Goldin et al. (2009) attempted to discover neurological changes in patients with social
The!“N”!in!“smallKN”!is!not!
anxiety after a mindfulness meditation treatment. After recruiting 16 participants through the
italicized!because!it!is!referring!to!a!
type!of!design!rather!than!the!total!
web and local mental health professional referrals, the patients were given a questionnaire about
number!of!people!in!a!sample!
their mental state, then an fMRI SRP task. Since few subjects were available and the

experimenters were interested in a more specific condition and treatment, they performed a

small-N AB experiment, measuring patients’ baseline social anxiety before mindfulness

meditation and measuring it again afterwards. During the fMRI participants were flashed with a

questionIf!you!cut!material!from!a!
followed by a negative or positive social trait. They pressed one of two buttons to
direct!quotation,!use!ellipses! Use![brackets]!to!insert!
answer(.!.!.!)!to!show!where!the!cut!
whether or not a word was positive or negative, capitalized, or described themselves,
explanatory!information!
was!made! into!a!direct!quote!
depending on the question. Whether patients were evaluating themselves positively or

negatively, the midline cortical brain regions and language processing areas, or regions related to

self-evaluation, lit up. Goldin et al. (2009) claimed this demonstrated those with SAD

“automatically rely on a … self-focus that recruits [internal dialogue] brain systems” (p. 250) or

rather, that the unhealthy self-evaluation of SAD patients is focused in those areas.

Patients then participated in eight weekly 2.5-hour sessions of mindfulness meditation, a

Results!are!
half-day meditation retreat after session 6, and daily home practice. Experimenters monitored
discussed!in!the!
past!tense!
every subject’s meditation practices daily. After the treatment, when asked to self-report their

mental state again, the treatment “resulted in moderate reduction of symptoms of social anxiety,

depression, rumination, and state anxiety and increased self-esteem” (Goldin et al., 2009, p. 252).

At the end of 8 weeks of mindfulness meditation, patients assigned less negative social traits to
Numerals!rather!than!words!
Numerals!should!be!used!to!
should!be!used!to!express!specific!
express!time,!dates,!and!
themselves during the fMRI. Self-evaluation brain areas were dimmer, demonstrating the
time,!dates,!and!experimental!
experimental!procedures!
procedures!for!numbers!10!and!
effectiveness of mindfulness meditation in reducing SRP and in extension, social anxiety.
below!
33

! 5!

Despite mindfulness meditation’s potential success as a SAD treatment, other treatments

may lead to better results. In an experiment done by Koszyci et al. (2007), 53 SAD patients were

randomly assigned to either 8 weeks of mindfulness meditation or 12 weekly sessions of CBGT.

Koszyci et al. (2007) found the patients receiving CBGT had significantly lower social anxiety
A!citation!with!four!authors!
scores;lists!just!the!first!author!
additionally, response and remission rates were significantly greater for the CBGT group.
followed!by!!“et!al.”!
However, in another! experiment, 56 patients with generalized SAD in a randomized controlled

trial were randomly assigned to 8 weeks of mindfulness meditation or 8 weeks of an aerobic

exercise program (Goldin et al., 2013). An fMRI and a self-report clinical and well-being

measure were given to every subject before and after the treatment (Goldin et. al, 2013). At the

end of the experiment, mindfulness meditation resulted in lower self-reported social anxiety
The!problem!with!using!a!
parenthetical!citation!is!that!
symptoms, the!same!article!!needs!to!be!
and greater increases in the attention-regulating parietal cortical regions’ neural
the!same!article!needs!to!be!
reKcited!every!time!it!is!
responses, indicating greater control over negative self-judgments (Goldin et. al, 2013). Thus,
paraphrased!
mindfulness meditation proved more effective than aerobic exercise atUse!websites!as!
treating SAD (Goldin et
sources!sparingly!
al., 2013). Although CGBT proved more effective than mindfulness meditation, mindfulness

meditation could be a viable low-cost alternative to CBGT (Vaynerman, 2017).!

Additionally, there are potential ways to compensate for mindfulness meditation’s lower

For!a!source!with!two!
effectiveness than cognitive therapy. According to Edenfield and Saeed’s (2012) review, the more
Numbers!should!be!spelled!
authors,!both!authors!should! out!when!they!begin!a!
be!cited!every!time!the!source!
experience meditators have, the more effective meditation is at reducingsentence!
anxiety. When it comes to
is!cited!
mindfulness meditation as a treatment for SAD, practice could make perfect. One experiment

found that the effectiveness of meditation depended heavily on whether or not the meditation had a

religious context (Wachholtz & Pargament, 2005). Eighty-four college students were recruited for

the experiment, with 25 participants in a Spiritual Meditation group, 21 participants in a Secular

Numerals!should!be!
used!to!express!
Meditation group, and an additional Relaxation group with 22 participants (Wachholtz &
numbers!10!and!above!
Pargament, 2005). All participants practiced their technique in isolation 20 minutes a day for 2
34

! 6!

weeks (Wachholtz & Pargament, 2005). However, the spiritual group said phrases with a religious

focus as they meditated like “God is good,” the secular group said positive phrases like “I am

good,” andFor!a!source!with!two!
the relaxation group were given no instructions for focus (Wachholtz & Pargament,
authors,!both!authors!should!
2005).be!cited!every!time!the!source!
Regardless of religion, those told to meditate with a religious focus showed significantly
is!cited!
lower anxiety at the end of the experiment. Thus, a spiritual focus and meditation experience could

improve mindfulness meditation results for SAD patients.

In conclusion, mindfulness meditation could provide an excellent, low-cost alternative to

other SAD therapies. Although CBGT has been proven more effective as a SAD treatment,

mindfulness can reduce anxiety and SRP. Additionally, through spiritual context and experience,
The!conclusion!is!the!place!to!
insert!your!own!perspective,!as!
mindfulness meditation’s effectiveness can increase over time. These conclusions may not be
long!as!it!is!framed!properly!

completely valid when issues with the experiments cited are taken into account. As an AB

experiment, Goldin et al.’s (2009) neurological study does not have high internal validity.

Internal validity could be increased by testing the subjects after several weeks without any

mindfulness meditation to see if there is a return to baseline conditions. Since it would be

The!conclusion!is!also!the!
appropriate!place!to!point!out!
unethical to leave the social anxiety patients untreated, mindfulness meditation sessions would
the!shortcomings!of!the!
research!reviewed!
be administered again after measuring the new baseline conditions. Additionally, Wachholtz and

Pargament’s (2005) experiment on religious meditationThe!conclusion!should!also!be!

vs. secular meditation did not focus
used!to!discuss!possible!future!
areas!of!research!
specifically on social anxiety. Although a spiritual focus certainly increased the treatment’s

effectiveness for generalized anxiety, a religious focus might not improve meditation’s impact on

social anxiety. In general, more research pertaining to SAD and mindfulness meditation could be

useful to truly determine the reliability of a connection between the two, as most research only

explores mindfulness meditation and generalized anxiety.

35

! 7!
“References”!is!centered!and!
References in!bold!

Edenfield T. M., & Saeed S., A. (2012). An update on mindfulness meditation as a self-help

treatment for anxiety and depression. Psychology Research & Behavior Management, 5,

131-141. http://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S34937

Goldin, P., Ramel, W., & Gross, J. (2009). Mindfulness meditation training and self-referential
When!you!have!two!sources!by!
processing in social anxiety disorder: Behavioral and neural effects. Journal of Cognitive
the!same!author,!alphabetize!by!
the!last!name!of!the!second!
Psychotherapy, 23(3), 242-257. http://doi.org/10.1891/0889-8391.23.3.242
author!

Goldin, P., Ziv, M., Jazaieri, H., Hahn, K., & Gross, J. J. (2013). MBSR vs. aerobic exercise in

social anxiety: fMRI of emotion regulation of negative self-beliefs. Social Cognitive &

Affective Neuroscience, 8(1), 65-72. http://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nss054

Koszycki, D., Benger, M., Shlik, J., & Bradwejn, J. (2007). Randomized trial of a meditation-

based stress reduction program and cognitive behavior therapy in generalized social
A!TED!talk!available!on!YouTube!
anxiety disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45(10), 2518-2526.

TED. (2014, November 24). Kasim Al-Mashat: How mindfulness meditation redefines pain,

happiness, and satisfaction [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=JVwLJc5etEQ
A!news!website!
Vaynerman, S. (2017, December 6). Three easy mindfulness meditation techniques to practice at

home or at the office. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/three-easy-mindfullness

Wachholtz, A. B., & Pargament, K. I. (2005).! Is spirituality a critical ingredient of meditation?

Comparing the effects of spiritual meditation, secular meditation, and relaxation on

spiritual, psychological, cardiac, and pain outcomes. Journal of Behavioral Medicine,

All!lines!in!a!reference!
28(4), 369-384. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-005-9008-5
after!the!first!line!are!
indented!½!inch!
36

Sample professional paper

The sample professional paper is a journal submission that I’ve been

unsuccessfully trying to get published for several years. It fills a very small niche in the
literature on memory and the recall of odors, but apparently the niche is so small that
journal editors have not been able to see it! This manuscript is something of a “one-off”
anyway, as it does not really fit in with the rest of my research program.
To save space, I’ve chosen not to reprint the entire manuscript, but rather the
“significant” pages (the main sections and Level 1 headers). This manuscript is far from
perfect (it is, after all, unpublished), but it is a reasonable example of a professional paper
or journal submission.
As with the example student paper, I’ve included “comment bubbles” throughout
the paper, but wanted to point out a few things.

1. A Running Head appears at the top of every page because this is a professional paper.
The purpose of a Running Head? Who knows?

2. The paper includes sources from websites and Wikipedia. I would never actually use
Wikipedia as a source in a journal submission, but I thought it would be good to show the
citation and reference in the context of a paper.

3. Throughout the paper, there are examples of how to properly write about numbers -
when you should use numerals and when you should spell them out (like at the beginning
of a sentence).

4. The paper contains examples of how to write about an Appendix and Tables.

5. The reference list includes journal articles with shortened DOI numbers (from the
website shortdoi.org) as well as journal articles with long-form DOI numbers. BOTH are
acceptable in a student or professional paper.

6. The reference list contains a good example of how to alphabetize when you have two
sources by the same author (HINT: “Nothing” comes before something!).

7. If you would like to see the manuscript without all the “comment bubbles,” I have put
a “clean” version of it up on my APACentral.com website!
37

ODORS AS MENTAL CUES 1

The Running
Be sure to include a Running Head Head should be
(50 or fewer characters including all in CAPS
spaces) at the top of the manuscript Your title page is
submitted for publication labeled as page 1

Odors as Mental Cues The title is

The author’s name (first centered and in
name, middle initial, last bold
name) goes below the title
of the paper Mark N. Hatala

Department of Psychology, Truman State University

Institutional
affiliation

The author note

is centered and in An Author Note provides complete
bold departmental affiliation information,
changes of affiliation information (if
necessary), acknowledgements, and
contact information
Acknowledge people
who helped with the
research Author Note

Mark N. Hatala, Department of Psychology, Truman State University.

The author thanks Dan Baack, Katherine Hertlein, and Tracy Mulderig for their

assistance in preparing the manuscript.

Be sure to provide
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose. a complete mailing
address
Address correspondence concerning the article to Mark N. Hatala, Department of

Psychology, Truman State University, Kirksville, Missouri

End63501.
the author note
with an e-mail address
E-mail: [email protected]
38

ODORS AS MENTAL CUES 2

The Running Head The Abstract heading is

centered in in bold The abstract begins
appears on every page
on page 2
of a professional paper

Abstract

Odor memory is robust and long-lasting, and odors have been used to generate Proust-

like autobiographical memories which are often decades old. Odors have also been used

as effective recall cues in encoding specificity tasks, with studies suggesting a flat

forgetting curve for

The abstract periods
is NOT out to several weeks. The present research incorporates non-
indented

incidental contextual cues as a means of promoting long-term memory traces in a paired-

associate task. Modality-specific information is used to recall neutral stimuli which is

totally unrelated to the stimulus modality. In this way, odors are being used as what

Bellezza (1982, 1986, 1987) refers to as mental cues: part of a cognitive cueing structure

used to recall to-be remembered information. One hundred nine subjects related concrete

nouns to either names of odors or odorants and the names of the odorants. Free and cued

recalls were administered after initial encoding and also one

Be and
surethree
to addweeks after initial
keywords to
the end of your abstract to
encoding. Results confirmed the hypothesis that odorantshelpcreate a long-lasting
others memory
find your article
in a database search
trace. Implications for both Paivio’s (1986) dual coding theory and Bellezza’s (1986)

mental cueing theory are discussed.

Keywords: odor, cued recall, free recall, memory, mental cueing theory

An abstract
should be 150-
Be sure to italicize the word 250 words –
Keywords (and indent it!) this one is 177
39

ODORS AS MENTAL CUES 3

Odors as Mental Cues

The introduction
Rudyard Kipling once said that "Smells are surer than sights or sounds to on
begins make
page 3
The title is crack" (cited in Smith, 1989, p. 92). The thought that odors convey
your heartstrings
centered and in
emotionalbold
memories is an idea which harkens back to the ancient Greeks. Plato thought
Begin the paper with a
that odors could be classified in terms of their pleasantness or unpleasantness
“hook” to interest thewhile
reader
Aristotle generally
Source from thebelieved that if something smells good, then it is good for us; whereas
Mayo Clinic
website
if it smells bad, it is bad for us (Smith, 1989). The thought that pleasant odors bring

about pleasant moods is one of the cornerstones of aromatherapy (“Aromatherapy,” 2020;

Bauer, 2017), where odors are used to bring about a positive mental state (Babar et al.,

2015). Source from Wikipedia

Since much interest in odor has been channeled into theories of odors and
A source with six authors is cited as
juston
emotion, relatively little research has been proposed thethe
first author and
interaction “et al.”odor and
between

cognition (Herz & Eich, 1995). There may be several reasons for this. First, unlike the

taste, kinesthetic, vision and auditory senses, information about odor sensation does not
A source with two authors should
list BOTH
go directly to the thalamus, authorsisin
but instead a citation
initially processed in the olfactory bulb before

being passed on to the limbic system (Davis, 1977). Thus, olfactory sensations are

associated more to emotional than information processing centers in the brain (Carrasco
A source with two authors should
list BOTH authors in a citation
& Ridout, 1993). Second, smell is often grouped with taste and is considered to be a

"lesser" sense than vision and audition (Davis, 1975). A final reason for the relative lack

Integrating
of cognitive research on odor deals with the facta that
number of and
visual different
auditory research
studies within the same paragraph
shows
dominates the sensation and perception familiarity
literature with the
(Annett, relevant
1996). One author estimated
literature on the topic
that research involving odor accounted for only two percent of all studies published in

sensation and perception journals (Teghtsoonian, 1983).

40

ODORS AS MENTAL CUES 11

A Running Head appears
at the top of every page of
a professional paper
This research also has important implications for mental cueing theory (Bellezza,
The Method heading is a
1986). InLevel
this experiment,
2 headings odors
such as Level
are used as part of a cognitive 1 heading,
cueing andtoso is
structure
Participants, Materials, centered and in bold
facilitate etc,
the recall of capitalized
are also concrete nouns.
and in bold, but are not
centered

Method

Participants Use words to express

numbers at the beginning
One hundred eight participants from psychology courses at Truman State
of a sentence
University volunteered to participate for extra course credit. As this experiment required

participants to return 1 and 3 weeks after the initial learning session, five participants

who were not able to attend all testing sessions were eliminated from the experiment.

Materials Use numerals to represent time Use words to express

numbers that are less than 10
A set of olfactory stimuli was constructed using common household odors. The

50 odors used (for a list of odors, see Appendix A) were drawn from odors sets typically

used by other researchers (Lyman & McDaniel, 1986; Schab & Crowder, 1995).

Odorants were placed into 250-ml odorless plastic bottles which had pull-up spouts. The
Use an Appendix to provide
additional
bottles were opaque, but were nonetheless covered with masking specific
tape so that subjects
information about materials
could not identify the contents of the bottles. This is important because Zellner and

Use
Kautz a numeral
(1990) to express
have found that athe color of a stimulus could be a valuable cue in odor
number that comes before a
measurement unit
identification.

The 50 concrete nouns used in the experiment were randomly selected from a
Use numerals to express
Pavio et al. (1968) monograph of concreteness, imagery,
numbers that and meaningfulness values for
are greater
than 10
925 nouns. This monograph had also been used previously in other mnemonic research
41

ODORS AS MENTAL CUES 15

Use numerals to express
numberswere
cued or free recall of the list words. In the cued recall, participants that encouraged
are greater to go
than 10
from table to table looking at the names of the odors, whereas in the free recall they had

to just try to remember the names of the 50 odors. Participants were then debriefed and

dismissed.

Participants were invited back for a cued or free recall (depending on which they

had performed at the initial encoding session) both 1 week and 3 weeks after the initial

encoding session. Again, for the cued recall, they were encouraged to go around to all of
Use numerals for numbers
that
the tables and smell the odorants or look at the represent
cards time the group that they were
(depending

in). Participants in the free recall condition just sat and recalled as many of the 50 list
The Results heading is a
words as they could for 8 minutes. Level 1 heading and is
centered and in bold
Results

List word recall for the first experimental session was examined with a 2 x 2

(Odor [odorants and odor names, odor names] x Recall [cued, free]) analysis of variance

(ANOVA). Results revealed a strong main effect for the recall condition, F(l, 104) =
In a factorial design, in parentheses
79.26,
list the .0001, , !!! =variables,
p <independent .74, but no
andeffect for the use of odorants at encoding. In line with
Provide the obtained value
in brackets, the treatment levels for of the statistic, the degrees
hypotheses
each about initial recall,
independent participants who were given a cued recall at the initial
variable of freedom, the p-value, and
the effect size
recall session were able to recall far more words than participants who were asked to

perform just a free recall. This can be seen clearly in Table 1 below. These results,

however, must be interpreted in light of a significant 2-way interaction, F(l, 104) = 5.33,

p < .02, !!! = .04. Tables are pointed out in the text

Results for familiarity and pleasantness ratings were mixed. When looking at

familiarity ratings of all 50 odors, there were no effects for odor or recall condition;

however, when examining the pleasantness ratings, participants who received both the
42

ODORS AS MENTAL CUES 16

odor and odor name rated the odors as being less pleasant than subjects who just received

the odor names, F(l, 104) = 8.06, p < .005, , !!! = .15. This suggests that while familiarity

Provide the
is unaffected by memory, subjects have more pleasant memories obtained
of odors thanvalue
when they
of the statistic, the degrees
are actually presented with those odors. of freedom, the p-value, and
Be sure to clearly identify the effect size
Tables
Analyses by number
which examine familiarity and pleasantness ratings for words which

were and were not recalled showed no differences betweenThe

theDiscussion
groups, as can be seen
heading is in
a Level 1 heading and is
Table 2. centered and in bold
Discussion

Results confirmed the hypothesis that initial recall would have a strong main

effect for recall condition, with cued recall outperforming free recall. There was no

difference between groups as to whether they received odors at encoding or not. This

seems logical and was predicted because although participants who get both the odor

name and the odor may have better elaboration, the participants
The Discussion should who did not receive the
“discuss” whether
olfactory stimuli had more time to construct betterhypotheses
experimental sentences. Although there was a
were supported
significant interaction, it was mostly driven by the significant main effect for recall

condition. The omega squared value for the recall condition main effect is .745, while
Interpret results in the
the omega squared value for the interaction is .041. Thus, at the
present timeinoforder
tense initial
torecall,
bring the reader into the
odor plays a negligible role in the recall process. “discussion”

The pleasantness ratings of the odors are interesting because participants who

actually received the odors rated them as less pleasant than participants who did not

receive the odors. Perhaps memories for common household odors are stored as some

sort of abstract, idealized prototype, so that the actual odor when presented is not as

pleasant as we remember.
43

ODORS AS MENTAL CUES 22

References
References is a
section
Algom, D. A., & Cain, W. S. (1991). Remembered odors and mental label and
mixtures: so
Tapping
starts on a new page
reservoirsDOI
Shortened number knowledge. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human
of olfactory

Perception and Performance, 17, 1104-1119. http://doi.org/fsmb7v

Annett, J. M. (1996). Olfactory memory: A case study in cognitive psychology. The

Journal of Psychology, 130, 309-319. http://doi.org/dr8g8w

Annett, J. M., McLaughlin Cook, N., & Leslie, J. C. (1995). Interference with olfactory

memory by visual and verbal tasks. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 80, 1307-1317.

http://doi.org/10.2466/pms.1995.80.3c.1307 Long-form DOI number

Aromatherapy. (2020, February 8). In Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/Aromatherapy

Babar, A., Al-Wabel, N. A., Shams, S., Ahamad, A., Khan, S. A., & as
Wikipedia Anwar, F. (2015).
a source!
EssentialLong-form
oils used inDOI
aromatherapy:
number A systemic review. Asian Pacific Journal of

Tropical Biomedicine, 5(8), 601-611. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.apjtb.2015.05.007

Bauer, B. (2017, May 24). What are the benefits of aromatherapy? Mayo Clinic.
Source from a website
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/aromatherapy/faq-20058566

Bellezza, F. S. (1983). Mnemonic device instruction with adults. In M. Pressley, & J. R.

Levin (Eds.), Cognitive strategy research:

Chapter in anPsychological foundations
edited book with (pp. 51-73).
no DOI number

Springer-Verlag.
Chapter in an edited book with
anin
Bellezza, F. S. (1986). Mental cues and verbal reports assigned DOI
learning. number
In G. H. Bower (Ed.),

The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 20, pp. 237-273). Academic

Press. http://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-7421(08)60020-1

Chapter
Bellezza, in an edited
F. S. (1987). book with
Mnemonic no DOI
devices and number
memory schemas. In M. McDaniel & M.

Pressley (Eds.), Imaginal and mnemonic processes (pp 34-55). Springer-Verlag.

44

table number
table title
Table 1
column spanner
Recall of Concrete Nouns After Initial Encoding Session
_____________________________________________________________________

Recall Condition
column head column head
stub head
Free Cued

Odorant at encoding M (SD) 95% CI M (SD) 95% CI_ cell

Yes .15 (.12) [.05, .22] .33 (.22) [.13, .44]

cell
stub
No .09 (.06) [.02, .14] .21 (.11) [.12, .32]
_____________________________________________________________________
Note. CI = confidence interval.
cell cell
table note

Table #

Here is the Table Title and It is Title Case and in Italics

_______________________________________________________________________

Column Spanner

Stub head Column Head Column Head Column Head_________

Stub Cell Cell Cell

Stub Cell Cell Cell

_______________________________________________________________________
Note. This is where a general note about the table would appear. Note is italicized.
a
This is where a specific note goes, below the general note, with a superscripted
lowercase letter.
* This is where a probability note about p values would appear.
45

Thanks for the feedback!

Since initially publishing APA Simplified, I’ve received feedback about specific
material that people wanted to see included in the book that wasn’t. Rather than redesign
the entire book over a few comments, through the miracle of digital publishing, I thought I
would address them here as an addendum.

Tables, figures, and data displays

You could write an entire book on how to display data for a clear and concise
reporting of scientific information, but it should be stated at the outset that a row-column
structure defines a table, and anything that is not a table is a figure (such as a chart, graph,
map, photograph, etc.). All tables and figures should be labeled with Arabic numerals, and
would appear in the manuscript as Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3 and Figure 1, Figure 2, and
Figure 3. Please see the sample professional paper on page 41 for an example of discussing
tables in a sentence.
The layout of tables is very specific, and the terms used are a little odd, so please
consult the example tables on the previous page to provide some context. Headings are
important in a table, and identify the items below them. A column spanner identifies
more than one column. In our example paper, “recall condition” is a column spanner. The
“free” and “cued” columns are represented by a column head (which can only identify one
column). In order to avoid repetition, the column headings are “decked,” which means that
instead of having a column labeled as “free recall condition” and another labeled as “cued
recall condition,” we have a column spanner labeled “recall condition” and then column
heads for “free” and “cued.” To the far left is whether the participant got an odorant at
encoding or not. This is called the stub heading or “stub head,” and “Yes”and “No” are the
stubs. The point at which a row and a column intersect is called a cell, and the group of cells
representing the data of the table are called the table body.
Statistics are usually presented in the text, but when means and correlations
are presented in a table, data should also be included about confidence intervals, as it
is in Table 1 on the previous page. Three types of notes may be included in a table. A
general note refers to the table as a whole and is identified by the word Note (literally, the
word “Note” in italics). A specific note is identified by superscript lowercase letters, and is
used for information about an individual row, column, or cell. A probability note provides
information about how asterisks (or other symbols) relate to specific p values reported in
the table. The sequence of notes to a table is ordered from general to specific to probability.

Conference posters, presentations, and symposia

While you’re unlikely to use a poster presentation in your paper, you’re very
likely to put one on your resume or graduate school application, and so it would be
helpful to see some examples of what information is included. The basic pattern is
authors, dates of the conference, title of the presentation, the type of presentation (in
[brackets]), the name of the conference, and the location of the conference. Examples follow:
46

Poster
Hatala, M. (2020, January 3-6). Ready or not: The 7th edition of the Publication Manual
[Poster presentation]. National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology
Conference, St. Pete Beach, FL, United States.

Paper
Hatala, M., Turner, N., Barbour, K., Dasta, M., & Hatala, T. (2017, April 20-22).
Disability disclosure in online dating [Paper presentation]. Midwestern
Psychological Association 89th Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, United States.

Symposium
Shoda, T. M., & McConnell, A. R. (2015, April 30- May 2). Family as a source of
support: Breadth of family inclusion and reliance in the face of stress. In
S. Gabriel (Chair), Flexible perceptions of social groups: Judgment,
belongingness, and well-being consequences [Symposium]. Midwestern
Psychological Association 87th Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, United States.

Headings
Headings help to organize your paper and allow the reader to skip to sections of
interest. They should describe the content of their section, and be clearly differentiated
from the text. There are five (5) levels of headings, but you don’t need to use all of them
within a paper. In fact, in a student paper, you may not use ANY headings. For example,
the title of the paper is not considered to be a heading, but since we don’t use the heading
“introduction” at the beginning of a paper, APA style considers the title to be a “de facto”
heading. So, this section is really about professional papers, and the sample professional
paper which starts on page 37 will serve as our guide.
A Level 1 heading is used for the main sections of a professional paper. The
heading should be in title case, centered, and in bold. Examples would include sections for
Method (see p. 40), Results (see p. 41), and Discussion (see p. 42). The text which follows
a Level 1 heading starts a new paragraph.
Logically enough, a Level 2 heading is a subsection of a Level 1 heading. Like a
Level 1 heading they should be in title case, and in bold, but instead of being centered, a
Level 2 heading starts on the left margin of the paper (what is known as “flush left”).
Examples of a Level 2 heading would include subsections of the Method section
such as Participants (see p. 40) and Materials (see p. 40). Although they’re not present in
the sample professional paper, Procedures and Design would be other appropriate Level
2 headings for the Method section. Any time you use subheadings, be sure to use at least
two; if you only need one, then you don’t need a subheading. As with a Level 1 heading,
the text which follows a Level 2 heading starts a new paragraph.
Level 3, Level 4, and Level 5 headings tend to be paper-specific in their need and
use, and although there are no examples of them in the sample professional paper, we can
still talk about how they would be formatted. A Level 3 heading, like a Level 2 heading, is
in title case and flush left, but instead of being in bold, it is in bold italic. The text which
follows a Level 3 heading starts a new paragraph. A Level 4 heading is in title case, but
47

is indented, in bold, and ends in a period. The text begins in the same line as a Level 4
heading and goes on from there. A Level 5 heading is in title case, indented, and ends in a
period, but it is in bold italic. As with a Level 4 heading, the text begins in the same line as
the Level 5 heading and goes on from there.
Below is a “different levels of heading” representation of the information:

Level 1 Heading
The text starts a new paragraph!
Level 2 Heading
The text starts a new paragraph!
Level 3 Heading
The text starts a new paragraph!
Level 4 Heading. The text begins in the same line!
Level 5 Heading. The text begins in the same line!

One Last Thing . . .

I want to thank you for using this book and giving me the opportunity to help
you improve your writing and understanding of APA style. If you enjoyed this book and
found it useful, I would appreciate you leaving positive feedback in whatever venue that
you choose. Your experience will help others make a decision on whether to choose this
book, so feedback is important.
I’m used to student evaluations at the end of every semester, so if you didn’t find
this book helpful or feel that it’s lacking information you would want to see, I would ask
you to send me an email to let me know what I can do to improve it. I’m easy to find online
- I’m the Mark Hatala who is a college professor, and NOT the one who is the dentist or
the golf pro.
I will close by saying that I’m honored to be even a small part of your educational
experience. Everyone has things that they can teach in this life, and most things are learned
outside of any classroom. I put lots of YouTube videos up about the topics that interest
me and the classes I teach, so mostly videos on writing, romantic relationships, and time
travel. The opportunity to teach people I will never have the chance to have in a physical
classroom means a lot to me, and so does your using this book. Thank you!