APA RESEARCH PAPER SAMPLE 2013

Introduction
The American Psychological Association (APA) style is commonly used for research papers and journal articles in social sciences, education, nursing, and other fields. Properly formatting a research paper according to the APA style involves adhering to strict guidelines for citations, references, and in-text notations. This sample APA research paper from 2013 provides an example of how to structure and format an APA paper and includes sample sections such as the abstract, method, results, and discussion sections.

Sample Title Page
Running head: SAMPLE TITLE PAGE 1
Title Page
[This page should contain the title of the paper, author’s name, and school affiliation. The title should be centered in the upper half of the page. The page header (also known as the “running head”) should include the title in all capital letters flushed left and the page number flushed right at the top of the page. The title page should be page number 1.]

Abstract
[The abstract is a one paragraph (150-250 words), succinct summary of the entire paper. It provides a brief overview of the purpose, relevance, methods, findings and conclusions. It does not include citations or references. It is typed on page number 2 of a APA formatted paper.]

Method
[This section should describe in detail how the research study was conducted. It should include information on the participants, materials used, variables investigated, and procedures. For experimental research, this section should provide enough detail so that another researcher could replicate your study. Important considerations for method section include:]

Participants
[This subsection identifies the population sampled, including selection criteria, number of participants, gender distribution, age range or mean age, as well as any applicable demographic characteristics. For example:]

Thirty college students (15 males, 15 females) between the ages of 18 and 22 years (M = 20.5 years, SD = 1.32) were recruited from a large southeastern university to participate in the study on media multitasking and academic performance.

Materials
[This subsection identifies all materials used in the study, including equipment, questionnaires, scales, tests, stimuli, tasks, etc. Any copyrighted materials should be properly cited and permission for use obtained. For example:]

A researcher-developed demographic questionnaire collected data on age, gender, year in university, amount of time spent on various media per day, and grade point average. The Media and Technology Usage and Attitudes Scale (Rosen, Whaling, Carrier, Cheever, & Rokkum, 2013) was used to assess media multitasking habits and beliefs about multitasking ability. Academic performance was operationally defined as cumulative grade point average based on official university records.

Procedure
[This section provides a step-by-step description of the procedures used in the study, including instructions given to participants, order of tasks or procedures, experimental manipulations, usage of any scales, questionnaires or measures. Sufficient detail is needed so the study could be replicated.]

Results
[This section reports the analysis of the data. The section may include descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations), inferential statistics (chi square, t-tests, ANOVA, correlation) or other analyses appropriate to the type of data collected and hypotheses being tested. Present only the statistics directly related to hypothesis tests in this section. Avoid interpretations and try not to repeat non-significant results. Non-significant results for tests not directly related to hypotheses may be reported in the text or in a table. Use subheadings to separate different measures or results. For example:]

Media Usage
The amount of time per day spent using various media was positively correlated with academic procrastination, r(30) = .42, p < .05. Media multitasking did not significantly correlate with grade point average, r(30) = -.21, ns. Relationships Between Variables Academic procrastination was negatively correlated with grade point average, r(30) = -.32, p < .05, indicating that greater procrastination was associated with lower grades. Media multitasking was not significantly correlated with procrastination, r(30) = .15, ns. Discussion [This section discusses the meaning, importance and implications of the results. Does the data support or contradict the hypotheses? Discuss relationships between variables and any unexpected findings. Explain unexpected or anomalous results. Limitations of the research should also be acknowledged. Suggestions for future research directions may also be appropriate. Relate results to previous research literature where applicable. Do not repeat results, introduce new material, or present results described in another section. The discussion should be analytical rather than just a summary.] Some key findings of this study were that media usage was positively correlated with academic procrastination, and academic procrastination was negatively correlated with grade point average. Overall media multitasking was not found to be significantly related to either procrastination or GPA. These results provide partial support for hypotheses predicting relationships between media usage, procrastination, and academic achievement. The lack of significant findings for media multitasking could be interpreted a few ways. It may suggest multitasking itself does not impact procrastination or grades in university students. It is also possible our scale for assessing multitasking habits could be improved. As a self-report measure, participants may not fully reflect on or accurately report their actual multitasking behaviors. Objective observation methods could provide more valid data in future research.