PSY1220 Lab Report Assessment Guidance 2026

PSY1220 Lab Report Assessment Guidance 

Your Assessment Task:

Write a lab report reporting the results of a study looking at the Drive for Thinness (DT), Drive for Muscularity (DM) and Social Media Appearance-Related Preoccupation (SMARP)

We give you the data

• This is real data, published by Brasil et al., 2024 (full reference on next slide)

We give you the procedure
Research the topic, analyse, and write up the findings following the required structure
Every lecture and lab class contains relevant details, so you’ll need to

• revise the course materials
• follow instructions carefully
• Read the papers we’ve provided and search for literature yourself

Use these slides as you progress through the weekly lab classes

• The slides and activities in your lab classes are dedicated to different sections
• You can make your lab report assessment document and add to it as you go through the teaching sessions

Introduction Section

Introduce the variables, tell the reader what you’re investigating, summarise previous literature, and end with your hypotheses

• Find, read and refer to literature looking at DT, DM, and SMARP

Steps to completion

• Read Brasil et al. and Karam et al.
• Conduct your own literature search to find relevant articles
• Read and take notes on these papers

Revise sessions on the structure of journal articles and on writing introductions

Brasil, K. M., Mims, C. E., Pritchard, M. E., & McDermott, R. C. (2024). Social media and body image: Relationships between social media appearance preoccupation, self-objectification, and body image. Body Image, 51, 101767. Karam, J., Bouteen, C., Mahmoud, Y., Tur, J., & Bouzas, C. (2023).

The Relationship between Social Media Use and Body Image in Lebanese University Students. Nutrients 2023, 15, 3961.

Method Section

Include enough detail that someone could take this section and replicate your study
There are (usually) four subsections in a Method section:

• Design  |  Participants  |  Materials  |  Procedure

Steps to completion

• Revise lecture and lab class materials
• Add detail into each subsection methodically (some is already provided for you.  You’re welcome!)

The early lectures on understanding journal articles and research design will be a useful reminder of what to include
Your lab classes on questionnaires and data screening, and descriptives will also help
The ‘Decoding Method sections’ activity could be useful too…!

• Look at as many method sections as you can

Results Section

Clearly present the results of your analyses

Steps to completion

• Open the PSY1220 Quantitative Report Data. omv dataset in Jamovi
• Follow the steps in the lab slides to generate your results
• Select the relevant numbers and figures to add to your report

Refer to the lecture and lab class slides to help with the interpretation of the results

• All sessions are relevant!

Results Section: Suggested Structure

Two parts/subsections: one on correlations, and another on sex differences

• The order doesn’t matter, BUT everything related to the statistic must be presented together

Correlations between SMARP, DT, and DM

• Scatterplots (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.)
• Correlation coefficients with significance tests

Differences between males and females

Descriptive Statistics (Means and Standard Deviations split by sex)
Violin plots (Figure 3, Figure 4, etc.)
t-tests (NB a t-test can directly follow the corresponding violin plot)

i.e., violin plot for DM, followed by t-test for DM, and then violin plot for DT, followed by t-test for DT, etc. 

Discussion Section

Write up the results and discuss in relation to previous literature

• Read widely, and revisit all papers you’ve mentioned in your introduction
• Say if they found something similar or different to your study

Discuss any limitations and suggest some ideas for future related research
Steps to completion

• Revise the previous literature and your notes
• Think about your results in relation to the literature you talked about in the Introduction
• State whether your results supported/contradicted them

The sessions on Interpreting it all and Putting it all together will be useful

Abstract and Title

The Abstract is a summary of the entirety of your paper

It includes 1 or 2 sentences summing up the Introduction, 1 or 2 sentences summarising the Method, 1 or 2 focused on the Results, and 1 or 2 on the Discussion

• Write this section LAST, present it FIRST

The Title should describe your study in enough detail that it’s possible to understand what the research is about just from reading it

• Include all variables
• Include the type of participants
• Include the nature of the analyses (e.g. correlation)

What Now?

Start!

This report takes time to pull together, so make a start ASAP
Seek advice if you’re unsure of anything

• Lab Tutors  |  Drop-in sessions |  Module Leaders

Follow our guidance

Check the PSY1220 module page for details of in-person support sessions (drop-ins)