Writing a Psychology Essay

Welcome!

I assume that you have arrived at this blog because you would like some advice on how to write in psychology?  Either that or someone has sent you the link to show you the page.  Whichever it is, I would like to let you know that I can help you! This blog will be as short and simple as possible and will aim to cover the key aspects of academic writing that is expected on a psychology degree.   The main area of writing I will cover in this particular blog is essay writing.  I hope to cover aspects of essay writing that you may have never been informed about before - I know (sighs), lecturers don't always tell us everything.  Our lecturers like us to go away and learn it all ourselves.  Sometimes they don't even give us an essay plan.  Actually, the last time I was given an essay plan was when I was at college in 2013.  At university, it is very rare now because they simply expect us to know it all, which usually we don't lol!  Anyway, I hope to cover 90% of the main issues that your tutor may or may not introduce you to.  This blog will walk you through it and help you.  Moreover, I will also introduce you to some of the most important aspects of the American Psychological Association 6th edition guidelines (APA) which all psychology academics across the world must adhere to.   Lastly, I hope you benefit from what I have written and that I don't confuse you too much!

About me

I assume that you already guessed that I would not of course be writing this blog if I did not have any previous knowledge of this subject.   So, to briefly introduce myself I would like to inform you that I am currently a 3rd year BSc Psychology student at the University of Stirling, Scotland.  I am writing this blog during my studies and by no means am I suggesting that I know everything about the subject, because I most certainly don't, especially when SPSS and statistics are involved lol! Anyway, I have over the years obtained some important knowledge and tips which may help prospective students who are just starting out on their academic venture to succeed in this subject.   Therefore, I assume that you will either be a student who is at school or college level and are intending on studying psychology at university level, or you are already in first or second year at university.    For now, this is all you have to know about me.  The only other thing which I assume you may want to know is that I do have previous experience of obtaining high 2:1 and 1:1 grades in this subject for numerous assignments.   I hope this gives you some reassurance that I know what I am discussing.   Anyway, lets move on to the purpose of this blog: essay writing.

The psychology essay

In education, lecturers like to give the poor unfortunate students like us essays.  How long are they? Normally, a standard academic essay will range from around 1000 words to 3000 words, though this can vary somewhat depending on which area of psychology you are writing for..   What is the purpose of an essay? To put it simply, an essay is your chance to examine a particular topic area and express your argument about it.   In psychology, we are expected to try and make a clear argument about a topic so that the reader knows which side of the fence you are on.   As an example, a typical essay will usually ask you to discuss a topic, evaluate a topic or compare and contrast a topic.   There are more ways in which questions can be presented, but these are some common examples.  Importantly, we must also learn to be able to do this as concisely as possible, and please remember to stay on track!  Learning how to do this is simply a skill that you will master throughout your studies.

Read the question, understand the question and think about what it means!

When given an essay question, the most important part, even before you put finger to keyboard, is to carefully read the question.  What is the question asking? Once you have established what the question is asking and what topic area you have been told to examine, you should thoroughly read about it.  By reading about the topic area before you begin writing, you will gain an in-depth understanding of the topic and will make writing the essay much easier.  I used to write and read simultaneously but after I realised that my marks were never improving, I stopped doing it.   I would like to let you know at this stage that the best resources for reading around a topic area come from books and journal articles, not blogs such as this or Facebook, for instance.   The simple reason for this is because blogs like this are not academic, that is all.  I will come back to this later when I discuss referencing.   So, assuming that you have gained some knowledge about the subject and have read some books, its time to start the fun part:  creating an essay!

Essay planning and structure

For an essay to be successful, it is important that we create a plan and structure.  At this stage, keep your essay question at hand and carefully think about what it is asking.  Have a look at all your notes and materials which you will be using and begin to make an essay plan.  How do I make an essay plan and how do I know if my essay structure is ok?  Simply speaking, structuring and planning an essay is a task which may depend on the particular essay question.   As a generic essay structure, please allow me to show you one below which may enlighten you as to what we are talking about.  Under each subsection are pointers which may help you structure a 2500 word essay.  Please note that this type of essay structure can be moulded and shaped for numerous essay topics.  This may take some creativity, however.

The following section is now an essay structure

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Standard essay question: discuss and evaluate the cognitive, medical and psychodynamic theories/approaches of depression and decide which one is best (2500 word limit).

Introduction  (100-150 words)

Lets begin!

Please introduce the reader to what you are about to discuss in your essay.  The reader wants to know what your essay will address and what will be discussed.  The reader also wants to see that you have introduced key research which will be discussed and that you are offering an evaluation within your essay.   Please see below for a typical example of an introduction which favours the cognitive approach.

Example introduction:

The aim of this essay is to discuss and evaluate the cognitive, medical and psychodynamic approaches to depression.   Based on the research consulted and the theories discussed, the author argues that the best approach for explaining the cause of depression is the cognitive approach.   However, it is also important that based on the evaluation provided within this essay that other authors may argue otherwise.   For example, there is substantial evidence available which suggests that the medical and psychodynamic approaches may be better, though in this particular case it is reasonable to conclude that the cognitive approach is favourable over these.     

Middle section (should consist of numerous paragraphs and will take up most of essay)

Paragraph 1 (100 words or less)

Paragraph 1 is where you will make your first main point in your essay, and in psychology this typically begins with a standard definition of what you are discussing.   For example, if your essay is on depression, you should define depression and what it is.   If it is on long-term memory, you should define human memory and long-term memory.   If it is on intelligence, then you must define what this is.  Your definition should be about 100 words or less.   You must then use linking phrases to try and get this to flow to the next paragraph.

Paragraph 2 (200-300 words)

Paragraph 2 is where the essay really begins.  This is where you now start discussing some knowledge and understanding of the topic area of which you have been asked to write about, such as key approaches/theories.  Why not begin by discussing the psychodynamic approach and what it says about depression?  Can you corroborate your discussion with some research?  Are there any research studies available on this topic?  Are there any statistics on your topic?  Are there any opinions from authors or medical experts for example?  Aim to provide 300 words of knowledge and understanding here with supportive research.

Paragraph 3 (200-300 words)

As above, paragraph 3 is another opportunity to further elaborate your topic.  This paragraph may discuss the topic area from a different angle.   For example, if you have been asked to discuss theories, then this paragraph should be used to discuss the next approach, which may be the cognitive approach to depression.  What is the cognitive approach in psychology and what does it say about depression.  Again, please provide supporting evidence for this in the forms of reputable sources.

Paragraph 4 (200-300 words)

Again, paragraph 4 is simply another opportunity for you to further elaborate your topic.  For this essay question, you should now use this paragraph as an opportunity to lastly discuss the final approach/theory, which in this case is the medical approach.  Again, please provide supporting evidence for this in the form of reputable sources such as journal articles and books.

OK. You will be glad to know that we are now half way through our essay!  However, we are not out of the woods yet.  The following part of the essay is the most important, and will transform your essay from a C or B into an A.  This is the part of the essay that many students fail to address: CRITICAL EVALUATION

Paragraph 5 (200-300 words)

This paragraph should be used to EVALUATE paragraph 2.  In paragraph 2, you discussed the psychodynamic approach.  This means that you should be awarded some marks for knowledge and understanding for this.   However, you have yet to gain your other precious marks for evaluation.  To obtain these marks, you must now evaluate what you said in paragraph 2.   So, go back and read it again and work out what is good about it, what is bad about it, are there any flaws with the theory? Are there any positive aspects about it? Are there any flaws with any of the research you cited in this paragraph? What may be a better approach? If you can do this as concisely as possible and can support what you are evaluating with research, you will be fine.

Here is an example of a typical evaluation:

Jones (1989) argued that the psychodynamic approach to depression, as previously discussed, was good because it took into account the role of the unconscious mind.   However, other researchers such as Smith and Peterson (2004) have argued otherwise and have instead suggested that it is very difficult to determine how much the unconscious mind is involved in depression, as there are no psychological tests to precisely determine this.   Much of the evidence for unconscious experiences is largely based on questionnaire results, interview responses and also personal accounts.  Therefore, we cannot know statistically whether the accounts of these people are true or false.

Paragraph 6 (200-300 words)

This paragraph should reflect the nature of paragraph 5 and should be used to evaluate the contents of paragraph 3.  Basically, you now have to evaluate the cognitive approach in explaining depression (i.e. what is good about it and what is bad about it).

Paragraph 7 (200-300 words)

Again, this paragraph should reflect the nature of paragraph 5 and should be used to evaluate the contents of paragraph 4.  The contents of paragraph 4 were built around the medical approach.  Therefore, you must now tell the reader what is good and what is bad about it for explaining depression.

Let me now introduce you to some news: you are almost finished your essay!!

Conclusion (200-400 words)

Before I discuss the conclusion, let me begin by stating something really, really important: you MUST NOT introduce any more new information in here.  All you want to discuss in your conclusion is what you have discussed throughout your essay in each of the paragraphs above.  For example, the essay is on depression, not schizophrenia or intelligence.  Now that I have told you this, lets discuss the conclusion.

The conclusion is now your time to wrap up what you have written.  Importantly, it is time to express to the reader what your argument is and why you like it best.  If you like the cognitive approach best, then it is time to explain why this is the case.  You should refer back to the contents of your knowledge and understanding here and express why you like it.  However, you must also express why other authors may not like it.  This is where you now express some key evaluation, as discussed in paragraph 6.  Once you have done this, repeat to the author that despite the fact there are other opinions and views on this, you still favour the cognitive approach - IMPORTANT: try not be on the fence.  In psychology, we have to let the reader know what and why we favour a particular argument.   Once you have done all this, you should end up with something like this:

Example conclusion:

In conclusion, the author argues that the cognitive approach is the best approach in explaining depression.  This approach is best because of.....This approach was regarded by (name researcher or author here) as being the best because...However, it is also important that other researchers (name researcher or author) have argued that other approaches may be better.  The reasons for this were....
Nonetheless, the author of this paper argues that the cognitive approach is the best because...
A future paper may consider other research and may look at other approaches..

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You have now reached the end and have planned your essay.   However, we cannot submit it yet without making sure our references are correct!

As previously discussed, the American Psychological Association sets out very fine guidelines for students, lecturers, psychologists and researchers that we must all adhere to.   Let me now show you the way they would like us to reference.    If we get this correct, we will be able to take our grade from a very high B into an A category.   Even if you have a great evaluation, we still have to show that we can cite (reference) correctly.   For the purpose of this blog, I am going to show you how to cite books and journal articles only, as these are the two main sources of information which I encourage you to use.  I am also going to keep this extremely simple and use only one or two authors.   Referencing with multiple authors is something which I encourage you to look at on your own accord.   Simply type in APA 6th edition on google and find their section on references.  You will find that when referencing multiple authors in APA that we sometimes use phrases such as 'et al.' or 'and colleagues'.  This is something that I encourage you to have a look at on your own accord.   However, I will show you the basics to get you started!

When referencing in the text of your essay at the end of your paragraph, you should use brackets at the end of a sentence with the researchers last names and dates (Smith & Jackson, 2017).    Note that a small ampersand has been used when the reference is within brackets.   However, if you are discussing a topic and would like to let the reader know that Smith and Jackson (2017) found this style of referencing better, it really makes no difference.  It all depends on your writing style and what sort of paragraph you are writing.   Both are adequate according to APA and it is good to mix and match.  Try some at the end and try some within the text! It shows diversity!

So, lets assume that we used research by Smith and Jackson (2017) in our essay.  Lets also assume that we found their research online and it was in the form of a journal article.   We must, therefore, also place their names at the end of our essay in what is known as the reference section.   The reference section is where we keep an on-going tab of all the sources we have used in our essay.  It is different from a bibliography because references are only the sources that we have used to help support our argument in our essay.  A bibliography is a complete list of sources which we used that may or may not have been cited within the text.  This could be huge, so APA style tells us that references are sufficient.

Here is an example of a reference section at the end of our essay:

References (bold)

Smith, K., & Jackson, L. (2017). The Cognitive Approach to Depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 4, 191 - 196

(Note that the authors last names and the initials of their first names are included followed by the publication date.  The date is in brackets followed by a small full stop.  Then, the journal title is presented followed by the journal name.  Note that the name of the journal and volume number, which is 4 in this case, is italicised.  After this, we type the page numbers of the article).

Thompson, L. (1999). The Comprehensive Students Guide to Referencing. London: Oxford University Press

(Note that the authors last names and the initials of their first names are included followed by the publication date.  The date is in brackets followed by a small full stop.  Then, the book title is italicised.  After this, the location is entered, followed by the publisher.  Page numbers are not required for books unless you have quoted something.

Alphabetical order

References should always be in alphabetical order in our reference section.  There have been numerous times in the past where I have lost key marks for having one out of place.  There is a function in Microsoft Word which will do this for you, so please try and locate this. 

Other general APA formatting issues

When we write our essay, there are a few pernickety APA formatting issues which we must adhere to.  Let me introduce you to some of these below.  There are more, but these are the most common.  Be assured, they are easily missed.  Even if you can do the main ones in your essay you will be improving.  The main ones are bold below

- we must use size 12, Times New Roman font for our essay (excluding title page)
- title page we use size 14 font
- we must learn how to add a running header on each page
- we must have page numbers
- we must use two spaces after each sentence
- we must press tab at the beginning of a new paragraph
- we must include a separate title page
- references must be alphabetical (as discussed above)
- references at the end should also hang (there is a function for this in Microsoft Word)
- ampersands must be used within brackets instead of the word and
- numbers must be written (e.g. three, until we reach the number 10, 11, 12 etc.).
- 1.5/double line spacing throughout your essay
- no contractions are allowed (i.e. don't, cant) please say the full word instead.

These issues are something that should tailor your grade even further and I highly encourage you to apply them.  If you struggle with applying these, such as the running head, I encourage you to seek some advice on this online.  It is not entirely essential until you reach third or fourth year in psychology to apply all of this, but the sooner you begin the sooner your grades will climb.  There are some great videos on YouTube which show you how to apply a running header in your essay!

General advice/tips

Firstly, you have to learn to write academically and there is no better way than to read academic articles and see how other researchers have done it.   Try using google scholar or psych web and simply type in a topic and see what comes up.   Access a journal article and read it from start to finish.   Familiarise yourself with the psychological jargon that is used in academic papers.   Also, when we write our essays we don't actually use headings such as introduction, conclusion etc.  The only time we actually ever use headings in psychology is when writing lab reports, but this is a completely different ball game for now. 

Additionally, it is very important in psychology that we don't use quotations.   They generally suggest that one quotation is enough in a psychology essay, but I would personally refrain from using any quotes at all.   To put it bluntly, psychology quotations are generally not necessary and I am sure you can use your imagination to effectively paraphrase what has been said instead.   

Also, I want you to learn how to use linking phrases.   Normally, it is not wise to end a paragraph and move onto the next one without a linking phrase.  Please try and do what I have done in this paragraph and use words such as "additionally" or "moreover" when moving through your essay.  Again, this is simply a skill that you will master the more you practice.

Furthermore, we should also avoid being chatty in our essays.   For an essay to be successful, it must sound academic and not chatty.   If your essay is chatty, you will be asked to change it.   In fact, you may risk failing the essay completely if it is too chatty.    I have included an example below of what we can expect and what is forbidden.  This example also includes the use of "I" which is also forbidden in psychology papers.   When referring to yourself in a paper, always say 'the author' or 'the researcher' for example.   The use of I in an academic psychology essay is strictly forbidden according to APA guidelines.   The reason for this is because in psychology, we must write the paper in a very formal academic way.   Please always remember this and if you are unsure, have a look below at the examples. 

Academic example:

This paper has examined the topic of depression and has concluded that there is substantial research evidence available in support of the cognitive approach in explaining the origin of depression.  The author concludes that the cognitive approach is favourable over the medical and psychodynamic approach.

Chatty example:

Depression? Yeah. I think it is one of those illnesses, isn't it.  Its so stigmatised, yet we just cant seem to work out what causes it.  I reckon the cognitive approach is probably best for this one, but hey, it really is a difficult one!

The end

Thank you for taking your time to read this.  I hope that what I have provided gives you a better insight into writing essays in psychology and what we can expect.  In psychology, we are typically assessed through essay writing, lab report writing and end-of-term examinations.  This blog has only covered a very small fraction of what can be expected in psychology and would take me at least the equivalent time or more to create a blog on lab reports.   Therefore, I will not be discussing lab reports on this occasion, although I do intend on creating a blog on this too in the near future.  Please forgive me for any silly spelling or grammar mistakes as this is only a blog and not an academic piece of work, and also please forgive me if I have failed to cover something that you may have benefited from.  Nonetheless, I do hope to have covered some issues that are very common which may help you.  Remember, to get an A in psychology your essay has to critically address the topic in a logical manner.  Your essay must flow from start to finish, demonstrate a deep understanding of the topic and also demonstrate that you know how to critically analyse, which we discussed previously in the evaluation section.   If you have any particular questions, please feel free to contact me at david-swan@live.co.uk.  It has been a pleasure, and good luck. 

Best wishes

Dave.