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Open Learning - Guide to Writing Laboratory Assignments

The Assignment Guide provided with your PSY11 study materials provides the main guide to writing your laboratory assignment. These additional notes are designed to give more guidance to those who choose the option of writing a report based on the WWW experiment on body shapes - that is Assignment 2C.

You should have first completed the experiment as a subject yourself before reading any further in these notes.

There are several references related to this experiment in your Assignment Guide. Skim read through these to get an idea of the main issues in this research topic. You will note that most studies on body shape preferences have used the same (or similar) body shape outlines as we have used in our study. This technique was originally developed by Stunkard, Sorenson and Schlusinger (1980) and is referred to as the Stunkard Body Shape Figures Scale. Our study in fact uses a similar scale created by our own graphic artists instead of the Stunkard Scale.

The first study to use this to measure gender and cohort differences in body image was carried out by Fallon and Rozin (1988). This and many subsequent studies have confirmed clear gender differences in ideal body shape, with women showing a much stronger preference for a thinner figure. More variable results have been found for whether this is increasing over time (see Lamb, Jackson, Cassiday & Priest(1993).

The current study was designed to replicate these findings from early studies such as Fallon & Rozin, but also to identify more clearly whether differences between actual and ideal body shapes do invariably cause marked dissatisfaction with one's body image. The current study therefore includes questions asking subjects to indicate, as well as their ideal body shape, the range of body shapes they believe would be seen as acceptable. This variation was introduced by Lamb et al (1993).

Analysing your data

The WWW site includes a page enabling you to see the progressive data submitted by all subjects, including yourself. You will probably find it convenient to print out this page.

The next step is to calculate the summary data that you will include in your report. This includes the following.

  1. For only the female subjects, calculate the average difference between their actual figure (qu. 1) and their ideal figure (qu.2). That is, calculate the difference (Qu 1 - Qu 2), making sure you include the minus sign if Qu 2 is larger. Then average these difference scores.
  2. Do the same for male subjects.
  3. Now calculate the average difference between the thinnest acceptable figure (Qu. 3) and the heaviest acceptable figure (Qu. 4), for female subjects.
  4. As above for male subjects.

Now, you can compare the results of (1) and (2). Do males or females show the greatest body image dissatisfaction (as measured by the difference between actual and ideal body shape)? (This outcome is an attempt to replicate previous findings, eg of Fallon & Rozin)

Then compare (3) and (4). We could regard the difference between an ideal body shape and an acceptable body shape as a measure of tolerance of less than perfect body shape. Do males and females show equal amounts of such tolerance? (Note, in doing this we are choosing to look at this data slightly differently to Lamb et al,1993).

Obtaining References

Note that several relevant articles are included in the PSY11 Assignment Guide. These will be sufficient to write your report. However, if you are able to get access to a university library to obtain additional references, this would be useful. Psychology subjects in later years of your course will require you to obtain references yourself. Learning to look up scientific journals, and to use computerised abstracts to search for references on a topic will therefore help prepare you for this. An extra reference or two will also help your report, although you should not overdo this for your first report.

The Standard Format of Psychology Laboratory Reports

Before starting to write your assignment, you should read the text by O'Shea (1966), Writing for Psychology: An Introductory Guide for Students, and take note of the feedback on Assignment 1.

Writing your report

  1. Write the Introduction section, describing the previous research on this topic, outlining the current study, ans stating the hypotheses - that is, what differences do we expect between males and females in ideal body shape and the range of acceptable body shapes?
  2. Write a Method section, describing how subjects were obtained, the procedure, and a brief summary of the materials.
  3. Write a Results section. Include a table of means and standard deviations of the four measures described above.
  4. Write a Discussion section. Discuss how our study has added to previous findings. What limitations might apply to these findings?
  5. List all the references you have cited in your report, taking care to follow the format precisely.