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How to Write the Method Section of a Psychology Lab Report (Full Example)
The Method section tells the reader who took part, what you used and what happened, in enough detail that someone else could run your study again. That replication test is how most markers grade it. This guide breaks the section into its usual subsections, shows a complete Method for one small experiment, and lists the details students most often leave out.
For how the Method fits into the whole report, see our APA 7 psychology lab report guide.
What each subsection answers
APA's Journal Article Reporting Standards for quantitative research (JARS-Quant) list what a Method section should report: who the participants were and how they were recruited, how the sample size was decided, the measures, how data were collected and the research design. A student report rarely needs every item, but the list shows what markers look for.
| Subsection | Question it answers | What to include |
|---|---|---|
| Participants | Who took part? | Number, how they were recruited, key demographics such as age and gender, any course credit or payment, exclusions and why |
| Materials (or Measures) | What did you use? | Every stimulus, questionnaire and piece of equipment, in enough detail to recreate it. Name published scales and cite them |
| Design | What was compared? | Experimental or correlational, between- or within-subjects, the independent variable and its levels, the dependent variable and how it was scored |
| Procedure | What happened, in order? | Each step from arrival to debrief, with timings, key instructions and how participants were assigned to conditions |
Some courses merge Design into Procedure or call Materials "Measures". Use the headings in your course template.
Headings and tense
- APA 7 uses "Method" (not "Methods") as a Level 1 heading: centred and bold. Subsections such as Participants and Procedure are Level 2 headings: flush left and bold.
- Write in the past tense, because you are describing what was done: "Participants completed", not "Participants will complete".
- Write in full sentences, not a list of instructions. "First, give the participant the form" belongs in a lab manual, not a report.
A complete Method section (invented data)
Study: do students recall more words from a 20-word list after a 20-minute walk than after sitting quietly? The same study appears in our results section guide and discussion section guide, so you can follow one study through the whole report.
Participants
Forty-eight undergraduate students (34 women, 13 men, 1 non-binary; age M = 19.8 years, SD = 1.6) were recruited through the psychology department's research participation system and received course credit. Fifty students signed up. Two were excluded before analysis: one did not complete the recall task, and one reported having seen the word list in an earlier study. All participants gave written informed consent, and the study was approved by the university's Research Ethics Board.
Materials
The word list contained 20 concrete nouns of one or two syllables (for example, candle, river and ladder). Words were shown one at a time in the centre of a laptop screen for 3 s each, in the same random order for every participant. The distractor task consisted of 30 two-digit addition problems. Participants rated their confidence in their recall on a single item from 1 (not at all confident) to 7 (extremely confident).
Design
The study used a between-subjects experimental design. The independent variable was activity before learning, with two levels: a 20-minute walk or 20 minutes of sitting quietly. The dependent variable was the number of words correctly recalled, from 0 to 20. Misspelled words were accepted if the intended word was clear. Words that were not on the list were not counted.
Procedure
Participants were tested individually in the same room by the same researcher between 10:00 and 12:00. After giving consent, each participant was randomly assigned to a condition using a computer-generated list. Participants in the walking condition walked at their own pace on an indoor track for 20 minutes. Participants in the sitting condition sat in a quiet room for 20 minutes after handing in their phones. All participants then viewed the word list, completed the addition problems for 3 minutes and wrote down as many words as they could remember in 3 minutes. Finally, they gave their confidence rating and were debriefed and thanked. Each session lasted about 35 minutes.
Why this Method would earn the marks
- It gives the exact number of participants, how they were recruited and why two were excluded.
- The dependent variable has a scoring rule, so another marker would get the same score.
- It says how participants were assigned to conditions, not just that there were "two groups".
- Timings are given for every step, so the study can be repeated.
- It shows the controls: one researcher, one room and one time window. Our confounding vs extraneous variables guide explains why these matter.
Weak vs strong Method sentences
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| "Participants were students." | "Forty-eight undergraduate students (age M = 19.8 years, SD = 1.6) were recruited through the department's research participation system." |
| "Participants were split into two groups." | "Each participant was randomly assigned to a condition using a computer-generated list." |
| "A memory test was used." | "Participants wrote down as many of the 20 words as they could in 3 minutes. Each correctly recalled word scored 1 point." |
| "A questionnaire measured stress." | Name the scale, the number of items, the response format and what a higher score means, and cite the scale's original source. |
| "The walking group remembered more." | Delete it. Findings belong in the Results section. |
Every measure in your Method should already have an operational definition. Our operational definition examples guide shows how to write one.
The ethics sentence (Canada and the US)
In Canada, university research with human participants is reviewed under the Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS 2, 2022), usually by the institution's Research Ethics Board (REB). In the US, the equivalent body is usually called an Institutional Review Board (IRB). Class projects are often covered by an approval your instructor arranged, so ask your instructor what to write. One or two sentences are enough: who approved the study, that participants gave informed consent and that they were debriefed.
Replication checklist
Before you submit, check that a classmate could rerun your study from the Method alone.
- Number of participants, recruitment route and incentive
- Age and gender summary
- Exclusions, with reasons
- Every stimulus and measure, with enough detail to recreate it
- How the dependent variable was scored
- How participants were assigned to conditions
- Timings for each step of the procedure
- Where and when testing took place, and who ran it
- Consent, approval and debriefing
- Past tense throughout, and no results
Frequently asked questions
Is it "Method" or "Methods" in APA 7?
APA 7 uses "Method" as a Level 1 heading, centred and bold. If your course template says "Methods", follow the template, because your marker grades against it.
How long should the Method section be?
APA sets no length. In a 2,000 to 2,500 word lab report, a Method of about 400 to 600 words is typical. Let the detail needed to repeat the study decide the length, not a word target.
Does the hypothesis go in the Method section?
No. The hypothesis goes at the end of the introduction, just before the Method. See how to write a hypothesis for a psychology lab report.
Where do I describe how I controlled extraneous variables?
In the Procedure, as part of what you did: "All sessions were run by the same researcher in the same room between 10:00 and 12:00." Name the control and keep the explanation for the Discussion.
Do I need to explain how I chose my sample size?
APA's reporting standards ask how sample size was decided. If you ran a power analysis, report it. If the sample was set by your course, say so in one sentence, for example "Sample size was set by the class data collection period."
Related guides and tools
- How to write an APA 7 psychology lab report
- How to write the results section of a psychology lab report
- Operational definition examples in psychology
- Confounding vs extraneous variables in psychology
- Free APA 7 citation generator
- Psychology assignment help
Sources: American Psychological Association, Journal Article Reporting Standards for Quantitative Research, Table 1; APA Style, Headings; Government of Canada, Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans, TCPS 2 (2022).
Examples in this guide are illustrative and the data are invented. Check your course instructions and rubric before you submit.
