Knowing how to use the APA format is a must for psychology students. The APA format is used for composing psychological and other academic research papers.
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Psychological Research: Using APA Format
Knowing how to use the APA format is a must for psychology students. The APA format is used for composing psychological and other academic research papers. The American Psychological Association has established guidelines for citing sources in psychology, education, and the social sciences. These guidelines were first introduced in 1929 in the Psychology Bulletin and since that time have evolved into a full manual. When writing a thesis or research paper the title page should reflect the topic or subject matter within the paper. Generally a title page will contain the title of the paper, the author’s name, the school affiliation, page header, page number and a recurring title or running head. The title should be descriptive and the page header, number and recurring title should be located in the upper right hand corner. References are the next key component of an APA style paper. References within the body of the text typically consist of the author’s name followed by the year of publication. For the publication called The Ego and the Id by Sigmund Freud, the citing would appear in this format: (Freud, 1923). The paper should also have a references page citing all the sources. The word ‘references’ should be centered at the top of a new page. Each listing should occur in alphabetical order. When listing a reference using the APA format manual the first line of each entry is flush with the left margin. Each subsequent line of the reference entry is indented. Only one space is required after the punctuation within a reference. The lines within each reference entry are specified to be single spaced, while double spaced between each reference entry. Any references cited in the text should also appear on the reference page. Likewise, any references cited on the reference page should also appear in the body of the text. Italics should be used when mentioning books, articles, journals and magazines within the body of the text. Examples of formatting references are as follows: Book References Author, I. N. (Year). Title of book. Location: Publisher. Articles with No Author Title of the Article. (Year). Title of the Magazine, Volume, Page Numbers. Single Author Last Name, First and Middle Initial (Year). Title of book. City of Publication, State of Publication: Publisher. Two Authors Last Name, First and Middle Initial, & Last Name, First and Middle Initial. (Year). Title of the Article. Title of the Journal, Volume, Page Numbers. Any further examples can be found in the APA format manual.