Title of Resource Activity: Dissecting an Abstract
Author(s) Natalie J. Ciarocco
Institution Monmouth University
This activity has students read and breakdown the abstract of a published
Brief Description: research study. It is intended to help them learn the key elements of an
abstract for an APA style research report.
Keywords: Communicating Science, Writing APA style Research Reports, Abstracts
Author Contact
[email protected]
Information:
Additional
Information:
TeachPsychScience.org is made possible with grant support from the Association for Psychological Science
(APS) Fund for Teaching and Public Understanding of Psychological Science to the site creators Gary
Lewandowski, Natalie Ciarocco, and David Strohmetz. All materials on this site have been subjected to a peer
review process. We welcome additional resources (www.teachpsychscience.org/submissions).
© 2016 Natalie J. Ciarocco. All Rights Reserved. This material may be used for noncommercial educational
purposes. All other uses require the written consent of the authors.
Instructors:
This is a quick activity to help students learn the key elements of an APA style research report. The activity
should help prepare them to write an abstract themselves. An answer key in included.
This activity is best to do after you introduce how to write an abstract and cover what this section should
include. Please see below for a brief overview of the key elements. Students may work on this activity
individually or in pairs.
An abstract is provided but any well-written abstract may be used for this activity. Students maybe benefit
from dissecting an abstract for an article they have already read for class. You can talk about reading the
article for content versus reading it for writing elements.
An abstract should include the following elements:
 the problem under investigation in one sentence
o hypotheses, purpose, or research questions
 the research method
o participants pertinent characteristics
o data collection process
o manipulations and/or measurement
 the research findings
o results without numbers
 a discussion (extremely limited)
o conclusions, implication and/or applications
Note: The abstract used suggested for this activity is from:
Ciarocco, N. J., Echevarria, J. & Lewandowski, G. W., Jr. (2012). Hungry for love: The influence of selfregulation on likelihood of infidelity. Journal of Social Psychology, 152, 1-14. doi:
10.1080/00224545.2011.555435
Dissecting an Abstract
Instructions: A well-written abstract includes several key elements. Please read the following abstract and
identify where each of the following elements begins and ends.
1.
2.
3.
4.
the problem under investigation
the research method
the research findings
a discussion
Abstract
The current research examines the effect of self-regulation on the likelihood of committing
infidelity. Thirty-two college students in exclusive romantic relationships interacted through a
private chat room with an opposite-sex confederate. Prior to this interaction, a food-restriction task
depleted half the participants of self-control. As predicted, depleted levels of self-regulation
increased the likelihood of infidelity. Specifically, depleted participants were more likely to both
accept a coffee date from and supply a personal telephone number to the confederate than nondepleted participants. Weakened self-control may be one potential cause for the levels of infidelity
occurring in romantic partnerships today.
Keywords: infidelity, interpersonal relationships, self-regulation
Ciarocco, N. J., Echevarria, J. & Lewandowski, G. W., Jr. (2012). Hungry for love: The influence of self-regulation on likelihood of infidelity.
Journal of Social Psychology, 152, 1-14. doi: 10.1080/00224545.2011.555435
Dissecting an Abstract: Answer Key
The current research examines the effect of self-regulation on the likelihood of committing
infidelity. Thirty-two college students in exclusive romantic relationships interacted through a
private chat room with an opposite-sex confederate. Prior to this interaction, a food-restriction task
depleted half the participants of self-control. As predicted, depleted levels of self-regulation
increased the likelihood of infidelity. Specifically, depleted participants were more likely to both
accept a coffee date from and supply a personal telephone number to the confederate than nondepleted participants. Weakened self-control may be one potential cause for the levels of infidelity
occurring in romantic partnerships today.
1.
2.
3.
4.
the problem under investigation in one sentence
the research method
the research findings
a discussion