Title of Resource Assignment: Creating an Outline for an APA Style Introduction
Author(s) Gary W. Lewandowski, Jr.
Institution Monmouth University
This resource provides a template to help students plan and organize the structure
of an APA style Introduction. It includes an example for students to reference.
Keywords: Communicating Science, Pre-writing Preparation, Outlining Introductions
Author Contact
[email protected]
Information:
Additional
Information:
Brief Description:
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 Gary W. Lewandowski, Jr. All Rights Reserved. This material may be used for noncommercial
educational purposes. All other uses require the written consent of the authors.
Instructors:
This resource provides a template to help students plan and organize the structure of an APA style
Introduction. It also provides an example for students to reference. You should explain and assign this
activity after students have taken notes or read the references they will be using to write an APA style
Introduction. However, this assignment can help student recognize what topics might still need sources to
help them do a specific search of the literature to find more references.
Template for a Detailed Outline of an Introduction
INSTRUCTIONS: Use this template to help you plan and organize your APA style Introduction. It will help you avoid ambiguity as you
try to organize your paper in a logical manner. Please be sure to complete each part of the outline.
Organizing Your Ideas
NOTE: This is not an actual part of the outline but is something you need to do before completing the outline, you should map out
what topics you will cover, and what the most logical order is in which to cover them.
A. Looking at your notes & articles, what topics will you cover in this outline?
B. What order will they go in? Why is this logical? Explain why you picked this order.
I. Lead-In Paragraph
NOTE: This section will ultimately become the first paragraph of your Introduction. Eventually, it will flow from one idea to the
other.
A. Attention Grabber
Here you want something that makes an impact, stirs interest, or makes a connection with common life to draw in the reader.
B. Justification of Importance
Why is the topic of your research study important for others to know?
C. Purpose of the Paper
What topics will your Introduction cover from the past literature? In what way with this research project extend the literature on
the topic?
NOTE: You should organize your outline by topic, and NOT as a list of articles. As a result, one article may appear
under several topics.
II.
Topic 1 = ________________________
A. Which articles would be discuss in this topic? List the reference for each of those articles below. In
what order will the articles be presented in the topic? Give a sentence or two to explain your logic.
B. Transition to Next Topic (i.e. how would this idea link to the next?)
III.
Topic 2 = ________________________
A. Which articles would be discuss in this topic? List the reference for each of those articles below. In
what order will the articles be presented in the topic? Give a sentence or two to explain your logic.
B. Transition to Next Topic (i.e. how would this idea link to the next?)
IV.
Topic 3 = ________________________
A. Which articles would be discuss in this topic? List the reference for each of those articles below. In
what order will the articles be presented in the topic? Give a sentence or two to explain your logic.
B. Transition to Next Topic (i.e. how would this idea link to the next?)
NOTE: Please note any topics in which you need more article/resource to support. Please add or delete topics
as necessary. Also, please feel free to create sub-topics under any of the main topics where they are needed.
V.
Connection between Past & Present (The Present Study)
NOTE: This paragraph will eventually become the last one in your Introduction. It connects the past research you have cited in the
topics of your Introduction to the current study you will go on to explain in the rest of your APA style research report.
A. What has been the focus of previous research in this area?
Review the main point from each topic.
B. What has previous research failed to look at?
Here you want to point out the work that still needs to be researched on this topic, but it should also match the goal of the
current research project. You want to point out the necessity of the work you will carry out in your study.
C. How does YOUR topic build on or add to previous work? How is your paper/topic different? How does
it address the failures mentioned above? In addition, give a 1-2 sentence general summary of your
design.
VI.
Hypotheses
A. List the Hypotheses
Example Detailed Outline of an Introduction
Gender Differences in Reactions to Emotional and Sexual Infidelity
Organizing Your Ideas
 Looking at your notes & articles, what topics will you cover in this outline?
The difference between emotional and sexual infidelity, gender differences in reactions to types of infidelity,
theoretical explanations for the difference.
 What order will they go in? Why is this logical? (explain why you picked this order)
They will go in the order as it appears in the previous question. It seems the different types of infidelity need to
first be established and explained. Second, most of the research in this area deals with gender differences in
terms of reactions, so that would be good to talk about next. Finally, there are different theoretical explanations
for why these gender differences exist, so after setting up the difference it is good to offer reasons behind it.
I.
Lead-In Paragraph
A. Attention Grabber
In 160 cultures, infidelity is the most frequent reason for divorce (Betzig, 1989).
B. Justification of Importance
In a society where divorce is common, it seems logical to examine what may be the cause. Infidelity
is one of the biggest reasons for the large statistic of divorce (Betzig, 1989). The reasons people may cheat
need careful determination to help others understand and potentially avoid situations in which cheating is
more likely to occur. An awareness and understand of the factors that may relate to infidelity, maybe help
save marriages and reduce divorce rates.
C. Purpose of the Paper
The purpose of this paper is to examine previous work that has been done with sex differences regarding
infidelity and jealousy. It defines the different types of infidelity (emotional versus sexual), goes on to
examine the evolutionary theory of sex differences, and lastly looks at the role that commitment and
relationship status has in jealousy. The purpose of the current study is to examine how married individuals
perceive infidelity and determine their extradyatic behaviors.
II.
Topic 1 = Emotional versus sexual infidelity.
A. Which articles would be discussed in this section? (give citations)
1) Buss, D.M., Larsen, R.J., Westen, D., & Semmelroth, J. (1992). Sex differences in jealousy:
Evolution, physiology, and psychology. Psychological Science, 3, 251-255.
***NEED TO FIND MORE INFORMATION FOR THIS SECTION***
B. Transition to Next Topic (i.e. how would this idea link to the next?)
Research has shown that people find certain types of infidelity more distressing than others, and that
distinction can be associated with a person’s gender.
III.
Topic 2 = Gender Differences in reactions to types of infidelity
A. Which articles would be discussed in this section?
1) Buss, D.M., Larsen, R.J., Westen, D., & Semmelroth, J. (1992). Sex differences in jealousy:
Evolution, physiology, and psychology. Psychological Science, 3, 251-255.
2) DeSteno, D.A., & Salovey, P. (1996). Evolutionary origins of sex differences in jealousy?
Questioning the “fitness” of the model. Psychological Science, 7, 367-372.
3) Shackelford, T.K., Buss, D.M., & Bennett, K. (2002). Forgiveness or breakup: Sex differences in
responses to a partner’s infidelity. Cognition and Emotion, 16, 299-307.
B. Transition to Next Topic (i.e. how would this idea link to the next?)
Gender is an important determinant of reactions to emotional and sexual infidelity. To explain this
difference several theories have been developed.
IV. Topic 3 = Theoretical explanations for the difference.
A. Which articles would be discussed in this section?
1) Buss, D.M., Larsen, R.J., Westen, D., & Semmelroth, J. (1992). Sex differences in jealousy:
Evolution, physiology, and psychology. Psychological Science, 3, 251-255.
2) DeSteno, D. A., & Salovey, P. (1996). Evolutionary origins of sex differences in jealousy?
Questioning the “fitness” of the model. Psychological Science, 7, 367-372.
3) Cann, A., & Baucom, T.R. (2004). Former partners and new rivals as threats to a relationship:
Infidelity type, gender, and commitment as factors related to distress and forgiveness.
Personal Relationships, 11, 305-318.
4) Goldenberg, J. L., Landau, M. J., Pyszczynski, T., Cox, C. R., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., &
Dunnam, H. (2003). Gender-typical responses to sexual and emotional infidelity as a
function of mortality salience induced self-esteem striving. Personality and Social Psychology
Bulletin, 29, 1585-1595
V.
Connection Between Past & Present
A. What has been the focus of previous research in this area?
Previous research has focused on differentiating emotional from sexual infidelity, examining gender
differences in reactions to these types of infidelity, and on providing theoretical explanations for the differences.
B. What has previous research failed to look at?
However, past research has been failed to look at these issues in married couples. In addition, previous
studies relied on forced choice formats to determine the likelihood of infidelity and have failed to compare infidelity
in married vs. non-married couples.
C. How does YOUR topic build on or add to previous work? How is your
paper/topic different? How does it fill in the “holes”?
This study builds on previous work by surveying married and non-married couples about infidelity using a
series of extradyadic behaviors that participants answer on a continuous scale to determine differences in these
samples.
VI. Hypotheses
A. List the Hypotheses
The following hypotheses will be tested:
a. Married participants will be more jealous of emotional infidelity compared to non-married participants.
b. Married participants will be less jealous of sexual infidelity compared to non-married participants.
c. Married participants will engage in more extradyadic behaviors than non-married participants.