SOC 2805 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: American Psychological Association
• Principles of good map design
o Topic placed at the top of the hierarchy
o Organize studies found in literature search into broad categories
o Describe the nature of these studies
o Provide references to major citations
o Major topics should lead to subtopics
o Include quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods studies in the map
• Abstracting Studies
• An abstract is a brief review of the literature that summarizes the major elements
• Abstracts in quantitative research
o Include the problem being addressed
o State the central purpose or focus of the study
o Briefly state information about the sample, population or participants
o Review key results
• Abstracts in studies advancing typologies
o Include the problem being addressed
o Identify the central theme
o State the major conclusions
o If review is methodological, state flaws in reasoning and logic
• Style Manuals
• Style manuals provide guidelines for creating a style of manuscript by providing
consistent format.
• American Psychological Association
• Chicago Manual of Style
• Give guidance on writing in-text and end of text references, headings, footnotes, tables
and figures
The Definition of Terms
• Define terms that individuals outside the field of study may not understand
o Define a term when it first appears
o Write definitions at a specific operational or applied level
o Use accepted language as found in the research literature to define terms
• Qualitative studies
o May advance tentative definition at the beginning
o Themes may emerge through data analysis
• Quantitative studies
o Extensive definitions early
o Comprehensively define all relevant terms
• Mixed methods
o If study starts with a quantitative phase, definitions may be included in a separate
section
o If it begins with a qualitative phase, then terms may emerge during research
A Quantitative or Mixed Methods Literature Review
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