Honours thesis in psychology/Marking criteria guidelines

Marking criteria guidelines

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Examiners are asked to award a mark for each section, taking into account the dot points below.

Presentation /10

  • Appropriate title
  • APA format
  • Expression, spelling, punctuation & grammar
  • References in text in APA format
  • Reference list in APA format
  • Appropriate Appendices (e.g., questionnaire, detailed instructions to subjects)
  • Overall impression

Abstract /4

  • Concise summary of: problem, participants, method, results, conclusions

Introduction - Set up of problem /22

  • Importance, relevance & context of issue established
  • Theoretical or conceptual framework established
  • Breadth of literature review
  • Appropriateness of citations (current, major, original)
  • Consideration of alternative perspectives
  • Logic and clarity of argument leading up to hypotheses
  • Appropriate formulation and clear presentation of hypotheses or statement of aim (for qualitative research)

Method /18

  • Participants: appropriate and adequate sample on which to undertake research/test hypotheses; recruitment procedure and sample characteristics adequately described
  • Materials/Measures: appropriate operationalisation of constructs; adequately described (format, measurement scale, reliability, etc)
  • Procedure: appropriateness of method to address research question/test hypotheses, procedure fully described
  • Design (optional): You may need to include a description of the overall design – this can be especially useful in experimental or complex studies)

Results - appropriate analysis approach and explanation /22 This section needs to be appropriate to research question/type of hypotheses, but is likely to include:

  • Justification of approach (if necessary) and appropriate analysis for research question/hypotheses and participant group
  • Depth of analysis adequate to fully test hypotheses / address research question
  • Understanding of assumptions demonstrated
  • Descriptive/preliminary statistics: full written description and appropriate graphs and tables in APA format
  • Predictive or explanatory relationships: full written description and appropriate graphs and tables in APA format

Discussion - argumentation of results /24

  • Summary of results
  • Related back to research question/support for hypotheses
  • Related back to theory
  • Implications of findings
  • Discussion of possible alternative interpretations of results
  • Discussion of issues arising (explanation of unusual findings)
  • Problems with current study
  • Generalisation of results
  • Implications for future research
  • Logic, clarity, focus and expression