CHAPTER III- APA Style Guide 6th edition

Why Use APA Style?

• This is the most common format for documenting sources.
• This format is widely used for course papers and journal articles in Psychology and also in the social sciences,
education, engineering, and business.
I. Special Grammatical Use
1. Active versus Passive Voice
Active voice
“The participants (subjects) completed (verb) the questionnaire (object)
Passive Voice
“The questionnaires (object) were completed (verb) by the participants (subject)
2. Past and Present tense
 APA requires the past tense when referring to the work of another author and the data in the current report.
Example:
“Freud (1974) believed….”
“The current results confirmed”
“The participants completed”
 *In proposal (future tense, not done)
“The participant will complete”
3. Proper use of pronouns
 Who versus That
“In humans, use who”
“In non-humans, use that”
Example:
“The dogs that Pavlov studied”
“The students who participated in the study”
 That Versus Which
o Use that when clauses essential to the meaning of a sentence
o Use which when clauses is NOT essential to the meaning of a sentence
Example:
“Much of the research that psychologist conducted in the 30 years emphasized social perspective of the personality”
(restrictive)
“Gestalt therapy which focuses on the client’s emotions, became popular in the 1970s” (non-restrictive)
o The non-restrictive clause adds information to the sentence but does not change its meaning.
o If you can remove the clause without changing its meaning of the sentence, the clause is non-restrictive.
Example: Gestalt therapy which focuses on the client’s emotions, became popular in the 1970s
“Gestalt therapy became popular in the 1970’s
4. Vague Pronouns
 Unfortunately, many people continue to use the pronouns this, that, these an those without an obvious referent.
“Many surveys have consistently demonstrated that most people endorse the stereotype that men make better leaders
than women. That may prevent women from being promoted to positions of authority. That is an example of the “glass-
ceiling” phenomenon”
What do this and that refer to in the second and third sentence?
Modified
“Several surveys of people’s attitudes have consistently demonstrated that most people endorse the stereotype that men
make better leaders than women. Belief in these stereotypes may cause employers to promote men, but not women, to
positions of authority. This discrimination is an example of the “glass ceiling” phenomenon”
5. Commonly misused words
 Affect versus Effect
Affect means to influence to cause a change
Example: “The independent variable affected the participant’s behavior”
Effect represents the result or the consequence of something

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 Example: “There were large treatment effects in the experimental group”.
 Among versus Between
Use among when discussing more than two people or objects
“There were minor differences among the 30 participants”
Use between when discussing two people or objects
“There are minor difference between Hull’s and Spencer’s theories”
 Data and Criteria
Data is the plural of datum. Criteria is the plural of criterion.
The data are consistent….
The criteria are set…..
 Few versus little
Few refers to countable quantity of objects
Example:”Few people continue to question the importance of this theory
Little refers to a general quantity
Example: “The research attracted little attention when first published”
 Its versus It’s
Its is a possessive pronoun
“The value of this theory is its ability to make novel predictions
It’s is a contraction of it is.
Never use contractions in technical writing
 Utilize versus Use
Utilize is a transitive verb that adds little to a sentence.
Use is sufficient in most cases.
 While versus Since
While refers to the simultaneous passage of time for two or more linked events.
Example: “While the participants were involved in filling out the questionnaire, the confederate began to perform
various distracting behaviors”
Since refers to the passage of time between the past and present.
Example: “Since Snyder published his paper in 1974, many researchers have become interested in the self-monitoring
construct” .
II. General Rules for Reporting Numbers in APA Style
1. Use numbers to express values equal to or greater than 10:
Example:
“of the people responding, five were engaged to be married
“Each questionnaire contained 15 questions”
2. Use numbers when the value is a part of a noun
Example: “Table 1 and Figure 1
3. Use numbers when the value begins the sentence:
Example: “fourteen subjects refused to complete the task”
4. Use numbers when the sentence contains several related numbers and at least one is equal to or greater than 10
Example: “Participants received reinforcement on the first and fifth trial
“We used 5th, 8th and 15th sessions as probe trials
5. To make a number plural, add s or es as necessary. Do not use an apostrophe
Example: “Skinner’s perspective became popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s”
“Many people believed that tragedies come in threes
III. Citation of Sources in the text
Why should you acknowledge your sources?
• Citations reflect the careful and thorough work you have put into locating and exploring your sources.
• Citations are a courtesy to the reader, who may share your interest in a particular area of scholarship.
• By citing sources, you demonstrate your integrity and skill as a responsible participant in the conversation of
scholarship.
• Failure to provide adequate citations constitutes plagiarism.

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AVOID PLAGIARISM: MAINTAIN ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
• Plagiarism comes from Latin word meaning to kidnap.
• Thus, Plagiarism is an act of stealing ideas from others.
• There are many forms of plagiarism. For example, presenting another person’s ideas or logical argument as
YOURS without CITING THE SOURCE is considered plagiarism.
• Paraphrase using your own words and style the data gathered and put citations.
• Summarize important points from your sources and relate them to your topic.
• Allumbaugh and Hoyt (1999) wrote:
“It is commonly assumed in the psychotherapeutic community that for at least some bereaved individuals, some
form of psychotherapy is useful or even necessary to assist in recovering from loss, and numerous theoretical
frameworks have been proposed for psychotherapies working with bereaved clients.”
What if a student wrote the following sentence?
• “Many psychologist believe that same form psychotherapy is useful and necessary to assist bereaved clients to
recover from the loss. Consequently, there are many psychotherapies designed to help bereaved clients”
• This passage is an example of plagiarism. Although the writer changed few words and phrases, many
Allumbaugh and Hoyts (1999) Furthermore, the written original words remain the sentence. The researcher has
not credited Allumbaugh and Hoyt’s work.
To avoid accusation of plagiarism, the writer should write something like the following 8sentence:
• “According to Allumbaug and Hoyt (1999), many psychologists believe that psychotherapy can help some people
overcome bereavement grief and have created special therapies for this condition.
• This sentence gives clear credit to the origin of the idea and is a major revision of the original text. \
What is APA In-Text Citations
• Use of a parenthetical reference system in the text of the paper.
• Tied to an alphabetical References list (located at the end of your paper)
• Use author-date system of citation
• All in-text parenthetical references must correspond to a source cited in the References list.
APA In-Text Citations
1. Single author/single citation
List the author’s last name followed by the date of publication.
“Smith (2014) examined the effects of delayed reinforcement”.
“A recent study of delayed reinforcement (Smith, 2014) demonstrated…..”
2. Single author/multiple citations
List the author’s last name followed by the dates of the individual publication.
“Smith’s research (2008, 2011,2012) demonstrates……..
“Recent research on this topic
(Smith, 2008, 2011,2012)………..
3. Two or more authors/single citation
 If there are two authors, list both names followed by the date of publication. Use an ampersand (&) when the
citation is within the parentheses.
“Smith and Hoyt (2012) examined the…”
“In a recent review of grief therapies (Smith & Hoyt, 2012…..
 If there are three to five authors, list all the names in the first citation.
 On the subsequent citation, list the name of the first author followed by “et al.” and the date.
First citation:
“Smith, Hoyt, Cherry, and Allen (2012) examined…..”
“Recent research examining relationships (Smith, Hoyt, Cherry, & Allen, 2012)
Subsequent citation:
“Smith et al. (2012) examined
“Several tests of this construct exist (Smith et al., 2012)
 If there are six or more names, list only the first name followed by “et al.” and the date.
4. Multiple Citations
 If your include several citations form different authors in the same parentheses, list the citations alphabetically by
the authors’ names. Separate with a semicolon.

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 “Several studies (Allen, 2008, 2009, 2012; Babcock & Wilcox 2012; Collins & Zager, 2011)….”
5. Translated work
 If the original work was translated into English, list the author’s name, the date of the original publication, and the
date of the translated publications.
 “Freud (1913/1953) developed the theory of screen memory”
6. Corporate Author
 List the name of the organization followed by the date of publication.
 “Sleep deprivation are a common symptom of depression (American Psychiatric Association, 1994)
7. Newspaper or magazine article with no author
 List a short version of the title followed by the date of publications.
 “The popular press often sensationalizes psychological research (IQ tests measure nothing, 1999).”
IV. Reference Section Entries
1. Single author:
Flora, S.R. (1990). Undermining intrinsic interest from the standpoint of behaviorist.
Psychological Record, 40 (2), 323-346.
Zimmerman, B.J. (1985). The development of “intrinsic” motivation: A social learning analysis. Annals of Child
Development,2, 117-160.
2. Multiple Authors
Balsam, D.P., & Bondy, A.S. (1983). The negative effects of reward.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 16, 283-296.
Hatano, G., Sigler, R.S., Richards, D. D., Inagaki K., Stavy, R., & Wax, N. (1993). The development of biological knowledge:
A multinational Study. Cognitive Development, 8, 47-62.
NOTES: JOURNAL REFERENCE
• Capitalize the first letter of the first word in the title of the article and of the first word following a colon.
• Capitalize the first letter of each word in the name of the journal.
• Italicize the title of the journal, the volume number, and commas.
• If there are six or more authors, use the first author’s name and “et al.” even with the first citation in the text
(e.g., “Hatano et al., (1993) examined….”)
3. Books
• Single Author:
Amabile, T.M. (1983). The social psychology of creativity. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Toothaker, L.E. (1993). Multiple comparison procedures. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Multiple Authors:
Tegano, D.W., Moran, J.D., & Sawyers, J.K. (1991). Creativity and early childhood classrooms. Washington, DC: National
Education Association.
NOTES: BOOK REFERENCE
• Capitalize the first letter of the word in the title of the article and of the first word following a colon.
• Italicize the title of the book.
• If the location of the publisher is not well known (e.g., Newbury Park), list the state.
4. Electronic Resources
• These are documents available mainly through the internet.
• This document includes specific guidelines for citing documents using Digital Object Identifier (DOI) codes when
available, as well as proper format for citing electronic books and journal articles retrieved from online.
Hopkins, S. M., & Weathington, B.L. (2006). The relationships between justice perceptions, trust and employee attitudes
in downsized organization. The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 140 (5), 477- 498. doi:
10.3200/JRLP.140.5.477-498.
NOTES: Electronic Resources
• Include a doi if the article has one and is therefore considered final. Otherwise, report the url from which you
downloaded the source.
• If the article is not final or if its status is unclear, include the date on which accessed it, as well as the full url for
the download.
5. Reprint of a classic text
Locke, J. (1964). An essay concerning human understanding. (A.D Woozley, Ed.).

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 Cleverland: Meridian Books. (Original work published 1960)
6. Translation of a book
Freud, S. (1961). Civilization and its discontents. (J. Strachy, Trans). New York: Norton.
(Original work published 1930)
NOTES: Reprint and translation of book
• For the next citation, indicate the original and new publication dates. For example, use Locke (1690/1964) or
Freud (1930/1961)
7. Book Chapter
Asher, S.R., & Hymel, S. (1981). Children’s social competence in peer relations: Sociometric and behavioral
assessment. In J.K. Wine & M.D Smye (Eds). Social competence (pp. 125-127). New York: Guilford Press.
8. Corporate Author
American Psychological Association (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th
ed.) Washington, D.C: Author.
9. Magazines and Newspaper
Magazines
Lemonick, M.D. (1999, October 4). Smart genes?
Time, 154, (11), 54-58.
Newspaper article
Ray, B. (1999, November 5). Domestic Violence growing concern in mid-Ohio valley. The Marietta
Times, p. A1.
Newspaper article, no author
Seniors unimpressed with GOP Congress (1999, November 4). The Marietta Times, p. A3.
10. Internet website
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (November,1999). Schizophrenia. Retrieved 11/17/1999 from
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill: (http://www.nami.org/disorder/990305b.html).
V. Formatting and General Construction
• Set all magins to 1 inch.
• Left justify all text except the title of the paper and the words identifying the start of the major sections.
• Double-space everything. All the next, regardless of section, is double-space.
• Print all text in the same font and size (10 pt. or 12 pt.). Use an easy read font (e.g., Courier or Times New
Roman).
• Please note that, in an attempt to save space, this guide has been formatted in single spacing.

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