PSY 205 Research Methods in Psychology I

APA Application 1: Reference Citations in Text in APA Format

Objective: Writing different types of reference citations in text in APA format

In APA Style, an in-text citation tells the reader where you got any and all information that did
not come from inside your own head. In order to avoid plagiarism, it is extremely important
that you cite all the words and ideas that you got from somewhere else. APA uses the author-
date citation system. (American Psychological Association, 2019)
In-text citations have two formats: narrative and parenthetical.
˖ In narrative citations, the author’s name is incorporated into the text as part of the
sentence and the year follows in parentheses.
˖ In parenthetical citations, the author’s name and publication date appear in
parentheses.
*While referencing the same source for the second or further time, called subsequent citation,
you do not need to include the date in any subsequent citations for narrative citation (still
need to use the date for the parenthetical citation).
*You can give reference to a study either in your sentences or at the end of your sentences in a
parenthetical format. It depends on you.
 Narrative Citations

The author’s surname appears in running text, and the date appears in parentheses
immediately after the author’s name for a narrative citation. The author’s name can be
included in the sentence in any place it makes sense.

Narrative Citation Rules

1. If one author conducted the study, write the author’s last name, write the year of the study
in parenthesis, then continue with your sentence.
e.g., LastName (year) …
e.g., … LastName (year) …
2. If two authors conducted the study, write first author’s last name.
Before writing the second author’s last name, write and.
Write the year of the study in parenthesis, then continue with your sentence.
e.g., LastName1 and LastName2 (year) …
e.g., … LastName1 and LastName2 (year) …
3. If three or more authors conducted the study, write the first author’s last name, and write
et al and put dot.
Write the year of the study in parenthesis, then continue with your sentence.
e.g., LastName1 et al. (year) …
e.g., … LastName1 et al. (year) …
 Parenthetical Citations

Both the author and the date, separated by a comma, appear in parentheses for a parenthetical
citation. A parenthetical citation can appear within or at the end of a sentence.

Parenthetical Citation Rules

1. If one author conducted the study, open a parenthesis, write the last name of the author,
put comma then write the year. Close the parenthesis.
e.g., … (LastName, year) …
e.g., … (LastName, year).
2. If two authors conducted the study, open a parenthesis, write the last name of the first
author, and write &.
Write the second author’s last name, put comma then write the year. Close the parenthesis.
e.g., … (LastName1 & LastName2, year) …
e.g., … (LastName1 & LastName2, year).
3. If three or more authors conducted the study, open a parenthesis write the first author’s
last name, and write et al put dot and comma.
Write the year of the study. Close the parenthesis.
e.g., … (LastName1 et al., year) …
e.g., … (LastName1 et al., year).
 Exercises

Exercise 1 Kirchner, W. K. (1958). Age differences in short-term retention of rapidly

changing information. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 55, 352–358.

Narrative citation:
Parenthetical citation:

Exercise2 Obrig, H., & Villringer, A. (2003). Beyond the visible-imaging the human
brain with light. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism, 23, 1–18.

Narrative citation:
Parenthetical citation:

Exercise 3 Strangman, G., Boas, D. A, & Sutton, J. P. (2002). Non-invasive

neuroimaging using near-infrared light. Biological Psychiatry, 52, 679–93.

Narrative citation:
Parenthetical citation:

Exercise 4 Watanabe, A., Matsuo, K., Kato, N., & Kato, T. (2003). Cerebrovascular
response to cognitive tasks and hyperventilation measured by multi-
channel near-infrared spectroscopy. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and
Clinical Neurosciences, 15, 442–449.

Narrative citation:
Parenthetical citation:

Exercise 5 Wyatt, J. S., Cope, M., Delpy, D. T., Wray, S., & Reynolds, E. O. (1986).
Quantification of cerebral oxygenation and haemodynamics in sick
newborn infants by near-infrared spectrophotometry. Lancet, 2, 106–110.

Narrative citation:
Parenthetical citation:
Exercise 6 Reynolds, E. O. R., Wyatt, J. S., Azzopardi, D., Delpy, D. T., Cady, E. B., Cope,
M., & Wray, S. (1988). New non-invasive methods for assessing brain
oxygenation and hemodynamics. British Medical Bulletin, 44, 1052–1075.

Narrative citation:
Parenthetical citation:

Suppose you could not find the original article that was cited in an article that you read, but
you want to use the information that was written. Although it is always better to read the
original work to get information, you need to cite the article you have in front of you, never
use another author's references to cite material you have not accessed.

Write the last name of the original source’s author (i.e., Farrow) and year, but cite the
material you found it in the article your read (i.e., Ward and Decan) by writing as cited in
(e.g., Farrow, 1968, as cited in Ward, & Decan, 1988).

In the example below, the original source is Chance et al. (1988), which was cited by Irani et
al. (2007).

Exercise 7 Irani, F., Platek, S. M., Bunce, S., Ruocco, A. C., & Chute, D. (2007).
Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS): An emerging neuroimaging
technology with important applications for the study of brain disorders.
The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 21, 9–37.

Narrative citation:
Parenthetical citation:

Suppose you wanted to use a direct quotation in your paper.

Short quotations (fewer than 40 words): Enclose the entire quote in quotation marks (“”),
write the original words, and provide a page/line/paragraph number (if the paragraph
number is available)
e.g., According to Jones (1998), "Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially
when it was their first time" (p. 199).
Block quotations (40 words or more): Do not use quotation marks. Start the direct quote on
a new line and indent a half inch from the margin.
For example:
Jones' (1998) study found the following:
Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first-time
citing sources. This difficulty could be attributed to the fact that many students
failed to purchase a style manual or to ask their teacher for help. (p. 199)

Exercise 8 In Cozby and Bates’ book which was republished in 2012, they wrote the
following statement which is in page 63: Although plagiarism is certainly
not a new problem, access to Internet resources and the ease of copying
material from the Internet may be increasing its prevalence.
Quotation in text: