How to Write an Active Vs Passive Voice for Psychology

Psychology writing requires a delicate balance between objective reporting and clear agency to distinguish between researcher actions and participant behaviors. While older conventions favored the distant passive voice, modern APA standards emphasize the active voice to ensure clarity in complex behavioral descriptions.

What Is an Active Vs Passive Voice in Psychology?

In psychology, voice indicates whether the researcher (the subject) is performing the action or being acted upon. Unlike the humanities where active voice is almost always preferred, or hard sciences that historically leaned on the passive voice for 'objectivity,' psychology uses a hybrid approach: active voice for researcher decisions and passive voice when the focus must remain strictly on the experimental stimulus or the participant's experience without researcher interference.

Before You Start

• Identify the primary 'actor' in each section of your paper (e.g., the researcher, the participant, or the statistical test).
• Review the latest APA Publication Manual guidelines regarding self-references and personification.
• Clarify your methodology to ensure you know exactly who administered each psychometric scale or intervention.
• Differentiate between the 'results' (data) and the 'interpretation' (the researcher's synthesis).

Use Active Voice for Researcher Actions

When describing the steps you took in an experiment or a clinical case study, use the active voice. This prevents ambiguity about who performed the task.

Example: Active: 'We administered the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) to all participants.' vs. Passive: 'The BDI-II was administered to all participants.'

Tip: Avoid using the 'royal we' if you are the sole author; use 'I' instead to maintain accuracy in single-author papers.

Employ Passive Voice to Emphasize the Participant

If the focus of the sentence is the participant's state or the condition they were placed in, the passive voice is often more appropriate to keep the subject centered.

Example: Passive: 'Participants were randomly assigned to the high-stress condition.'

Tip: Use passive voice when the identity of the person performing the action is irrelevant to the psychological outcome.

Apply Active Voice in Literature Reviews

When discussing existing theories or previous findings, use active verbs to attribute ideas to specific authors, which helps in tracking the evolution of psychological thought.

Example: Active: 'Bandura argued that social modeling significantly influences aggressive behavior.'

Tip: Vary your active verbs beyond 'said' or 'wrote'; use 'posited,' 'demonstrated,' or 'contended' for nuance.

Use Passive Voice for Procedural Neutrality

In the Methods section, use the passive voice when describing how stimuli were presented to ensure the focus remains on the experimental design rather than the experimenter.

Example: Passive: 'Visual stimuli were displayed on a 15-inch monitor for 500 milliseconds.'

Tip: If the researcher's specific technique is the variable being studied, switch back to active voice.

Avoid Anthropomorphism with Active Voice

Be careful not to attribute human actions to inanimate objects like 'the study' or 'the data.' While active voice is good, the subject must be capable of the action.

Example: Incorrect: 'The study found that anxiety increased.' Correct: 'The results indicated that anxiety increased.'

Tip: Check if your subject can literally perform the verb; a 'theory' cannot 'think,' but a 'theorist' can.

Use Active Voice for Statistical Interpretations

When explaining what your statistical analysis shows, the active voice provides a more direct link between the data and the conclusion.

Example: Active: 'A t-test revealed a significant difference between the control and experimental groups.'

Tip: Keep the statistical test as the subject to show that the conclusion is data-driven.

Balance Voice in the Discussion Section

In the Discussion, use active voice to claim your interpretations and passive voice to acknowledge the limitations of the broader field.

Example: Active: 'We interpret these findings as evidence of cognitive dissonance.'

Tip: Use the active voice to take responsibility for your unique contributions to the psychological discourse.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Using passive voice to hide a small sample size or a weak methodology (e.g., 'It was observed that...' instead of 'We observed...').
• Overusing 'There is' or 'There are,' which creates wordy, passive-leaning structures in theoretical frameworks.
• Switching voices mid-paragraph without a logical reason, which confuses the reader about who is acting.
• Attributing agency to the 'paper' rather than the 'author' (e.g., 'This paper argues...').
• Using the passive voice in the Abstract, where word count is limited and active voice is more concise.

Pro Tips

• Read your 'Methods' section aloud; if you lose track of who is doing what, you need more active voice.
• Use active voice when citing a specific study's findings to give credit to the researchers.
• Reserve the passive voice for describing 'universal' psychological phenomena where the observer doesn't matter.
• Check the specific 'Instructions for Authors' if submitting to a journal like 'Psychological Bulletin' as they may have niche preferences.
• When in doubt, prioritize clarity over the 'sound' of academic formality.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does APA style allow the use of 'I' or 'We'?

Yes, APA style explicitly encourages the use of first-person pronouns to avoid ambiguity and the awkwardness of the passive voice when describing researcher actions.

When is passive voice better in a psychology lab report?

Passive voice is better when describing the experimental setup or the treatment of participants where the focus should be on the experience of the subject rather than the person administering the test.

Can I use active voice in the results section?

Yes, you should use active voice to describe what the data or statistical tests show (e.g., 'The ANOVA yielded...'), though the passive voice is common for reporting that 'significance was found.'

Is active voice considered less objective in psychology?

No, modern psychology values transparency. Using active voice clearly identifies who is responsible for the research steps, which is considered more scientifically rigorous than hiding behind the passive voice.

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