There seems to be a widespread ignorance about the intended scope of application of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Assossiation, so I want to clarify that the APA Manual is a guide on how to write, structure and format an academic manuscript for submission to a publisher. It is NOT a guide on how to style publications. Printed journal articles differ hugely in appearance from journal to journal, even if they all adhere to the rules set forth by the APA.
Manuscripts formatted following the APA Manual have only a bare minimum of styling. Throughout the manuscript, for all of the text – including headings, footnotes, figure captions and blockquotes –, the same typeface (Times New Roman), the same font size (12 pt) and the same line spacing (double) must be used (APA, 2009, p. 228-229).
I am irritated and confused that no one employing the APA style seems to have ever held the actual publishesd manual in his hands, because it clearly answers all of the questions that have ever been asked on this site. The Manual even illustrates its principles with many pages of sample papers that show what a manuscript should look like, and if you had ever seen those illustrations you would never in your dreams have thought that a block quote might be styled in a different font size.
Having said this, in the hopes that maybe someone reading this will wake up from his googling stupor, and equip himself with this one indispensable resource for scientific writing, the answer to your question is that:
In APA stye block quotes are indented from the left margin about half an inch (in the same position as the first line of a new paragraph), and no more — no smaller font size, no spacing above or below, no identation on the right (APA, 2009, p. 171).
As for your own examples, no, block quotes are reserved for styling long citations. I don't know what you mean with "examples", but if you need to separate parts of your own writing, use paragraphs, if you want to append materials, use an appendix, or if you want to show a sample, use illustrations (illustrations can also be text), depending on what the status and purpose of those examples is.
Source:
- American Psychological Association. (2009). Publication Manual of the Americal Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
