4/19/17

Lecture 4

Research Ideas and Hypotheses

Formula5on

Prof. Shali Wu

Sources of Research Ideas

•  Everyday life
•  Practical issues
–  workplace morale or job placement
–  new therapy techniques for mental illness
–  eyewitness identification
•  Past research
•  Theory

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Theory
•  A statement or group of statements that
explain “how” and “why” some part of the
world works

Issues Affecting Research Ideas

•  Bias
–  overlooking research ideas because of personal
preferences or demographic influences
•  e.g., looking at the influence of maternal work outside the
home on children’s psychological welfare, but not paternal
work outside the home
•  Must be capable of being scientifically
investigated
–  according to science ideas, but be capable of being
confirmed or refuted
•  e.g., issues of morality or religion are important, but are not
subject to scientific investigation

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Review of the Literature

•  Purpose of the literature review
1.  identify if the topic has been researched
2.  provide design ideas
3.  identify methodological problems
4.  identify special needs in terms of research
participants or equipment
5.  provide information for the research report

Review of the Literature

•  Getting Started
–  familiarize yourself with your campus library
–  define your topic area, identify keywords for search
•  Defining Objectives
–  are you familiarizing yourself with the topic?
–  are you looking to help you develop methodology?
•  Doing the search
–  books
–  journals
–  electronic databases
•  PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, PsycBOOKS
–  Internet resources
•  e-mail, listservs, World Wide Web, search engines
–  regional and national psychological associations

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Evaluating Web Pages

•  Main problems with information from the Web
is the validity of the information
•  Criteria to help you evaluate validity
1.  authority
–  author and their credentials
–  preferred domains .edu, .org, .gov
–  qualifications of the publisher of the page
2.  accuracy
–  credentials and e-mail address for contact
–  purpose of the information
–  determine if there is acknowledgment of limitations of the
information

Evaluating Web Pages

•  Main problems with information from the Web is the
validity of the information
•  Criteria to help you evaluate validity
3.  objectivity
–  identify any evidence of bias
–  advertising would suggest bias to sell something
–  is the information traceable to factual information or references
–  author’s opinions suggest bias
4.  currency
–  regular updates to the Web page
5.  coverage
–  being able to view the information without paying fees or having
additional software requirements
–  exception might be scientific journals, but you should be able to
access them through the library’s Web site for no additional cost
to you

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Feasibility of the Study

•  Must consider time, expense, ethical and other
issues to determine if conducting the study is
possible and practical
•  Example
–  studying the effect of being sexually abused as a child
on the stability of later marital relationships
•  may be difficult to identify individuals who were sexually
abused
•  being sexually abused is an ethically sensitive topic
•  must follow the individuals for years until they marry
•  assessment of marital stability requires expertise in that area

Formulating the Research

Problem
•  Defining the Research Problem
–  an interrogative sentence that states the relationship
between two or more variables
–  examples
•  “Can a group induce a person to deliver punishment of
increasing severity to a protesting individual?” (Milgram,
1964a)
•  do space creatures influence the behavior of college
students?
–  criteria for good research problems
•  variables should express a relationship
•  stated in question form
•  capable of empirical testing (**very important)

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Formulating the Research

Problem
•  Specificity of the research question
•  too vague – what effect does the environment have
on learning ability?
•  better – what effect does the amount of exposure
to words have on the speed with which they are
learned?
–  a specific statement helps ensure the
researcher understands the problem
–  specific problem statements help the
researcher to determine factors such as
•  participants, apparatus, instruments, measures

Formulating Hypotheses
•  The best prediction or a tentative solution
to a problem
•  Criterion – must be capable of being
refuted or confirmed (testability)
•  Types
–  research
•  the predicted relationship between the variables
–  null
•  statement of no relationship among the variables