UNDERSTA

NDING NurZetty Sofia binti

Zainuddin

RESEARCH
Lecturer
Faculty of Allied Health
Sciences, CUCMS

PROCESS
LEARNING OUTCOME
Define research scientific method

Describe the research steps

Describe research question, research objectives and research hypothesis

Describe steps in the formulation of a research question

Identify the dependent and independent variable

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 2

 CAN OUR
THOUGHT
S BE A
RESEARC
H?
Our judgement can be bias / based
on assumptions /too subjective
We used to jump to conclusion
However, it is a preliminary steps
of doing a research!
PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 3
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC
PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 4
WHAT IS RESEARCH?
 Research is a scientific method to study in any field objectively and
systematically

A lot of process happens here and this is the

area of researcher do their job

 A research in psychology is not just describing and explaining why it

happens but also can predict and/or change human behaviour accordingly
PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 5
PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 6
WHY DO WE DO RESEARCH?
 Research deals with problems, attitudes and opinions.
 With research, they seek to understand why things
behave the way they do, why people act in a certain way,
or what makes people become ill
 Research attempts to seek answers to questions.
 It draws conclusions from the information (commonly
referred to as data) gathered.

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 7

BASIC COMPONENT OF A
RESEARCH
Variables: the events,
Subject or Participant: an
characteristics, behaviors, or
individual person or animal a
conditions that researchers wants
researcher studies.
to measure and study.

Population: a complete set of Sample: a subsets that represent

people. Researchers study the the entire population. Researchers
sample and generalize their results use samples because they cannot
to the population. study the entire population.

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 8

 Identify the
Develop the
research Research plan
hypothesis
question

Analyze the
Collect the data Conclusion
data

BRIEF STEPS IN RESEARCH

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 9
 1. Identify the research question
2. Initial review of literature
3. Identify the question to a research problem
4. Continued review of literature
5. Formulation of hypothesis
12 STEPS IN 6. Determine the basic research approach

RESEARCH 7.
8.
Identify the population and sample
Design the data collection plan
9. Selecting or developing data collection
instruments
10. Choose the method of data analysis
11. Implementing the research plan
12. Interpret
PSY 2043 Research Methodthe results
in Social Science 10
 IDENTIFIYING
11
RESEARCH
QUESTION

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science

MAKE OBSERVATION
 What is the problem?
 Initial research ideas are often very general but a good research question
need to be quite specific
 identify what do you want to find out in your research

 Turning ideas into questions

 Review on existing literature
 Finding the gap of previous study
What are the things that left unanswered. If it already answered, why you need to get the same
thing? What are the novelty of your study that can contribute?

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 12

 ASK
QUESTION
 Develop research
question
 Statement that
identifies the
phenomenon to be
studied
 Statement of problem
must be concise and
clear

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 13

 Instead of googling about depression , what can
question can you ask?
 What is depression? How is it classified?
 What causes of the depression
 What are the symptoms?
 How is it treated?
 What are the chemical pathways involved?
 How many people have depression
 Can we predict the depression
 Can we prevent it?

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 14

CONSIDERATIONS IN
SELECTING RESEARCH AREAS
Measurement,
Interest Ethical issues
instruments

Manageability Expertise Time

Resources
PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 15
 1. Identify a broad field or subject area
of interest to you.
STEPS IN 2. Dissect the broad area into subareas.
3. Select the topic that you have been
IDENTIFYI narrowed it down

NG 4. Raise research question

5. Formulate research objectives

RESEARCH 6. Identify the variables that you want

to involve and make sure it is
QUESTION measurable
7. Double-check your research
question
PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 16
WHICH IS A GOOD RESEARCH
QUESTION?
A. Does McD or Burger King make a better burger?
 Better? In terms of what? Nutrition, taste, value, calories, making kids happy? etc

B. Is Prozac a good way to treat clinical depression in certain cases?

 Researchable, however what kind of cases?

C. Is there a link between hours of television viewing and violent behaviour

in children aged 8-14?
 Researchable – clear & specific

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CHOOSE YOUR RESEARCH QUESTION
NOT TOO BROAD OR NARROW
A. What is the rate of Diabetes Mellitus in Malaysia in 2008?
 Too narrow – it can be answered with a simple statistic

B. What can we do to reduce Diabetes Mellitus in Malaysia?

 Too broad – it cover many tactics in reducing it

C. Does dietary education play a role in reducing Diabetes Mellitus

among adults in Malaysia?
 Good enough – focused and depth enough

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 18

  Research objective comes after research
question
 To answer the research question and act as
aim of our study
 Objectives transform these questions into
RESEARCH behavioural aims by using action-oriented
words such as to find out, to determine, to
OBJECTIVE ascertain, to examine, to measure and to
explore.
S  Examples of statement:
 “The problem of this study was to …”
 “This study was concerned with …”
 “This study is designed to …”
 “The purpose of this investigation is to …”
PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 19
EXAMPLES
 To describe the types of incentives provides by five star hotels in Putrajaya to
their employees.
 To find out the opinion of the employees about the medical facilities provided by
Minda Global Bhd.
 To ascertain the impact of training on employee retention.
 To compare the effectiveness of different loyalty programmes on repeat clientele.
 To ascertain if an increase in working hours will increase the incidence of drug
abuse.
 To demonstrate that the provision of yearly bonus and medical facilities to
employees in CUCMS will reduce staff turnover.
PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 20
 Research Question Research Objective

The purpose of this investigation is

Is Prozac effective to treat clinical to examine whether Prozac is
depression among adult? effective to treat clinical depression
among adult

Are young drivers more likely to This study aims to determine

get into accidents caused by cell whether phone use can cause into
phone use? accidents among young drivers

The problem of this study to find

Does getting less sleep affect your
out does people who not getting
health?
enough sleep can affect their health

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 • Social psychology
• Disorder or type of therapy
• Human cognition
• Human development
• Famous experiment
• Historical figure

• Prejudice, discrimination (i.e.,

homophobia, sexism, racism)
1. Identify the broad idea • Social cognition
• Person perception
2. Dissect to subareas • Attitudes

3. Select the
specific topic
• Prejudice, discrimination (i.e.,
homophobia, sexism, racism)
> Men and job perfomance

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 22

4. Raise research questions
Does Men performed better in work
5. Formulate objectives
compared to women?
1. To determine whether men performed
What are the factors that influence job better in work than women
performance
2. To find out what are the factors that
What are the perceptions of job officer influence job performance
on women performance?
3. To determine the perceptions of job
officer on women performance

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 23


• Assess your objectives based on
your resources:
• 1. work involved
• 2. time available to you
• 3. financial resources available
• 4. your technical expertise in the
area
6. Make sure it is
measurable
PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science
7. Double-check
your research
question
1.That you are really interested in
the study
2. That you agree with the objectives
3.That you have adequate resources
4.That you have the technical
expertise to undertake the study
24
25
DEVELOP YOUR
HYPOTHESIS

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science

  Hypothesis is a statement that predicts
the outcome of an investigation
 Proposes a relationship between two or
more variables
DEVELOP  A useful hypothesis is testable statement
YOUR which may include a prediction
HYPOTHESI  A good hypothesis will provide
direction for your investigation and will
S help to keep your investigation focused
 Hypothesis depends on:
 Previous experience
 Theory
 Related information search
PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 26
 Research Question Research Objective Research Hypothesis

The purpose of this investigation

Is Prozac effective to
treat clinical depression
is to examine whether Prozac is Prozac is an effective to treat
among adult? effective to treat clinical clinical depression among adult
depression among adult

Are young drivers This study aims to determine

Cell phone used can caused
more likely to get into whether cell phone use can cause accidents to happens among
accidents caused by into accidents among young young drivers
cell phone use? drivers

The problem of this study to find

Does getting less sleep out does people who not getting Not getting enough sleep could
affect your health? enough sleep can affect their affect health
health
PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 27
VARIABLES
 Independent variable (cause)
 Input variables, causes the change in the dependent
variable
 Can be manipulated, measured or selected before
measuring the outcome

 Dependent variable (effect)

 Outcome, effect, direct cause by or output by certain
input variables

Independent Dependent variables

variables

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 28

 In hypothesis : Y depends on X
 Y is dependent variable
 X is independent variable

 Hypothesis : the amount of medication (mg) need to be given

depends on the body weight (kg) of the patient
 Dependent : amount of medicine (mg)
 Independent : body weight (kg)

 Hypothesis: Why do women have a longer lifespan than men?

 Dependent : Lifespan
 Independent : gender

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 29

 DELIMITATION,
30
LIMITATION,
ASSUMPTION

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science

DELIMITATIONS
 Delimitations are choices made by the researcher which should be mentioned.
They describe the boundaries that you have set for the study.
 This is the place to explain:
 The things that you are not doing (and why you have chosen not to do them).
 The literature you will not review (and why not).
 The population you are not studying (and why not).
 The methodological procedures you will not use (and why you will not use them).

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 31

LIMITATIONS
 Limitations are influences that the researcher cannot control
 They are the shortcomings, conditions or influences that cannot be controlled by
the researcher that place restrictions on your methodology and conclusions.
 Any limitations that might influence the results should be mentioned. When
considering what limitations there might be in your investigation, be thorough.
 Consider all of the following:
 Your analysis.
 The nature of self-reporting.
 The instruments you utilized.
 The sample.
 Time constraints

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 32

LIMITATIONS (CONT…)
 Possible shortcomings of the study . . . usually cannot be controlled by the
researcher
 the researcher will, of course, try to eliminate extremely serious weaknesses before the
study is commenced
 May be a result of assumptions not being met
 No study is perfect - the researcher recognizes the weaknesses

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 33

ASSUMPTIONS
 Assumptions are accepted as true, or at least plausible, by researchers and
peers who will read your dissertation or thesis.
 Basic premises required in the study... the researcher does everything possible
to increase the credibility of the assumptions, but does not have absolute
control
 If you are conducting a survey, you need to assume that people will answer
truthfully.
 If you are choosing a sample, you need to assume that this sample is
representative of the population you wish to make inferences to.

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 34

EXERCISE
You are requested to study the non-compliance towards
medication problem among the hypertensive patients based on
gender, age and education level.

1. Give 1 objectives that can be derived from the study

2. What are the research question and the research hypothesis?
3. Identify the variables in the above study and list out all of them
4. State which are the dependent and independent variables
PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 35
  You are requested to study the non-compliance towards
medication problem among the hypertensive patients based
on gender, age and education level.

 Give objectives that can be derived from the study

 To identify whether older age/men/lower education level has
problem in taking the medication among hypertensive patients
 What are the research question and the research hypothesis?
 RQ : Does older men had a problem in taking medication

ANSWER among hypertensive patients?

 RH : Older men has a problem in taking medication among
hypertensive patients
 Identify the variables in the above study and define each one of
them
 Gender, age, education level, non-compliance towards
medication
 State which are the dependent and independent variables
 Dependent variable : Non-compliance towards medication
 Independent variable : gender, age, education level
PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 36
DISCUSS WITH YOUR GROUP
 Research topic, must include:
 TWO variables (independent & dependent variable)
 Subject
 Sample
 Population

 Research Questions
 Research Objectives
 Research Hypothesis

PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 37

 THANK Any question?

YOU
PSY 2043 Research Method in Social Science 38