The Research Problem

Chapter Content

The Research The Research The Research Review of Related

Paper Question Outline Literature
“Doing research is one of the major
tasks that you as college students will
accomplish in most of your courses.”
The Research Paper
 • A research paper is the output you write after
conducting an actual research which involves data

The collection, interpretation, and analysis. It is a scholarly

undertaking insofar as you incorporate in your
research paper what experts or authorities say about a
Research particular topic of your interest. It is therefore
indispensable for you to have an extensive reading of

Paper
literature or of studies conducted in the past which
have a bearing on your topic. Writing about these
previous studies related to your topic entails
observance of the acceptable citation style, making it
the style of citation and documentation that you will
follow in the writing of your paper.
 Contents of a Research Paper
Chapter 1- The Problem and its Chapter 2- Review of Related
Setting Literature
• Introduction • Related Literature
• Statement of the Problem • Synthesis
• Hypothesis of the Study
• Scope and Limitations
• Significance of the Study
• Definition of Terms
• Theoretical/Conceptual
Framework
 Contents of a Research Paper

Chapter 3- Methodology Chapter 4- Results and Discussion

• Research Design • Presents and discusses the data
• Population and Sampling of the research.
• Data Gathering Procedures
• Analysis of Data
• Statistical Treatment
Contents of a Research Paper
Chapter 5- Summary, Conclusion, and
Recommendation
• Lists the research problems and
summary of findings. Conclusion and
recommendations are numbered.
Research
Question
 • Good research must begin with a good
Research research question. Yet coming with good
research questions is something that
Question novice researchers often find difficult and
stressful.
 • Research question often begin as more general
research ideas—usually focusing on some behavior
or psychological characteristic: talkativeness,
memory for touches, depression, bungee jumping,
Finding and so on. Before looking at how to turn such ideas
into empirically testable research questions, it is
Inspiration worth looking at where such ideas come from in the
first place.
• Three of the most common sources of inspiration
are informal observations, practical problems, and
previous research.
Informal Observations
• It includes direct observations of our own and other’s behaviors as well as secondhand
observations from nonscientific sources such as newspaper, books, and so on.
Practical Problems
• Practical problems can inspire research ideas, leading directly to
applied research in such domains as law, health, education, and sports.
Previous Research
• Probably, the most common inspiration for new research ideas.
• Of course, experienced researchers are familiar with previous research in their
area of expertise and probably have a long list of ideas. This suggests that novice
researchers can find inspiration by consulting a more experienced researcher (e.g.,
students can consult a faculty member). But they can also find inspiration by
picking up a copy of almost any professional journal and reading the titles and
abstract.
 • Once you have a research idea, you need to use it
to generate one or more empirically testable
Generating research questions, that is, questions expressed in
Empirically terms of a single variable or relationship between
variables.
Testable • One way to do this is to look closely at the
Research discussion section in a recent research article on
the topic. This is the last major section of the
Questions article, in which the researchers summarize their
results, interpret them in the context of past
research, and suggest directions for future
research.
 • But you may also want to generate your own
Generating research questions. How can you do this?
Empirically • First, if you have a particular behavior or
psychological characteristic in mind, you can
Testable simply conceptualize it as a variable and ask how
Research frequent of intense it is.
• If the questions has never been studied
Questions scientifically—which is something that you will
learn in your literature review—then it might be
interesting and worth pursuing.
 • In this section, we consider two
Evaluating criteria for evaluating research
Research questions: the interestingness of the
question and the feasibility of
Questions answering it.
Interestingness
• First, a research question is interesting to the extent that its answer is in doubt.
Obviously, questions that have been answered by scientific research are no longer
interesting as the subject of new empirical research.
• But the fact that a question has not been answered by scientific research does not
necessarily make it interesting.
• There must be some reasonable chance that the answer to the question will be
something that we did not already know.
Interestingness
• A second important factor to consider when deciding if a research
question is interesting is whether answering it will fill a gap in the
research literature.
• A final factor to consider when deciding whether a research question
is interesting is whether its answer has important practical
implications.
Feasibility
• A second important criterion for evaluating research questions is the
feasibility of successfully answering them. There are many factors that
affect feasibility, including time, money, equipment and materials,
technical knowledge and skills, and access to research participants.
Research
Outline
Chapter
One
 • Situates the research in terms of its context and
contents. This section serves as an introduction
to the study, giving the readers a big-picture
understanding of the topic at hand. When you
Background perform an interdisciplinary research project, it
is also helpful to mention the disciplines that are
of the Study being integrated, particularly since the research
problem may be inadequately answered by one
discipline or perspective. Since it is the
complexity of problems, questions, and methods
that ultimately drive your research, you can
open your background by explaining the need
for a holistic understanding.
 • Starts with a declarative account of the main
research problem that will be investigated. This is
usually a paragraph that encapsulates the realities
to be investigated, the variables to be studied, and
Statement of a summary of the methods to be applied.
• For example, you can mention that your present
the Problem research asks how rural Visayan community gets
access to medical facilities and resources, and
that you plan to research this in a small barangay
in Leyte through participant observation. After
this paragraph, you should write specific
questions related to the main research question. It
is best that this be in the sequence of how the
thesis progresses through its chapters.
 • A statement answering why this study needs to be done,
indicating the value to existing knowledge, and
identifying the stakeholders who will benefit from this
Significance knowledge. When talking about the study’s significance,
you can talk about its conceptual significance(that is,
of the Study its impact to knowledge, ideas, and understanding to
different realities) or its practical significance(that is,
its contribution to the lives of specific groups of people,
or a practical problem that needs to be solved). When
thinking about the significance of your research, think
about how your research may have both conceptual and
practical significance, although having both is not
always necessary.
 • Provides the coverage of your study. There is a
distinction between the two, which you can
show by having a separate paragraph for each.
• On the one hand, the scope indicates the total
Scope and area of the study by establishing the
Limitations boundaries of your research through the
specification of where and when the study was
conducted and who were part of it.
• On the other hand, the limitations indicate the
weaknesses or shortcomings of your research
because of factors that are outside your control
(administrative rules, limited datasets, lack of
time, etc.)
 • The logical abstraction that guides the understanding
and structure of your research. Having a framework is
what distinguishes research from articles that are just
collection of related ideas, By having a framework,
you articulate connections between empirical
evidence that you have.
Research • A Conceptual Framework consists of concepts or
ideas that interpret, simplify, or clarify relationships
Framework between concepts.
• A Theoretical Framework consists of explanations
that illuminate phenomena. Thus, a more
interpretative research may look for a conceptual
framework while a more explanatory or predictive
research can use a theoretical framework. Sometimes,
your framework will come from other theorists, while
at other times you will have to create your own
framework that integrates other theorists’ ideas.
 • Enumerates the terms that need specialized
descriptions so that there is a general
understanding within the study of what these
terms mean. You will need to determine which
Definition of terms will merit inclusions since not all terms
Terms need to be defined. As a good rule of thumb, if
a term is new or is recurrent, it is best to define
it at the start of the research. Remember to
define the terms conceptually, by what it really
means, and operationally, by how it will be
used in the study.
Chapter Two
 • Specifies studies that have already been
conducted on your research topic. These may be
Review of studies from other contexts, or with other aims.
Your best bet for good sources of related
Related literature are journal articles, academic books,
and credible news items. When looking for these
Literature studies, make the effort to look for sources in
different disciplines, take note of how they differ
or converge, and question how their insights are
related to your present study. You will need to
account for the big picture, but also need to focus
and be discriminating.
Chapter
Three
 • Includes the ways and means for collecting
data from both primary and secondary
sources. Most of your secondary data may
come through library and internet research,
Data especially as you dialogue with different
books and journal articles. Your primary data
Collection can come from archives, interviews, surveys,
observations, or experiments, and it is
important to inform your readers how you
will be gathering these information. This
includes discussion on the research design,
participants of the study, sampling
technique, data gathering procedures, and
the research instrument.
 • Provides the approaches you will use to
analyze the raw data that you get from your
Data data collection. You may discuss how you
will interpret a text, how you will do
Analysis statistical tests, how you will offer themes
from your interviews and how your
primary sources will interact, challenge, or
engage with your secondary sources.
 • Outlines the protocols and procedures
describing how all the ethical requirements
are met. This may come in the form of your
respondents’ having full knowledge of and
Ethical consent to the research, their being
Considerations anonymous throughout the study, and their
being protected from the risks and harms that
can come with the research. These
considerations are usually present when
working with human participants, who may
be identified in the research or be harmed by
the questions or interventions.
Review of Related
Literature
 The research literature in any field is all the published
research in that field. The research literature in psychology is
enormous—including millions of scholarly articles and books
dating to the beginning of the field—and it continues to grow.

Research
Literature
Two types of Sources: Articles in professional journals and
Scholarly books in psychology and related fields.
 Professional Journals are periodicals that publish original
research articles.
Two Basic Types: empirical research reports and review
articles

Review articles summarize previously published research on a

Professional topic and usually present new ways to organize or explain the
results. When a review article is devoted to presenting a new
theory, this is often referred to a theoretical article.
Journals
Empirical Research reports describe one or more new empirical
studies conducted by the authors. They introduce a research
question, explain why is it interesting, review previous research,
describe their method and results, and draw their conclusions.
 Scholarly books are books written by
researchers and practitioners mainly for
use by other researchers and
practitioners.

Scholarly
Books A monograph is written by a single
author or a small group of authors and
usually gives a coherent presentation of a
topic much like an extended review
article.
 REFERENCES

• University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. (2016).

Research Methods in Psychology. Minnesota
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).