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Research Questions and Hypotheses - Coggle Diagram
Research Questions and Hypotheses
Research Questions
Interesting topic
Broad topic of interest to you with no specific theory, hypothesis, or direction
Narrow with working knowledge
Use your preliminary understanding of the topic to narrow the research idea to specific variables of interest
Research question(s)
Question(s) that inquire about the relationship between your variables of interest. Note: does not include hypotheses
Conduct research
Research empirical literature that examines your RQs and the relationship between the variables of interest
Hypotheses
Guided by what was found in empirical research
Questions surrounding a topic that you wish to explore with research.
RQs should be
Interesting
Is RQ worth answering?
Novel
Has the RQ already been answered?
If No, can you narrow the scope of the RQ
Feasible
Can the RQ be answered?
Strong research questions include
Specific variables to examine
Measurable constructs
Example
How do dynamic need measures change in DRAOR risk assessments over the course of parole
Weak Research questions include
Hypotheses and predictions
Scope too broad so there is nowhere to start your research
Scope too narrow to find sufficient literature to review
Example
Offenders do not change on parole
Do offenders change on parole?
Steps to developing RQs
Pick a topic
Start with a topic that interests you. Topics can be drawn from your own interests, class, articles you have read
Conduct background research
Use keywords to search existing literature on the topic
Use "future research" in existing articles to gather ideas
Narrow your scope
Start with an RQ in your topic area
Narrow the scope to questions that with no/limited existing research
Variables
Variables are characteristics you can measure
Independent
Variables of interest that you can explore for how they influence some outcome
Types
Manipulation: variables you can change
Quasi: Variables you cannot change, but can categorize
Dependent
Outcome of interest
Confounding/Third
Variables not of interest, but they may influence your results
Measurement scales
Continuous variables
Ratio
Includes true zero
Height, age, km
Interval
No true zero
Temperature, intelligence test score
Categorical variables
Nominal
Categories
Married, widowed, divorced, single
Ordinal
Categories with order
Primary school, secondary school, trade school, undergraduate, post graduate
Hypotheses
A supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation
Testable
Does it identify variables of interest?
Can this be answered with research?
Is it phrased with an expected outcome?
Based off existing literature
Does not conflict with other research
Exception if other research has conflicting findings
Steps to developing hypotheses
Respond to research questions
Hypotheses must answer the research questions. If they are unrelated, the hypothesis needs to change
Identify variables
Pull variables from RQs
Conduct background research
Include variables of interest
Summarize findings of closely related RQs/hypotheses
Predict findings based upon existing literature
Does not conflict with other research