1. Generating Research Questions
Foundations of Science

2. Developing Research Idea
Um…, I need to find an idea? You got one?
Personal Interests, Curiosities, Experiences
Systematic observation
Theory
Practical Problems
Vague & Fleeting Thoughts
Reading the Ideas of Others
Major Events
New Technologies
Flip the Standard Question
The first step in the research process to generate an idea. Researchers’ ideas come from many places. I’ve just listed a few places here.
A. Personal interests, curiosities, experiences
Generating ideas based on your own interests and concerns or from your own observations of the world. For example, I conduct research on voluntary false confessions. Although I had always been interested in confessions, I had not seriously considered the ‘voluntary’ part of confessions until an incident my sister shared with me. Apparently, one evening her college roommate did something very stupid – drove while intoxicated and ran into a parked car in her apartment complex. She simply moved her car a couple of rows down and then decided to go to bed. She was awoken by a knock on the door from the police. She knew she was still intoxicated and simply said although it was her car that was involved, which it clearly was, it was her sister who was driving at the time. Her sister agreed to take the blame for her because she knew she would get in less trouble. I was curious about the personality and situational factors that would lead to such behavior – thus, began my program of research.
B. Systematic Observation
1. if you have some time, then you might actually use it to try to systematically observe something you are interested in. Although we might haphazardly notice something, it is different to try to be mindful of our observations.
C. Theories (organize and guide further research)
Look for theories where you can test their predictions. For example, researchers have applied the theory of evolution to understand which people are more likely to receive help. Learning of classical and operant conditioning have been applied to many areas to help us
Test two different theories that may attempt to explain the same behavior (pit theories against each other).
D. Practical problems (applied research)
How can we get people to take greater precautions against the spread of HIV?
How can we reduce texting while driving?
How can train people spot fake news?
How should be organize our website so that people find what they need more efficiently?
E. Vague & fleeting thoughts (flashes of inspiration) – wake up in the middle of the night with an “a-ha” feeling
F. Reading the ideas of others
Informal (advertising, political cartoons) or formal sources (newspapers, journals) - For example reading the book Fast Food Nation might generate all sorts of topics to examine – perceptions about fast food industry, role of immigrant workers, health hazards, awareness agricultural industry, effects of marketing on children
At the end of the empirical journal articles there is usually a section in which the authors outline limitations and/or suggestions for future research.
We might ask can the existing study be modified or extended (different contexts, different populations)?
Perhaps we can combine two or more existing results?
G. Major events
Like 9/11, the holocaust, the Jonestown massacre, refugee crisis
Accounting for paradoxical incidents – for example, sometimes people come to identify with aggressor (i.e., stockholm’s syndrome)
H. New Technologies or new ways of measuring something
Virtual reality sparked also sorts of ides about how this technology could be applied to solve problems
I. Flip the standard question – “why do people participate in riots?” instead ask “Why don’t people participate in riots?”

3. Developing Research Topic
Narrowing your topic of interest
Possible causes?
Possible effects?
Are certain types of people effected more or less?
Are the effects diminished or exacerbated under certain situations?
Find out what is already know
Evaluating research questions for
Interest
Feasibility
Once you have a research topic then you will most likely need to work on narrowing your topic of interest. There are lots of good research guides available library services that provide information on how to do this. Here is one example:
You can ask yourself the following questions, which may help you develop your topic into more specific questions
What are the causes of this behavior or phenomenon?
What are the effects of this behavior or phenomenon?
Are there certain types of people who exhibit more or less of this behavior or phenomenon?
Are the effects more or less powerful under certain conditions?
After narrowing your topic and developing some questions about this topic, you’ll need to review the literature on the topic. That is, what is already known about this topic. It may lead you to develop specific hypotheses or to revise your questions.
You will also need to evaluate your research question and hypotheses…
For interest – is answer to your research question unclear (i.e., we don’t yet know), would the answer to your question address a gap in the literature, and does the answer have important practical implications.
For feasibility – here researchers must take into consideration time, money, equipment, access to participants, ethics, their own knowledge and skills, etc.
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4. Mini-Review
Identify a recent event that could be used to generate a research question.
Provide an example of a new technology that has generated questions in the field of psychology.
If we were interested in the topic of bully, how turn this into a testable research question?