Selecting Researchable Topics and Questions

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Selecting Researchable Topics and Questions

• Chapter 4

2
Introduction

• Research Question
• Questions about one or more topics or concepts
  that can be answered through research
• A research question can be about local or global
  governments, individuals or organizations, and an
  entire society

3
Introduction

• Research Topic
• A concept, subject or issue that can be studied
  through research

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Discussion - Question

• Create a research question about the social
  impact of living through a natural disaster.
• Do you know people who lived through a natural
  disaster such as a hurricane, a tornado, a
  tsunami, or the like?
• In what ways do you think their lives have
  changed?
• Do you think their experiences are typical or
  unusual?

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Introduction

• Hypothesis
• A testable statement about how two or more
  variables are expected to be related to one
  another

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Introduction

• Research question vs. Hypothesis
• A research question is similar to a hypothesis,
  except that a hypothesis presents an expectation
  about the way two or more variables are related,
  but a research question does not
• Research projects that have explanatory or
  evaluation purposes typically begin with one or
  more hypotheses, most exploratory and some
  descriptive projects start with a research
  question

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Introduction

• Focal research
• Studying Womens Lives Family Focus in the 30s
  
• Hoffnung had personal experiences and
  professional interests that set the stage for her
  study of womens lives
• Research provides basic information about the
  social world and understandings that can be
  applied to creating social policy

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Quiz Question 1

• Identify ethical issues from the focal research.
• How were the ethical issues handled?

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Introduction

• Sources of research questions
• The selection of a research question is often the
  result of many factors
• Personal interests, experiences, values, and
  passions
• The desire to satisfy scientific curiosity
• Previous work -- or the lack of it -- on a topic
• The current political, economic, and social
  climates
• Being able to get access to data
• Having a way to fund a study

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Introduction

• Values and Science
• Value Free?
• Research in the 19th and much of 20th century
  science was considered value-free
• Today, values, both social and personal, are part
  of all human endeavors, including science
• Group interests and values can influence
  research, especially influential during the
  creating and evaluation of hypotheses
• Social and personal values are not necessarily
  bad
• The danger comes when scientists allow their
  values to introduce biases into their work that
  distort the results of scientific investigation

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Introduction

• Personal Factors
• Personal interests often influence researchers
  specific research topics
• Having a strong personal interests can lead to
  the willingness to the make the necessary
  investment of time and energy
• Research by Hoffnung (2000)
• Personal interest in career and motherhood
  influenced her work

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Introduction

• Research and the Social, Political and Economic
  World
• Change in society influences amount of research
  on topics
• E.g. Gender, Sexual Orientation
• Before the 1970s, few studies focused on women,
  as a result of the women's movement in the late
  1960s and early 70s, scholars began to study
  women and their lives
• Current events focus attention e.g. natural
  disasters, swine flu, etc

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Introduction

• Research Funding
• It is always difficult to raise money for social
  science research after all, it neither directly
  saves thousands of lives nor enables one to kills
  thousands of people (Fischman et al., 2004).
• Many research projects are funded through private
  foundations, government agencies, local and state
  institutions, or corporate sponsors

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Introduction

• Research Funding
• Funding research expresses a value choice
• The particular values associated with a specific
  project affect funding as the appropriations
  process for research is part of a larger
  political process
• The availability of funding and economic support
  can influence a study
• The questions asked
• The amount and kind of data collected
• The availability of the resulting research report

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Developing a Researchable Question

• Researchable question
• A question that can be answered with research
  that is feasible

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Developing a Researchable Question

• Transforming a research question to a
  researchable question
• Narrow down the broad area of interest into
  something that is manageable

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Developing a Researchable Question

• Example Cell phones
• You cannot study everything connected to cell
  phones
• You could study the effect of cell phones on
  family relationships
• You cannot study all age groups, but you can
  study a few
• You might not be able to study people in many
  communities, but you might be able to study one
  or two
• You would not be able to study dozens of
  behaviors or attitudes that change overtime, but
  you could study some current attitudes and
  behaviors
• In the community in which I live, how does cell
  phone use affect parent-child relationships more
  specifically, how does the use of cell phones
  affect parents and adolescents attempts to
  maintain and resist parental authority?

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Developing a Researchable Question

• Reviewing the Literature
• The process of searching for, reading,
  summarizing, and synthesizing existing work on a
  topic or the resulting written summary of a
  search

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Developing a Researchable Question

• Reviewing the Literature
• Academic Sources
• To start a literature review, you will need to
  figure out which literature or sources you want
  to search
• Books, articles, and government documents are the
  most common sources
• Popular literature, including newspapers and
  magazines, might be good sources of ideas, but
  academic journals will be more useful in your
  literature review

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Developing a Researchable Question

• Reviewing the Literature
• Keywords
• The terms used to search for sources in a
  literature review
• With common keywords you will generate a large
  number of sources you can limit the search to
  title and abstracts only
• You can use multiple keywords by including and
  between terms

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Developing a Researchable Question

• Reviewing the Literature
• Using the literature in a study
• Helps researcher to identify their own research
  question or hypothesis
• Examine what previous researchers have used
• Provide context for your own work
• Provides an overview of the current state of
  research and narrows your inquiry

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Developing a Researchable Question

• Practical matters
• Feasibility
• Whether it is practical to complete a study in
  terms of access, time, and money

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Developing a Researchable Question

• Practical matters
• Access
• The ability to obtain the information needed to
  answer a research question

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Developing a Researchable Question

• Practical matters
• Research costs
• All monetary expenditures needed for planning,
  executing, and reporting research
• Although many research projects are grant funded
  a grant is NOT necessary

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Developing a Researchable Question

• Practical matters
• Time expenditures
• The time it takes to complete all activities of a
  research project from the planning stage to the
  final report

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Summary

• Research questions can vary in scope and purpose
• A review of the literature is essential
• Planning a study
• Time
• Money
• Access to data

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Quiz Question 2

• We can expect that the interest in certain
  research topics will change over time. This is
  due to
• a. different sources of funding.
• changing political, social, and economic
  elements.
• changing personal factors.
• all of the above
• none of the above

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Quiz Question 3

• Some topics that may be interesting and important
  but gaining access to the population may be very
  difficult. Which of the following presents the
  greatest obstacles?
• College students living in a dormitory
• Individuals who are members of a bowling league
• Children who are hospitalized for minor illness
• Individuals who are members of a secret cult
• Singles who go on singles cruises