Research Questions &
Hypotheses
Overview
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What is a research question?
How does one develop one?
How does one evaluate one?
Objectives: After today you
should be able to ...
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Understand the importance of a welldeveloped research question.
Be aware of numerous methods for
generating a research question.
Develop a concise research question.
Be able to evaluate the quality of a research
question.
Understand the role and nature of
publishable replication research.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE
RESEARCH QUESTION
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The research question is the starting point of
the study. Everything flows from the
research question. It will determine the
population to be studied, the setting for the
study, the data to be collected, and the time
period for the study. A clear and concisely
stated research question is the most
important requirement for a successful study.
PREREQUISITES
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The most important prerequisite for this
research is a well-cultivated curiosity. This
seems to be a common characteristic
possessed by notable researchers. Beyond
being curious, these individuals also had the
patience and tenacity to follow a question
until satisfied with the answer.
Origins of a Research
Question
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Careful Observation of People
Application of New Technology
The Annoyance Principle
Build on Experience
Scientific Communications
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Skeptical Attitude (questioning peers and status quo)
Other Ideas and Inspirations
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Question validity of commonly held beliefs
Question relationships
 Direction of causality
 Third variables unaccounted for?
 Levels of analysis (can increase)
Boundaries (generalizability) - external validity
 Question validity of existing studies
 Change settings (e.g., situational specificity hypothesis)
 Change types of individuals/units (children/adults; e.g., Zollo
study)
Characteristics of a good
research question
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FINER
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Feasible
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Interesting
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To the field?
Ethical
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To the investigator?
Novel
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Adequate numbers of subjects?
Adequate technical expertise?
Affordable in time and money?
Is it possible to measure or manipulate the variables?
Potential harm to subjects?
Potential breech of subject confidentiality?
Relevant
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To scientific knowledge/theory?
To organizational, health or social management and policy?
To individual welfare?
Hypotheses
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Examples
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RQ: Is a happy worker a productive worker?
H1: Happier workers are more productive than unhappy
workers.
RQ: Does increasing the happiness of workers make them
more productive?
H1: Increasing the happiness of workers does not
increase productivity.
Hypotheses should be developed
before data are collected.
Good hypotheses
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Constructs are clear
Relationship (sign, direction if experimental, type
of moderation) is clear
Population often included
Design/statistical method often clear
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Mean differences
Compared to who? (can’t have a “more” without a
“than”
Related (correlation)
The word “significant” is unnecessary
Good hypotheses construction
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Statistical test is clear (usually one per
hypothesis)
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With mediator hypothesis may be
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X will positively relate to Y
M will positively relate to Y
X will positively relate to M
X will not relate to Y when controlling for M
OR
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M will mediate the positive relationship between X
and Y