This document discusses key aspects of developing a research study such as determining research questions, purpose statements, hypotheses, and types of research questions. It provides guidance on formulating feasible, interesting, novel, ethical, and relevant research topics using the FINER criteria. Descriptive, relational, and causal questions are defined. Steps for constructing a research question and hypothesis are outlined. Finally, tips for structuring a research report are provided.

1. Research Methods
Lecture 4
Step Two : Research Questions and
Hypotheses

2. Determining what research to do :FINER
F – Feasible
I – Interesting
N – Novel
E – Ethical
R – Relevant
Using FINER, you should be able identify or frame an
actual research question.

3. Statement of purpose
• A sentence which states what you want to learn about in
a research.
• It other words, it is your aim.
• For example :
• The aim of this research if to find out how computer
assisted learning can aid in language acquisition.

4. Discussion : Discuss if the 5 sentences below relate
to one’s statement of purpose and if they are
“acceptable” in a piece of academic writing.
• I want to learn about what is being done by our
government to stop air pollution.
• "I want to know how teenage pregnancy affects young
fathers and young mothers differently.“
• The goal of this paper is to examine the effects of Chile's
agrarian reform on the lives of rural peasants.

5. Framing your statement of purpose
Some key phrases you can use:
•"This paper examines . . .,"
•"The aim of this paper is to . . .,"
•"The purpose of this essay is to . . ."

6. Research question
• Formulating the research question is an important step in
research.
• By wording your research question, you will be directed
towards what you are to be focusing your research on.
• Therefore, a research question must always be in
question form.

7. Study the relationship between the different items
below and explain to the class.
Types of research
question
Type of research
conducted
Types of statistics
used

8. Types of questions
With a partner, frame:
A descriptive question
A relational question Types of Questions
A causal question
Based your discussion on
the topic :
Social media and teenagers
Descriptive Relational Causal
questions questions questions

9. Descriptive research questions
• Are teenagers spending too much time on social media?
• What is the age in which teenagers spend the most time
on social media?
• What is the main factor for social media addiction among
teenagers?
• What is the age group in which social media is most
popular in?

10. Relational research question
• Is there a relationship between the age and the number
of hours spent on social media?
• Are teenagers who spend more time on social media
spending less time on studies?
• Is there a relationship between the hours spent on social
media and academic results?

11. Causal research question
• What is the main difference in lifestyle between the
above and below 16 year olds that explains the
difference?
• What makes the social media so attractive to teenagers?
• Does time spent on social media affect the attention
span of teenagers?
• Is there a difference in academic results in teenagers
spending more than 5 hours on social media?

12. Descriptive question
• Focused on describing characteristics of a population.
• The statistics used are normally descriptive statistics.
• For example :
– Sleeping habits of students
– Qualities of a good manager
– Characteristics of a schizophrenic

13. Relational question
• Focused on looking at relationships present among
variables.
• Normally looks at associative statistics
• For example :
– The relationship between reading and writing scores
– The relationship between alcohol readings and severity of
accidents.

14. Causal question
• Looking at if a change in one thing affects another.
• This requires an individual to control the extraneous
variable and manipulate the explanatory variable.
• Usually utilizes inferential statistics (chi-squares, anova,
t-tests)
Discussion :
Think of a causal question for the topic:
Personality traits and success in studies

15. Steps to developing your research question
1. Identify your topic
2. Write down preliminary thoughts about your topic
3. Search the literature for gaps
4. Explore your thoughts on the gaps
5. Convert your thoughts into questions.

16. Constructing your hypothesis
• A good hypothesis hinges on having a good research
question.
• Unless a research is exploratory in nature, most
research studies start with a hypothesis.
• A hypothesis is a researcher’s informed prediction of the
results of a study
• A hypothesis is normally formed based on previous
research and must have a strong logical rationale.

17. Connecting the dots
Discuss and provide an example
Connecting for this
Example :
•The study is aimed at looking at
Statement of whether gender is a key influence
purpose in determining one’s pay in the
education industry.
•Are men paid more than women
in the education industry?
Research question •There is no difference between
the pay for men and women in the
education industry.
Hypothesis

18. Constructing your research report
• Identify the statement of purpose for your study.
• Formulate your research question (s)
• Formulate your hypothesis based on your research
question.

19. Is Singapore a gracious society
• Introductory paragraph :
• You will give a brief overview of Singapore and the
Singaporean society
• Statement of problem
• Although Singapore has achieved developed status, yet
much has been said about so called “graciousness” of
Singaporeans. The study thus aims to identify and
isolate if Singaporeans are indeed lacking in
“graciousness”.
• Email : pearl_wong@easb.edu.sg

20. • As such, the study aims to answer three relevant
questions to the main topic which are:
• A
• B
• C
• It is hypothesized that hypothesis A, hypothesis B and
hypothesis C

21. Literature review