- Descriptive Research Question : asks about the presence of behavior, how frequently it is exhibited, or whether there is a relationship between different behaviors
- Causal Research Questions : asks what causes specific behaviors to occur o Many casual research questions are also designed to test a theory about the cause of a behavior
- Or to compare theories about behavior to see which theory has more support
- Research questions come from many sources, including researchers’ curiosity o Should be relevant to current knowledge in the field of study o Should be answerable using scientific methods
- A literature review helps researchers know if their research fulfills these criteria
- A literature review is a thorough review of research done in an area of study
- Searchable databases are useful for conducting a literature review
- Searchable databases that provide researchers access to empirical and review journal articles are useful in a literature review
- A thorough literature review produces journal articles that researchers can use to understand what types of research questions add to knowledge in a field of study, what methods researchers are currently using to answer those questions, and the theories or past results in and area that help researchers develop hypotheses for their study
Used to determine what research has been done on a research question to avoid duplication previous research and review previous findings and theories to allow a hypothesis to be made about the outcome of a study
- Empirical articles : a study conducted by the authors of the article
- Review articles : summarize results and methods from a particular area of study
- Theoretical articles : discuss new or revised theories of behavior in an area of study
- Theorydriven hypothesis : hypothesis for a study based on a theory about the behavior of interest o Involves deductive reasoning in that a researcher is taking a general statement about a behavior (the theory) and making a specific prediction (the hypothesis) about the study from this general assessment
- Deductive reasoning : using general information to make a specific prediction
- Datadriven hypothesis : hypothesis for a study that is based on the results of previous, related studies o Involves inductive reasoning because the researcher is taking a specific result from another study and using it to make a more general prediction
- Inductive reasoning : using specific information to make a more general prediction
- Descriptive hypothesis : a prediction about the results of a study that describes the behavior or the relationship between behaviors
- Casual hypothesis : a prediction about the results of a study that includes the causes of a behavior