HW02 - Formulating a research question

HW02 - Formulating a research question
Overview
Now it is time for you to formulate your own Research Question and refine it using current literature. This
will guide your focus for the rest of the semester. In this assignment you will
1. Decide on a specific research topic
2. Choose variables that relate to your topic
3. Formulate a Research Question
4. Conduct a literature review to learn more about your topic
Instructions
The specific details for each step are described below. You will write the assignment directly in a Google
document.
• This is a group project assignment
• Use header formats to clearly denote each step
• Write your assignment directly in a Google Document in the 02 Research Question Formulation
folder.
• Name this file rq_pairname i.e. rq_donatello_aguilar.pdf
Peer Review
This assignment will be subject to peer review, but with no revision period. After the due date, check the
[Peer review assignment sheet for your assignment(s). In Google Docs directly, use the commenting feature
to provide feedback on this assignment. Check the [project] page for instructions on how to provide a review.
What specifically to look for:
• Is the topic area statement clearly stated? Do you understand what they are investigating?
• Do the variables chosen match the stated topic area?
• Will the variables chosen actually measure or describe the variables in the research question?
• Are the research questions stated as clear hypotheses?
• Are the sources cited all primary research articles?
• Do the sources inform the stated research question?
Topic area statement:
Thoroughly review the codebook for your dataset of choice and make note of topics that interest you. Use
this as a brainstorming session and identify as much as you can. Write a statement similar to the one below
regarding what topic(s) you are interested in. You should also explain WHY you are interested in your topic.
Example: After looking through the codebook for the U.S. Longitudinal Study of Adolescent
to Adult Health study database, I have decided that I am particularly interested in nicotine
dependence. I am not sure which variables I will use regarding nicotine dependence (e.g. symptoms
or diagnosis) so for now I will include all of the relevant variables in my personal codebook.
While nicotine dependence is a good starting point, I need to determine what it is about nicotine
dependence that I am interested in. It strikes me that friends and acquaintances that I have
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known through the years that became hooked on cigarettes did so across very different periods of
time. Some seemed to be dependent soon after their first few experiences with smoking and others
after many years of generally irregular smoking behavior. I decided that I am most interested in
exploring the association between level of smoking and nicotine dependence. Below I have added
to my codebook variables reflecting smoking levels (e.g. smoking quantity and frequency). If my
topic is too vague, I would like to bring suicide in. I would be interested to see if there is any
relationship between level of smoking with nicotine dependence and suicide.
Personal Codebook:
Create your personal codebook. You will create a trimmed down version of the codebook to help you not get
overwhelmed with the larger pool of available questions.
• In your personal codebook, include the questions/items/variables from the full data codebook that
measure your selected topics.
• Choose between 5 and 10 variables. This is just a starting point, you can modify anytime later.
• Do not go overboard here. Excessive variables being chosen indicate lack of thought and
will not be reviewed highly
• Do this by taking little screenshots with the snipping tool or using copy/paste. In the pdf file, go
to Edit, Take a Snap Shot, then click and drag over what you want. If you are on a MAC, press
Shift+Command+Ctrl+4 to get the snip tool.
• Do not attempt to re-write the codebook manually
Example Codebook screenshots
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Draft a few Research Questions
Now that you have a few topics and picked out variables for each topic, what questions are you interested in
trying to answer about your topics? One of the simplest research questions that can be asked is whether two
constructs are associated. You will write 2-3 questions, and then refine based off information you learn from
conducting a literature review (next part of this assignment).
Your research questions should be written as
• a relationship between two measurements
• a testable hypothesis (can you answer yes or no to the question?)
Questions example:
a) Does smoking quantity relate to nicotine dependence?
b) Is there a relationship between smoking frequency and suicide?
c) Does a smoker have more suicidal behaviors than a non-smoker?
Literature review
To refine your research question you need to know what has been studied in recent years. Before you start
this assignment be sure to have read the article on “how to read a journal article”, and the lecture notes on
“how to conduct a literature review”. This assignment will help you identify gaps in the current literature
regarding your research topic, and refine your research question and set of potential variables substantially.
You need at least 3 primary source references that are directly related to your topic that were published in
2008 or more recent.
For each article, you will complete steps 1-3, in other words 3 times. There is an example at the bottom of
this document.
Step 1:
• Put the reference for the article in APA style. Here is a link to Purdue Owl APA style references that
will guide you. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/05/
• NOTE: If you use a citation creator you still need to compare each part of all your references to make
sure it was done correctly. The citation creator usually messes up on something.
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• Good/suggested bibliography managers
– BibDesk (Mac) http://bibdesk.sourceforge.net/
– Zotero (in browser) https://www.zotero.org/
– Mendeley (download) https://www.mendeley.com/
• Using reference managers such as zotero and *.bib files with R Markdown
– https://tclavelle.github.io/blog/reference_tips/
– http://svmiller.com/blog/2016/02/svm-r-markdown-manuscript/
– http://rmarkdown.rstudio.com/authoring_bibliographies_and_citations.html#citations_for_
pdf_output
Step 2:
Read an article, type up a brief summary (a few sentences) of what you learned about your topic from
introduction/lit review and the discussion. This summary should convey the main themes and findings overall
for the literature review and discussion in your own words.
Step 3:
Then explain how the article is going to help you with writing up your project. This is an explanation of
what the article contributes to your project, not a restating of the summary. For example, is it going to help
explain one or both of your topics, does it explain a key theory, what argument does it help you build for
your project?
Example
My research question is: Is self-efficacy associated with parent relations and academic performance?
Weiser, D. A., & Riggio, H. R. (2010). Family background and academic achievement: Does
self-efficacy mediate outcomes? Social Psychology of Education: An International Journal,
13(3), 367-383.
2. This article discusses whether self-efficacy mediates the relationship between family background and
academic achievement. This is very similar to my topic but I feel that the component of mediation
changes it slightly. I found that family predictors did not correlate with academic achievement as much
as self-efficacy correlates with parent’s expectation of academic success. Self-efficacy is linked to grade
point average and academic success expectations.
3. This information will be vital to understanding the extent to which self-efficacy is related to academic
performance. With the correlation being weak for family background and academic performance, it will
do less to determine the connection of parental relations to self-efficacy.
Turner, E. A., Chandler, M., & Heffer, R. W. (2009). The influence of parenting styles,
achievement motivation, and self-efficacy on academic performance in college students. Journal
of College Student Development, 50(3), 337-346.
2. This study looks at how parenting styles, authoritative in particular, relate to academic performance,
self-efficacy, and intrinsic motivation in college students. It claims that all factors, academic performance,
self-efficacy, and intrinsic motivation, are all influenced by authoritative parenting. What I learned
about my topic is this study did find that self-efficacy was not significantly linked to authoritative
parenting.
3. This article will help explain how this specific type of parenting, authoritative, has little affect of
self-efficacy. It does not however, claim that parenting, as a whole has not effect on self-efficacy. This
study does confirm that parenting does reflect on academic performance.
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Junttila, N., Vauras, M., & Laakkonen, E. (2007). The role of parenting self-efficacy in children’s social and academic behavior. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 22(1),
41-61.
2. This article looks at parenting self-efficacy. This is a little different from my topic but there are aspects
of it that will be useful. It tested Finnish mothers and fathers to test for loneliness, parent self-efficacy,
their child’s peer evaluated social competence, self-evaluated loneliness and academic skills. It found
that parents loneliness reflected in their self-efficacy. The relationship between parent self-efficacy and
the child’s academic achievement were evaluated through the child’s social competence. What I learned
from this article that I can use is that parent’s self-efficacy can be reflected in the children.
3. This article is gong to help me tie in influences in the parent relations with the children to determine
self-efficacy. This is an interesting perspective that wasn’t originally in my research question but I
believe it will give valuable insight.
Refine your Research Questions
Based on your literature review some of your draft questions may already be answered, or you noticed that
your question is a still too vague. Now is the time to refine this question. Here are some example revisions.
Questions example:
a) Does the number of cigarettes smoked in the past month relate to nicotine dependence in
college-aged adults in the United States? b) Is there a relationship between smoking frequency
and suicide? Is this relationship the same in males and females?
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