Writing 101-10: Writing in the Disciplines - Psychology (Sandoval, Fall 2024)

Coming up with a research question can be challenging, but it's all part of the research process. In some cases, your instructor may give you a topic or in other cases, you may join a lab that is already working on a project with a defined research question, but if you are on your own, this page will give you some guidance.

Part of coming up with a manageable research question is also knowing what your "information need" is. In other words, what kinds of sources do you need to help you answer your question?

Tip: Remember that the research process is non-linear and sometimes messy. You will need to search for and read (or at least skim) some information sources to know if your research question is going to be manageable.  Skip to Step 4 for some reading tips!

Ask a question of interest.

By asking a research question, you are keeping an open mind about what the research may reveal.  See if your question is TRUE for these five criteria.  If so, then your research question is probably workable. 

1. It cannot simply be answered with a yes/no. 
2. It has a problem associated with it.
3. It has social significance.
4. There is reliable evidence available to address it.
5. It has appropriate scope.

Together: You will have to do some preliminary research to really discover if all of these statements are TRUE for your proposed research question.

Long description of "From Topic to Question" for Web Accessibility

Narrow Your Topic

It's very common to select a topic that's too broad.  When the scope of your topic is too big, it's hard to dig through the huge volume of  information available to find something relevant.  It's also hard to write a paper or give a presentation of with any depth.  Most scholarly research examines fairly narrow topics and looks at relationships between concepts.  For example, affirmative action is a huge topic, but looking at the relationship between affirmative action and self esteem might be a more manageable topic.

There are many ways to narrow a topic that is too broad.  Let's use affirmative action as an example:

• affirmative action and the law (what)
• affirmative action and self esteem (what)
  
• affirmative action and the military (what)
• affirmative action and medical education (what)
  
• affirmative action in California (where)
• affirmative action and women (who)
  
• affirmative action and latinos (who)
• affirmative action and blacks (who)
  
• affirmative action in the 1970s (when)
  

Use these concepts develop a research question on the topic of affirmative action:

• Has affirmative action changed medical education for women?
• Have latinos in California benefitted from affirmative action?
• Are there more high ranking black officers in the military because of affirmative action?

Broaden Your Topic

It is possible to generate a topic that's too narrow.  When the scope of your topic is too small, there may not be enough information available for your paper or presentation.  For example, this affirmative action-related topic is probably too narrow:

Did affirmative action policies benefit medical education opportunities for women from Atwater, California in the 1970's.

To find enough information, you might need to broaden the who (change women to minorities) and the where (change Atwater to California) concepts in this question.  You might also need to omit the limited time frame.

Here are a few more examples of narrowing a broad topic down to a manageable topic one step at a time.

• political correctness > political correctness and universities > Are universities equally tolerant to politically correct and politically incorrect viewpoints?
  
• social media > social media and bullying > The effect of social media on bullying behaviors among U.S. teenagers
• academic freedom > academic freedom and politic* > Does academic freedom exist on both sides of the political aisle? 

We're going to work on an exercise throughout this class. To begin, please go to the Google spreadsheet linked here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F_Clw67jipXpa-8BGvszhauKmqgAv_zN2_njA_x_U6c/edit?usp=sharing . Fill out Column A (your name) and Column B (your research question or topic). You don't have to have a fully realized research question at this time, but you should have a general topic or subject to investigate.