The Research Process

Topics identified by researchers that represent interesting areas for investigation. Research ideas often involve rather general topics, which are then refined into a more detailed, focused, and specific research question.

Relationship questions explore the degree to which two or more phenomena relate or vary together such as intelligence level and reading skills.

Literature reviews are articles or chapters in which an author has read and interpreted the published research studies on a given topic such as reading comprehension.

The directional hypothesis predicts a difference and the direction that difference; for example, “Participants receiving treatment Method A will make significantly more correct responses than those receiving treatment Method B.”

Difference questions make comparisons and ask the question, “Is there a difference?” Comparisons may be made either between groups (e.g. , between two groups of children receiving different math instruction) or between measurements within a single group (i.e. , pre- and posttest performance by the same group).

A term that refers to the individuals on whom the data are collected in a study.

Descriptive questions ask “What is … ?” or “What does…?”: For example, what does this culture look like, what does this group look like, or at what level does a particular group of participants perform?

Refers to a step in the research process where the investigator summarizes data collected and prepares it in a format to determine what occurred. For quantitative studies, data analysis will mean summarizing the numbers, whereas for qualitative studies, it will involve reviewing the narrative data to determine trends.

The null hypothesis predicts no difference; for example, “Participants will not differ in mean correct responses as a function of treatment method.”

The data collection phase of research refers to the actual execution of the investigation and involves recording data in some form. This may include the process of administering a questionnaire, conducting an interview, or presenting a math test or other type of test to a participant and recording responses.

Refers to how dependable the information is that the investigator collects. When a researcher repeatedly observes a behavior, how consistent is his or her recording of what of what occurred? The level of consistency will impact the reliability of the data.

A statement used in research to help clarify the research question. It is presented as a declarative statement of prediction. Two basic formats are used, the null hypothesis and the directional hypothesis.

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