PSYCHOLOGY

Psychology

Psychology

Q1: What is a research question?

A research question is an operationalization of the purpose(s) to which a survey project aims. The research question(s) should state the research problem in a way that allow(s) for appropriate research methods to be applied to gathering and analyzing information to help answer the question(s) (i.e. solve the problem[s]). Ultimately it is the research questions that guide the entire design of a survey, including the population that is to be sampled, how it is sampled, what sample size will be used, what mode is used to gather data, what measures will be included in the survey instrument, and what analyses will be conducted (Babbie, 2006).

Research questions are much more likely to be identified formally (explicitly) in academic research and much less likely in commercial research. Once the research question is clearly articulated, and after a review of past research on the topic has been conducted, research hypotheses should logically follow. In many instances, however, survey researchers, such as pollsters, need not identify any hypotheses, and their research questions are not formalized and merely left implicit.

Q2: What is a hypothesis?

A hypothesis is a tentative statement about the world involving conjecture about relationships that are not yet verified: It is a prediction. Hypothesis testing is done to determine what is true—what would explain certain observations or phenomena. A hypothesis is an a priori statement of expectation that includes who is involved, what treatment or intervention they will be exposed to, the outcome measures to be used, and the comparison group. A good hypothesis is clear and concrete. Although the hypothesis (often denoted as H1), the prediction, is a statement of anticipated outcomes, it is actually the null hypothesis, or the negation of the hypothesis (often denoted as H 0), that is tested, not the hypothesis.

The translation from the ...