Generating Useful Research Ideas

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Generating Useful Research Ideas
From Insights to Hypotheses
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Refining hypotheses
Evaluating hypotheses
Using insight to develop hypotheses
Sources of hypotheses
The purpose of research
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The purpose of research is...

• to test hypotheses

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When starting out, remember

• Once you have 1 or 2 ...
• Familiarity breeds

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Hypotheses can be generated from

• Theory
• Previous research
• Personal insights

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Using your own personal insights

• 1. Question popular assumptions
• 2. Note your reactions to new things
• 3. Explain paradoxes and illusions
• 4. Take an opposite view
• 5. Practical problems
• 6. Self-analysis
• 7. Your own psychology
• 8. The dictionary method

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1. Questioning popular assumptions

• Questions to ask of popular assumptions
• Finding popular assumptions

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Questions to ask of popular assumptions

• 1. Is it true?
• 2. Why is it believed to be true?
• 3.When might it be wrong?

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How to find popular assumptions

• 1. Quotation/Self-Help Books
• 2. Old sayings
• 3. The media

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Quotes

• Any fact is better established by two or three
  good testimonies than by a thousand arguments.
  
• --Nathaniel Emmons
• He that complies against his will is of his own
  opinion still.
• --S. Butler

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Quotes continued

• One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.
• --Rita Mae Brown
• We hardly find any persons of good sense save
  those who agree with us.
• --Francois de la Rochefoucauld

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Quotes continued

• Getting talked about is one of the penalties for
  being pretty, while being above suspicion is
  about the only compensation for being homely.
• --K. Hubbard

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Beauty is only skin deep?

• Singh (1993) finds that men prefer women with low
  waist to hip ratios.
• Web link

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• Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice,
  but in not desiring it.
• --G. B.
  Shaw

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• The previous quote was tested by Johnson, D. J.
  Rusbult, C.E. (1989). Resisting temptation
  Devaluation of Alternative Partners...

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From Lifes Little Instruction Book

• Supported
• Have a dog.
• Dont expect money to bring you happiness.

• NOT supported
• Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for
  every area of your life.
• Encourage your children to have a part time job.

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Old Sayings

• Too many cooks spoil the broth (Latanes social
  loafing research)
• Fight fire with fire (conflict resolution)
• Look before you leap (T.D. Wilsons work, also
  decision-making research)

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Media

• Affirmative action programs cause prejudice
• Lotteries hurt the work ethic

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2. Your reactions to new events

• The internet
• New teaching/learning technologies

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3. Explain Paradoxes and Illusions ()

• Rank of Washington, D. C. high school students,
  among students most likely to say they are good
  in math 1
• Rank in terms of lowest math scores 1

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3 (cont). Explain Illusions

• Horizontal Vertical Illusion Both lines are
  equally long.
• Web link to more illusions
• Web link to interesting phenomena

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4. Take an Opposite View

• A dark side of the American DreamCorrelates of
  financial success as a central life aspiration
  (Kasser Ryan, 1993)
• When is it good to be perceived as unattractive?
• Answer Seen as faithful to spouse, not a con
  man or woman.

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5. Practical Problems

• Document that it is a problem
• Test a solution to the problem.

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Practical Problems

• Cheating (S.F. Davis)
• Dating Violence
• Failure to Recycle??

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6. It seems to work for (on) me...

• 1. Collect data on your own behavior.
• 2. See if other peoples behavior follows the
  same pattern.

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What you could collect data on

• Mood
• Boredom
• Giving and asking for advice/help
• Pre and post exam behavior
• Procrastination
• Endings of social interactions
• Going along with a request

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From D. Howard (1990)

• R participants called and given a request.
• R participants asked How are you feeling this
  evening and then the request was made.
• Compliance jumped!

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7. Develop a psychology of...

• Greed
• Peer tutoring
• Web addicts
• Volunteering (Snyder, 1993)
• Optimism
• Unrequited love (Baumeister, 1993)
• Complaining
• Enemies

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7(cont). Questions to ask in developing your
psychology

• Who?
• Why?
• When?
• What?
• Short- long- term effects?
• Good bad effects?

Psychology of Video games?
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Any behavior will do The Stroop Effect (name the
colors)

• blue
• green
• yellow
• black
• red
• green

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Any behavior will do The Stroop Effect

• green
• red
• yellow
• blue
• black
• red

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8. The Dictionary Method ()
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Evaluating the Hypothesis
Ethical
Beneficial
Testable
Reasonable
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Reasonableness
Hypotheses may be wrong, but there should be a
reason why you think it might be supported.
Reasons could be based on

• Logic
• Previous research
• Theory

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Testability

• Hypothesis involves variables that can be
  objectively measured and/or manipulated
• Hypothesizes a relationship-- not the null
  hypothesis.

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Benefits

• Should NOT produce isolated, disconnected bits
  of trivia.
• Should
• have implications for theory or
• relate to past research or
• have practical implications.

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Refining your hypothesis

• Tie it more firmly to theory or previous
  research.
• Add more levels Map the functional relationship
  between variables the shape of the relationship
  between your variables.
• Add variables, especially moderator variables
  variables that intensify, weaken, or reverse the
  effects of another variable.

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Functional Relationships
Three little bears revisited...
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Moderating Variables

• Look for exceptions to general rule. The rule is
  true except in ____ situations.
• They dont all look alike Individuated
  impressions of other racial groups (Zebrowitz,
  Montepare, Lee, 1993)

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• The End