Development of Ideas and

Refining Research Topics

Dr. Ahmad Tajuddin Othman

judane@gmail.com
11 December 2006
 Where did I study?
 BSc Health & Physical Education,
Oklahoma State University, 1986
 MSc Exercise Physiology & Physical
Fitness, University of Tennessee,
1988
 PhD Health Promotion & Disease
Prevention, Purdue University, 2000
 WARNING !!!
 Few reminders before we begin …
 There’s no “one” way of doing things.
 Based on personal experience and
feedback from previous students.
 Please bear with me if most of the
examples I used are not related to you.
 Too much American influence …
 Guess what?
 Most probably you started off with
the wrong foot.
 Do you remember “how” you’ve got
the “title of research” that you filled
in the USM application form?
 Do you mind sharing your
experience? Anyone?
 What to do? What to do?
 Two “wannabes” common errors:
 Noble laureate error
 Unrealistically grand thinking, ambitious
 Undergraduate research paper error
 Unrealistically miniscule thinking, ‘aneroxic’
 Both errors reflect poor reality
testing
Where do ideas come from?
 Master’s student
 Your supervisor might give you a
specific idea
 Replicate and extend work already
published

 Doctoral student
 Idea should be original
 Make a novel contribution to the
Finding a researchable topic
 Step One
 Identify the general area in which you
want to do research
 Step Two
 Come up with a research question and
hypotheses
Select a General Topic Area
First
 Shop around
 Get to know the faculty members, read
about their work, see what interest you
 Criteria (identify, not a full plan ..)
 It must interest you enough that you will
spend hours reading about it, writing
about it, analyzing data having to do
with it
 You must find a faculty member
interested in supervising your project
 Identifying an area ..
 What topics interest you?
 What do you find yourself stopping to read
in the library?
 What academic topics come up frequently
when you are talking shop with other
students and faculty?
 Identify faculty and share these interests,
you might ask if they have a project for
your thesis (master’s student).
 Words of wisdom …
 Better to choose a slightly
engrossing area that a faculty will
support than an exotic one that only
you find fascinating
 Avoid going it alone
 Remember the “guy” you used to call
your “supervisor” … develop ideas in
conjunction with your supervisor
 Develop the Research
Question
 Forget the form for now, first identify
the source of such questions
 Ask questions that interest the
scientific community
 Not because there is a lack of
research on a topic
 Keep in mind that it should have a
place in the literature
 Best Source of Ideas
 The Best
 Research that you are already doing
 Suggestions from faculty involved or
collaborating with in a research
 Research often stimulates more
questions than it answers
 Worst Source of Ideas
 The Worst
 Own personal experience, something
with a degree of personal emotional
relevance
 But, if you can approach them
objectively in a detached, relatively
disinterested, and unbiased manner, go
ahead.
 Read, Read, and Read ..
 Existing literature as a source of ideas
 The simplest and logical place is from
recent literature in an area
 Suggestions for future research
 Look for these
 Discuss with your supervisor

 Contact the original author and find out what

he/she is doing currently in the area

 Ask the author whether has already

researched it or knows of anyone who has

 More suggestions …
 Another good approach to
developing researchable questions is
to apply a paradigm used with one
population to another population.
 Eg. Research on the leadership
styles of executive women might
easily suggests similar studies with
executives who are members of a
specific ethnic group
 And more …
 Reviews of the literature in particular
areas
 Annual Review of Psychology
 Developmental Review
 Edited books that contain literature
reviews (authors point out gaps in the
research knowledge and correctable
flaws in existing studies)
 Here’s A Tip …
 ATO Matrix
 Handout 1
 Handout 2
 Handout 3
 Researchable Questions
 Put the research questions in
researchable form
 Criteria of a research question
 Phrase it in the form of a question
 Question should suggest a relationship to be

examined
 Relationship in the questions is empirically

testable
 Develop Scientific
Hypotheses
 Hypotheses are declarative
sentences that conjecture a
relationship between two or more
variables (Kerlinger, 1986).
 Well stated hypotheses are derived
directly from the research questions
 Example 1
 RQ = What is the relationship
between test anxiety and
performance on complex cognitive
tasks?
 RH = Performance on complex
cognitive tasks will be an inverted U-
shaped function of level of anxiety.
 Example 2
 RQ = Are nonabused children interviewed with
sexually anatomically correct (SAC) dolls more
likely to describe sexual behavior than such
children interviewed with dolls without secondary
sexual characteristics?
 RH = Nonabused children interviewed with SAC
dolls will describe sexual behavior more
frequently than nonabused children interviewed
with dolls without secondary sexual
characteristics.
 Ho = There is no difference in the frequency of
descriptions of sexual behavior by children when
they play with SAC dolls or with non-SAC dolls
 More about hypotheses …
 Understanding the different type of
hypotheses
 Research and null hypotheses
 Characteristics of well-worded
hypotheses
 Carefully phrased hypothesis will
indicate the specific relationships to be
examined and suggests the nature of
the relationship
 Examples
 There is a relationship between
education level and preference for
liberal causes
 There is a positive relationship
between education level and
preference for liberal causes
 There is a positive relationship
between education level and
preference for liberal causes in
executive women
 Conclusion
 Read, read, read
 Meet your supervisor regularly
 I thanked you all and GOOD LUCK !!!
 QUESTIONS
 Go ask your supervisors … hehehe!