3 Research Topic and Hypothesis

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How to Choose a Research Topic

Dr. Colin Fu

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S S

teps

Area Area Problem Problem Question(s) Question(s) Reasons Reasons Hypothesis Hypothesis Justification Justification

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S S

teps

Area Area Problem Problem Question(s) Question(s) Reasons Reasons Hypothesis Hypothesis Justification Justification

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A Research Problem

What is the problem? What is the problem? What are y

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Research problem

Interests? Interests? Magnitude? Magnitude? Level of expertise? Level of expertise? Relevance? Relevance? Availability of data? Availability of data? Ethic

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S

teps Formulating Problem

Step 1

± Identify a broad area of interest in the

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S

teps Formulating Problem

Step 2

± Dissect the broad area into sub-areas by having a

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S

teps Formulating Problem

Step 3

± Select the sub-area in which you would like to

conduct your research through the process of elimination

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Research Question(s)

What are the research questions you can / want to ask about the research problem?

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S

teps Formulating

Research Questions

Step 1

± What question(s) you think you can ask about the

research problem?

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S

teps Formulating

Research Questions

Step 2

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Reasons/Cause and Effects

Step 1

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Reasons

Step 2

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Hypothesis

"A hypothesis is a logical supposition, a

reasonable guess, an educated conjecture. It provides a tentative explanation for a

phenomenon under investigation." (Leedy and Ormrod, 2001).

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Hypothesis

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Hypothesis

± Chocolate may cause pimples.

± Salt in soil may affect plant growth.

± Plant growth may be affected by the color of the

light.

± Bacterial growth may be affected by temperature. ± Ultra violet light may cause skin cancer.

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Hypothesis

Why?

light.

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Hypothesis

Good?

light.

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Hypothesis

All of these are examples of hypotheses

because they use the tentative word "may. Can you test them?

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Hypothesis

Why NOT useful?

± Using the word may does not suggest how you

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Hypothesis

Why NOT useful?

± If these statements had not been written carefully,

they may not have even been hypotheses at all.

± For example, if we say "Trees will change colour

when it gets cold." we are making a prediction.

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Hypothesis

Why NOT useful?

± Or if we write, "Ultraviolet light causes skin

cancer." could be a conclusion.

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Hypothesis

One way to prevent making such easy mistakes is to formalize the form of the

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Hypothesis

a question, "Does temperature affect fermentation?"

a conditional statement, "Temperature may affect fermentation."

an If, then statement, "If fermentation rate is related to temperature, then increasing the temperature will increase gas production."

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Hypothesis

You will perform a test of how two variables might be related.

This is when you are doing a real experiment. You are testing variables.

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Hypothesis

What are the TWO variables here?

± "If fermentation rate is related to temperature,

then increasing the temperature will increase gas production."

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Hypothesis

Example

± If skin cancer is related to ultraviolet light , then

people with a high exposure to uv light will have a

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Hypothesis

Example

± If skin cancer is related to genetic, then people

with a skin cancer blood line will have a higher frequency of skin cancer

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Hypothesis

Example

± People exposed to high frequency of uv light will

get skin cancer

± Good or Bad?

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Hypothesis

Example

± In November many trees undergo colour changes

in their leaves and the average daily temperatures are dropping.

± Are these two events connected? ± How?

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Hypothesis

Example

± If leaf colour change is related to temperature ,

then exposing plants to low temperatures will result in changes in leaf colour .

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Hypothesis

Hypothesis?

± "If I play the lottery, then I will get rich.

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Hypothesis

Prediction

But not all if-then statements are hypotheses Can you test it?

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Hypothesis

i f the frequency of winning is related to

frequency of buying lottery tickets, then... 

"Then" is followed by a prediction of what will happen if you increase or decrease the

frequency of buying lottery tickets.

If you always ask yourself that if one thing is related to another, then you should be able to test it.

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Hypothesis

"If I eat chocolate, then I will get pimples. What is this?

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Hypothesis

Formalized hypotheses contain two variables. One is "independent" and the other is

"dependent." The independent variable is the one you, the "scientist" control and the

dependent variable is the one that you observe and/or measure the results.

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Hypothesis

Make the following into HYPOTHESIS (dependent/independent variables):

light.

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Hypothesis

What hypothesis IS NOT...

± A hypothesis is never proved or disproved

± To prove or disprove a hypothesis is bias and not

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Hypothesis

What hypothesis IS...

± Research is to support of reject a hypothesis ± If rejected, a new hypothesis is needed

± If continually supported, hypothesis becomes

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Homework

Justify your choice

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Theory

"an organized body of concepts and principles intended to explain a particular

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Theory vs Hypothesis

A theory is similar to a hypothesis in that it offers a tentative explanation for a

phenomenon that new data will either support or not support.

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Theory vs Hypothesis

Both are supported or rejected based on

testing by various investigators under different conditions.

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Theory vs Hypothesis

An example of a well known theory is

Einstein's theory of relativity (Leedy and Ormrod, 2001).

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Law

A theory that is continually validated over time by a growing body of data becomes a

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Law

An example of a well known law is the law of gravity (Leedy and Ormrod, 2001).