Chapter 2

Generation of Research Questions

• Since you were a young child (infant even), you have been exploring the world around you, integrating your experiences, and thinking, feeling, and behaving differently

  • This process is so integrated into you that you don’t even know it’s there - unsystematic and automatic

• Research is a more systematic and intentional

• When thinking about systematic research, what are you most interested in? Why did you want to become a therapist, teacher, CPS worker ect

  • Research can help answer the how to become the best professional you can be

• Once you have a topic (ex. adolescents), then think of a more specific aspect of the topic (ex. parent-child conflict and depressive symptoms)

  • This is the making of a research question: Does the manner in which parents and adolescents solve conflict predict depressive symptoms

• Forming a hypothesis

  • Consistent with Gottman and attachment theory, we expect that more negative problem-solving strategies (ex. stonewalling) will be related to adolescent depressive symptoms

  • Helpful, but there is more

• Directional hypothesis

  • Specify the specific nature of the proposed relationship

  • We expect that more negative problem-solving strategies (ex. stonewalling) will be positively related to adolescent depressive symptoms

  • We were predicting something very specific

• Now we collect data and test whether or not our hypothesis was correct!

Sources of Research Questions

• Common Sense

  • Experiencing childhood trauma leads to higher levels of stress

  • Testing such ideas can confirm what we already believe to be true, or could dramatically change what we assume to be true

• Practical Problems

  • Lack of cost-efficient transportation from Teal Ridge to the OSU campus

• Observation

  • Engaging with the world around us can identify processes and problems

  • Example: Responses to COVID

  • Example: My primary research is focused on how trauma impacts the couple relationship → came from interviewing couples and consistently hearing ACEs

• Theories

  • As HDFS, we are systematic thinkers (family systems, family ecology) about adolescent depression from a systemic context

  • Reading the attachment chapter or article and applying that theory to a novel concept

  • Confirm/test a theory (theories could be incorrect / are falsifiable)

  • We can expand on a current theory (generate new knowledge)

  • Compare theories (ex. family systems vs attachment)

• Past research

  • Reading past research, identifying limitations, and addressing them

  • Find a good study and change one thing (ex. an outcome variable)

  • Conduct the same study but in a different population / change the measures / cross sectional vs longitudinal research

  • Replication

Types of Articles

• Review papers

  • Literature Reviews: Discussion of a substantive content area and data are subject to the researcher/author's discretion

  • Systematic Reviews: Studies are reviewed based on specific criteria (ex. studies published since 2013) - narrative review

  • Meta Analyses: Studies are reviewed based on specific criteria, and they are quantitatively analyzed (ex. average correlation of adolescent conflict and depressive symptoms across 30 studies)

• Theory articles

  • Integrates existing literature to postulate a new way of understanding the relationships between two variables

• Empirical articles

  • Testing specific hypotheses using qualitative or quantitative methods

Sections of a Research Article

Abstract

• A brief synopsis of the overall article, including purpose, methods, analyses, results, and conclusions

• Generally, 150-200 words are located at the top of the article

• The abstract is a good place to start to see if you will want to include the article in your project/paper

• Does not provide nuanced information

General Introduction

• Talks very generally about your study variables and why they are important to study

• Provides a rationale for why you chose the variables that you did

  • Answering the “so what” question

  • Stated more aggressively, “Why should I care about your variables?”

• Of all the variables, why did you choose the ones you did

• General, 30,000-foot view of your variables

First Paragraph

• Sets the stage for your entire paper/proposal/project

• 1 idea per paragraph in writing

• Every sentence in the paragraph supports the idea (and opening sentence)

Literature Review

• Much more nuanced discussion compared to the general introduction

• This is generally where your theory section most commonly occurs

  • Explains how your variables are related to one another

• Talk about what is currently known and unknown by citing previous research on the variables of interest

• You are building an argument that culminates in your study

Methods

• The methods section has quite a few components

  • Sample: Who the sample is (demographics + characteristics), including inclusions and exclusion criteria

  • Procedures: The protocol that participants were run through

  • Measures/data collection methods: How were the data collected (ex. surveys, physiological data)

Statistical Analysis

• The statistical analysis section outlines the procedures that researchers will take in analyzing their data set by step

• Range from the simplest analysis (mean and standard deviation to a multiple group latent curve of factors model)

• This foreshadows the results section and should be able to answer

Results

• The results section provides the output for all the analyses that were run (and proposed in the statistical analysis section)

• Descriptive statistics (mean + standard deviation)

• Primary analyses (ANOVA, regression ect)

• The results are provided, and their meaning is interpreted

Discussion

• The discussion is generally the 2nd longest part of the paper (behind the introduction and literature review)

• Briefly summarizes the purpose of the study

• Integrates the findings from the study with theory and existing literature

• Provides an explanation of why significant findings were found AND why non-significant findings were found

• Also has a limitations section: no study is perfect, so what are the flaws in the study?

Research Questions

• A good research question (A.K.A. Research goals) is the cornerstone of a good study of family life

• A great methodology cannot overcome a poor research question

• There are an infinite number of research questions you can ask, but that doesn’t mean you should

  • Do families with twins spend more time eating together than families with triplets? Who cares?

  • You can design a GREAT study: ask parents a bunch of questions about eating, observe them eating together, have some families eat their favorite meal and others just an ordinary meal to compare, use infants, toddlers, children, preteens, teens, and young adults

• Interesting: Nobody likes to read boring research; capture the audience’s attention

• Important: Must address an issue that is of great significance

  • Just because something is not currently known doesn’t mean it SHOULD be known

• Meaningful: must have important implications in theory, research, practice, or policy

• Original Research Questions

  • The idea must be original and not previously done

  • Exception: replication studies

• Linked to a theory or an important problem

  • A research question regarding job satisfaction or rural MFTs in Oklahoma would be difficult to argue as important or meaningful. Doesn’t affect many MFTs, and findings may not be generalizable

  • Investigating MFT job satisfaction among graduates of a COAMFTE program and linking it to client outcomes is an incredibly important and meaningful contribution

• Feasible

  • A good research question must be plausible in its execution. A 50-state randomized control trial of cognitive behavioral therapy across young adults, midlife adults, and older adults, measuring both individual and relational mental health, is wildly unobtainable