2.1 What is a Research Question?

  • Research Question
    • can be answered
    • improve understanding of how the world works
  • from Theory to Hypothesis
Theory An explanation of why the things we observe happen, or otherwise generalizes what we observe in one situation to another situation.
Hypothesis A specific statement about what you will observe in the data.
  • A good test for whether a research question informs theory is to imagine that you find an unexpected result, and then wonder whether it would make you change your understanding of the world