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How to Generate Research Ideas

This article provides strategies for generating research ideas, including personal interests, observing the world, existing research, theories, interdisciplinary connections, conversations with others, and philosophical perspectives. It also discusses how to translate questions into research hypotheses and choose which idea to pursue. Advanced sources of information are provided for further study.

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How to Generate Research Ideas

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  1. How to Generate Research Ideas

  2. Where do you find research ideas? • (1) You • What interests you? • Personal experiences • (2) The World Around You • Asking “why”? • Media – radio, tv, movies, newspapers, magazines, etc. • Observing and engaging in the world around you • Common sense • Real-life problems

  3. Where do you find research ideas? • (3) Existing Research • Replicate previous studies • Improve previous studies • Reconcile studies with conflicting results • “Future Research” section • Change methodological approach • (4) Theories • Generate a new theory • Refine existing theory • Update an older theory • Connect two or more theories

  4. Where do you find research ideas? • (5) Connections between fields, disciplines, sub- disciplines, perspectives, etc. • Pick a topic and look at how different fields would approach it? • How would different disciplines research the same topic? • How would each perspective explain the topic? • (6) Talking to others • Ask laypersons what they want to know – family, friends, etc. • Talk to professionals who are experts on the issues • Have conversations/discussions with colleagues • Attend conferences • Brainstorming sessions with others

  5. Where to ideas come from? • Philosophers like John Locke and Henri Poincare say that new ideas are an association or combination between two or more simpler ideas. • So we generate new ideas by combining simpler parts into the formation of a new complex whole.

  6. How to generate Research Questions • Perspectivist Worksheets • Types of Research questions • Descriptive • Relational • Causal

  7. How to Translate Questions into Research Hypothesis • Some Guidelines… • Testable/Falsifiable • Precise/Specificity • Direction & Magnitude • Based upon type of research • Descriptive • Relational • Causal • Research Hypothesis vs. Null Hypothesis

  8. How to choose which idea to pursue? • Some Guidelines… • Internal Motivations • External Motivations • Practical Concerns • “Importance” • Part of Program of Research

  9. How to conduct a “Program of Research”? • A “Program of Research” is a game-plan for conducting multiple studies on a single topic that comprehensively addresses all the implications and extensions of a single research idea.

  10. Advanced sources of information • McGuire, W. J. (1997). Creative hypothesis generating in psychology: Some useful heuristics. Annual Review of Psychology, 48, 1-30 • Special Issue of "Personality and Social Psychology Review" on Theory Construction, 2004, Vol8, No.2

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