psychology research question generator

Research Question Generator for Free

If you’re looking for the best research question generator, you’re in the right place. Get a list of ideas for your essay, research paper, or any other project with this online tool.

• 🎓 How to Use the Tool
• 🤔 What Is a Research Question?
• 😺 Research Question Examples
• 👣 Steps to Making a Research Question

📝 Research Question Maker: the Benefits

🔗 references, 🎓 research question generator: how to use it.

Research can’t be done without a clear purpose, an intention behind it.

This intention is usually reflected in a research question, which indicates how you approach your study topic.

If you’re unsure how to write a good research question or are new to this process, you’ll surely benefit from our free online tool. All you need is:

• Indicate your search term or title
• Stipulate the subject or academic area
• Press “Generate questions”
• Choose a suitable research question from the generated list.

As you can see, this is the best research question generator requiring minimal input for smart question formulation. Try it out to see how simple the process is.

🤔 Why Make an Inquiry Question?

A research question is a question that you formulate for your scientific inquiry . It is a question that sets the scope for your study and determines how you will approach the identified problem, gap, or issue.

Questions can be descriptive , meaning they aim to describe or measure a subject of the researcher's interest.

Otherwise, they can be exploratory , focusing on the under-researched areas and aiming to expand the existing research evidence on the topic.

If there's enough knowledge about the subject, and you want to dig deeper into the existing trends and relationships, you can also use an explanatory research question.

What Makes a Strong Research Question?

The strength of your formulated research question determines the quality of your research, whether it’s a short argumentative essay or an extensive research paper . So, you should review the quality of your question before conducting the full-scale study.

Its parameters of quality are as follows:

• Clarity . The question should be specific about the focus of your inquiry.
• Complexity . It should not be self-obvious or primitively answered with a “yes” or “no” variant.
• Focus . The question should match the size and type of your academic assignment.
• Conciseness . It should be brief and understandable.
• Debatability . There should be more than one potential answer to the question.

😺 Research Question Examples: Good & Not So Good

Here are some examples to illustrate what we mean by quality criteria and how you can ensure that your question meets them.

Lack of Clarity

The bad example is too general and does not clearly estimate what effect you want to analyze or what aspect of video gaming you're interested in. A much better variant is in the right column.

Look at some other research question examples that are clear enough:

• Terrorism: what is it and how to counter it?
• Sex trafficking: why do we have to address it?
• Palliative care: what constitutes the best technique for technicians communication with patients and families?
• How do vacuum cleaners work?
• What does it mean to age well?

Lack of Focus

The bad example is not focused, as it doesn’t specify what benefits you want to identify and in what context the uniform is approached. A more effective variant is in the right column.

Look at some other research question examples that are focused enough:

• How are biochemical conditions and brain activity linked to crime?
• World wars and national conflicts: what were the reasons?
• Why does crime exist in society?
• Decolonization in Canada: what does decolonization mean?

The bad example is too simplistic and doesn’t focus on the aspects of help that dogs can give to their owners. A more effective variant is in the right column.

Look at some other research question examples that are complex enough:

• How is resource scarcity impacting the chocolate industry?
• What should the Brazilian government do about reducing Amazon’s deforestation?
• Why is a collaborative approach vital during a pandemic?
• What impact has COVID-19 had on the economy?
• How to teach handwriting effectively?

Lack of Debatability

The problem of diabetes is well-known and doesn’t cause any doubts. So, you should add debatability to the discussed issue.

Look at some other research question examples that are debatable enough:

• Online vs. print journalism: what is more beneficial?
• Why will artificial intelligence not replace human in near future?
• What are the differences between art and design?
• Crime TV: how is criminality represented on television?

The question in the left column is too long and ambiguous, making the readers lose focus. You can shorten it without losing the essence.

Look at some other research question examples that are concise enough:

• What is the best way to address obesity in the US?
• Doctoral degree in nursing: why is it important?
• What are the benefits of X-rays in medicine?
• To what extent do emotions influence moral judgment?
• Why did the Industrial Revolution happen in England?

👣 Steps to Generate Research Questions

Now, it’s time to get down from science to practice. Here is a tried-and-tested algorithm for killer research question generation.

• Pick a topic . Once you get a writing assignment, it’s time to find an appropriate topic first . You can’t formulate a thesis statement or research question if you know nothing about your subject, so it's time to narrow your scope and find out as much as possible about the upcoming task.
• Research the topic . After you’re brainstormed several topic options, you should do some research. This stage takes the guesswork out of the academic process, allowing you to discover what scholars and other respected people think about your subject.
• Clarify who your audience is . Think about who will read your piece. Will it be the professor, your classmates, or the general audience consisting of laypersons? Ensure the research question sounds competent enough for a professor and understandable enough for laypeople.
• Approach the subject critically . With a well-articulated topic at hand, you should start asking the "why's" and "how's" about it. Look at the subject as a kid; don't limit your curiosity. You're sure to arrive at some interesting topics to reveal the hidden sides of the chosen issue.
• Evaluate the questions . Now that you have a couple of questions about your topic, evaluate them in terms of research value. Are all of them clear and focused? Will answering all of them take time and research, or is the answer already on the surface? By assessing each option you’ve formulated, you’re sure to choose one leader and use it as your main research question for the scientific study.

Thank you for reading this article! If you need to quickly formulate a thesis statement, consider using our free thesis maker .

❓ Research Questions Generator FAQ

Updated: Oct 25th, 2023

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With our question generator, you can get a unique research question for your assignment, be it an essay, research, proposal, or speech. In a couple of clicks, our tool will make a perfect question for you to ease the process of writing. Try our generator to write the best work possible.

Research Question Generator: Best Tool for Students

Stuck formulating a research question? Try the tool we’ve made! With our research question generator, you’ll get a list of ideas for an academic assignment of any level. All you need to do is add the keywords you’re interested in, push the button, and enjoy the result!

Now, here comes your inspiration 😃

Please try again with some different keywords.

Why Use Research Question Generator?

The choice of research topic is a vital step in the process of any academic task completion. Whether you’re working on a small essay or a large dissertation, your topic will make it fail or fly. The best way to cope with the naming task and proceed to the writing part is to use our free online tool for title generation. Its benefits are indisputable.

• The tool generates research questions, not just topics
• It makes questions focused on your field of interest
• It’s free and quick in use

Research Question Generator: How to Use

Using our research question generator tool, you won’t need to crack your brains over this part of the writing assignment anymore. All you need to do is:

• Insert your study topic of interest in the relevant tab
• Choose a subject and click “Generate topics”
• Grab one of the offered options on the list

The results will be preliminary; you should use them as an initial reference point and refine them further for a workable, correctly formulated research question.

Research Questions: Types & Examples

Depending on your type of study (quantitative vs. qualitative), you might need to formulate different research question types. For instance, a typical quantitative research project would need a quantitative research question, which can be created with the following formula:

Variable(s) + object that possesses that variable + socio-demographic characteristics

You can choose among three quantitative research question types: descriptive, comparative, and relationship-based. Let's consider each type in more detail to clarify the practical side of question formulation.

Descriptive

As its name suggests, a descriptive research question inquires about the number, frequency, or intensity of something and aims to describe a quantitative issue. Some examples include:

• How often do people download personal finance apps in 2022?
• How regularly do Americans go on holidays abroad?
• How many subscriptions for paid learning resources do UK students make a year?

Comparative

Comparative research questions presuppose comparing and contrasting things within a research study. You should pick two or more objects, select a criterion for comparison, and discuss it in detail. Here are good examples:

• What is the difference in calorie intake between Japanese and American preschoolers?
• Does male and female social media use duration per day differ in the USA?
• What are the attitudes of Baby Boomers versus Millennials to freelance work?

Relationship-based

Relationship-based research is a bit more complex, so you'll need extra work to formulate a good research question. Here, you should single out:

• The independent variable
• The dependent variable
• The socio-demographics of your population of interest

Let’s illustrate how it works:

• How does the socio-economic status affect schoolchildren’s dropout rates in the UK?
• What is the relationship between screen time and obesity among American preschoolers?

Research Question Maker FAQ

In a nutshell, a research question is the one you set to answer by performing a specific academic study. Thus, for instance, if your research question is, “How did global warming affect bird migration in California?," you will study bird migration patterns concerning global warming dynamics.

You should think about the population affected by your topic, the specific aspect of your concern, and the timing/historical period you want to study. It’s also necessary to specify the location – a specific country, company, industry sector, the whole world, etc.

A great, effective research question should answer the "who, what, when, where" questions. In other words, you should define the subject of interest, the issue of your concern related to that subject, the timeframe, and the location of your study.

If you don’t know how to write a compelling research question, use our automated tool to complete the task in seconds. You only need to insert your subject of interest, and smart algorithms will do the rest, presenting a set of workable, interesting question suggestions.

Research Question Generator Online

Are you looking for effective aid in research question formulation? Try our research question generator and get ideas for any project instantly.

• 🤖 How to Use the Tool

❗ Why Is a Research Question Important?

🔖 research question types & examples, 🗺️ how to generate a research question.

• 👀 More Examples
• 🔍 References

🤖 How to Use a Research Question Generator?

Struggling to develop a good research question for your college essay , proposal , or dissertation ? Don't waste time anymore, as our research question generator is available online for free.

Our tool is designed to provide original questions to suit any subject discipline.

Generate your questions in a few easy steps as shown below:

• Add your research group and the influencing factor.
• Indicate your dependent variable (the thing you’re planning to measure).
• Add the optional parameters (the second research group and the time frame).
• Look at the examples if necessary.

Once you get the initial results, you can still refine the questions to get relevant and practical research questions for your project.

The main importance of formulating a research question is to break down a broad topic and narrow it to a specific field of investigation . It helps you derive a practical knowledge of the topic of interest. The research question also acts as a guiding structure for the entire investigation from paragraph to paragraph. Besides, you can define research issues and spot gaps in the study.

The research questions disclose the boundaries and limitations of your research, ensuring it is consistent and relevant. Ultimately, these questions will directly affect the research methods you will use to collect and analyze data. They also affect the process of generating a thesis statement . With a checker proposal, you can also polish your research question to ensure it aligns with the research purpose.

The research writing process covers different types of questions, depending on the depth of study and subject matter. It is important to know the kind of research you want to do; it will help you in the formulation of an effective research question. You can select quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods studies to develop your questions.

Let us explore some of these question types in detail to help you choose a workable option for your project:

Quantitative Research Questions

Quantitative questions are specific and objective, providing detailed information about a particular research topic . The data you collect from this research type is quantifiable and can be studied using figures.

These questions also delineate a relationship between the research design and the research question.

Quantitative questions focus on issues like:

• "How often"
• "How intense"
• "Is there a statistical relationship"

They illustrate the response with numbers.

In addition, quantitative questions help you to explore existing patterns in data from a specific location or context. The collected information allows researchers to make logical and data-driven conclusions.

This type of research question can be classified further into 3 categories.

Descriptive Research Questions

Such questions seek to describe a quantifiable problem and investigate the numbers, rates, or intensity of the issue. They are usually used to write descriptive papers .

Comparative Research Questions

As the name suggests, comparative questions intend to compare and contrast two or more issues in a research project. These questions are used in comparative papers . To formulate such a question, identify two or more variables, choose a standard for comparison, and present an in-depth discussion.

Let's look at a few examples.

Relationship-based Research Questions

Relationship-based questions reveal and identify a connection between two or more research variables . Such questions entail a dependent variable, an independent variable, and a socio-demographic of the population you are interested in studying.

Qualitative Research Questions

Qualitative research questions are open-ended and aim to explore or explain respondents' subjective meanings and experiences . You can't measure the data you collect from a qualitative research question in figures, as it's mostly narrative. Some of the common types include those described below.

Exploratory Research Questions

These questions investigate a particular research topic without any assumptions.

Explanatory Research Questions

These questions examine the reasons and find connections between existing entities.

Mixed Methods Studies

When you combine quantitative and qualitative research questions, you will get a mixed-method research study . It answers your research question more comprehensively since it combines the advantages of both research methods in a pragmatic study .

This mixed study can focus on quantitative data (score comparison with attitude ranking) and qualitative insights from student interviews about attitudes.

We have outlined a few steps to generate exceptional questions for students who don't know how to write them effectively.

👀 More Research Question Examples

• Why do minorities delay going to the doctor?
• What makes humans mortal genetically?
• Why and how did the US get involved in the Korean War?
• The virus COVID-19: what went wrong?
• What is cancel culture, and can it go too far?
• How do human infants acquire a language?
• Eastern vs. Western religions: what’s the difference?
• Why is capitalism better than socialism?
• What do Hamlet and Oedipus have in common?
• How does language influence our world?
• Competence for nurses: why is it important?
• COVID-19 pandemic: what we can learn from the past?

❓ Research Question Generator FAQ

❓ how to form a research question.

You should select an interesting topic related to the subject you are studying. Carry out preliminary research with our research question generator online and pick the question from the list of offered suggestions. Refine the question until you are satisfied with the result.

❓ What makes a good research question?

An effective research question should focus on a single issue and clearly state the research direction you will take. The topic should neither be too broad nor too narrow – just enough to keep you focused on the main scope of the study. Also, it should be answerable with a comprehensive analysis.

❓ How to find the research question in an article?

In an academic article, the research question is usually placed at the end of the introduction, right before the literature review. At times, it may be included in the methods section – after the review of academic research.

❓ How to write a quantitative research question?

Identify what claim you want to make in your research purpose. Choose a dependent variable, an independent variable, and a target population, and formulate the assumed relationship between the variables for that respondent group. Ensure the data you collect is measured within a specific context.

🔗 References

• Types of Research Questions With Examples
• Developing research questions - Library - Monash University
• Research Question - Research Guide - LibGuides
• How To Write a Research Question: Steps and Examples
• How to Write a Research Question - GMU Writing Center

You can Choose category

Research Question Generator

Type your search term

Time to unleash your creativity!

• 🔍 What Is It?
• 📝 Types of Questions
• 🕰️ Step-by-Step Guide

❗ References

🔍 what is a research question.

A research question is the researcher’s attempt to guide their investigation. Instead of exploring a given topic without a direction, they pose a specific inquiry and answer it through a complete analysis of evidence-based data . Research questions must have a purpose and be clear enough for both the researcher and the reader to understand and follow through.

To find a central focus of your paper, you should consider different factors of the topic you study. Although there is no universal set of rules, your research question should be:

Our research question generator functions automatically and creates the resulting sentence according to these features. It takes your topic along with the keywords you need and develops the problem statement for your paper. Then, it transforms it into a question, which will help you see and set the direction of your research.

📝 Generating Research Questions Of Various Types

Each topic and task require its own specific kind of research question. Our generator tool the most appropriate inquiry for your assignment based on your keywords and ideas. However, even with our instrument, it is better for you to learn what types of research questions exist.

Qualitative Research Questions

Qualitative research involves collecting, analysing, and interpreting information through observation and communication . By obtaining and examining non-numerical data, individuals can get a perspective that is as close to the real world as possible.

Qualitative research methods seek to understand a phenomenon or its details from a subjective viewpoint. Thus, people use recordings, interviews, questionnaires, first-hand observation, and so on to grasp reality.

Here are some of the most common types of qualitative research:

Ethnography

Ethnography is a qualitative research method that focuses on the lived experience of an individual or group. The researcher explores the context in which people act rather than simply observing or categorizing them. They don’t ask questions or make observations about subjects beforehand.

Some ethnographic research questions are:

• What do you dislike about this service?
• What do you like about your school curriculum?

A case study focuses on the details of a particular situation or event. This research method is used in psychology, sociology, anthropology, and other social sciences. Though these disciplines have their own specific approaches to collecting data, they all share the same goal: to learn about human behavior by examining particular cases in detail.

Examples of case study questions include:

• How has the new school system affected your mental health?
• What positive changes have you noticed after quitting smoking?

An interview , also very common in qualitative research, is a structured and planned conversation between two or more people. Its purpose is to gather information from someone who may be an expert or expert witness. As a result, the interviewer gets an answer to a specific research problem.

The aim of an interview is to increase the knowledge base of the researcher and/or the understanding of participants. This way, people will be able to develop new ideas or expand the existing ones.

Some examples of interview questions are:

• Why did you make this specific choice?
• What do you think that person should have done to improve the situation?

Quantitative Research Questions

Quantitative research is the process of collecting factual numerical data and examining the results. It is usually conducted when researchers want to investigate an issue that requires statistical analyses and comparison of the data sets.

Unlike the qualitative one, quantitative research relies on numerical patterns. Whether imposed via the use of subjective scales or instinctually quantitative, the use of mathematics makes this approach as objective as possible. Thus, this method is common for natural, applied, and social sciences.

Descriptive

Descriptive research is a type used to outline the characteristics of a group or population. It can be thought of as descriptive statistics applied to crowds. The goal is to provide an accurate summary of what is happening without making any claims about why.

Some examples of descriptive questions include:

• How often do you fall asleep after 1 AM per week?
• How many times have you traveled abroad in the past three years?

Comparative

Comparative quantitative research compares and contrasts two or more groups of individuals or other subjects. The purpose here is to determine whether there are any differences between the items.

The following are examples of comparative questions:

• What are the differences in the cost of living between cities?
• Do college students who use social media have different stress levels than those who do not?

Relationship-based

Relationship-based research is a qualitative approach to data analysis. The researcher uses analytical tools to analyse the relationship between variables. Later, they use this information to generate hypotheses that can be tested with other methods.

Examples of relationship-based research questions:

• What is the relationship between academic pressure and anxiety?
• What is the relation between education level and unemployment?

🕰️ How To Make A Research Question In 8 Steps

Unfortunately, you won't always have an opportunity to use our research questions generator. Though the instrument is available 24/7 and doesn't require payment or registration, it only works online. Therefore, without a stable internet connection, you will have to deal with developing a research question on your own. That's why we've created this small step-by-step guide.

Here is how you can write your research question by yourself:

Thank you for reading the article! Now feel free to use our research question generator tool whenever you need it. Share it with others if you think they'll benefit from it too.

Updated: Apr 9th, 2024

• How to Write a Research Question: Types, Steps, and Examples | Research.com
• Research Questions: Definitions, Types + [Examples] | Formplus
• How to Write a Research Question | George Mason University
• Developing Research Questions | Monash University
• Quantitative Research - an Overview | ScienceDirect Topics
• Qualitative Research | Vibha Pathak, et al., PubMed Central

80 fascinating psychology research questions for your next project

Last updated

15 February 2024

Reviewed by

Brittany Ferri, PhD, OTR/L

Psychology research is essential for furthering our understanding of human behavior and improving the diagnosis and treatment of psychological conditions.

When psychologists know more about how different social and cultural factors influence how humans act, think, and feel, they can recommend improvements to practices in areas such as education, sport, healthcare, and law enforcement.

Below, you will find 80 research question examples across 16 branches of psychology. First, though, let’s look at some tips to help you select a suitable research topic.

• How to choose a good psychology research topic

Psychology has many branches that break down further into topics. Choosing a topic for your psychology research paper can be daunting because there are so many to choose from. It’s an important choice, as the topic you select will open up a range of questions to explore.

The tips below can help you find a psychology research topic that suits your skills and interests.

Tip #1: Select a topic that interests you

Passion and interest should fuel every research project. A topic that fascinates you will most likely interest others as well. Think about the questions you and others might have and decide on the issues that matter most. Draw on your own interests, but also keep your research topical and relevant to others.

Don’t limit yourself to a topic that you already know about. Instead, choose one that will make you want to know more and dig deeper. This will keep you motivated and excited about your research.

Tip #2: Choose a topic with a manageable scope

If your topic is too broad, you can get overwhelmed by the amount of information available and have trouble maintaining focus. On the other hand, you may find it difficult to find enough information if you choose a topic that is too narrow.

To determine if the topic is too broad or too narrow, start researching as early as possible. If you find there’s an overwhelming amount of research material, you’ll probably need to narrow the topic down. For example, instead of researching the general population, it might be easier to focus on a specific age group. Ask yourself what area of the general topic interests you most and focus on that.

If your scope is too narrow, try to generalize or focus on a larger related topic. Expand your search criteria or select additional databases for information. Consider if the topic is too new to have much information published on it as well.

Tip #3: Select a topic that will produce useful and relevant insights

Doing some preliminary research will reveal any existing research on the topic. If there is existing research, will you be able to produce new insights? You might need to focus on a different area or see if the existing research has limitations that you can overcome.

Bear in mind that finding new information from which to draw fresh insights may be impossible if your topic has been over-researched.

You’ll also need to consider whether your topic is relevant to current trends and needs. For example, researching psychology topics related to social media use may be highly relevant today.

• 80 psychology research topics and questions

Psychology is a broad subject with many branches and potential areas of study. Here are some of them:

Developmental

Personality

Experimental

Organizational

Educational

Neuropsychology

Controversial topics

Below we offer some suggestions on research topics and questions that can get you started. Keep in mind that these are not all-inclusive but should be personalized to fit the theme of your paper.

Social psychology research topics and questions

Social psychology has roots as far back as the 18th century. In simple terms, it’s the study of how behavior is influenced by the presence and behavior of others. It is the science of finding out who we are, who we think we are, and how our perceptions affect ourselves and others. It looks at personalities, relationships, and group behavior.

Here are some potential research questions and paper titles for this topic:

How does social media use impact perceptions of body image in male adolescents?

2. Is childhood bullying a risk factor for social anxiety in adults?

Is homophobia in individuals caused by genetic or environmental factors?

What is the most important psychological predictor of a person’s willingness to donate to charity?

Does a person’s height impact how other people perceive them? If so, how?

Cognitive psychology research questions

Cognitive psychology is the branch that focuses on the interactions of thinking, emotion, creativity, and problem-solving. It also explores the reasons humans think the way they do.

This topic involves exploring how people think by measuring intelligence, thoughts, and cognition. 

Here are some research question ideas:

6. Is there a link between chronic stress and memory function?

7. Can certain kinds of music trigger memories in people with memory loss?

8. Do remote meetings impact the efficacy of team decision-making?

9. Do word games and puzzles slow cognitive decline in adults over the age of 80?

10. Does watching television impact a child’s reading ability?

Developmental psychology research questions

Developmental psychology is the study of how humans grow and change over their lifespan. It usually focuses on the social, emotional, and physical development of babies and children, though it can apply to people of all ages. Developmental psychology is important for understanding how we learn, mature, and adapt to changes.

Here are some questions that might inspire your research:

11. Does grief accelerate the aging process?

12. How do parent–child attachment patterns influence the development of emotion regulation in teenagers?

13. Does bilingualism affect cognitive decline in adults over the age of 70?

14. How does the transition to adulthood impact decision-making abilities

15. How does early exposure to music impact mental health and well-being in school-aged children?

Personality psychology research questions

Personality psychology studies personalities, how they develop, their structures, and the processes that define them. It looks at intelligence, disposition, moral beliefs, thoughts, and reactions.

The goal of this branch of psychology is to scientifically interpret the way personality patterns manifest into an individual’s behaviors. Here are some example research questions:

16. Nature vs. nurture: Which impacts personality development the most?

17. The role of genetics on personality: Does an adopted child take on their biological parents’ personality traits?

18. How do personality traits influence leadership styles and effectiveness in organizational settings?

19. Is there a relationship between an individual’s personality and mental health?

20. Can a chronic illness affect your personality?

Abnormal psychology research questions

As the name suggests, abnormal psychology is a branch that focuses on abnormal behavior and psychopathology (the scientific study of mental illness or disorders).

Abnormal behavior can be challenging to define. Who decides what is “normal”? As such, psychologists in this area focus on the level of distress that certain behaviors may cause, although this typically involves studying mental health conditions such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and phobias.

Here are some questions to consider:

21. How does technology impact the development of social anxiety disorder?

22. What are the factors behind the rising incidence of eating disorders in adolescents?

23. Are mindfulness-based interventions effective in the treatment of PTSD?

24. Is there a connection between depression and gambling addiction?

25. Can physical trauma cause psychopathy?

Clinical psychology research questions

Clinical psychology deals with assessing and treating mental illness or abnormal or psychiatric behaviors. It differs from abnormal psychology in that it focuses more on treatments and clinical aspects, while abnormal psychology is more behavioral focused.

This is a specialty area that provides care and treatment for complex mental health conditions. This can include treatment, not only for individuals but for couples, families, and other groups. Clinical psychology also supports communities, conducts research, and offers training to promote mental health. This category is very broad, so there are lots of topics to explore.

Below are some example research questions to consider:

26. Do criminals require more specific therapies or interventions?

27. How effective are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in treating mental health disorders?

28. Are there any disadvantages to humanistic therapy?

29. Can group therapy be more beneficial than one-on-one therapy sessions?

30. What are the factors to consider when selecting the right treatment plan for patients with anxiety?

Experimental psychology research questions

Experimental psychology deals with studies that can prove or disprove a hypothesis. Psychologists in this field use scientific methods to collect data on basic psychological processes such as memory, cognition, and learning. They use this data to test the whys and hows of behavior and how outside factors influence its creation.

Areas of interest in this branch relate to perception, memory, emotion, and sensation. The below are example questions that could inspire your own research:

31. Do male or female parents/carers have a more calming influence on children?

32. Will your preference for a genre of music increase the more you listen to it?

33. What are the psychological effects of posting on social media vs. not posting?

34. How is productivity affected by social connection?

35. Is cheating contagious?

Organizational psychology research questions

Organizational psychology studies human behavior in the workplace. It is most frequently used to evaluate an employee, group, or a company’s organizational dynamics. Researchers aim to isolate issues and identify solutions.

This area of study can be beneficial to both employees and employers since the goal is to improve the overall work environment and experience. Researchers apply psychological principles and findings to recommend improvements in performance, communication, job satisfaction, and safety. 

Some potential research questions include the following:

36. How do different leadership styles affect employee morale?

37. Do longer lunch breaks boost employee productivity?

38. Is gender an antecedent to workplace stress?

39. What is the most effective way to promote work–life balance among employees?

40. How do different organizational structures impact the effectiveness of communication, decision-making, and productivity?

Forensic psychology research questions

Some questions to consider exploring in this branch of psychology are:

41. How does incarceration affect mental health?

42. Is childhood trauma a driver for criminal behavior during adulthood?

43. Are people with mental health conditions more likely to be victims of crimes?

44. What are the drivers of false memories, and how do they impact the justice system?

45. Is the media responsible for copycat crimes?

Educational psychology research questions

Educational psychology studies children in an educational setting. It covers topics like teaching methods, aptitude assessment, self-motivation, technology, and parental involvement.

Research in this field of psychology is vital for understanding and optimizing learning processes. It informs educators about cognitive development, learning styles, and effective teaching strategies.

Here are some example research questions:

46. Are different teaching styles more beneficial for children at different times of the day?

47. Can listening to classical music regularly increase a student’s test scores?

48. Is there a connection between sugar consumption and knowledge retention in students?

49. Does sleep duration and quality impact academic performance?

50. Does daily meditation at school influence students’ academic performance and mental health?

Sports psychology research question examples

Sport psychology aims to optimize physical performance and well-being in athletes by using cognitive and behavioral practices and interventions. Some methods include counseling, training, and clinical interventions.

Research in this area is important because it can improve team and individual performance, resilience, motivation, confidence, and overall well-being

Here are some research question ideas for you to consider:

51. How can a famous coach affect a team’s performance?

52. How can athletes control negative emotions in violent or high-contact sports?

53. How does using social media impact an athlete’s performance and well-being?

54. Can psychological interventions help with injury rehabilitation?

55. How can mindfulness practices boost sports performance?

Cultural psychology research question examples

The premise of this branch of psychology is that mind and culture are inseparable. In other words, people are shaped by their cultures, and their cultures are shaped by them. This can be a complex interaction.

Cultural psychology is vital as it explores how cultural context shapes individuals’ thoughts, behaviors, and perceptions. It provides insights into diverse perspectives, promoting cross-cultural understanding and reducing biases.

Here are some ideas that you might consider researching:

56. Are there cultural differences in how people perceive and deal with pain?

57. Are different cultures at increased risk of developing mental health conditions?

58. Are there cultural differences in coping strategies for stress?

59. Do our different cultures shape our personalities?

60. How does multi-generational culture influence family values and structure?

Health psychology research question examples

Health psychology is a crucial field of study. Understanding how psychological factors influence health behaviors, adherence to medical treatments, and overall wellness enables health experts to develop effective interventions and preventive measures, ultimately improving health outcomes.

Health psychology also aids in managing stress, promoting healthy behaviors, and optimizing mental health, fostering a holistic approach to well-being.

Here are five ideas to inspire research in this field:

61. How can health psychology interventions improve lifestyle behaviors to prevent cardiovascular diseases?

62. What role do social norms play in vaping among adolescents?

63. What role do personality traits play in the development and management of chronic pain conditions?

64. How do cultural beliefs and attitudes influence health-seeking behaviors in diverse populations?

65. What are the psychological factors influencing the adherence to preventive health behaviors, such as vaccination and regular screenings?

Neuropsychology research paper question examples

Neuropsychology research explores how a person’s cognition and behavior are related to their brain and nervous system. Researchers aim to advance the diagnosis and treatment of behavioral and cognitive effects of neurological disorders.

Researchers may work with children facing learning or developmental challenges, or with adults with declining cognitive abilities. They may also focus on injuries or illnesses of the brain, such as traumatic brain injuries, to determine the effect on cognitive and behavioral functions.

Neuropsychology informs diagnosis and treatment strategies for conditions such as dementia, traumatic brain injuries, and psychiatric disorders. Understanding the neural basis of behavior enhances our ability to optimize cognitive functioning, rehabilitate people with brain injuries, and improve patient care.

Here are some example research questions to consider:

66. How do neurotransmitter imbalances in specific brain regions contribute to mood disorders such as depression?

67. How can a traumatic brain injury affect memory?

68. What neural processes underlie attention deficits in people with ADHD?

69. Do medications affect the brain differently after a traumatic brain injury?

70. What are the behavioral effects of prolonged brain swelling?

Psychology of religion research question examples

The psychology of religion is a field that studies the interplay between belief systems, spirituality, and mental well-being. It explores the application of the psychological methods and interpretive frameworks of religious traditions and how they relate to both religious and non-religious people.

Psychology of religion research contributes to a holistic understanding of human experiences. It fosters cultural competence and guides therapeutic approaches that respect diverse spiritual beliefs.

Here are some example research questions in this field:

71. What impact does a religious upbringing have on a child’s self-esteem?

72. How do religious beliefs shape decision-making and perceptions of morality?

73. What is the impact of religious indoctrination?

74. Is there correlation between religious and mindfulness practices?

75. How does religious affiliation impact attitudes towards mental health treatment and help-seeking behaviors?

Controversial topics in psychology research question examples

Some psychology topics don’t fit into any of the subcategories above, but they may still be worthwhile topics to consider. These topics are the ones that spark interest, conversation, debate, and disagreement. They are often inspired by current issues and assess the validity of older research.

Consider some of these research question examples:

76. How does the rise in on-screen violence impact behavior in adolescents.

77. Should access to social media platforms be restricted in children under the age of 12 to improve mental health?

78. Are prescription mental health medications over-prescribed in older adults? If so, what are the effects of this?

79. Cognitive biases in AI: what are the implications for decision-making?

80. What are the psychological and ethical implications of using virtual reality in exposure therapy for treating trauma-related conditions?

• Inspiration for your next psychology research project

You can choose from a diverse range of research questions that intersect and overlap across various specialties.

From cognitive psychology to clinical studies, each inquiry contributes to a deeper understanding of the human mind and behavior. Importantly, the relevance of these questions transcends individual disciplines, as many findings offer insights applicable across multiple areas of study.

As health trends evolve and societal needs shift, new topics emerge, fueling continual exploration and discovery. Diving into this ever-changing and expanding area of study enables you to navigate the complexities of the human experience and pave the way for innovative solutions to the challenges of tomorrow.

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Scientific Research Question Generator

Feeling stuck trying to make a fresh and creative research question? Try our free research question generator! Choose a suitable question from a list of suggestions or build your own.

• Question Maker
• Question Finder

Make a scientific research question with this tool in 3 simple steps:

Please try again with some different keywords.

• 🧪 What Is This Tool?

‼️ Why Are Research Questions Important?

• 📃 How to Create a Science Paper?
• 🔗 References

🧪 Scientific Research Question Generator: What Is It?

Welcome to the page of our scientific research question generator! Right about now, you’re probably wondering – what is this tool, and how does it work? We present you with two options – a generator and a builder. You can read more about them below.

Scientific Question Generator

Deciding to use a question generator is a great alternative to save time and get what you want. You won’t have to suffer for hours looking for a fresh and creative idea! Once you customize the generator to your requirements, you’ll get incredible results.

What is good about this option? Simply put, you’ll only need to follow a few basic steps to create a research question. First, enter the keywords for your future work. You can also select a research area to optimize the generator’s search. Run a search for results and choose a question option from the many suggested ideas! You can refresh your search until you find the research question that fits and inspires you the most.

Research Question Builder

This tool has another feature that may come in handy – a generator of individual research questions from scratch. You don’t need to come up with your own options and guess how to write a well-written idea. It is a valuable function that will save time and produce more creative outcomes. To generate it, you’ll have to specify more qualifying study details.

As the first step, decide your study group and the factor that affects it . Next, try to formulate a measurable outcome of your work. You can add another study group to expand the generator’s capabilities. And finally, specify the time frame of the study. As a result, you have a ready-made individualized research question.

A research question is a helpful tool both for students and researchers. Sound and well-constructed questions are the ones that can shape the structure of your study. They should be grounded in consciously chosen data, instead of random variables. We can use these important questions not only for academic objectives but also in other life situations. For example, by studying the research questions of a potential employer, you can understand the suitability of the company and this kind of job for you.

A well-worded question will be easier for you to answer. You can also use it to outline your research and identify possible problems. That approach will reduce the time it takes to prepare the design of your study. To create a good research question , you need to:

• Choose an area of interest.
• Focus on a specific topic.
• Compose smaller support questions .
• Select the type of data collection and review the applicable literature.
• Identify your target audience.

📃 How to Create a Good Science Paper?

Scientific research papers are similar to the standard essays you are used to writing in school and college. But they have their specificities that you should be aware of. In this section, we have broken down the structure of a typical science paper and explained what goes into each part.

Your title should be specific and concise. It should also describe the subject and be comprehensive. However, it should be clear enough to be understood by a broader target audience, not just narrowly focused specialists.

The abstract is often a necessary component of academic work. The principal aim is to allow the reader a quick look at the scientific material and decide whether they are interested. However, this part shouldn’t be as technical as the main study, so as not to distract them. The abstract consists of general objectives, methods, results, and conclusions, and is approximately 150 to 250 words long. Note that you shouldn’t include citations, notations, and abbreviations.

Introduction

You should write an introduction describing the statement of your problem, and why it’s relevant and worthwhile. A few paragraphs will be enough. You can mention the main sources you have been working with to keep your audience involved. Also, remember to provide the necessary context and background information for your research. You can finish the introduction by explaining the essence of your research question and the value of your answer.

Methods & Materials

In this section of the paper, you should provide the methods and materials you have used for your study. It’s necessary to make your results replicable, and use qualitative or quantitative research methods (or a mix of both). You can use tables, diagrams, and charts to visually represent this information. You shouldn’t disclose your work findings, but you can include preview conclusions for reference.

At this point, we present the final study results, outlining the essential conclusions. Remember, there is no need to discuss the findings or cause-and-effect relationships. Avoid including subtotal results you have received and don’t affect the bottom line. Also, avoid manipulating your audience or exaggerating your achievements, as your results should be testable.

Provide the most meaningful results for discussion . Describe how these results relate to your question and how they are consistent with the results of other researchers. Indicate if the results coincided with your expectations and how you can interpret them. Also, mention if your findings raise issues and how they impact the scope of the study. You may finish up with the relevance of your conclusions.

When you give data in tables or charts, be sure to include a header describing the information in them. Don’t use tables or charts if they are irrelevant. Also, don’t insert them if you need to display data that can fit into a couple of sentences. Make sure to annotate all the visual data you end up using and mention them in the list of figures in the appendix.

Every scientific research paper must have a list of references at the end. This is to avoid plagiarism and to support the validity of your study. Remember to use notations as you go along and indicate them in the text. Then, you must list all the literature used in alphabetical order at the end of the paper. Double-check the citation style of your institution before making this list.

We hope you found our tool helpful in your work! Be sure to check out the FAQ section below if you still have any questions.

❓ Scientific Question Generator – FAQ

❓ how do you develop a scientific question.

Formulate the question in such a way that you can study it. It should be clear, understandable, and brief. After reading your research question, the reader should understand what your paper will be about. Therefore, it should have an objective , relevance, and meaning.

❓ What are good examples of a science research question?

“What are the legal aspects affecting the decrease in people who drive under the influence of alcohol in the USA?” — This question focuses on a defined topic and reviews the effectiveness of existing legislation.  

“How can universities improve the environment for students to become more LGBT-inclusive?” — This question focuses on one specific issue and addresses a narrowly targeted area.

❓ What are the 3 qualities of a good scientific question?

A good question should be feasible in the context of the research accessible to the field of study, ethical, sufficient methods, and materials. It should be interesting, engaging, and intriguing to the target audience. Finally, it should also be relevant and provide new ideas to the chosen field for future research.

Updated: Apr 19th, 2024

📎 References

• Scientific Writing Made Easy: A Step-by-Step Guide to Undergraduate Writing in the Biological Sciences – Sheela P. Turbek, Taylor M. Chock, Kyle Donahue, Caroline A. Havrilla, Angela M. Oliverio, Stephanie K. Polutchko, Lauren G. Shoemaker & Lara Vimercati, Ecological Society of America
• Writing the Scientific Paper – Emily Wortman-Wunder & Kate Kiefer, Colorado State University
• Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper, University of Southern California
• Your research question – Imperial College London
• Developing research questions – Monash University

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Chapter 2: Getting Started in Research

Generating Good Research Questions

Learning Objectives

• Describe some common sources of research ideas and generate research ideas using those sources.
• Describe some techniques for turning research ideas into empirical research questions and use those techniques to generate questions.
• Explain what makes a research question interesting and evaluate research questions in terms of their interestingness.

Good research must begin with a good research question. Yet coming up with good research questions is something that novice researchers often find difficult and stressful. One reason is that this is a creative process that can appear mysterious—even magical—with experienced researchers seeming to pull interesting research questions out of thin air. However, psychological research on creativity has shown that it is neither as mysterious nor as magical as it appears. It is largely the product of ordinary thinking strategies and persistence (Weisberg, 1993) [1] . This section covers some fairly simple strategies for finding general research ideas, turning those ideas into empirically testable research questions, and finally evaluating those questions in terms of how interesting they are and how feasible they would be to answer.

Finding Inspiration

Research questions often begin as more general research ideas—usually focusing on some behaviour or psychological characteristic: talkativeness, learning, depression, bungee jumping, and so on. Before looking at how to turn such ideas into empirically testable research questions, it is worth looking at where such ideas come from in the first place. Three of the most common sources of inspiration are informal observations, practical problems, and previous research.

Informal observations include direct observations of our own and others’ behaviour as well as secondhand observations from nonscientific sources such as newspapers, books, blogs, and so on. For example, you might notice that you always seem to be in the slowest moving line at the grocery store. Could it be that most people think the same thing? Or you might read in a local newspaper about people donating money and food to a local family whose house has burned down and begin to wonder about who makes such donations and why. Some of the most famous research in psychology has been inspired by informal observations. Stanley Milgram’s famous research on obedience to authority, for example, was inspired in part by journalistic reports of the trials of accused Nazi war criminals—many of whom claimed that they were only obeying orders. This led him to wonder about the extent to which ordinary people will commit immoral acts simply because they are ordered to do so by an authority figure (Milgram, 1963) [2] .

Practical problems can also inspire research ideas, leading directly to applied research in such domains as law, health, education, and sports. Does taking lecture notes by hand improve students’ exam performance? How effective is psychotherapy for depression compared to drug therapy? To what extent do cell phones impair people’s driving ability? How can we teach children to read more efficiently? What is the best mental preparation for running a marathon?

Probably the most common inspiration for new research ideas, however, is previous research. Recall that science is a kind of large-scale collaboration in which many different researchers read and evaluate each other’s work and conduct new studies to build on it. Of course, experienced researchers are familiar with previous research in their area of expertise and probably have a long list of ideas. This suggests that novice researchers can find inspiration by consulting with a more experienced researcher (e.g., students can consult a faculty member). But they can also find inspiration by picking up a copy of almost any professional journal and reading the titles and abstracts. In one typical issue of  Psychological Science , for example, you can find articles on the perception of shapes, anti-Semitism, police lineups, the meaning of death, second-language learning, people who seek negative emotional experiences, and many other topics. If you can narrow your interests down to a particular topic (e.g., memory) or domain (e.g., health care), you can also look through more specific journals, such as  Memory & Cognition  or  Health Psychology .

Generating Empirically Testable Research Questions

Once you have a research idea, you need to use it to generate one or more empirically testable research questions, that is, questions expressed in terms of a single variable or relationship between variables. One way to do this is to look closely at the discussion section in a recent research article on the topic. This is the last major section of the article, in which the researchers summarize their results, interpret them in the context of past research, and suggest directions for future research. These suggestions often take the form of specific research questions, which you can then try to answer with additional research. This can be a good strategy because it is likely that the suggested questions have already been identified as interesting and important by experienced researchers.

But you may also want to generate your own research questions. How can you do this? First, if you have a particular behaviour or psychological characteristic in mind, you can simply conceptualize it as a variable and ask how frequent or intense it is. How many words on average do people speak per day? How accurate are our memories of traumatic events? What percentage of people have sought professional help for depression? If the question has never been studied scientifically—which is something that you will learn in your literature review—then it might be interesting and worth pursuing.

If scientific research has already answered the question of how frequent or intense the behaviour or characteristic is, then you should consider turning it into a question about a statistical relationship between that behaviour or characteristic and some other variable. One way to do this is to ask yourself the following series of more general questions and write down all the answers you can think of.

• What are some possible causes of the behaviour or characteristic?
• What are some possible effects of the behaviour or characteristic?
• What types of people might exhibit more or less of the behaviour or characteristic?
• What types of situations might elicit more or less of the behaviour or characteristic?

In general, each answer you write down can be conceptualized as a second variable, suggesting a question about a statistical relationship. If you were interested in talkativeness, for example, it might occur to you that a possible cause of this psychological characteristic is family size. Is there a statistical relationship between family size and talkativeness? Or it might occur to you that people seem to be more talkative in same-sex groups than mixed-sex groups. Is there a difference in the average level of talkativeness of people in same-sex groups and people in mixed-sex groups? This approach should allow you to generate many different empirically testable questions about almost any behaviour or psychological characteristic.

If through this process you generate a question that has never been studied scientifically—which again is something that you will learn in your literature review—then it might be interesting and worth pursuing. But what if you find that it has been studied scientifically? Although novice researchers often want to give up and move on to a new question at this point, this is not necessarily a good strategy. For one thing, the fact that the question has been studied scientifically and the research published suggests that it is of interest to the scientific community. For another, the question can almost certainly be refined so that its answer will still contribute something new to the research literature. Again, asking yourself a series of more general questions about the statistical relationship is a good strategy.

• Are there other ways to operationally define the variables?
• Are there types of people for whom the statistical relationship might be stronger or weaker?
• Are there situations in which the statistical relationship might be stronger or weaker—including situations with practical importance?

For example, research has shown that women and men speak about the same number of words per day—but this was when talkativeness was measured in terms of the number of words spoken per day among university students in the United States and Mexico. We can still ask whether other ways of measuring talkativeness—perhaps the number of different people spoken to each day—produce the same result. Or we can ask whether studying elderly people or people from other cultures produces the same result. Again, this approach should help you generate many different research questions about almost any statistical relationship.

Evaluating Research Questions

Researchers usually generate many more research questions than they ever attempt to answer. This means they must have some way of evaluating the research questions they generate so that they can choose which ones to pursue. In this section, we consider two criteria for evaluating research questions: the interestingness of the question and the feasibility of answering it.

Interestingness

How often do people tie their shoes? Do people feel pain when you punch them in the jaw? Are women more likely to wear makeup than men? Do people prefer vanilla or chocolate ice cream? Although it would be a fairly simple matter to design a study and collect data to answer these questions, you probably would not want to because they are not interesting. We are not talking here about whether a research question is interesting to us personally but whether it is interesting to people more generally and, especially, to the scientific community. But what makes a research question interesting in this sense? Here we look at three factors that affect the  interestingness  of a research question: the answer is in doubt, the answer fills a gap in the research literature, and the answer has important practical implications.

First, a research question is interesting to the extent that its answer is in doubt. Obviously, questions that have been answered by scientific research are no longer interesting as the subject of new empirical research. But the fact that a question has not been answered by scientific research does not necessarily make it interesting. There has to be some reasonable chance that the answer to the question will be something that we did not already know. But how can you assess this before actually collecting data? One approach is to try to think of reasons to expect different answers to the question—especially ones that seem to conflict with common sense. If you can think of reasons to expect at least two different answers, then the question might be interesting. If you can think of reasons to expect only one answer, then it probably is not. The question of whether women are more talkative than men is interesting because there are reasons to expect both answers. The existence of the stereotype itself suggests the answer could be yes, but the fact that women’s and men’s verbal abilities are fairly similar suggests the answer could be no. The question of whether people feel pain when you punch them in the jaw is not interesting because there is absolutely no reason to think that the answer could be anything other than a resounding yes.

A second important factor to consider when deciding if a research question is interesting is whether answering it will fill a gap in the research literature. Again, this means in part that the question has not already been answered by scientific research. But it also means that the question is in some sense a natural one for people who are familiar with the research literature. For example, the question of whether taking lecture notes by hand can help improve students’ exam performance would be likely to occur to anyone who was familiar with research on notetaking and the ineffectiveness of shallow processing on learning.

A final factor to consider when deciding whether a research question is interesting is whether its answer has important practical implications. Again, the question of whether taking notes by hand improves learning has important implications for education, including classroom policies concerning technology use. The question of whether cell phone use impairs driving is interesting because it is relevant to the personal safety of everyone who travels by car and to the debate over whether cell phone use should be restricted by law.

Feasibility

A second important criterion for evaluating research questions is the feasibility  of successfully answering them. There are many factors that affect feasibility, including time, money, equipment and materials, technical knowledge and skill, and access to research participants. Clearly, researchers need to take these factors into account so that they do not waste time and effort pursuing research that they cannot complete successfully.

Looking through a sample of professional journals in psychology will reveal many studies that are complicated and difficult to carry out. These include longitudinal designs in which participants are tracked over many years, neuroimaging studies in which participants’ brain activity is measured while they carry out various mental tasks, and complex nonexperimental studies involving several variables and complicated statistical analyses. Keep in mind, though, that such research tends to be carried out by teams of highly trained researchers whose work is often supported in part by government and private grants. Keep in mind also that research does not have to be complicated or difficult to produce interesting and important results. Looking through a sample of professional journals will also reveal studies that are relatively simple and easy to carry out—perhaps involving a convenience sample of university students and a paper-and-pencil task.

A final point here is that it is generally good practice to use methods that have already been used successfully by other researchers. For example, if you want to manipulate people’s moods to make some of them happy, it would be a good idea to use one of the many approaches that have been used successfully by other researchers (e.g., paying them a compliment). This is good not only for the sake of feasibility—the approach is “tried and true”—but also because it provides greater continuity with previous research. This makes it easier to compare your results with those of other researchers and to understand the implications of their research for yours, and vice versa.

Key Takeaways

• Research ideas can come from a variety of sources, including informal observations, practical problems, and previous research.
• Research questions expressed in terms of variables and relationships between variables can be suggested by other researchers or generated by asking a series of more general questions about the behaviour or psychological characteristic of interest.
• It is important to evaluate how interesting a research question is before designing a study and collecting data to answer it. Factors that affect interestingness are the extent to which the answer is in doubt, whether it fills a gap in the research literature, and whether it has important practical implications.
• It is also important to evaluate how feasible a research question will be to answer. Factors that affect feasibility include time, money, technical knowledge and skill, and access to special equipment and research participants.
• Practice: Generate five research ideas based on each of the following: informal observations, practical problems, and topics discussed in recent issues of professional journals.
• Practice: Generate five empirical research questions about each of the following behaviours or psychological characteristics: long-distance running, getting tattooed, social anxiety, bullying, and memory for early childhood events.
• Practice: Evaluate each of the research questions you generated in Exercise 2 in terms of its interestingness based on the criteria discussed in this section.
• Practice: Find an issue of a journal that publishes short empirical research reports (e.g.,  Psychological Science ,  Psychonomic Bulletin and Review , Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin ). Pick three studies, and rate each one in terms of how feasible it would be for you to replicate it with the resources available to you right now. Use the following rating scale: (1) You could replicate it essentially as reported. (2) You could replicate it with some simplifications. (3) You could not replicate it. Explain each rating.

Video Attributions

• “ How to Develop a Good Research Topic ” by KStateLibraries . CC BY (Attribution)
• Weisberg, R. W. (1993). Creativity: Beyond the myth of genius . New York, NY: Freeman. ↵
• Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioural study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67 , 371–378. ↵

The level a research question is interesting to the scientific community and people in general.

the state or ability of being easily or conveniently completed.

Research Methods in Psychology - 2nd Canadian Edition Copyright © 2015 by Paul C. Price, Rajiv Jhangiani, & I-Chant A. Chiang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Research Question Maker

Please try again with some different keywords or subjects.

Looking for a research question maker to get a ready research question or build one from scratch?

Search no more!

This 2-in-1 online research question making tool can do both in seconds.

Try our it and break free from the stressful experience. The tool is user-friendly, and you can easily access it online for free.

• ️🤔 How to Use the Tool?
• ️🕵🏽 What Is a Research Question?
• ️🔢 Research Question Formula
• ️🔎 Research Question Types
• ️✅ Research Question Checklist
• ️👀 Examples
• ️🔗 References

🤔 Research Question Maker: How to Use the 2-in-1 Tool?

Getting a ready research question.

You don't have to stress over our research question generator because you get impressive results within a few seconds.

Get your research question by following the steps below:

• Enter the keywords related to the research question you are interested in exploring.
• Choose your study area if necessary.
• Run the search and wait for the results.
• Look at the many ideas that the question maker will propose.

You can refresh the search button until you find the question that suits your research paper.

Building a Tailor-made Research Question

Another option of this 2-in-1 tool enables you to build a tailor-made research question from scratch. To get one quickly, perform the following steps:

🕵🏽 What Is a Research Question?

A research question is important in guiding your research paper, essay, or thesis. It offers the direction of your research and clarifies what you want to focus on.

Good research questions require you to synthesize facts from several sources and interpret them to get an answer.

It is essential to understand the features of a good research question before you start the formulation process.

Your question should be:

• Focused. It should focus on one research issue.
• Specific. The question should contain narrowed ideas .
• Researchable. You should get answers from qualitative and quantitative research sources .
• Feasible. It should be workable within the practical limitations
• Original. The question should be unique and authentic.
• Relevant. It needs to be based on your subject discipline.
• Complex. It should offer adequate scope for analysis and discussion.

Research papers or essays require one research question, as a rule. However, extensive projects like dissertations and theses can have several research questions focusing on the main research issue.

The thesis statement is the response you develop; it sets the direction of your arguments. It should be relevant to the research question.

Thus, you can also use an online thesis maker to ensure it aligns with your formulated questions.

🔢 Research Question Formula

In research writing , you must begin with a topic of interest. Analyzing the original title, you have chosen will give you a good and well-defined research question.

There is an effective formula you can use when formulating your research question.

Topic + Concept = Research question

The topic should be specific with a strong focus on a subject matter, while the concept surrounding it should be from a broad field.

For example:

Your topic could be social media, nursing, standardized tests, cybersecurity, etc. Conversely, concepts can be the risks and benefits of your topic, the recent trends, challenges faced by the industry, etc.

Let us explore the formula and create a few research questions.

• Standardized tests (topic) + recent trends (concept) = How have standardized tests impacted the education sector? (research question)
• Cybersecurity (topic) + effect (concept) = How has cybersecurity affected the evolution of technology? (research question)

Therefore, ensure your research question is neither too broad nor too narrow. Broad topics and concepts might overwhelm you with numerous sources. On the other hand, narrow questions will limit you when exploring the project's scope.

🔎 Research Question Types

When formulating your research question, choose from 3 fundamental types that your academic paper can focus on.

Descriptive Research Question

When your investigation intends to disclose existing patterns within the research subject, you should use this type.

A descriptive question urges you to collect measurable information about the attributes of subjects with certain views. It could be a number, occurrence, or amount that describes a research problem.

Here are some examples:

• What is the percentage of people with fitness apps in 2022?
• What is the average debt load of an American?
• How often do students use online writing services in the UK?

Relational Research Question

This type focuses on comparing two or more entities in a research investigation. After picking your variables, you must choose a comparison parameter and provide its detailed discussion.

Some examples are as follows:

• What is the difference between men and women's salaries in IT?
• What is the correlation between alcohol and depression?
• Is there a relationship between a vegan diet and the low-income bracket?

Causal Research Question

This is a cause-and-effect type of research question. It seeks to prove how one variable affects another one.

Great examples are:

• How does advertising impact consumer behavior?
• Do public opinion polls alter voter inclinations?
• How does employee training affect performance in the employment market?

✅ How to Make a Research Question Stronger? The Checklist

Developing questions seems like a simple task for students. But it can be quite challenging if you want to create an effective research question. The latter can make or break your paper, so you should focus on strengthening and refining it.

How do you make your research question strong? The criteria below will show whether you've already arrived at a workable question.

👀 Research Question Examples

• What does a change-ready organization look like?
• Wearable medical devices: how will they transform healthcare?
• What effect did the World War II wartime experience have on African americans?
• Biodiversity on the Earth: why is it crucial for the environment?
• What makes William Shakespeare relevant in the modern day?
• How did the Civil War affect the distribution of wealth in the United States?
• What is love?
• Why should businesses embrace remote work?
• What impact has feminism had in the study of women and crime?
• How to construct a mixed methods research design?
• What is a halogenated hydrocarbon?

Thank you for reading this article! If you need to formulate a research title, try using our title-generating tool .

❓ Research Question Maker Tool FAQ

❓ what is a good research question.

A great research question is specific and answerable within a workable time frame. It should focus on one topic and be researchable using primary and secondary data. In short, it should have a clear statement of what the researcher is supposed to do to get practical answers.

❓ How to formulate a research question?

To understand how to create a research question, you need to think about how your topic affects a particular population. You should also consider the period of investigation and the location – it could be an organization, country, or commercial industry.

❓ How to write a qualitative research question?

Your questions should reveal research issues and opinions from the respondents in your study. Qualitative questions seek to discover and understand how people make sense of their life experiences and events. The results of qualitative research are analyzed narratively, so don't try to quantify them.

❓ How to find a research question?

If you find it difficult to compose a unique research question, use our question maker tool and get it within a few seconds. Just enter the right keywords about your subject of interest, and the smart algorithms will produce a list of questions that suit your case.

🔗 References

• How to Write a Research Question - GMU Writing Center
• How to Write a Research Question: Steps and Examples
• Narrowing a Topic and Developing a Research Question
• Formulation of Research Question – Stepwise Approach - PMC
• Writing Research Questions: Purpose & Examples - Study.com

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

2.2 Generating Good Research Questions

Learning objectives.

• Describe some common sources of research ideas and generate research ideas using those sources.
• Describe some techniques for turning research ideas into empirical research questions and use those techniques to generate questions.
• Explain what makes a research question interesting and evaluate research questions in terms of their interestingness.

Good research must begin with a good research question. Yet coming up with good research questions is something that novice researchers often find difficult and stressful. One reason is that this is a creative process that can appear mysterious—even magical—with experienced researchers seeming to pull interesting research questions out of thin air. However, psychological research on creativity has shown that it is neither as mysterious nor as magical as it appears. It is largely the product of ordinary thinking strategies and persistence (Weisberg, 1993). This section covers some fairly simple strategies for finding general research ideas, turning those ideas into empirically testable research questions, and finally evaluating those questions in terms of how interesting they are and how feasible they would be to answer.

Finding Inspiration

Research questions often begin as more general research ideas—usually focusing on some behavior or psychological characteristic: talkativeness, memory for touches, depression, bungee jumping, and so on. Before looking at how to turn such ideas into empirically testable research questions, it is worth looking at where such ideas come from in the first place. Three of the most common sources of inspiration are informal observations, practical problems, and previous research.

Informal observations include direct observations of our own and others’ behavior as well as secondhand observations from nonscientific sources such as newspapers, books, and so on. For example, you might notice that you always seem to be in the slowest moving line at the grocery store. Could it be that most people think the same thing? Or you might read in the local newspaper about people donating money and food to a local family whose house has burned down and begin to wonder about who makes such donations and why. Some of the most famous research in psychology has been inspired by informal observations. Stanley Milgram’s famous research on obedience, for example, was inspired in part by journalistic reports of the trials of accused Nazi war criminals—many of whom claimed that they were only obeying orders. This led him to wonder about the extent to which ordinary people will commit immoral acts simply because they are ordered to do so by an authority figure (Milgram, 1963).

Practical problems can also inspire research ideas, leading directly to applied research in such domains as law, health, education, and sports. Can human figure drawings help children remember details about being physically or sexually abused? How effective is psychotherapy for depression compared to drug therapy? To what extent do cell phones impair people’s driving ability? How can we teach children to read more efficiently? What is the best mental preparation for running a marathon?

Probably the most common inspiration for new research ideas, however, is previous research. Recall that science is a kind of large-scale collaboration in which many different researchers read and evaluate each other’s work and conduct new studies to build on it. Of course, experienced researchers are familiar with previous research in their area of expertise and probably have a long list of ideas. This suggests that novice researchers can find inspiration by consulting with a more experienced researcher (e.g., students can consult a faculty member). But they can also find inspiration by picking up a copy of almost any professional journal and reading the titles and abstracts. In one typical issue of Psychological Science , for example, you can find articles on the perception of shapes, anti-Semitism, police lineups, the meaning of death, second-language learning, people who seek negative emotional experiences, and many other topics. If you can narrow your interests down to a particular topic (e.g., memory) or domain (e.g., health care), you can also look through more specific journals, such as Memory & Cognition or Health Psychology .

Generating Empirically Testable Research Questions

Once you have a research idea, you need to use it to generate one or more empirically testable research questions, that is, questions expressed in terms of a single variable or relationship between variables. One way to do this is to look closely at the discussion section in a recent research article on the topic. This is the last major section of the article, in which the researchers summarize their results, interpret them in the context of past research, and suggest directions for future research. These suggestions often take the form of specific research questions, which you can then try to answer with additional research. This can be a good strategy because it is likely that the suggested questions have already been identified as interesting and important by experienced researchers.

But you may also want to generate your own research questions. How can you do this? First, if you have a particular behavior or psychological characteristic in mind, you can simply conceptualize it as a variable and ask how frequent or intense it is. How many words on average do people speak per day? How accurate are children’s memories of being touched? What percentage of people have sought professional help for depression? If the question has never been studied scientifically—which is something that you will learn in your literature review—then it might be interesting and worth pursuing.

If scientific research has already answered the question of how frequent or intense the behavior or characteristic is, then you should consider turning it into a question about a statistical relationship between that behavior or characteristic and some other variable. One way to do this is to ask yourself the following series of more general questions and write down all the answers you can think of.

• What are some possible causes of the behavior or characteristic?
• What are some possible effects of the behavior or characteristic?
• What types of people might exhibit more or less of the behavior or characteristic?
• What types of situations might elicit more or less of the behavior or characteristic?

In general, each answer you write down can be conceptualized as a second variable, suggesting a question about a statistical relationship. If you were interested in talkativeness, for example, it might occur to you that a possible cause of this psychological characteristic is family size. Is there a statistical relationship between family size and talkativeness? Or it might occur to you that people seem to be more talkative in same-sex groups than mixed-sex groups. Is there a difference in the average level of talkativeness of people in same-sex groups and people in mixed-sex groups? This approach should allow you to generate many different empirically testable questions about almost any behavior or psychological characteristic.

If through this process you generate a question that has never been studied scientifically—which again is something that you will learn in your literature review—then it might be interesting and worth pursuing. But what if you find that it has been studied scientifically? Although novice researchers often want to give up and move on to a new question at this point, this is not necessarily a good strategy. For one thing, the fact that the question has been studied scientifically and the research published suggests that it is of interest to the scientific community. For another, the question can almost certainly be refined so that its answer will still contribute something new to the research literature. Again, asking yourself a series of more general questions about the statistical relationship is a good strategy.

• Are there other ways to operationally define the variables?
• Are there types of people for whom the statistical relationship might be stronger or weaker?
• Are there situations in which the statistical relationship might be stronger or weaker—including situations with practical importance?

For example, research has shown that women and men speak about the same number of words per day—but this was when talkativeness was measured in terms of the number of words spoken per day among college students in the United States and Mexico. We can still ask whether other ways of measuring talkativeness—perhaps the number of different people spoken to each day—produce the same result. Or we can ask whether studying elderly people or people from other cultures produces the same result. Again, this approach should help you generate many different research questions about almost any statistical relationship.

Evaluating Research Questions

Researchers usually generate many more research questions than they ever attempt to answer. This means they must have some way of evaluating the research questions they generate so that they can choose which ones to pursue. In this section, we consider two criteria for evaluating research questions: the interestingness of the question and the feasibility of answering it.

Interestingness

How often do people tie their shoes? Do people feel pain when you punch them in the jaw? Are women more likely to wear makeup than men? Do people prefer vanilla or chocolate ice cream? Although it would be a fairly simple matter to design a study and collect data to answer these questions, you probably would not want to because they are not interesting. We are not talking here about whether a research question is interesting to us personally but whether it is interesting to people more generally and, especially, to the scientific community. But what makes a research question interesting in this sense? Here we look at three factors that affect the interestingness of a research question: the answer is in doubt, the answer fills a gap in the research literature, and the answer has important practical implications.

First, a research question is interesting to the extent that its answer is in doubt. Obviously, questions that have been answered by scientific research are no longer interesting as the subject of new empirical research. But the fact that a question has not been answered by scientific research does not necessarily make it interesting. There has to be some reasonable chance that the answer to the question will be something that we did not already know. But how can you assess this before actually collecting data? One approach is to try to think of reasons to expect different answers to the question—especially ones that seem to conflict with common sense. If you can think of reasons to expect at least two different answers, then the question might be interesting. If you can think of reasons to expect only one answer, then it probably is not. The question of whether women are more talkative than men is interesting because there are reasons to expect both answers. The existence of the stereotype itself suggests the answer could be yes, but the fact that women’s and men’s verbal abilities are fairly similar suggests the answer could be no. The question of whether people feel pain when you punch them in the jaw is not interesting because there is absolutely no reason to think that the answer could be anything other than a resounding yes.

A second important factor to consider when deciding if a research question is interesting is whether answering it will fill a gap in the research literature. Again, this means in part that the question has not already been answered by scientific research. But it also means that the question is in some sense a natural one for people who are familiar with the research literature. For example, the question of whether human figure drawings can help children recall touch information would be likely to occur to anyone who was familiar with research on the unreliability of eyewitness memory (especially in children) and the ineffectiveness of some alternative interviewing techniques.

A final factor to consider when deciding whether a research question is interesting is whether its answer has important practical implications. Again, the question of whether human figure drawings help children recall information about being touched has important implications for how children are interviewed in physical and sexual abuse cases. The question of whether cell phone use impairs driving is interesting because it is relevant to the personal safety of everyone who travels by car and to the debate over whether cell phone use should be restricted by law.

Feasibility

A second important criterion for evaluating research questions is the feasibility of successfully answering them. There are many factors that affect feasibility, including time, money, equipment and materials, technical knowledge and skill, and access to research participants. Clearly, researchers need to take these factors into account so that they do not waste time and effort pursuing research that they cannot complete successfully.

Looking through a sample of professional journals in psychology will reveal many studies that are complicated and difficult to carry out. These include longitudinal designs in which participants are tracked over many years, neuroimaging studies in which participants’ brain activity is measured while they carry out various mental tasks, and complex nonexperimental studies involving several variables and complicated statistical analyses. Keep in mind, though, that such research tends to be carried out by teams of highly trained researchers whose work is often supported in part by government and private grants. Keep in mind also that research does not have to be complicated or difficult to produce interesting and important results. Looking through a sample of professional journals will also reveal studies that are relatively simple and easy to carry out—perhaps involving a convenience sample of college students and a paper-and-pencil task.

A final point here is that it is generally good practice to use methods that have already been used successfully by other researchers. For example, if you want to manipulate people’s moods to make some of them happy, it would be a good idea to use one of the many approaches that have been used successfully by other researchers (e.g., paying them a compliment). This is good not only for the sake of feasibility—the approach is “tried and true”—but also because it provides greater continuity with previous research. This makes it easier to compare your results with those of other researchers and to understand the implications of their research for yours, and vice versa.

Key Takeaways

• Research ideas can come from a variety of sources, including informal observations, practical problems, and previous research.
• Research questions expressed in terms of variables and relationships between variables can be suggested by other researchers or generated by asking a series of more general questions about the behavior or psychological characteristic of interest.
• It is important to evaluate how interesting a research question is before designing a study and collecting data to answer it. Factors that affect interestingness are the extent to which the answer is in doubt, whether it fills a gap in the research literature, and whether it has important practical implications.
• It is also important to evaluate how feasible a research question will be to answer. Factors that affect feasibility include time, money, technical knowledge and skill, and access to special equipment and research participants.
• Practice: Generate five research ideas based on each of the following: informal observations, practical problems, and topics discussed in recent issues of professional journals.
• Practice: Generate five empirical research questions about each of the following behaviors or psychological characteristics: long-distance running, getting tattooed, social anxiety, bullying, and memory for early childhood events.
• Practice: Evaluate each of the research questions you generated in Exercise 2 in terms of its interestingness based on the criteria discussed in this section.
• Practice: Find an issue of a journal that publishes short empirical research reports (e.g., Psychological Science , Psychonomic Bulletin and Review , Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin ). Pick three studies, and rate each one in terms of how feasible it would be for you to replicate it with the resources available to you right now. Use the following rating scale: (1) You could replicate it essentially as reported. (2) You could replicate it with some simplifications. (3) You could not replicate it. Explain each rating.

Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67 , 371–378.

Weisberg, R. W. (1993). Creativity: Beyond the myth of genius . New York, NY: Freeman.

Research Methods in Psychology Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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PICOT Research Question Generator

Welcome to the PICOT Research Question Generator! My name is Eric Heidel, PhD, PStat, and I am an Associate Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine (UTGSM) as well as an Accredited Professional Statistician. I have taught the PICOT ( Population , Intervention , Comparator , Outcome , and Time ) framework for creating research questions to thousands of medical professionals over the past 14 years (see About page; opens in new window). I created the PICOT Research Question Generator to help researchers create valid research questions using the PICOT framework.

You will be prompted below to choose one of four potential statistical objectives for your PICOT question. Then, you will enter text related to your PICOT question into text boxes that reflect each of the five PICOT components. Finally, you will click on a button and the PICOT Research Question Generator will present the following:

• Your PICOT question
• Your null and alternative hypotheses
• Your independent variable
• Your dependent variable
• The statistical test used to answer your PICOT question

It should take you less than five minutes to complete the web form below. If you want to create a PICOT research question related to between-subjects, within-subjects, correlational, multivariate, interventions, prevention, prognosis, diagnosis, or etiology, please use the PICOT question examples page (opens in new window). You can also use the full version of the PICOT Research Question Generator, which will take you between 15-20 minutes to complete (opens in new window). Or, check out the page that shows how PICOT can be "mapped" onto 21 popular statistical tests by visiting the PICOT question and statistics page (opens in new window).

Please Like or Share this website on Facebook! Thank you for using the PICOT Research Question Generator!

What is the statistical objective of your PICOT question?

What is the statistical objective of your PICOT research question? Choose an option below and then select the answers that best fit your statistical objective.

The PICOT Question

Population and picot.

In the text box below, enter text describing the population for your study in general terms and click on the Submit button.

Intervention and PICOT

In the text box below, enter text describing the intervention that is being administered and click on the Submit button.

Comparator and PICOT

In the text box below, enter text describing the comparator that is being administered and click on the Submit button.

Outcome and PICOT

In the text box below, enter text describing the outcome that will be measured for in your study and click on the Submit button.

Time and PICOT

In the text box below, enter text describing the time frame for your study and click on the Submit button.

Your PICOT Question

Click on the button below to generate your PICOT question, research hypotheses, independent and dependent variables, and statistical tests.

Inquiry Question Generator

Get your perfect inquiry in 3 simple steps:

• Input the keywords
• Press the button
• Get the list and repeat if needed.

Input the keyword(s)

Please try using other keywords in your search.

🔬 What Is an Inquiry Question?

✨ types of inquiry questions.

• ✍️ Writing Steps
• 📝 Inquiry Question Checklist
• 🌟 Good & Bad Examples

🔗 References

An inquiry question is a subject your research is addressing. Its primary function is directing research by concentrating on a specific facet, trend, or factor. A compelling core inquiry question should be:

Why Is an Inquiry Question Important?

If the research question is formulated correctly, it will assist you in defining the matter you wish to address. It helps you organize your study and anticipate any issues that arise in the process.

A research inquiry will:

• Maintain your interest and keep you concentrated on the subject.
• Help you locate some other minor questions that will make your research more detailed.
• Suggest the sources you need to look for or the data you need to acquire.
• Direct you to the people you should consult for assistance.

There are six different ways of addressing inquiry questions. Each focuses on the specific needs and objectives of the research paper. Let’s study them in more detail.

✍️ How to Develop an Inquiry Question Step by Step

Now that you’re familiarized with the theory, it’s time to see how to actually write an inquiry. This next segment will describe the process of creating a key question step by step.

Step 1. Choose a Broad Topic

The first stage in creating an inquiry is to select a general area of research . The broader the topic is, the deeper your research will delve into the matter. We recommend you pick a subject that appeals to you personally. This way, the research process will be more fun.

Step 2. Conduct Your Research

After choosing a subject, you can start your preliminary research. A quick analysis of relevant literature will help you identify the topics that scholars and other researchers are debating. You’ll acquire relevant knowledge and structure your future research around it.

Step 3. Narrow Down Your Topic

When you have enough information on the subject, you can concentrate on a narrow field of study:

• One way to do it is to focus on the research gaps that still need to be studied in depth.
• Problematization is another method of narrowing topics down. It allows you to carefully examine presumptions that back up the theoretical positions of other researchers.

Choose whichever way you prefer and proceed to the next step.

Step 4. Think about Your Audience

The next step is to find out if your readers are interested in the question you are addressing. If you make it compelling, it will add value to your research. Additionally, knowing your target audience can help you focus on factors that are relevant to them. All of that will help you refine your research question.

Step 5. Make a List of Potential Questions

Pose as many open-ended questions related to your topic as possible. Once you've written down a handful of general questions, test them to see if they're good enough for your research. Additionally, while examining them, consider how they will influence the final result of your study.

Step 6. Construct Your Key Inquiry Question

The final step is to write an inquiry. There are two frameworks that you can choose from when doing it:

📝 Good Inquiry Question: A Practical Checklist

If you want to ensure your inquiry is good enough, it’s vital to know which factors can make a difference. The checklist below will help you: if your question has all the following qualities, it's perfect.

🌟 Inquiry Question Examples

Need help to figure out what a perfect inquiry is like? Check out our examples! They will also show you how to turn weak questions into much better ones.

Now you know all about inquiries and how to write them. Make sure to use AssignZen’s free inquiry question maker! With its help, you will create excellent key questions in a few clicks. Have a great day, and good luck in your studies!

❓ Inquiry Question Maker FAQ

❓ what are 5 good research questions.

• How did the US economy respond to the impact of worker unions?
• How can educational strategies stop teenage drug abuse?
• How did Sigmund Freud’s psychology research affect modern psychoanalysis?
• How can governmental laws fight pollution?
• How can hereditary components of alcoholism affect hospital procedures?

❓ What are the 6 types of research questions?

• Exploratory questions find more information about a subject.
• Predictive questions predict the consequences.
• Interpretive questions analyze people’s reactions.
• Descriptive questions describe a particular phenomenon.
• Comparative questions compare two things.
• Relationship-based questions explain how an object is affected by a subject.

❓ What is a question generator?

An inquiry question generator is AI-powered software that can create a key question based on the information you type in. It is made to help students and researchers find inquiry examples and boost knowledge and imagination.

❓ Which question can be answered by scientific inquiry?

Scientific inquiries aim to explain anything that occurs in the natural world. Inquiries can concern objects, living beings, and various phenomena. They may be addressed by empirical studies that create explanations based on evidence and facts.

❓ What is a question of inquiry?

A question of inquiry question is a question posed by a researcher to explore a specific topic in a systematic and structured manner. This question serves as the foundation of a research study. In particular, it shapes the investigation's objectives, methodology, and scope.

Updated: Apr 9th, 2024

• Formulating a Research Question: Harvard University
• Narrowing a Topic and Developing a Research Question: Indiana University
• Types of Research Questions: California State University, Northridge
• How to Write a Research Question: Steps and Examples: Indeed
• What Makes a Good Research Question?: Virginia Commonwealth University

Quantitative Research Question Generator

Wondering how to come up with a fascinating research question? This tool is for you.

• 📝 Qualitative Research Definition
• ✍️ Creating a Qualitative Research Question
• 👼 Useful Tips

🔗 References

What does the qualitative research question generator do.

Our qualitative research question generator creates science topics for any studying field.

You just need to:

• Add the necessary information into the textboxes;
• Click “Generate”;
• Look at the examples if necessary.

You will see different research areas, from broad to narrow ones. If you didn't find the ones you like, click "see more."

Don't worry if it's your first qualitative research experience. We will teach you how to formulate research questions and get the most out of this tool.

📝 What Is Qualitative Research?

First, let's define the difference between qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative research focuses on meaning and experience. Quantitative research aims to provide empirical evidence to prove a hypothesis.

Qualitative research is an inquiry information gathering method used to study social phenomena. In most cases, qualitative research relies on interviews, observations, focus groups , and case studies. The main goal of a researcher is to gain deep insights instead of focusing on numbers and statistics. Qualitative research is popular in psychology, anthropology, sociology, political science, education studies, and social work.

Take a look at the 6 characteristics of qualitative research:

• It relies on a real-world setting.
• It uses multiple data collection methods .
• It depends on researchers' data more than on prior research.
• It considers participants' understanding of phenomena.
• It uses complex reasoning.
• It has a flexible course of study.

What Is a Qualitative Research Question?

Qualitative research question tries to understand the meaning people tie to a concept. It seeks to explore the phenomena rather than explain them. For that reason, a qualitative research question is usually more general.

How to write a good qualitative research question? Make sure it meets the requirements below:

• Broadness. Qualitative research questions need to be broad and specific enough.
• Relevance. A topic should interest your audience and follow the given instructions.
• Applicability. The results of your research should have scientific value and implementation opportunities.
• Clarity. Your readers need to know what your paper is about after seeing the research question.
• Flexibility. The scenario of your research can change while you conduct it. That is why qualitative research questions are often open-ended.

✍️ How to Make a Qualitative Research Question?

Now we will explain how to choose and create an excellent research title. Just make sure you follow these three steps:

• Brainstorm your ideas. Take a piece of paper or use any digital device to note your thoughts. Based on the task, make a list of as many research topics as you can.
• Choose the topics that are perfect at this stage. You can start with your interests and the areas already familiar to you. Use your old papers. In case you have noticed any knowledge gaps while in them, add these topics too. Think about how your work can contribute to the chosen science field.
• Conduct a preliminary literature review on your topics. It will help to eliminate the ones that are already studied well.
• Define the purpose of your research. For example, you want to understand what rewards and perks are the most stimulating for employees. Discuss your ideas with your instructor. If you have an opportunity to choose a supervisor, find a professor with experience within your area of interest.
• Choose one topic and think of a research question . If you discuss your research in class, listen to what your peers say about it. It can give you new ideas and insights on the topic.
• After choosing your topic, research the area more thoroughly. You might rely on your supervisor's instructions at this stage. Take notes on your findings and think about how you can use them. Think of the questions you had after reading the materials and how you can answer them.
• Formulate your research question. Make the question as concise as possible. If you find it challenging to put your thoughts into one sentence, write a small paragraph. Then you can shorten it and form a question.
• Create 1-3 sub-questions in addition to your main qualitative research question. They should highlight the purpose of your research and give more information about your work.

✨ Benefits of Qualitative Research Question Generator

Knowing how to create a qualitative research topic is excellent. But imagine what you can do if you combine your knowledge with artificial intelligence.

Here's how students can benefit from using our tool:

• It saves time. The tool generates an infinite list of topics in one second. You just need to choose the ones that appeal to you.
• It is 100% free. No registration, subscription, or donation is required.
• It has no limits. Use this tool as many times as needed.
• It is easy to use. Type your research keywords into the search bar and click "Search topic."
• It values your privacy. You don't need to disclose any personal data to use this tool.

👼 Tips for Writing a Qualitative Research Question

Here are some nice bonus tips for you:

• Use qualitative verbs such as "describe", "understand", "discover".
• Avoid quantitative research-related verbs such as "effect", "influence", "relate".
• Be sure that it is possible to answer the question fully.
• Don't be afraid to adjust your research question if your research leads to biased results.
• Check if your research question and information-gathering methods are ethical.
• Make sure your research question doesn't contradict your purpose statement.
• Rely on research findings rather than on your predictions.

❓ How do you write a qualitative research question?

Brainstorm your ideas and highlight the best ones. To formulate a research question, use qualitative words and broad ideas. Create a paragraph to narrow it down later. The complexity of your research question depends on the type of paper and the instructions you received.

❓ What are typical qualitative research questions?

Typical qualitative research questions begin with words such as "how," "what," "to what extent," etc. They imply that there should be an extended deep answer to the question. In addition, there can be qualitative sub-questions that are narrower than the central question.

❓ What are examples of research questions?

Here are two examples of nursing research questions:

Qualitative research question: What are the consequences of psychological side effects of ADHD medication for children?

Quantitative research question: How do the psychological side effects of ADHD medication for children influence academic performance?

• Qualitative research questions; Scientific Inquiry in Social Work
• How to write Qualitative Research Questions and Questionnaires
• Strategies for Selecting a Research Topic - ResearchGate
• Qualitative or Quantitative Research? | MQHRG - McGill University

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Overview of the Scientific Method

9 Generating Good Research Questions

Learning objectives.

• Describe some techniques for turning research ideas into empirical research questions and use those techniques to generate questions.
• Explain what makes a research question interesting and evaluate research questions in terms of their interestingness.

Generating Empirically Testable Research Questions

Once you have a research idea, you need to use it to generate one or more empirically testable research questions, that is, questions expressed in terms of a single variable or relationship between variables. One way to do this is to look closely at the discussion section in a recent research article on the topic. This is the last major section of the article, in which the researchers summarize their results, interpret them in the context of past research, and suggest directions for future research. These suggestions often take the form of specific research questions, which you can then try to answer with additional research. This can be a good strategy because it is likely that the suggested questions have already been identified as interesting and important by experienced researchers.

But you may also want to generate your own research questions. How can you do this? First, if you have a particular behavior or psychological characteristic in mind, you can simply conceptualize it as a variable and ask how frequent or intense it is. How many words on average do people speak per day? How accurate are our memories of traumatic events? What percentage of people have sought professional help for depression? If the question has never been studied scientifically—which is something that you will learn when you conduct your literature review—then it might be interesting and worth pursuing.

If scientific research has already answered the question of how frequent or intense the behavior or characteristic is, then you should consider turning it into a question about a relationship between that behavior or characteristic and some other variable. One way to do this is to ask yourself the following series of more general questions and write down all the answers you can think of.

• What are some possible causes of the behavior or characteristic?
• What are some possible effects of the behavior or characteristic?
• What types of people might exhibit more or less of the behavior or characteristic?
• What types of situations might elicit more or less of the behavior or characteristic?

In general, each answer you write down can be conceptualized as a second variable, suggesting a question about a relationship. If you were interested in talkativeness, for example, it might occur to you that a possible cause of this psychological characteristic is family size. Is there a relationship between family size and talkativeness? Or it might occur to you that people seem to be more talkative in same-sex groups than mixed-sex groups. Is there a difference in the average level of talkativeness of people in same-sex groups and people in mixed-sex groups? This approach should allow you to generate many different empirically testable questions about almost any behavior or psychological characteristic.

If through this process you generate a question that has never been studied scientifically—which again is something that you will learn in your literature review—then it might be interesting and worth pursuing. But what if you find that it has been studied scientifically? Although novice researchers often want to give up and move on to a new question at this point, this is not necessarily a good strategy. For one thing, the fact that the question has been studied scientifically and the research published suggests that it is of interest to the scientific community. For another, the question can almost certainly be refined so that its answer will still contribute something new to the research literature. Again, asking yourself a series of more general questions about the relationship is a good strategy.

• Are there other ways to define and measure the variables?
• Are there types of people for whom the relationship might be stronger or weaker?
• Are there situations in which the relationship might be stronger or weaker—including situations with practical importance?

For example, research has shown that women and men speak about the same number of words per day—but this was when talkativeness was measured in terms of the number of words spoken per day among university students in the United States and Mexico. We can still ask whether other ways of measuring talkativeness—perhaps the number of different people spoken to each day—produce the same result. Or we can ask whether studying elderly people or people from other cultures produces the same result. Again, this approach should help you generate many different research questions about almost any relationship.

Evaluating Research Questions

Researchers usually generate many more research questions than they ever attempt to answer. This means they must have some way of evaluating the research questions they generate so that they can choose which ones to pursue. In this section, we consider two criteria for evaluating research questions: the interestingness of the question and the feasibility of answering it.

Interestingness

How often do people tie their shoes? Do people feel pain when you punch them in the jaw? Are women more likely to wear makeup than men? Do people prefer vanilla or chocolate ice cream? Although it would be a fairly simple matter to design a study and collect data to answer these questions, you probably would not want to because they are not interesting. We are not talking here about whether a research question is interesting to us personally but whether it is interesting to people more generally and, especially, to the scientific community. But what makes a research question interesting in this sense? Here we look at three factors that affect the  interestingness  of a research question: the answer is in doubt, the answer fills a gap in the research literature, and the answer has important practical implications.

First, a research question is interesting to the extent that its answer is in doubt. Obviously, questions that have been answered by scientific research are no longer interesting as the subject of new empirical research. But the fact that a question has not been answered by scientific research does not necessarily make it interesting. There has to be some reasonable chance that the answer to the question will be something that we did not already know. But how can you assess this before actually collecting data? One approach is to try to think of reasons to expect different answers to the question—especially ones that seem to conflict with common sense. If you can think of reasons to expect at least two different answers, then the question might be interesting. If you can think of reasons to expect only one answer, then it probably is not. The question of whether women are more talkative than men is interesting because there are reasons to expect both answers. The existence of the stereotype itself suggests the answer could be yes, but the fact that women’s and men’s verbal abilities are fairly similar suggests the answer could be no. The question of whether people feel pain when you punch them in the jaw is not interesting because there is absolutely no reason to think that the answer could be anything other than a resounding yes.

A second important factor to consider when deciding if a research question is interesting is whether answering it will fill a gap in the research literature. Again, this means in part that the question has not already been answered by scientific research. But it also means that the question is in some sense a natural one for people who are familiar with the research literature. For example, the question of whether taking lecture notes by hand can help improve students’ exam performance would be likely to occur to anyone who was familiar with research on note taking and the ineffectiveness of shallow processing on learning.

A final factor to consider when deciding whether a research question is interesting is whether its answer has important practical implications. Again, the question of whether taking notes by hand improves learning has important implications for education, including classroom policies concerning technology use. The question of whether cell phone use impairs driving is interesting because it is relevant to the personal safety of everyone who travels by car and to the debate over whether cell phone use should be restricted by law.

Feasibility

A second important criterion for evaluating research questions is the feasibility  of successfully answering them. There are many factors that affect feasibility, including time, money, equipment and materials, technical knowledge and skill, and access to research participants. Clearly, researchers need to take these factors into account so that they do not waste time and effort pursuing research that they cannot complete successfully.

Looking through a sample of professional journals in psychology will reveal many studies that are complicated and difficult to carry out. These include longitudinal designs in which participants are tracked over many years, neuroimaging studies in which participants’ brain activity is measured while they carry out various mental tasks, and complex non-experimental studies involving several variables and complicated statistical analyses. Keep in mind, though, that such research tends to be carried out by teams of highly trained researchers whose work is often supported in part by government and private grants. Also, keep in mind that research does not have to be complicated or difficult to produce interesting and important results. Looking through a sample of professional journals will also reveal studies that are relatively simple and easy to carry out—perhaps involving a convenience sample of university students and a paper-and-pencil task.

A final point here is that it is generally good practice to use methods that have already been used successfully by other researchers. For example, if you want to manipulate people’s moods to make some of them happy, it would be a good idea to use one of the many approaches that have been used successfully by other researchers (e.g., paying them a compliment). This is good not only for the sake of feasibility—the approach is “tried and true”—but also because it provides greater continuity with previous research. This makes it easier to compare your results with those of other researchers and to understand the implications of their research for yours, and vice versa.

How interesting the question is to people generally or the scientific community. Three things need to be considered: Is the answer in doubt, fills a gap in research literature, and has important practical implications.

How likely is the research question going to be successfully answered depending on the amount of time, money, equipment and materials, technical knowledge and skill, and access to research participants there will be.

Research Methods in Psychology Copyright © 2019 by Rajiv S. Jhangiani, I-Chant A. Chiang, Carrie Cuttler, & Dana C. Leighton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Quantitative Research Question Generator

A research question is the core of any academic paper. Yet, the formulation of a solid quantitative research question can be a challenging task for students. That’s why the NerdyRoo team created an outstanding tool that will become your ultimate academic assistant.

🚀 Why Use Our Generator?

🔎 what is a quantitative research question.

• ✍️ Writing Steps
• ✨ Question Examples

🔗 References

Doubting whether our quantitative research question generator is worth using? It is! Our tool has many benefits:

• It’s entirely free
• It’s accessible online and without registration
• It’s easy to use
• It saves your time
• It boosts productivity
• It instantly generates a high-quality quantitative research question.

Quantitative questions are close-ended questions used for gathering numerical data. Such questions help to collect responses from big samples and, relying on the findings, make data-driven conclusions. A research question is essential to any quantitative research paper because it presents the topic and the paper's aim.

Quantitative research questions always contain variables : things that are being studied. It's crucial to ensure your variables are attainable and measurable. For example, you cannot measure organizational change and emergency response, but you can determine the frequency of organizational change and emergency response score.

Types of Quantitative Research Questions

Do you know that there are 3 types of quantitative research questions? Take a look at them and decide which type is the most suitable for your paper.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research Questions

Many students confuse quantitative and qualitative research . Despite having similar-sounding names, they're very different:

• Quantitative questions are aimed at collecting raw numerical data.
• Qualitative questions have an answer expressed in words. They also allow getting respondents’ personal perspectives on a research topic.

Let’s examine the main differences between qualitative and quantitative research :

✍️ How to Write a Quantitative Research Question

Want to craft an outstanding quantitative research question? We know how to help you! Follow the 5 steps below and get a flawless result:

1. Choose the type of research question.

Decide whether you need a descriptive, comparative, or relationship-based quantitative research question. How your question starts will also depend on the type.

2. Identify the variables.

See how many variables you have. Don't forget to distinguish between dependent and independent ones .

3. Set the groups.

Your study will focus on one or more groups. For example, you might be interested in social media use among Gen-Z Americans, male Millennials, LGBTQ+ people, or any other demographic.

4. Specify the context.

Include any words that will make your research question more specific, such as "per month," "the most significant," or "daily."

5. Compose the research question.

Combine all the elements from the previous steps. Use our quantitative research question generator to ensure the highest result quality!

✨ Quantitative Research Question Examples

Now, let's look at some well-formulated quantitative research questions with explanations for variables and groups.

Thanks for visiting our webpage! Good luck with your quantitative research. Use our online tool and share it with your friends!

❓ Quantitative Research Questions FAQs

❓ what is an example of a quantitative research question.

A quantitative research question might be the following: "What is the relationship between website user-friendliness and customer purchase intention among male and female consumers of age 25 to 30?" Another example would be: "What percentage of Bachelor's graduates acquire a Master's degree?"

❓ What are the quantitative questions?

Quantitative questions are close-ended questions used for collecting numerical data. Such questions help gather responses from big samples and trace patterns in the selected study area. Relying on the finding of quantitative research, the researcher can make solid decisions.

❓ How do you write a quantitative research question?

• Identify the variables.
• Decide on the focus groups.
• Specify the context.

To ensure the best result, use our online generator. It will create a flawless research question for free in a couple of seconds!

❓ What questions does quantitative research answer?

Quantitative research answers any kind of question involving numerical data analysis. For example, it may help to determine the interdependence of variables, examine current trends within the industry, and even create forecasts.

• Developing Your Research Questions: Nova Southeastern University
• How to Write a Research Question: George Mason University
• Quantitative Methods: University of Southern California
• Research Question Overview: North Central University

Research Question Generator for Students

Our online topic question generator is a free tool that creates topic questions in no time. It can easily make an endless list of random research questions based on your query.

Can't decide on the topic question for your project? Check out our free topic question generator and get a suitable research question in 3 steps!

Please try again with some different keywords.

• 👉 Why Use Our Tool?

💡 What Is a Topic Question?

✒️ how to write a research question.

• 📜 Research Question Example

🔗 References

👉 why use our topic question generator.

Our research topic question generator is worth using for several reasons:

• It saves you time. You can develop many ideas and formulate research questions for all of them within seconds.
• It is entirely free. Our tool doesn’t have any limits, probation periods, or subscription plans. Use it as much as you want and don’t pay a cent.
• It is download- and registration-free. Use it in any browser from any device. No applications are needed. You also don’t have to submit any personal data.
• It’s easy to use. You can see an explanation for every step next to each field you need to fill in.
• You can easily check yourself. Spend a couple of seconds to check your research question on logic and coherence.

A research topic question is a question you aim to answer while researching and writing your paper. It states the matter you study and the hypothesis you will prove or disprove. This question shares your assumptions and goals, giving your readers a basic understanding of your paper’s content.

It also helps you focus while researching and gives your research scope and limitations. Of course, your research question needs to be relevant to your study subject and attractive to you. Any paper will lack an objective and specificity without an adequately stated research question.

Research Topic Vs. Research Topic Question

‘Research topic’ and ‘research question’ are different concepts that are often confused.

Research Question Types: Quantitative and Qualitative

Another essential differentiation to know – there are quantitative and qualitative research questions.

• Quantitative research questions are more specific and number-oriented . They seek clear answers such as “yes” or “no,” a number, or another straightforward solution. Example: How many senior high school students in New York failed to achieve the desired SAT scores due to stress factors?
• Qualitative research questions can be broader and more flexible. They seek an explanation of phenomena rather than a short answer. Example: What is the role of stress factors in the academic performance of high school senior students who reside in New York?

Now let’s get to know how to create your own research question. This skill will help you structure your papers more efficiently.

Step 1: Choose Your Research Topic

If you’ve already received general guidelines from your instructor, find a specific area of knowledge that interests you. It shouldn’t be too broad or too narrow. You can divide it into sub-topics and note them. Discuss your topic with someone or brainstorm to get more ideas. You can write down all your thoughts and extract potential issues from this paragraph or text.

Step 2: Research

After you’ve chosen a topic, do preliminary research . Search for keywords relevant to your topics to see what current discussions are in the scientific community. It will be easier for you to cross out those ideas that are already researched too well. In addition, you might spot some knowledge gaps that you can later fill in. We recommend avoiding poorly researched areas unless you are confident you can rely solely on the data you gather.

Step 3: Narrow Your Topic

At this stage, you already have some knowledge about the matter. You can tell good ideas from bad ones and formulate a couple of research questions. Leave only the best options that you actually want to proceed with. You can create several draft variations of your top picks and research them again. Depending on the results you get, you can leave the best alternatives for the next step.

Step 4: Evaluate What You’ve Got

Evaluate your topics by these criteria:

• Clarity . Check if there are any vague details and consider adjusting them.
• Focus . Your research matter should be unambiguous , without other interpretations.
• Complexity . A good topic research question shouldn’t be too difficult or too easy.
• Ethics . Your ideas and word choice shouldn’t be prejudiced or offensive.
• Relevance . Your hypothesis and research question should correspond with current discussions.
• Feasibility . Make sure you can conduct the research that will answer your question.

Step 5: Edit Your Research Question

Now you can create the final version of your research question. Use our tool to compare your interpretation with the one produced by artificial intelligence. Though you might change it based on your findings, you must create a perfect statement now. You need to make it as narrow as possible. If you don’t know how to make it more specific, leave it till you get the first research results.

📜 Research Question Generator: Examples

Compare a good and bad research question to understand the importance of following all rules:

Thank you for reading till the end. We hope you found the information and tool useful for your studies. Don’t forget to share it with your peers, and good luck with your paper!

Updated: Apr 19th, 2024

• The Writing Center | How to Write a Research Question | Research Based Writing
• How to Write a Research Question: Types, Steps, and Examples | Research.com
• Pick a Topic & Develop a Research Question – CSI Library at CUNY College of Staten Island Library

A complete online research project

Step 1. Think about your experiment and create stimuli

Step 2. draw the stimuli using inkscape, step 3. create new experiment, stimuli definition and upload, defining conditions, describing events, step 5. compile and run, step 6. analyze your test file, setup an online survey, start with questions and test survey, finish survey, make sure your experiment analysis is set, download your data, open your data file in spss, and that is it.

This can be useful for any researcher, including psychology students doing their research project.

Before you start doing anything, you just need to think about your task and use paper and pencil to draw out what you want it all to look like. Here are the things to think about in general.

What exactly do I want to measure, and can it be implemented in PsyToolkit (there are limitations with any type of software)

How long should the study last?

How many trials

What should the stimuli look like (not you can have sounds too, but they are not used in this example project)

In this experiment, we are going to replicate the Simon effect. I will need the following stimuli:

A left pointing arrow

A right pointing arrow

A fixation cross

Instructions at the start of the experiment

Error message if people make mistake

Information to tell people they are going to train (block 1)

Information to tell people they are going to do real data collection (block 2)

A thank you message when they are done.

We know the default resolution of experiments is 800 by 600 pixels, so stimuli need to be made to fit in that.

You need to learn a bit of Inkscape

Open Inkscape

Draw the stimuli, export the stimuli, save the inkscape (SVG) file

Login and create new experiment

Call it "simon"

Start coding in the top white box

Use the scripting tab for help

Step 4. Code the experiment

Before you start here, it is important to understand the structure of an experiment coded in the PsyToolkit scripting language. This is explained in the online documentation. Here is a short summary:

The code of the experiment is below, just for reference. Each line of code is further described in the videos below. But is nice to have a quick look at it so you know what we are talking about.

first tell the computer about the stimuli and upload them

create a PsyToolkit table which holds info about the 4 conditions:

Stimulus presented left + Left pointing arrow = compatible

Stimulus presented right + Right pointing arrow = compatible

Stimulus presented left + right pointing arrow = incompatible

Stimulus presented right + left pointing arrow = incompatible

Each event of a trial is described in the task section

Now we are going to enter the block information

Welcome message

Training block of 5 trials

Real data block of 20 trials

Thank you message

Now that your code is typed and your stimuli are uploaded, try to compile

Most likely, the compiler said that there was a mistake, simply because it is very easy to make a type somewhere

Do not worry, the computer will help you to find where the error occurred.

Once the compiling does not return error messages, you can try out your experiment by clicking the "run" button.

In the experiment, browse down to "analyze", and select this

You can select the datafile you have just made. This is now the file you work on (you can have multiple files)

In the boxes, you can enter the most important things for the data analysis.

Each line of your data file is a trial in the task.

Select which column is the RT, the error, the block

Also select that you want to exclude training data from your data analysis

Also select that you want to exclude trials immediately following a mistake

Click "analyze" and look at your average responses.

Step 7. Setup online project

Now that your experiment works, you are ready to set up an online study in which you will embed the experiment.

Look at the functions on the left, and select "Create a survey"

Call it "simon_survey"

In the top box is the code of the survey.

Each question item consists of a few lines, and there is a lot of documentation

Think about the things you want to know from your participants

At the very least, you want to know the age

You also need to setup the introduction/welcome screen

You need to make the study "online"

You need to compile and test the survey

We add a couple of questions from the survey-library

Embed the experiment

Compile and test run

Move to real data collection mode

Ready to ask your participants!

Like the code for the experiment , you can see the actual code of the survey, just for reference. Each line of code is further described in the videos.

Step 8. Analyze data

Once you are finished collecting data, you want to analyze your data.

The system needs to know which block of data you want to include (e.g., you are likely not interested in the training block), etc.

Once your participants have done the experiment, you are ready to get your data from the server.

In this section, we are going to analyze the data with SPSS . It is assumed that you have installed SPSS, which is popular in psychology teaching. Of course, the data are in a generic format and can be analyzed with any stats program.

Hopefully, this helps you to set up your own study. If you still have questions, just let me know via email .

Generating a research question

If you’re having trouble deciding on a topic or question to research, consider some of the strategies below. You can also email or schedule an appointment with your subject librarian  for help with finding a topic.

• List things you’ve seen, experienced, or learned about in your classes that raise questions for you. Could researching these questions help you answer them? Is there anything you’ve learned about that seems incomplete? Have any of the topics in class been personally relevant to your life or experiences?
• List problems you want to solve. What solutions make sense to you? You may be surprised to learn about other solutions people have used in the past, or how you can improve the feasibility of your ideas.
• Identify areas that you are passionate about. What areas would you like to learn more about? Is there anything that irritates or angers you? Is there anything you just love to talk about? Research can help you better understand these areas and gain new perspective.

Once you have a topic, be sure to generate a thesis, or a question about the topic that you intend to solve in your research. Below are some strategies to help you think of potential questions. Keep in mind that a good research question should have a manageable scope: try not to be too broad or too specific.

Brainstorm questions about your topic. Think about the 5 Ws - who, what, when, where, and why. These questions are important because they cannot have a simple "yes" or "no" answer. This is how you can begin to think about keywords for your topic. For example, if you think about "when," are you referring to the past, the present, or the future?

For example, when researching the vegetarian food culture in the United States, you could ask:

• Who are vegetarians in the United States? What populations are more likely to be vegetarian?
• What foods are vegetarians more or less likely to buy or grow?
• When did vegetarianism become popular in the United States?
• Where do vegetarians tend to shop for groceries?
• Why do people in the United States choose to become vegetarians?

Once you have a question in mind, think about what the answer might be (or do some background research to get a better idea). Then, think of how you are going to structure your paper and the types of evidence you will need to answer your research question. For example, if your thesis is “people in the United States choose to become vegetarians because they are concerned about the environmental impact of eating meat,” you can already get an idea that your paper will address 1) the environmental impact and 2) why people in the United States are concerned with it as opposed to other issues and 3) how vegetarianism relates to it.

Use reference sources

Another strategy for approaching your topic is to use reference sources, such as encyclopedias. By using reference sources, you will learn the scholarly language and background information that relates to your topic, in order to identify an interesting question and keywords. You can locate reference sources through Library Search using the “Reference Entries” resource type filter.

Screenshot of "Resource Type" filters available in Library Search. The "Reference Entries" filter is enclosed in a red rectangle to indicate its location on the page.

Create a concept map

A concept map involves taking a broad topic and visually breaking it down into smaller topics to find connections between concepts and create manageable areas of study for research questions. A concept map can also help you organize your ideas and generate search terms.

Watch this video by Appalachian State University to learn about using concept maps to help with research.

Watch Concept Mapping Video

Additional resources

For more help with your research, see our page on search tips , or our guide to generating keywords . You can also view our guide to getting started on your research assignment .  

Psychology Research Methods: Creating a Research Question

• Creating a Research Question
• Search Terms
• Search Strategies
• Recording Your Research
• Finding Articles
• Finding Books
• Journal Articles
• Books & Other Sources
• Publisher URL

Choosing a Topic

Sometimes the most difficult part of the research process is choosing a topic.  Here are some tips for selecting a research question that you will enjoy learning about and will ultimately lead to a good grade.

• Read through your assignment.   Professors design an assignment outline for a reason.  Make sure your topic can and will adhere to their requirements and guidelines.
• Choose a topic you are interested in.   If you don't like what you're researching, chances are you won't learn a whole lot or enjoy the process.  And really, what's the point of that?  
• Browse resources that relate to your course work.  Look through a newspaper, magazine, or database for current events or hot topics.  Browsing can spark a lot of great ideas and can help you refine your topic.
• Ask for help!   There is nothing wrong with asking your professor or a librarian to help you brainstorm ideas.

Where to Start

The links below are great places to start in developing a research question.  Browsing current events and hot topics can spark your interest and inspire a topic.

• Alvernia's "Opposing Viewpoints" Collection
• Alvernia's Reference Collection
• Google Trends
• Health & Medicine
• Hot Paper Topics
• Hot Topics for Research Papers
• National Library of Medicine
• New York Times
• NPR Research News
• Pew Research Center
• Psychology Encyclopedias - eBooks
• Psychology Encyclopedias - print
• Public Agenda's Programs and Reports
• MedLinePlus This link opens in a new window
• Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new window

APA PsycINFO Guides

These APA PsycINFO guides include suggested subject terms to aid you in your research.

• Behavioral Economics
• Child Development
• Computers & the Internet
• Gerontology
• Grief & Trauma Counseling
• Integrative Medicine
• Marketing & Advertising
• Military Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Psychology and The Law
• Public Health
• Religion & Spirituality
• Sexuality & Gender Identity
• Social Work

Helpful Tools

• bubbl.us - Brainstorming Made Simple
• Critical Thinking Model
• Glean Comparison Search
• Thesis Builder

How to Formulate an Answerable Clinical Question

P opulation/patients

I ntervention/indicator

C omparator/control

• P I C O: Formulate an Answerable Question
• Formulating Answerable Clinical Questions

Developing your Research Question

• Creating a Research Question Helps you to write a narrow, focused research question.

Try asking yourself these questions to help develop a research question:

Topic:  Obesity

Who?  teenagers

What?  consumption of high fat foods

Where?  school cafeterias

Question :  How does the consumption of high fat foods in school cafeterias contribute to teenager obesity?

Topic: Smoke Exposure

Who?   children exposed to smoke

What?   developmental abilities

Question :  How does smoke exposure alter the developmental abilities of children?

Below is worksheet which will help illustrate how a research question develops from a broad topic to a focused question.  This could be a helpful resource for you during the process of creating your research question.

Translating Your Research Question into a Search

Research Question:

Does the rate of medication compliance change when the number of prescribed medications increase for older adults?

1. Identify the main concepts

   Does the rate of  medication compliance  change when the  number  of prescribed medications increase for  older adults ?

2. Add related terms or synonyms 

    Things to consider        Example  

   synonyms                  drugs OR medications

   antonyms                   adherence OR nonadherence

• Use terms you would expect professionals to use in published articles
• Browse psychology encyclopedia articles for terms
• Check PsycINFO Guides

3. Connect related terms with OR.  Connect concepts with AND

(medication OR drugs) AND (compliance OR adherence OR nonadherence) AND (multiple OR polypharmacy) AND (elderly OR aged)

• << Previous: Research Help
• Next: Search Terms >>
• Last Updated: Aug 18, 2023 3:22 PM
• URL: https://alvernia.libguides.com/psychology_research

Janelle Jenstad

At work and play

Research Question Generator

List the substantives.

Make a list of all the relevant substantives (nouns) for your project. These include:

• Historical Periods/Eras/Epochs/Years/Events/Figures
• Methodologies

Plot the Substantives

If you have ten substantives on your list, draw a 10×10 grid. An Excel spreadsheet is handy if you have many substantives. List all ten substantives on the X axis. List all ten substantives again on the Y axis. Cross out the boxes where the values of X and Y are the same.

Questions to ask:

For each box in your grid, ask questions about the X and Y that intersect in that box. Some of the questions will be nonsensical. Some will be dead ends. But a few questions might help you generate the research question(s) that will drive your arguments.

Use the  list of critical verbs to help you refine the following questions.

• Does X impact/affect/change/cause/trigger/account for/facilitate/negate/repudiate/presuppose Y? If yes, how?
• If temporal, which comes first? Can you assume this temporal order (i.e., is it a “warrant” or a “given”) or do you have to make an argument about the temporal sequence?
• Causal? How does X cause Y? Can we assume that X causes Y (i.e., is it a “given” in your field) or do you have to make the case?
• Exemplary (in that X is an example of Y)? How typical is X as an example of Y? Do other scholars take it as given that X is an example of Y or do you have to make the case?
• Authorial? Did X write Y? Is authorship a given or do you have to make the case?
• What is the difference between X and Y?
• How does X represent/exemplify/reflect/invoke/articulate/interrogate/adapt/exemplify/incorporate/build on/obviate Y?
• What happens if we look at X through Y lens? (This question works well if Y is a methodology.)

Refining Your Grid

You may find in the course of asking and answering the questions that you need to subdivide a substantive into more granular categories. Conversely, you may find that you want to merge categories. For example, “medieval” and “book” might become a single substantive if you discover that you aren’t interested in anything other than the “medieval book.”

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Reference List: Textual Sources

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Basic Format for Books

Edited book, no author, edited book with an author or authors, a translation.

Note : When you cite a republished work, like the one above, in your text, it should appear with both dates: Plato (385-378/1989)

Edition Other Than the First

Article or chapter in an edited book.

Note : When you list the pages of the chapter or essay in parentheses after the book title, use "pp." before the numbers: (pp. 1-21). This abbreviation, however, does not appear before the page numbers in periodical references, except for newspapers. List any edition number in the same set of parentheses as the page numbers, separated by a comma: (2nd ed., pp. 66-72).

Multivolume Work

Articles in periodicals.

APA style dictates that authors are named with their last name followed by their initials; publication year goes between parentheses, followed by a period. The title of the article is in sentence-case, meaning only the first word and proper nouns in the title are capitalized. The periodical title is run in title case, and is followed by the volume number which, with the title, is also italicized. If a DOI has been assigned to the article that you are using, you should include this after the page numbers for the article. If no DOI has been assigned and you are accessing the periodical online, use the URL of the website from which you are retrieving the periodical.

Article in Print Journal

Note: APA 7 advises writers to include a DOI (if available), even when using the print source. The example above assumes no DOI is available.

Article in Electronic Journal

Note :  This content also appears on Reference List: Online Media .

As noted above, when citing an article in an electronic journal, include a DOI if one is associated with the article.

DOIs may not always be available. In these cases, use a URL. Many academic journals provide stable URLs that function similarly to DOIs. These are preferable to ordinary URLs copied and pasted from the browser's address bar.

Article in a Magazine

Article in a newspaper.