Developing Research Questions

Overview

Developing research questions is an iterative process, which means that the questions are continuously changing as new information is uncovered and new thoughts occur. Since we are human, our beliefs, assumptions, and values may influence the questions we ask about human behavior. In addition, examining information from a social science perspective can influence what we focus on.

Prompt

Use the Module Five Activity Template Word Document to complete this activity. First, review your instructor’s feedback on the research question you wrote in the previous module. Use that information and any new thoughts you have had about your advertisements to revise your research question. Revising may involve rewriting your research question completely. Or you may need to narrow your focus, improve the clarity of the question, or more sufficiently connect it to a social science perspective.

You are not required to answer each question below the rubric criteria but may use them to better understand the criteria and guide your thinking.

Specifically, you must address the following rubric criteria:

• Revise your research question that addresses at least one of your chosen advertisements.
  • Consult the feedback from your instructor and additional analysis of your advertisements to revise your research question and make it stronger. For example, you may need to narrow your focus further, clarify language, or connect your topic to a social science perspective.
• Explain how social science perspectives could be used to process information.
  • Choose a perspective that is different from the one you discussed in the previous module (psychological, sociological, anthropological, economic, or political). How might looking at information you encounter daily from that perspective deepen your understanding of the content? How could you apply that perspective to things like sponsored posts on social media, study results reported in the news, claims made by politicians, or the representation of groups and cultures in television shows?
• Describe how the answer to your research question might impact others.
  • If you were to conduct a social science study to answer your research question, who might be particularly interested in hearing about your results? Which groups of people might be most affected by your research and how might they be impacted? What branch of the social sciences might be most interested in your results?