In this activity, you will submit the following elements, resulting in a set of hypotheses.
State your Research Topic, Objective/Purpose, and Research Question(s).
List and label the variables, including independent, dependent, intervening, or moderating.
Explain the relationships among the variables.
Describe the purpose of operationalizing variables.
Describe how you would operationalize the variables in your research question(s). You can mention more than one possible option for these, as there can be different ways of operationalizing the same variables.
Develop a set of hypotheses (null and alternative) from your identified variables that address your identified research question(s).
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Eisenhart defined the theoretical framework as “a structure that guides research by relying on a formal theory…constructed by using an established, coherent explanation of certain phenomena and relationships” (1991, p. 205).1 Thus, the theoretical framework should lay out the specific theories and theorists upon which prior research is grounded, and now into which your new research will contribute.
The process of research involves observing the effects of certain variables on other variables or of describing (and predicting) the relationships between certain variables. Some variables are relatively easy to measure. If an important variable in our study is the weight of persons in our sample, we might decide to use the reading from a scale and report their weight in pounds. But it isn’t so easy with other variables. Suppose we want to study math anxiety of adult students who are continuing their education after a long break. How would we measure the variable “math anxiety?” The answer lies in a process called operationalization that enables us to measure variables such as math anxiety by reducing abstract notions into observable behaviors or characteristics.
The hypothesis represents the researcher’s expectations about the relationship between the variables of the problem. It should predict a relationship between the identified variables in a specific and testable way. Using this prediction, we move forward in the process of research.
