What is research?

What is research?
• research. 1.a. the systematic
investigation into and study of materials,
sources, etc, in order to establish facts
and reach new conclusions. b. an
endeavour to discover new or collate old
facts etc by the scientific study of a
subject or by a course of critical
investigation. [Oxford Concise
Dictionary]
2
 What is research?
• Research is what we do when we have a
question or a problem we want to resolve
• We may already think we know the answer to
our question already
• We may think the answer is obvious, common
sense even
• But until we have subjected our problem to
rigorous scientific scrutiny, our 'knowledge'
remains little more than guesswork or at best,
intuition.

3
 What is research?
• First priority is to formulate your question
• Then figure out how you are going to
answer it
– How have others answered it?
– How does your proposal fit in with what others
have done?
– How will you know when you have answered
it?
• Then you can present your answer
4
 NOTES ON FORMAT OF
PUBLISHABLE PAPERS

•Institutional Format: this is the format

that your institution has adopted for use.
This is only good for your respective
institutions.
ISI (International Scientific Indexing): this
is the journal indexing or listing of
internationally-recognized journals e.g.
Thomson-Reuters, Scopus and others.
 CHED-JAS Indexing: this is the journal
indexing adopted for the Philippines
by the Commission on Higher
Education. There are two(2) categories:
Category A (international-equivalency)
and Category B (for national
circulation)
 To be ISI or CHED-JAS Indexed, we
will follow the international
journal format for published
papers.
 TITLE
Authors (no degrees)
Affiliation
 ABSTRACT

No more than 100 words; one paragraph only. Give

only the following information: 1) what is the study
about? 2) what method of analysis was done? 3)
Main findings of the study and (4) Conclusion
 
Keywords:

1.0 Introduction
2.0 Conceptual/Theoretical Framework
3.0 Research Design and Methods
4.0 Results and Discussions
5.0 Conclusion
6.0 References Cited
 
Lecture 1: The
Introduction
• Introduction ≡ introduces the
topic and the background or
context of the study.

• Introduction consists of four (4)

major parts:
• Part 1: What is the study about?
State the main thesis of the
investigation. Why do you want to
study the topic?

• Part 2: What do other authors say

about the topic? Summarize the major
literature/studies conducted on the
topic.
• Part 3: What are the gaps in
knowledge based on the literature
reviewed? Identify what has not been
explored by the other authors.

• Part 4: How do you intend to address

these gaps? Outline your plan to
address these gaps.
• Part 1 deals with the thesis of the
study.
• A thesis is a claim or assertion that
you wish to prove or disprove.
Example: “The study claims that
people, regardless of gender or age,
generally take risks that maximizes
perceived returns rather than avoid
risks with sure but minimal returns”
• Every researcher study has a thesis.
The presence of a thesis differentiates
research from simple surveys.

• Part 2 is a summary of what other

authors say about the topic.

• This is what is traditionally labelled as

the “Review of Related Literature.”
• Example: “It has been established that
people generally apply the principle of
rational choice when faced with options
(Albert (1996), Smith et al. (2003),
Johnson (2007), Avery et al. (2010)). In
this principle, people choose the option
that maximizes benefits to themselves.”
• Part 3 identifies what gaps

• Example: “The principle of rationale

choice, which had been extensively
studied in the past, claimed that people
tend to choose options which maximize
benefits to themselves. However, the
connection between risks and “perceived”
benefits have not been studied at length.”
• Part 4 is an outline of your strategy
to address the gap.

• Example: “In this study, a social

experiment is set up to observe how
people make decisions given a risk and
their perceived (not actual) benefits for
each options they take. This is
achieved by.....”
 Lecture 2. The
Conceptual/Theoretical
Framework
• Conceptual Framework ≡ translates
the Theories into their component
concepts expressed at the Variable
level.
• Example: “The Rationale Choice Theory ( )
avers that people choose options that maximizes
their personal benefits. In a decision situation, a
person asks “what will accrue to me if I take this
option?” The Rational Choice Theory is one of
several Choice theories that are currently
entertained including Pareto’s Choice Theory (a
person chooses on option that improves the lot of
a sector but does not make other sectors worse
off) and Contingent Choice Theory (based on a
person’s valuation of the options).”
• Example (Continued): “In the Rationale
Choice Theory, the choice (C) of an option
depends on a perceived reward (X) for that
option but ignores the risks (R) associated
with that option. As long as an option
provides the highest perceived reward (X),
regardless of the amount of risks (R), the
theory stipulates that a person will
generally prefer that option”
• The succeeding discussions will focus
on the main variables identified viz. C,
X and R, and other variables that may
be of interest in relation to the theory
adopted

• The section culminates with a

discussion of the relationships and
inter-relationships of the variables.
Lecture 3. Research Design
and Methods
• Research Design ≡ refers to the
plan or outline of the plan for the
study

• Research Methods ≡ refers to the

execution of the plan.
• Example: “A social experiment is designed to
test the claim of the study. One hundred
subjects were asked to enter a booth. One
after another. In the booth, the researcher
waits with three (3) beautiful wrapped boxes
and a ₱10.00 bill. Each time a subject enters,
the researcher offers to give the ₱10.00-bill or
offers any of the three (3) boxes to be opened
and its contents given to the subject. The
researcher notes the choice made by the
subject. ”
• Example (Continued): “The subjects
of the study were randomly chosen
from University A representing both
genders with ages ranging from 18 to
50. These participants were not
informed of the contents of the boxes
and the researcher’s intent for
conducting the study in order not to
introduce bias.”
• Discuss how the values of the variable
C, X and R are to be obtained.

• Discuss how these values are going to

be processed to respond to the thesis.
LECTURE 4: RESULTS AND
DISCUSSIONS
• This section has three (3) major
parts:
 

Presentation of Results
Analysis of the Results
Interpretation of the Results and
Analysis
• PRESENTATION OF THE
RESULTS
 

•Results are often displayed in

summarized tabular forms or graphs.
Table 1 shows the results of the social experiment conducted:

  Age
Young Middle Old Total
18-29 Age 50-above
30-49
Male Reward 5 3 4 12
  Option 14 13 12 39
SEX
Female Reward 3 5 5 13
Option 14 13 9 36

total Reward 8 8 9 25
Option 28 26 21 75
ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS

• Guides the reader on the components

of the results that are interesting

• Breaks down the results into

smaller meaningful components.
Table 1 shows the results of the social experiment conducted:
  Age
Young Middle Old Total
18-29 Age 50-
30-49 above

Male Reward 5 3 4 12
  Option 14 13 12 39
SEX
Female Reward 3 5 5 13
Option 14 13 9 36

total Reward 8 8 9 25
Option 28 26 21 75
• ANALYSIS
• Tabular values reveal that those who opted
to take the reward (and thus, avoided risks)
are fewer than those who opted to take the
option of choosing among the three boxes
(and thus, took the risks) across sexes and
across ages. Across genders, male
respondents are slightly more risk takers
than female respondents. Across ages, the
younger respondents are observed to be the
risk takers in comparison to the older
respondents who tended to be on the safe
side by immediately opting for the sure
reward. On the whole, the respondents of the
study generally took the risk of choosing from
among the three boxes rather than make the
safe decision of getting the sure reward.
 
INTERPRETATION OF THE
RESULTS
• INTERPRETATION = to give meaning.

• This is necessarily subjective because

the author gives his own interpretation
or meaning to the results obtained
based on his own expert opinion
• PRESENTATION and ANALYSIS are the
OBJECTIVE PORTION of this section;
INTERPRETATION is the SUBJECTIVE
PORTION of the section.
INTERPRETATION
The results of the social experiment conducted appear to
support the claim that “people generally take risks because of
the “perceived” greater benefits to be derived from the
available options regardless of sex and age”. This is
consistent with the Rationale Choice Theory provided that
“perceived benefit’ is equated with “actual benefits”. In the
present case, however, the benefits to be derived from
opening the boxes are unknown viz.
we were not informed as to the contents of
the boxes, but the reward for not opening
them is clearly given viz. P10.00. Clearly,
“perceived benefit” is different from “actual
benefit” in the situation.
• The results obtained can be explained by a mis-
application of the principle “The greater the risk,
the greater is the reward”. The respondents
thought that by opening the boxes (rather than
avoiding the risk by taking the small sure reward
of P10.00), they were actually going to get
greater reward.
What is applicable in the situation, however,
is the contrapositive of the principle, namely”
“If the reward is not known, then do not take
the risk” i.e. “No reward, no risk.” The
Rationale Choice Theory is applicable only
in situations where the rewards are KNOWN
and NOT just PERCEIVED.
Corollarily, had we increased the sure reward
to P10,000, then the respondents would have
surely opted to avoid the risk of opening any
of the boxes and took the sure reward. This
highlights the need to establish a “Risk Edge
Formula” to guide decision making in the
future.
 
 
LECTURE 5: CONCLUSION
• CONCLUSION = general statement
about the implications of the findings to
the THEORETICAL /CONCEPTUAL
FRAMEWORK

• General Framework:
• IF:
• Finding 1, Finding 2, Finding 3
• THEN
• Conclusion
FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
1.Male and female respondents are
generally risk takers by opting to open the
boxes whose contents were unknown
rather than by taking the sure reward of
P10.00;

2. Younger and older respondents are

also generally risk takers;
3. Majority of the respondents (75%),
regardless of gender and age, opted to open
the boxes (whose contents were unknown)
despite the offer of a P10.00 sure reward if
they do not open the boxes.
CONCLUSION: (Choose the best
conclusion)
A)People are generally risk takers;

B) People are not rational when it

comes to decision making;

C) People opt to take risks when the

alternative reward is small;
D) People make use of the Rational
Choice Theory but substitutes
“perceived reward” to "actual
rewards”.

E) People do not know when to

take calculated risks.
 -End-

Thank You Very Much!!!