Social Science Research Step 1:



Social Science Research Step 1:

Developing a Research Question

Do:

✓ Choose a topic that is of interest to you

✓ Choose a topic that you will actually be able to research

✓ Brainstorm many ideas about the topic

✓ Select only one, specific topic question that will be your focus

1. Watch this scene about flash mobs from Friends with Benefits:

2. How does Mila Kunis’s character explain the trend of flash mobs? What is her hypothesis?

3. If you were a social scientist interested in the trend of flash mobs, you might question…

✓ What role does technology and social media play in perpetuating these events?

✓ Is the flash mob a new kind of social interaction, or simply a variation of human behaviour we have already seen?

✓ Who participates in flash mobs?

✓ How are flash mobs represented in the media?

✓ Are flash mobs the result of weakened family relationships?

✓

✓

✓

4. Pick an area to research and refine your research question. See the back of this page for an extensive but not exhaustive list of possible research topics. You may choose something that is not on the list.

5. See Ms. Cacilhas for approval of your research question

Some topics you might choose to investigate

Flash mobs

Guerilla marketing

Citizen journalism

School engagement

Smart phones

Adolescent egocentrism

Adolescent anxiety (or mental health)

Same-sex families

Lone parent families

Teens and social groups

Teens and environmentalism

Gender/Morality of Care

Prosocial behaviour

Peer vs. family orientation

Cohabitation and children

Sexualization of children

Delayed transitions to adulthood

Growth of tattoos

Sexting

Cyberbullying

Technology and isolation

Teen suicide

If population shifts actually lead to awareness

Teens in the workforce

Feminism (death of?)

Female role models

Shift to a “We” culture

Debt levels

Media consumption

Influence of media

Violence in video games

Political participation

Body image

Economic inequality

Trend to university

Purpose of education

Deviant behaviour(s)

Kid/pet shaming

Crime motivations/frequency

Restorative justice

A social movement

Leadership and change

Homophobia/LGBT integration

Volunteering

Voluntourism

Modern medicine

Spell check

CyberMentors

Language evolution

Texting while driving

Emoticons

Conspicuous consumptions

Socializing and social media

Techno waste/e-waste

Privacy and the internet

Globalization and popular culture

Food trends (organic/gluten-free/dairy-free)

100 mile diet

Celebrity and social activism

Literacy—local? Global?

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My research topic is:

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My research question is:

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Signed by you____________________________ Teacher _____________________________

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