No matter what kind of research you conduct, it is necessary to identify and expose your biases in order to develop a relevant and reliable hypothesis. In this animated module, we will discuss the ways in which bias can taint research and skew results, and offer the practices that lead to dependable thesis work. We will first introduce the six elementary steps that create a hypothesis worthy of recognition: ask a question, do background research, construct hypothesis, test hypothesis, analyze results and draw conclusion, and lastly, write results. Within your research, it is necessary to maintain theoretical sensitivity and transparency in your identification of biases, and to examine the nature of relationships within your studies, for example; whether they are correlational or causal. We will also familiarize you with the common practices, rules, and terminology implicit to the scientific method, as they can be leveraged to your advantage. At the conclusion of this module, you will be armed with the principles of social scientific inquiry, and should be able to hold yourself to universal conventions of transparency and rigor when developing your research.
