When you're developing a research hypothesis or even just figuring out what it is you want to study, there are some main things you should be aware of. To be perfectly honest, the best way to decide what you want to study is to look at the world around you, and through that observation, figure out what is the most important and interesting research question. A big part of this process is also to understand that the scope and depth of your question must always be limited to what you can actually do. That is, you may want to understand why people do what they do. But this question is incredibly broad. You might make the case that this question is the root of all of behavioral science, and so you must narrow your objective to something manageable. This hypothesis development comes naturally to some, but do not feel discouraged if a research question doesn't immediately come to mind.

Observing the world in this context includes a lot of different ways of thinking about research and hypotheses. For starters, there is the method of simple, firsthand observation in your own life. Look around at work. Do you notice certain things that may be useful to study through scientific research? Suppose your workplace offers one long break during the day. But perhaps you think that staff would work better with a series of short breaks divided throughout the day. This is an empirical question; one that could be assessed with the scientific method. In this example, you may find that observing your own workplace may be a great way to inform your research ideas for this course in labor and human resources research.

Another great source for research ideas is your old course work. If you took a class in something that was of particular interest to you, perhaps you can dig into a specific aspect of that course for your own scientific study. Maybe there was a nagging question in one of your courses, one that had you scratching your head and saying, yeah, but what if...? This question can be a great source for you to find your own new and unique research topic. In this same vein, sometimes just reading your old textbooks, notes, and other materials may be a good way to come up with a research topic. With the University Libraries and their resources, you can try to find books about the topic that may give you a good, broad introduction. In the field of science, we also have scientific journals that can be excellent resources for your research. These journals are peer-reviewed, which means that someone did a study of some kind and then submitted it to the publication. This publication then found peers of the author—other people in the field—and asked them if they thought the article was good enough to publish. In this way, each journal sets a standard for publication; the work that makes it to the press has at least been through some level of informed review. These journal articles are often very specific, which can be both a blessing and a curse. If you don't have a lot of background in the topic, a journal article may be difficult to understand. But if you do have enough understanding in the topic, these articles can provide a direct resource toward understanding the phenomena of interest.

Another great way to come up with research topics is by simply talking to people. Yes, this is a step that can be done over a cup of coffee, over lunch, or in a more formal meeting. Your coworkers, family members, friends, mentors, and professors can be a great place to start for talking about research ideas. Suppose you have a very rough idea of what you want to study, and you sit down with a coworker and describe it to them. They may say that this makes them think of something slightly more specific, which may then remind you of something you learned in a prior course. You would be amazed at how quickly these topics can form and develop when you have someone to bounce ideas off of!