Research questions are the first step to be taken before starting to study something that intrigues us. In science, knowing how to specify well what the objective of an investigation is is necessary to know in what direction the investigation should be designed and what kind of methodologies can be used.

In Psychology and other similar disciplines, such as Biology or Sociology, there are still many unanswered research questions. Below we will see some of them and how it is possible to propose new studies thanks to which we can increase our level of knowledge about the subject in question.

Research questions: the starting point of any study

The function of the research questions is to specify the unknown to be revealed (or partially revealed, in most cases). It is as important to know how to identify the problem as it is to specify what is not part of it, to avoid confusing similar concepts.

For example, if we want to know what influence living in the same home with one’s biological parents during childhood has on the development of a person’s intelligence, we cannot ask the following research question:

How does living with the family during the first years of life affect intelligence in adulthood?

In this case the concept “family” is too ambiguous , and working with it can completely distort the results of the research. Moreover, “the first years of life” is not an illuminating concept, it is much more convenient to specify it by proposing, for example, a period of 11 years from birth to puberty, approximately.

The operationalization of the initial doubt

Given that scientific research always has a necessarily reductionist point (we are interested in knowing a very specific part of reality, and not others), research questions give way to other sub-questions that further specify what we want to answer. Thus, we move from a general doubt to other more specific ones that, as a whole, help to answer the first one.

In the case at hand, these research questions of lower hierarchy than the initial one could be:

  • How does living with one’s biological parents during the first 11 years of life affect crystallized intelligence?
  • How does living with biological parents during the first 11 years of life affect fluid intelligence?
  • How does living with biological parents during the first 11 years of life affect the IQ?

Examples of research questions to develop

Given the logic and purpose of research questions, let’s look at some examples of scientific mysteries that may surprise us in the future.

However, these are unknowns posed in a general and abstract way , so that each person who wants to investigate must make them more concrete so that they can be adapted to that which arouses most interest.

1. Are the mechanisms of memory based on synapses or on the storage of molecules in neurons?

Although the first theory is the most accepted, some researchers believe that our memories are not patterns of joint activation of neurons , but are individual elements that can be found in each nerve cell separately.

2. Is there a single intelligence, or several?

This is a doubt that lasts for decades, or even centuries, if we consider the work of philosophers. There are various proposals according to which there is not a single biological element that determines who is more intelligent than another, but rather a set of these that function relatively independently. An example is found in Howard Gardner’s proposal of Multiple Intelligences or in Sternberg’s theory.

3. What causes gender dysphoria?

Many transgender people suffer greatly from the perception that their gender identity does not match the observable characteristics of their bodies. It is not known whether the root of this problem is biological or cultural , or to what extent both components are combined.

4. Does decision-making take place unconsciously?

Although we often link the decision-making process to rationality and careful reflection on the expected consequences, there is evidence that we make many important decisions unconsciously, and then justify that decision through rationality.

5. Is male aggression a cultural thing?

Around the planet, men are more likely to carry out acts of physical violence . This seems to suggest that this is a differentiated fact based on genes, but it is also possible that a universal characteristic is cultural.

6. How do human pheromones influence our behavior?

What we perceive through smell usually has a powerful impact on our mind, but in the case of pheromones, it is not very well known how they act on us.

7. What causes autism?

Autism Spectrum Disorders are partly a mystery, and the cause is not well known. However, it has been ruled out that they are produced by vaccines, as is sometimes still the case today.

8. How do great apes think?

The group of primates formed by chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans are the most intelligent non-human animals that exist today, and there is much to be learned about their way of thinking.

9. Can psychopathy be eliminated?

There are people for whom psychopathy is not a problem, but in some cases it can be a psychological factor that predisposes to harm others. In these cases, how can we eliminate this psychological attribute?

10. What causes infatuation?

It has been said that falling in love with someone is something that depends on the contexts in which we live together, and not on the personality and stable characteristics of the people. Which of the two explanations prevails?