Chapter 4 Research Problems, Research Questions, and Hypotheses

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Chapter 4Research Problems, Research Questions,
and Hypotheses
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Basic Terminology

• Research problem
• An enigmatic, perplexing, or troubling condition
• Problem statement
• A statement articulating the research problem and
  indicating the need for a study

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Basic Terminology (contd)

• Research questions
• The specific queries the researcher wants to
  answer in addressing the research problem
• Hypotheses
• The researchers predictions about relationships
  among variables

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Basic Terminology (contd)

• Statement of purpose
• The researchers summary of the overall study
  goal
• Research aims or objectives
• The specific accomplishments to be achieved by
  conducting the study

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Sources of Research Problems

• Experience and clinical fieldwork
• Nursing literature
• Social issues
• Theory
• Ideas from external sources

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Developing and Refining Research Problems

• Selecting a broad topic area (e.g., patient
  compliance, caregiver stress)
• Narrowing the topicasking questions to help
  focus the inquiry
• Examples
• What is going on with?
• What factors contribute to.?

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Evaluating Research Problems

• Significance of the problem
• Researchability of the problem
• Feasibility of addressing the problem (e.g.,
  time, resources, ethics, cooperation of others)
• Interest to the researcher

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Problem Statements

• Should identify the nature, context, and
  significance of problem being addressed
• Should be broad enough to include central
  concerns
• Should be narrow enough to serve as a guide to
  study design

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Statement of PurposeQuantitative Studies

• Identifies key study variables
• Identifies possible relationships among variables
• Indicates the population of interest
• Suggests, through use of verbs, the nature of the
  inquiry (e.g., to test, to compare, to
  evaluate)

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Statement of PurposeQualitative Studies

• Identifies the central phenomenon
• Indicates the research tradition (e.g., grounded
  theory, ethnography)
• Indicates the group, community, or setting of
  interest
• Suggests, through use of verbs, the nature of the
  inquiry (e.g., to describe, to discover, to
  explore)

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Research Questions

• Are sometimes direct rewordings of statements of
  purpose, worded as questions
• Are sometimes used to clarify or lend specificity
  to the purpose statement
• In quantitative studies, pose queries about the
  relationships among variables

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Research Questions (contd)

• In qualitative studies, pose queries linked to
  the research tradition
• Grounded theory process questions
• Phenomenology meaning questions
• Ethnography cultural description questions

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A Hypothesis

• States a prediction
• Must always involve at least two variables
• Must suggest a predicted relationship between the
  independent variable and the dependent variable
• Must contain terms that indicate a relationship
  (e.g., more than, different from, associated with)

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Simple Versus Complex Hypotheses

• Simple hypothesis
• Expresses a predicted relationship between one
  independent variable and one dependent variable
• Complex hypothesis
• States a predicted relationship between two or
  more independent variables and/or two or more
  dependent variables

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Directional Versus Nondirectional Hypotheses

• Directional hypothesis
• Predicts the direction of a relationship
• Nondirectional hypothesis
• Predicts the existence of a relationship, not its
  direction

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Research Versus Null Hypotheses

• Research hypothesis
• States the actual prediction of a relationship
• Statistical or null hypothesis
• Expresses the absence of a relationship (used
  only in statistical testing)