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Chapter 4

Conceptualizing Research Problems,
Research Questions, and Hypotheses

Copyright © 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

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 Copyright © 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

Basic Terminology (cont’d)

Research questions
The specific queries the researcher wants to
answer in addressing the research problem

Hypotheses
The researcher’s predictions about relationships
among variables


Basic Terminology (cont’d)

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


Sources of Research Problems

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


Developing and Refining Research
Problems

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


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


Problem Statements

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


Statement of Purpose-Quantitative
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…)


Statement of Purpose-Qualitative 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…)


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


Research Questions: (cont’d)

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


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)


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


Directional Versus Nondirectional
Hypotheses

Directional hypothesis
Predicts the direction of a relationship

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

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)


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