Chapter 4 Research Problems, Research Questions, and Hypotheses - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Chapter 4 Research Problems, Research Questions, and Hypotheses

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An enigmatic, perplexing, or troubling condition. Problem statement. A statement articulating the research problem and indicating the need for a study ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Chapter 4 Research Problems, Research Questions, and Hypotheses


1
Chapter 4Research Problems, Research Questions,
and Hypotheses
2
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

3
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

4
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

5
Sources of Research Problems
  • Experience and clinical fieldwork
  • Nursing literature
  • Social issues
  • Theory
  • Ideas from external sources

6
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.?

7
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

8
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

9
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)

10
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)

11
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

12
Research Questions (contd)
  • In qualitative studies, pose queries linked to
    the research tradition
  • Grounded theory process questions
  • Phenomenology meaning questions
  • Ethnography cultural description questions

13
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)

14
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

15
Directional Versus Nondirectional Hypotheses
  • Directional hypothesis
  • Predicts the direction of a relationship
  • Nondirectional hypothesis
  • Predicts the existence of a relationship, not its
    direction

16
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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