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- 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 Copyright © 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- 3. 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
Copyright © 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- 4. 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
Copyright © 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- 5. Sources of Research Problems
• Experience and clinical fieldwork
• Nursing literature
• Social issues
• Theory
• Ideas from external sources
Copyright © 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- 6. 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….?
Copyright © 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- 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
Copyright © 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- 8. 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
Copyright © 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- 9. 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…)
Copyright © 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- 10. 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…)
Copyright © 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- 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
Copyright © 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- 12. 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
Copyright © 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- 13. 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)
Copyright © 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- 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
Copyright © 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- 15. Directional Versus Nondirectional
Hypotheses
Directional hypothesis
Predicts the direction of a relationship
Nondirectional hypothesis
Predicts the existence of a relationship,
not its direction
Copyright © 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- 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)
Copyright © 2008 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins