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PROBLEM FORMULATION
Defining a Researchable Problem
Research Methods
College of Public and Community Service
University of Massachusetts at Boston
©2011 William Holmes
1
PROBLEM FORMULATION:
SOURCES OF IDEAS
News StoriesPersonal ExperiencesReview of Research
• Electronic Databases• Library Indexes• Web pages• Internet Libraries – NCJRS,
NLM…Authorities
• Opinion Leaders• Funding Sources
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PROBLEM FORMULATION:FOCUSING (DEFINING) THE PROBLEM
• Ways of Defining Problem– Formal (nominal), defining with
words– Example (epistemic), defining by
example– Procedural (operational), defining
a method to recognize examples
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SOURCES OF DEFINITIONS: 1
• Articles in Professional Journals
• Electronic Abstracts and Indexes
• Web Searches
• Books, Monographs, Government Reports
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SOURCES OF DEFINITIONS: 2
• Professional Standards
• Legislation
• Regulations
• Journalistic Sources
• Advocacy Groups
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WHAT MAKES A GOOD RESEARCH QUESTION? 1
• Focused• Empirical• Clear• Based on prior
research or theory
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WHAT MAKES A GOOD RESEARCH QUESTION? 2
• Important to answer• Does not use
“should”• Has intuitive appeal
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PROBLEM FORMULATION:TYPES OF RESEARCH QUESTIONS
• Exploratory
• Descriptive
• Explanatory
• Predictive
• Evaluative
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EXPLORATORY QUESTIONS
• Clarifying Questions
• Clarifying Populations
• Clarifying Ideas
• Open-ended
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DESCRIPTIVE QUESTIONS
• Obtaining specific facts• Obtaining facts to describe
issue• Summarizing population
characteristics• Examining non-causal
relationships
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EXPLANATORY QUESTIONS: 1
• Examines causal relationships
• Tests causal hypotheses
• Explains relationships
• Builds theories
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PREDICTION
• Predicts events
• Predicts characteristics
• Uses Theory and Description
• Develops predictive equations
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