PROBLEM FORMULATION

Defining a Researchable Problem

Research Methods

College of Public and Community Service

University of Massachusetts at Boston

©2011 William Holmes

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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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EXPLANATORY QUESTIONS: 2

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PREDICTION

• Predicts events

• Predicts characteristics

• Uses Theory and Description

• Develops predictive equations

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MIXED QUESTIONS

• Triangulation

• Multi-measures

• Multi-methods

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