The Research Problem

The research problem
Broadly speaking, any question that you want answered and any assumption or assertion that you
want to challenge or investigate can become a research problem or a research topic for your
study.
The importance of formulating a research problem

A research problem may take a number of forms, from the very simple to the very complex. The
way you formulate a problem determines almost every step that follows: the type of study design
that can be used; the type of sampling strategy that can be employed; the research instrument that
can be used or developed; and the type of analysis that can be undertaken.
Example: Suppose your broad area of interest is depression. Further suppose you want to
conduct a research study regarding services available to patients with depression living in a
community. If your focus is to find out the types of service available to patients with depression,
the study will dominantly be descriptive and qualitative in nature. These types of studies fall in
the category of qualitative research and are carried out using qualitative research methodologies.
On the other hand, if you want to find out the extent of use of these services, that is the number
of people using them, it will dominantly use quantitative methodologies even though it is
descriptive in nature describing the number of people using a service.
If your focus is to determine the extent of use in relation to the personal attributes of the
patients, the study will be classified as correlational (and quantitative). The methodology used
will be different than the one used in the case of a descriptive study.
Similarly, if your aim is to find out the effectiveness of these services, the study will again be
classified as correlational and the study design used, methods of collecting data and its analysis
will be a part of the quantitative methodology. Hence, it is important for you to understand that
the way you formulate a research problem determines all the subsequent steps that you have to
follow during your research journey.
The formulation of a problem is like the ‘input’ to a study, and the ‘output’ – the quality of the
contents of the research report and the validity of the associations or causation established – is
entirely dependent upon it. Hence the famous saying about computers, ‘garbage in, garbage out’,
is equally applicable to a research problem.
Sources of research problems
Most research in the humanities revolves around four Ps:
people;
problems;
programmes;
phenomena.
You can study a problem, a programme or a phenomenon in any academic field or from any
professional perspective. For example, you can measure the effectiveness of a programme in the
field of health, education, social work, industrial management, public health, nursing, health
promotion or welfare, or you can look at a problem from a health, business or welfare
perspective. Similarly you can gauge consumers’ opinions about any aspect of a programme in
the above fields.
Examine your own academic discipline or professional field in the context of the four Ps in order
to identify anything that looks interesting. For example, if you are a student in the health field
there are an enormous number of issues, situations and associations within each subfield of
health that you could examine. Issues relating to the spread of a disease, drug rehabilitation, an
immunisation programme, the effectiveness of a treatment, the extent of consumers’ satisfaction
or issues concerning a particular health programme can all provide you with a range of research
problems. Similarly, in education there are several issues: students’ satisfaction with a teacher,
attributes of a good teacher, the impact of the home environment on the educational achievement
of students, and the supervisory needs of postgraduate students in higher education. Any other
academic or occupational field can similarly be dissected into subfields and examined for a
potential research problem. Most fields lend themselves to the above categorisation even though
specific problems and programmes vary markedly from field to field.
Considerations in selecting a research problem

When selecting a research problem/topic there are a number of considerations to keep in mind
which will help to ensure that your study will be manageable and that you remain motivated.
These considerations are:
Interest – Interest should be the most important consideration in selecting a research problem. A
research endeavour is usually time consuming, and involves hard work and possibly unforeseen
problems. If you select a topic which does not greatly interest you, it could become extremely
difficult to sustain the required motivation and put in enough time and energy to complete it.
Magnitude – You should have sufficient knowledge about the research process to be able to
visualise the work involved in completing the proposed study. Narrow the topic down to
something
manageable, specific and clear. It is extremely important to select a topic that you can manage
within the time and with the resources at your disposal. Even if you are undertaking a descriptive
study, you need to consider its magnitude carefully.
Measurement of concepts – If you are using a concept in your study (in quantitative studies),
make sure you are clear about its indicators and their measurement. For example, if you plan to
measure the effectiveness of a health promotion programme, you must be clear as to what
determines effectiveness and how it will be measured. Do not use concepts in your research
problem that you are not sure how to measure. This does not mean you cannot develop a
measurement procedure as the study progresses. While most of the developmental work will be
done during your study, it is imperative that you are reasonably clear about the measurement of
these concepts at this stage.
Level of expertise – Make sure you have an adequate level of expertise for the task you are
proposing. Allow for the fact that you will learn during the study and may receive help from your
research supervisor and others, but remember that you need to do most of the work yourself.
Relevance – Select a topic that is of relevance to you as a professional. Ensure that your study
adds to the existing body of knowledge, bridges current gaps or is useful in policy formulation.
This will help you to sustain interest in the study.
Availability of data – If your topic entails collection of information from secondary sources
(office records, client records, census or other already-published reports, etc.) make sure that this
data is available and in the format you want before finalising your topic.
Ethical issues – Another important consideration in formulating a research problem is the ethical
issues involved. In the course of conducting a research study, the study population may be
adversely affected by some of the questions (directly or indirectly); deprived of an intervention;
expected to share sensitive and private information; or expected to be simply experimental
‘guinea pigs’. How ethical issues can affect the study population and how ethical problems can
be overcome should be thoroughly examined at the problem-formulation stage.
Steps in formulating a research problem

The process of formulating a research problem consists of a number of steps. Working through
these steps presupposes a reasonable level of knowledge in the broad subject area within which
the study is to be undertaken and the research methodology itself. A brief review of the relevant
literature helps enormously in broadening this knowledge base. Without such knowledge it is
difficult to ‘dissect’ a subject area clearly and adequately.
What is a variable?
An image, perception or concept that is capable of measurement – hence capable of taking on
different values – is called a variable. In other words, a concept that can be measured is called a
variable
A concept that can be measured on any one of the four types of measurement scale, which have varying
degrees of precision in measurement, is called a variable.
The difference between a concept and a

variable
Measurability is the main difference between a concept and a variable. Concepts are mental images or
perceptions and therefore their meanings vary markedly from individual to individual, whereas
variables are measurable, though, of course, with varying degrees of accuracy. A concept cannot be
measured whereas a variable can be subjected to measurement by crude/refined or subjective/objective
units of measurement. Concepts are subjective impressions which, if measured as such would cause
problems in comparing responses obtained from different respondents.

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The Research Problem

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The research problem

The importance of formulating a research problem

Considerations in selecting a research problem

Steps in formulating a research problem

The difference between a concept and a

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