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 Stories  Personal Experiences  Review of Research Electronic Databases Library Indexes Web pages Internet Libraries – NCJRS, NLM…  Authorities Opinion Leaders Funding Sources 2

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 3

SOURCES OF DEFINITIONS: 1 Articles in Professional Journals Electronic Abstracts and Indexes Web Searches Books, Monographs, Government Reports 4

SOURCES OF DEFINITIONS: 2 Professional Standards Legislation Regulations Journalistic Sources Advocacy Groups 5

WHAT MAKES A GOOD RESEARCH QUESTION? 1 Focused Empirical Clear Based on prior research or theory 6

WHAT MAKES A GOOD RESEARCH QUESTION? 2 Important to answer Does not use “should” Has intuitive appeal 7

PROBLEM FORMULATION: TYPES OF RESEARCH QUESTIONS Exploratory Descriptive Explanatory Predictive Evaluative 8

EXPLORATORY QUESTIONS Clarifying Questions Clarifying Populations Clarifying Ideas Open-ended 9

DESCRIPTIVE QUESTIONS Obtaining specific facts Obtaining facts to describe issue Summarizing population characteristics Examining non-causal relationships 10

EXPLANATORY QUESTIONS: 1 Examines causal relationships Tests causal hypotheses Explains relationships Builds theories 11

EXPLANATORY QUESTIONS: 2 12

PREDICTION Predicts events Predicts characteristics Uses Theory and Description Develops predictive equations 13

MIXED QUESTIONS Triangulation Multi-measures Multi-methods 14