Prospectus: Research Questions

The next section of the prospectus is your research questions. The research questions are your overall questions/ issues that you are examining in your project. The Prospectus Guidebook states: 

List the question or a series of related questions that are informed by the study purpose, which will lead to the development of what needs to be done in this study and how it will be accomplished. A research question informs the research design by providing a foundation for:

• Generation of hypotheses in quantitative studies,

• Questions necessary to build the design structure for qualitative studies, and a

• Process by which different methods will work together in mixed studies. 

Keep in mind that research questions are NOT interview questions (a common error), they are the more overarching questions. You should indicate any measures that you will be using in your study in the research questions. Let me give you as an example, the research questions from the Stadtlander et al. (2013) paper: 

There were three primary research questions for the study.

(RQ1 qualitative) How do the oldest describe their relationship with their primary health provider relative to their reported health practices?

(RQ2 mixed methods) How do scores on the personality measures self-efficacy, resiliency, and LOC interact with primary health provider relationship descriptions and reported health practices?

(RQ3 quantitative) Schwarzer and Jerusalem (1995) and Halisch and Geppert (2012) reported that self-efficacy correlates with LOC in younger elderly individuals. Does this relationship continue into the oldest-old age group?  

Next time we take a look at the Prospectus: Nature of the Study. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu 

Stadtlander, L., Giles, M., Sickel, A., Brooks, E., Brown, C., Cormell, M., Ewing, L., Hart, D., Koons, D., Olson, C., Parker, P., Semenova, V., & Stoneking, S. (2013). Independent Living Oldest-Old and Their Primary Health Provider: A Mixed Method Examination of the Influence of Patient Personality Characteristics. Journal of Applied Gerontology. Advanced online publication. doi:  10.1177/0733464813482182