Research questions

What are research questions? These are general questions about the topic in which you are interested and they should include your variables of interest. They are not interview questions and they are not hypotheses. Research question(s) are the basis of your dissertation. Everything done in your dissertation should relate to the research question(s). Your research questions will generate hypotheses in quantitative studies and provide the framework for methodology in qualitative studies. A few examples:

The research question should not be

Too narrow (“What is the mean number of …”)

Too broad (“What is the effect of discipline on children?”)

A question that is not researchable (“Is helping behavior selfishly or unselfishly motivated?”)

A yes-no question (Does parental divorce cause depression in children?) 

While this gives us an idea of what a research question is, it doesn’t help us form them. One way to develop research questions is to read the literature in your area of interest, and then to brainstorm (in your research journal) ideas about your topic and how variables might interact. Let's use an example of older adults (people over 65). I am interested in their satisfaction with their physicians. What might be factors that would affect the interaction? Perhaps length of time with the physician, maybe the physician's expression of empathy, and perhaps the age and gender of the physician could be factors. So let's write some possible research questions about these:

             How does the amount of time spent with the physician affect patient satisfaction?

             How does physician empathy affect patient satisfaction?

             How does the physician's age and gender influence patient satisfaction? 

Some things to notice about these questions, they are not hypotheses (an hypothesis might be: as time with physician increases, patient satisfaction increases): they do not predict how we hypothesize the results will come out. They lead to some issues related to my research method- I will need a way to determine patient satisfaction and physician empathy.  

Next time I will post a dissertation calculator. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Send me an email with your ideas. leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu