FORMULATING THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

TOPIC LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this lecture, students should be able to;

• identify importance of formulating a research problem

• list sources of research problems

• explain the considerations in selecting a research problem

• describe steps in formulating a research problem

• demonstrate how to formulate research objectives

WHAT IS RESEARCH PROBLEM?

• Any question that you want answered and any assumption or assertion that you want to
challenge or investigate.

 So there is something that you want to know further, and this is something that you wanted to
get answers to, especially if there is something that bothers you in a particular topic that you
wanted to finally get specific answers to. That is considered to be something that you wanted to
see and it might be considered as a research problem.

• However;

– not all questions can be transformed into research problems.

 Because in the creation of research, the questions should be aligned with the research that
you're going to create. So there might be questions that you wanted to ask, but it is not already
aligned with the research problem. So later on, you will be discussing how to align your
questions related to your research problem.

– the process of formulating them in a meaningful way is not at all an easy task.

 because not everyone is capable of identifying a gap. Not everyone is capable of thinking what is
something to be investigated about. Okay, so it's a very challenging task in starting early search.
Sometimes this is the point where students are finding it so difficult to start their research
because they do not know what to search or what to learn

– it requires considerable knowledge of both the subject area and research methodology.

 So the creation of your research problem as much as possible for you not to find it so difficult to
work on your research, you might want to concentrate on your field of specialization. What do
you mean by field of specialization? We're going to consider your major. So any topic related to
your major that you feel comfortable working on or comfortable studying, it will be going to be
helpful for the rest of the group members or for the course of your research

 A research problem is a perceived gap between what is and what should be.
  So you have to see what is lacking at present and what do you want to achieve in the near
future. What are the answers that you wanted to prove the moment that you're going to finish
your research?
 Research problem arise from;

– Evolution of theories.

 so you have to prove certain theories that you have been taking from different subjects that you
had for the past semesters. Okay, so let's say when it comes to marketing management, you
might want to consider proving theories related to retailing advertising or even selling for
financial management. There are certain things that had been discussed related to investments,
stocks. There are theories related to those that you wanted to prove if it really happens in real
business situations or considering your respondents if ever they are experiencing certain
theories that you wanted to prove.

– Peers and supervisors etc.

– Published research (literature review).

 publish research or you wanted to continue a particular research? Because our research, as I
mentioned in our first chapter, one good characteristic of our research is when there will be
follow up researches about it so that it will be considered as a cycle. Your research problem
might also be taken from previous researches that you wanted to study further, or you wanted
to have a continuation too

– Day-to-day experience

Research problem is like an identification of destination before undertaking research journey

 As I have mentioned a while ago, identifying research problem is considered to be the early
process that you will be having in conducting your research. When we talk about research
problem, this is going to be your basis for the creation of your research.

CLEAR RESEARCH PROBLEM WOULD RESULT IN CLEAR AND ECONOMICAL RESEARCH PLAN.

 Clear research problem will result in specific answers. Okay, I just forgot to place it there. But
when you're going to conduct our research, the result of it will really be in line with the actual
questions that you have specified in the statement of the problem. There is a part of the
research that you have to state certain questions that you wanted to answer. Later on, we will
be also having this PowerPoint presentation that will enable you to understand how will you be
stating questions to be answered in your research

RESEARCH PROBLEM IS THE FOUNDATION OF THE RESEARCH STUDY

 Without a research problem, you cannot start research. Okay? Because as mentioned a while
ago, you talked about research problem. This is something that you wanted to solve, this is
something that you wanted to answer. So research is being conducted to answer questions. To
answer the rise, the first thing that you have to consider is to identify a particular problem

WHAT IT IS THAT YOU WANT TO FIND OUT ABOUT AND NOT WHAT YOU THINK YOU MUST FIND
  Okay? So you should not be controlling your research. You should be going with your research,
you're going to go with the flow of your research. You're not going to manipulate your research
in such a way that the result will be the result that you wanted to come out.

THE WAY WE FORMULATE THE RESEARCH PROBLEM DETERMINES EVERY STEP THAT FOLLOWS;

• type of study design that can be used

• type of sampling strategy that can be employed

 Sampling strategy will be related to how are we going to get our respondents

• research instrument that can be used or developed

 What are we going to make use of to get our responses coming from our respondents? You
might consider questionnaire, you might consider interview, you might be considering previous
answers coming from the same respondents. You might consider focus groups.

• type of analysis that can be undertaken

 considering the data that you have already taken from the respondents answers

SOURCES OF RESEARCH PROBLEMS

4P

Phenomena

People

Problem

Programme

ASPECTS OF RESEARCH PROBLEM

Aspects of study About Study of

Study population People Individuals, They provide you with

organizations, groups, the required
communities information or you
collect information
from or about them

Subject area Problem Issues, situations, Information that you

associations, needs, need to collect to find
population answers to your
composition, profiles service research
etc. questions

Programme Contents, structure,

 outcomes, attributes,
satisfaction,
consumers,
providers etc
Phenomenon Cause and effect,
relationships, the study
of a phenomenon itself
etc
 Okay, so the
cost and effect
if ever you're
going to have
the cost in
effect, it will
start from
identifying the
underlying
causes and
then testing it.
And then once
you have
tested the
courses, you
will be proving
certain effects
of the
variables.

IDENTIFYING RESEARCH PROBLEM

• Differentiate between research vs. non-research problems.

• Non-research problems are answered by these questions:

– Can it be solved by administrative changes?

 Or when a research that you're going to conduct for the administration, when certain topics can
just be answered immediately by administrative management or administrative changes, there
is no need to conduct research because they can already provide certain solutions to certain
problems that the company has.

– Are there already solutions available that can be used?

 , if there are already solutions or there is no need to study for certain topics

– Is the problem due to lack of manpower and resources?

  So if it's under this one, it's not an issue to consider. Why? Because if just going to add man
power or if you're just going to add resources, the problem will be solved.

– Is there data showing that it is not a significant issue?

 Is there data showing that it is not a significant issue or is it something that is going to be a
waste of resources in time? So if it's going to be under this particular issues, it's considered to be
or these are considered to be non research problems

CONSIDERATIONS IN SELECTING A RESEARCH PROBLEM

1. Interest: A research is usually time consuming, and involves hard work and possibly unforeseen
problems. One should select topic of great interest to sustain the required motivation.

 so the first one in the consideration of selecting a research problem, it's something that you
really wanted to work on. It's very difficult to create a research that you're just doing it for the
purpose of conducting research or just getting agreed for it. It's going to be helpful. It's going to
be more convenient in your part if you have interest in what you're going to study. Unlike if
you're just going to create a problem or create a research just to approve whatever your
groupmates will be telling you and you yourself do not want to study about it, then there will be
no interest. Especially in conducting a research. It involves time and then hard work. So if you do
not like what you're doing, it might be so difficult to finish it.

2. Magnitude: It is extremely important to select a topic that you can manage within the time and
resources at your disposal. Narrow the topic to something so it becomes manageable, specific
and clear.

 So the research problem or the research that you're going to create should be finished within
than the allowable time. Okay. For this semester you're just going to finish chapters one and two
and then the questionnaire if ever going to make use of questionnaire, those are the parts of the
research that you're going to create. Since this particular subject is only into proposal research.
So if the research problem that you will be having will not be finished during the allowable
period. The certain problem that may arise will be magnitude

3. Measurement of concepts: Make sure that you are clear about the indicators and measurement
of concepts (if used) in your study.

 So what are you supposed to be familiar about or be specific about? You have to be specific
when it comes to your indicators. What are these indicators? This particular indicators will be
reflected in your questionnaire that you wanted to ask from your respondents or you wanted to
test. And by those indicators and then the results that you will be getting from those, you will be
able to measure certain concepts in your study. So the creation of specific questions that will be
part of your tool later on or under your questionnaire will be under number three

4. Level of expertise: Make sure that you have adequate level of expertise for the task you are
proposing since you need to do the work yourself.
 So as much as possible, as I have been mentioning since the first chapter and then the
orientation, as much as possible, you work with or under your specialization, considering your
major, considering your course, so that any concept, any problem, any topics that will be related
to it will be highly familiar to every group member and then it will greatly help them work on the
research.

5. Relevance: Ensure that your study adds to the existing body of knowledge, bridges

current gaps and is useful in policy formulation.

 As I've mentioned a while ago, there are certain issues that might be considered when it comes
to non researchable problems. The most important thing when it comes to relevance is that the
moment that you will be finishing a particular research, you will be closing a gap, you will be
putting solution to a particular problem and that is the main aim of conducting a research.

6. Availability of data: Before finalizing the topic, make sure that data are available.

 It's going to be difficult if you have chosen a research that has a few related literature or
literature to back up certain claims that you will be having for your research. So when you're
going to choose for a research problem, you have to choose also a topic that has several
literatures available

7. Ethical issues: How ethical issues can affect the study population and how ethical

problems can be overcome should be thoroughly examined at the problem formulating stage.

 So it's also going to be the part of the research that will consider if it's not going to harm the
respondents. If it's going to be following certain processes, conducting a research, because we
have certain processes and if ever your research had adhered to certain policies and then
certain regulations in our university in finalizing your research

8. Overdone subject: Subject which is overdone should not be chosen, for it will be difficult task to
throw any new light in such a case.

 if this is going to be your basis for creating a research. Because there are so many researchers
already who had chosen that particular topic. You might not have new inputs to the subject
because those inputs had already been part of the researches that had been published.

9. Controversial subject: Should not become the choice of an average researcher.

 Just to prove your point, you're going to research, let's say for example, if you're going to
research about management behaviors, that will create organization instability. So just for you
to prove a point that your organization is no longer treating you well, you're going to create
research about it. So it's not considered to be a good type of research because you're just
proving your point rather than looking for a solution to the problem.

10. Too Narrow topic should be avoided

 How are you going to prioritize? There should be relevance how important? You have to
consider the size, severity, health and social consequences the duplication is the answer already
available from other studies? So I have to check also if the research that you have created is
 already available or is already finished okay so I will also be checking your research if your
researches are already available. Especially when it comes to the research that we have in SBA
so no research should be duplicated feasible to carry out remission actions considering the
manpower.

PRIORITIZING RESEARCH PROBLEM

Relevance

• How important?

• Size, severity, health & social

Duplication

• Is the answer already available from other studies?

• consequences?

Feasibility

• Feasible to carry out remedial actions?

• Are the manpower, time and resources available?

Applicability

• Potential solution is effective under ideal conditions?

• Will managers accept and use it?

Cost effectiveness

• Are the resources invested worth the outcome?

• Will the solution be too expensive to implement?

Timeliness

• Will the answer come quick enough?

Ethics

• Will the project be acceptable to the respondents?

Political acceptability

• Will the managers and community accept the results?

STEPS IN FORMULATING RESEARCH PROBLEM

STEP 1 Identify broad field

STEP 2 Dissect to sub- areas

STEP 3 Select interested sub-area

STEP 4 Raise questions

STEP 5 Formulate objectives

STEP 6 Assess objective

STEP 7 Double check

FORMULATION OF RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

• What is an ‘objective’?

– A clear and specific goals you set out to attain in your study.

• Two types of objectives;

– Main objectives

• Specific objectives / sub-objectives

MAIN OBJECTIVES

• Overall statement of the thrust of your study.

• It is also a statement of the main associations and relationships that you seek to discover or
establish

SUB-OBJECTIVES

• The specific aspects of the topic that you want to investigate within the main framework of
your study

• One sub-objective contains one aspect only

• Focus the study (narrowing it down to essentials).

• Avoid the collection of data which are not strictly necessary for understanding and solving the
problem you have identified.

• Organize the study in clearly defined parts or phases.

CHARACTERISTICS OF OBJECTIVES
WRITING A RESEARCH TITLE

What is a RESEARCH TITLE?

A research title is a product of real world observations, dilemmas, wide reading, selective viewing, films
documentaries and deep reflection.

The title of the research is the research problem in capsule form. It must clearly reflect the topic of
investigation and it must be original, clear, concise or specific.

 It must clearly reflect the topic of investigation by merely reading your research, your research
title, I mean the one reading it will immediately know what is the coverage of your research by
just reading the topic. By just reading the research title, sorry, they will understand that the
range of your study so it must be original, it must be clear, it must be concise or specific

Example of Broad Topics

Blended Learning in English Class - it's a broad topic because there are other issues under blended
learning

Presidential Election Results

Agri-business

Social networking

Vegetarianism

Example of Specific Topics

A correlation study in the use of blended learning in Freshman English Classes and student achievement.

Techniques in Narrowing Down a Topic into a Research Question

 1. Examine the literature.

◦ Published articles are an excellent source of ideas for research questions. They are
usually at an appropriate level of specificity and suggest research questions that focus
on the following:

◦ A. Replicate a previous study project exactly or with slight variations.

 you can replicate a previous study or project or exactly, but the way you're going to consider the
respondents might be different. You might want to copy slightly in such a way that there will be
additional or variation when it comes to the specific part of the broad topic that you have
chosen initially

◦ B. Explore unexpected findings discovered in previous research.

◦ C. Follow suggestions an author gives for future research at the end of an article.

◦ D. Extend an existing explanation or theory to a new topic or setting.

 So this is very important. So you have to look for a theory that can back up your study and it will
be something that I will be looking for the moment that I'll be asking for the first output. Okay,
the first output for this week. So I'll be asking you to give me the theory that will be used as a
basis for your research

◦ E. Challenge findings or attempt to refute a relationship.

 Probably you do not agree with a certain research. You wanted to provide another solution to
the problem that had been identified already

◦ F. Specify the intervening process and consider linking relations

2. Talk over ideas with others.

A. Ask people who are knowledgeable about the topic for questions about it that they have
thought of.
B. Seek out those who hold opinions that differ from yours on the topic and discuss possible
research questions with them.

3. Apply to a specific context.

A. Focus the topic on a specific historical period or time period.

B. Narrow the topic to a specific society or geographic unit.

C. Consider which subgroups or categories of people/units are involved and whether there are
differences among them.

4. Define the aim or desired outcome of the study.

A. Will the research question be for an exploratory, explanatory or descriptive study?

  So this is going to be part of your objectives later on. Will the research question be for
exploratory, explanatory or descriptive survey and we will be discussing certain research designs
later on when we get there

B. Will the study involve applied or basic research?

 so choosing a topic for a research study in choosing a research topic, it is important to select a
topic that interests and motivates you. As mentioned a while ago, it should be doable with the
resources that you have and the research topic should be focused and well defined.

Choosing a Topic for a Research Study

In choosing a research topic, it is important to select a topic that interest and motivates you.

It should be “doable” with the resources at your disposal and within the required time frame.

The research topic should be focused and well-defined.

A good title should have the following properties:

1) The title needs to be very specific in nature

2) In spite of being specific it should also have the expressive power to show the entire scale

of the research study in those few words.

3) It should tell the total nature of the subject.

4) It needs to be very definite and clear.

5) The title needs to be attractive and interesting enough to catch the attention of the readers.

Standards in writing the title:

1. The title must be concise. It contains only the words enough to hint the content of the research.
Omit phrases and words like:

• A Study of

• The Implications of

• A Comparative Study of

• An Assessment of

• An Analysis of

• Inquiry

• Investigation

2. The title must be stated in declarative form, not interrogative form.

 3. If the title exceeds beyond one line, it must be stated like V-form. Likewise, no title shall be
written in excess of three lines regardless the number of words

Discrete Negative Emotions and Customer Dissatisfaction Responses Among the Quick Service
Restaurant Along Katipunan Quezon City”

• Subject matter: Negative Emotions and Customer Dissatisfaction

• Locale of the study: Katipunan Quezon City – location where the study created

• Population involved: Quick Service Restaurant – respondents