FORMULATION

OF PROBLEM AND
HYPOTHESIS
 What is a Problem Statement?
◦Any scientific investigation starts when a person
has collected many facts but all that can be said
on the basis of those facts is that there is
something which we do not know.
◦Here, a problem originates.
◦A problem statement may be defined as an
interrogative testable statement which expresses
the relationship between two or more variables.
 What is a Problem Statement?
Q. So what is a good problem statement?
A. It is an interrogative statement that asks
▪ What relationship exits between the variables?
▪ Is A related to B?
▪ How are A and B related to C?
▪ Is A related to B in conditions X and Y?
▪ Proposing a statement pertaining to relationship between A and B is called
hypothesis.
 Problem Manifestation
◦ A problem is said to exist when we know that there is something that we don’t
know really.
◦ There are three ways in which a problem may be manifested:
1. A noticeable gap in the results of investigation
2. Contradictory results of investigations
3. Isolated facts in the form of unexplained information.
◦ Types of problems:
❑ Solvable
❑ Unsolvable
 Example of Problem Statement
◦ To identify and understand intrapersonal, interpersonal, sociocultural,
personality, age and sex related aspects of intimate relationship
through narratives, lived experiences and discourse across the late
adolescence to early adulthood.
◦ Perceived similarities among Self, Parents and Romantic Partner.
◦ Effect of Length of Courtship on Marital Satisfaction, Adjustment,
and Hardiness in an Arranged Marriage.
◦ Effects of Changing Gender Roles on Intimate Relationships.
 What are Research Questions?
◦Research questions whether they are pre-specified
or developed during the research work/project, are
central and do serve the following functions:
1. They organize the project and provide it certain direction and
coherence.
2. They delimit the project and display its boundaries.
3. They keep the researcher focused and attentive during the project.
4. They also point towards the data that would be needed.
5. They provide a general framework for writing up the project
 Characteristics of Research
Question
1. A good research question is clear.
2. A good research question is specific.
3. A good research question is answerable.
4. A good research question is interconnected.
5. A good research question is substantively relevant.
Examples of Research Questions
◦ 1. What narrative people tell about their intimate relationship?
◦ 2. How people experience their intimate relationships?
◦ 3. What discourse people in intimate relationship have with each other
in co-construction of intimate relationship?
◦ 4. How personalities reflect the differences in intimate relationship?
 What is a Hypothesis?
◦ A Hypothesis is an assumption about relations among two variables.
◦ It is a tentative explanation of the research problem or a guess about the
research outcome.
◦ Before starting the research, the researcher has a general, diffused rather even
confused notion of the problem.
◦ Hence, an adequate statement about the research problem is very important.
 Criteria for Hypothesis
Construction
◦Hypothesis is never formulated in the form of a
question.
◦There are certain standards to be met while
formulating a hypothesis:
◦ It should be empirically testable, whether it is right or wrong.
◦ It should be precise and specific.
◦ Statements in the hypothesis should not be contradictory.
◦ It should specify variables between which the relationship is to be established.
◦ It should describe only one issue.
 Criteria for Hypothesis
Construction
◦ It should have logical unity and comprehensiveness.
◦ It should be general in scope.
◦ It should be related to available scientific tools and
techniques.
◦ It should be economical.
◦ It should be related to the existing body of theory and fact.
 Hypothesis Formulation
◦Hypothesis formulation is said to be vague and
idiosyncratic.
◦So it presents with various difficulties in
formulating a good research hypothesis.
◦The problems faced by researchers are:
1. Absence of knowledge of the theoretical framework.
2. Inability to utilize the knowledge of the theoretical framework.
3. Unaware about the important scientific research techniques
 Hypothesis Formulation
◦ Despite these difficulties the researcher tries to formulate
a good hypothesis.
◦ Usually the hypothesis is derived from the problem
statement.
◦ The hypothesis should be formulated in a positive and
substantive form before the data is collected.
◦ The construction of hypothesis is a creative task and
involves a lot of thinking and imagination.
 Hypothesis Formulation
◦Reichenbach (1938) has made a distinction
between the two processes of
hypothesis-formulation.
❑ Context of discovery
❑ Context of justification
◦ The process through which the researcher arrives at the hypothesis, is the
context of discovery.
◦ The presentation of evidence or proof in support of the truth of the hypothesis
is the context of justification.
 Hypothesis Formulation
◦A researcher is more concerned with the context
of justification in the development of the
hypothesis.
◦When a researcher arrives at a hypothesis, he/she
extensively as well as intensively surveys a mass
of data, abstracts them, tries to find out
similarities among the abstracted data and finally
makes a generalization in the form of a
hypothesis.