DESCRIBING

BACKGROUND
ON THE STUDY
• The background of the study is basically an overview of the
research study and explains why you, as a researcher, are doing
the study.
• It provides information that is important or essential to
understand the main body of the research investigation, which
could be an offshoot of any of the following:
1. Historical developments
2. Cultural developments
3. Academic developments
4. Scientific findings
5. Debates or arguments and a host of others
• These developments could give rise to your research questions.
• The background of the study locates or situates
your study in the context of your specific field
and other related fields.
• Your linking up of your research study to recent
developments, as well as your mentioning
whether certain issues relevant to your field of
investigation had been addressed in any form,
followed by the research questions you intend to
seek answers for, can make your reader deduce
the originality of your study (www.editage.com).
EXAMPLES OF BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Some excerpts:
Example 1.
With diminishing finances, it is rarely possible for a library or
information center to have enough resources to fulfill the needs of its
clients… Collaboration is widely recognized as the best way for libraries
to cope with the ever increasing challenges: volume of information
resources, nature and quality of information, user needs and
expectations, information and communication technology
competencies and infrastructure, inflated cost of information resources
and staffing needs. However, although these challenges have continued
to prevail, libraries working under collaborative initiatives like the
Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) have
registered tremendous success.
This research study reports the findings of a thorough study to
establish the factors that have led to the success of CARLI and
how such success factors can be applied in libraries of developing
countries like Uganda. Emphasis is placed on the establishment of
CARLI leadership, the sharing of responsibility and decision
making process, as well as sources of funding for the consortium…
Also central to the research study is exploration of the role and
responsibility of participating member libraries and their
contributions to and expectations from the consortium.
This present research study has incorporated interviews with
CARLI staff and a questionnaire survey to all the participating
CARLI membership.
(https://www.ideals.Illinois.edu/bitsreamyhandle/2142/thesis-ch.1-3)
It is now your time to create your own research background. Do the
following:
1. Reread your research title. Focus on its variables and its possible
relationship.
2. Decide on why you conducted the study. Explain the causes that
triggered you to undertake the study in at least two paragraphs.
3. Visit the library. Find possible references for your study. Copy or
paraphrase ideas on index cards which may be relevant to your
study. List down the information of the book on your notebook.
4. Reflect about the following:
• Is your reason substantial enough for the topic to be
undertaken?
• Do you have enough sources for your research?
 STATING
RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
• Whenever you do research-qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods-your
goal is to help people, groups or organizations understand better
phenomena, human behavior, human interactions and other events in daily
life. With this in mind, the researcher’s formulation of research questions is
of primary importance.
• Throughout the research process, you, as a researcher, make crucial
decisions, particularly in the choice of methods of data collection, and in data
analysis procedures. The research questions you formulate give focus to the
research, as well as guide the appropriacy of the decisions you make.
• If the research questions are not clearly formulated, or have no direction, you
will find yourself with too much data, and yet, not knowing what to do with
them.
• Suffice it to say that the research questions express clearly the specific
direction or focus of your research problem or inquiry. Needless to say, the
research questions comprise the core of the study.
Research Questions
• Social research is literally a search for the best explanation
of the problem around which evidence or data is focused. It
is good to emphasize at this point that social research
problems are not the same thing as “topics” or “areas of
interests”.
• They are not the equivalent of so-called social problems
like poverty, unemployment, social inequality, and so on.
• Research problems address issues about social
organizations, social processes and social behavior. (Layder,
2013)
Types of Research Questions
1. Problem Questions – are general and explanatory and
have a crucial influence on the form and content of topic
questions.
2. Topic Questions – are specific and descriptive.
Six Key Problem Questions

1.How are a person’s self-identity,

feelings, ideas and attitudes
related to his or her social
environment?
Six Key Problem Questions

2. How do people influence each

other’s behavior in social interaction-
either ‘face-to-face’ or ‘mediated’
through texts, emails, mobiles, and so
on?
Six Key Problem Questions

3. How do social settings (such as

schools, universities, families, factories,
companies, hospitals, and so on)
influence the behavior of those
operating within them?
Six Key Problem Questions

4. How is social behavior influenced by:

a. social class, ethnicity, gender, age,
neighborhood, region, or politics;
b. cultural values, expectations and
institutions (including media)?
Six Key Problem Questions

5. How does power influence

human behavior and social
activity?
Six Key Problem Questions

6. How does the passage of time

influence social behavior?
INDICATING
SCOPE AND
DELIMITATIO
N
• The scope and delimitation of the study sets boundaries and
parameters of the problem inquiry and narrows down the
scope of the inquiry.
• The scope is the domain of your research – what is in the
domain, and what is not.
• You need to make as clear as possible what you will be
studying and what factors are within the accepted range of
your study.
• FOR EXAMPLE: if you are studying the impact of a particular
program of the Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD), you have to specify the program and
specific local government unit in which it is being
implemented.
Examples of Scope and Delimitation From Actual Studies:
A. Title of the Study: Consumers’ Response to PETA’s advocacy
advertisements on vegetarianism (Del Mundo, 2009)
The study was conducted to find out the consumers’ responses
toward vegetarianism in advocacy advertisements. The
researcher chose vegetarianism among many advocacy issues;
the reason for this is that vegetarianism is a growing consumer
market. The aspects studied were the respondents’ feedback to
selected most popular advertisements of PETA toward
vegetarianism, how the advertisements catch attention and
interest, how they affect lifestyles, and how they generate
action.
Examples of Scope and Delimitation From Actual Studies:
B. Title of the Study: Milo Marathon: A Sports Event as a
Corporate Social Responsibility (Bernardo, 2013)
This research is focused mainly on the application of Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) on Milo® Marathon is the search
context of this study as it allows individuals to participate in a
sports event, on which portion of the event proceeds benefits a
charitable advocacy. A sample population from 42-km and 21-
km distances of the marathon is used as respondents to the
survey questionnaires of this research.
Examples of Scope and Delimitation From Actual Studies:
B. Title of the Study: Milo Marathon: A Sports Event as a
Corporate Social Responsibility (Bernardo, 2013)
The Psychological Continuum Model (PCM) is used as the
theoretical foundation for this thesis (Funk and James, 2001 &
2006). PCM has four levels namely, awareness, attraction,
attachment and allegiance. The current research specifically
focuses on the awareness, attraction, and attachment stages as
these are the most crucial stages of the model. Funk and James
(2006) argued that attachment process requires additional
development and this study will respond to this suggestion
through examination of factors that may contribute to sports
event awareness, attraction and attachment.
 CITING
BENEFITS AND
BENEFICIARIES
OF THE
RESEARCH
STUDY
• Essentially this part informs the reader on how the study
will contribute to the well-being of a person or progress
of a group or society in general.
• When you mull over who/what benefit from your study,
focus on your problem which will guide you in identifying
the specific contribution of your study.
• The challenge of this section of the Problem Statement is
to situate the study as addressing a particular, important,
or even pressing problem.
• Defining the problem shapes the research study’s
significance (Marshall and Rossman, 1995).