Choosing a research problem and formulating hypothesis

Choosing a research problem or a topic

In scientific research, the researcher’s first task is to choose a research problem. Since it is the first step of the scientific method of investigation, formulating a research problem is one of the important parts of the research process. If the research problem is formulated properly, you can plan and conduct your study properly. A question that is to be answered by using the scientific method of the investigation is called a research problem. We may think of so many questions about our society in our daily life. You may question yourself, “Why did some people become beggars, or why do more people want to dwell in cities?” Such questions can be considered as research problems or research questions only if they are used for the research purpose. In order to understand the meaning of the research problem, we should know what criteria should we meet to become a scientific problem. General features of a scientific problem are:

1) The problem should be stated in the question form.

2) It should state the relationship between two or more variables.

3) It should contain the specific and measurable concepts( variables).

4) It should be empirically answerable.

An example of the scientific problem is “ is the higher level of the education responsible for the positive attitude towards family planning in the Hindu society?” Here the problem statement is in question form in which we seek to understand the relationship between the two variables level of the education and attitude toward the family planning. These variables are specific and measurable and the problem is empirically answerable. The research problem is known as the research question. Research questions may be either general or specific. A research question can have several tentative answers whereas specific research questions can have a specific answer. The general question is considered as less scientific than the specific question.

General question: Why the average height of new generation is more than their parents?

Specific question: Do the people of the new generation in Kathmandu take more balanced diet than that of their parents? And, is there a positive correlation between the balanced diet and height?

The scientific problems should be value-free questions. The value questions or the judgemental questions cannot be answered by using the scientific method. Is Hinduism superior to the Christianity? Should people believe in God? These are the value-laden questions and not the research questions.

Researchers often wish to conduct the study on a new and virtually important topic but such topics are often disadvantageous because of the limited data and sources. Replication of the past research studies with a new twist can also be a good criterion for choosing a problem. But it is quite difficult task to throw any new light in the case of replication. Generally, a controversial topic should not be chosen in which drawing conclusion becomes a difficult task. The selected problem should neither be too narrow or too vague. The research problem should be practicable in terms of the researcher’s ability, available budget, manpower, and time as well as in terms of necessary cooperation from the respondents and availability of literature. The stages of defining a problem include the following points:

1) Understanding the problem

2) Rehearsing the problem

Formulating hypothesis or assumptions

The research problem is a question that is to be answered through the application of the scientific method whereas the hypothesis is the tentative answer of the research question. For example, you are interested in studying the causes and the effect of air pollution. For this purpose, you may formulate the research questions and guess their answers as gives below:

Problem: Are the vehicles responsible for causing the air pollution?

Hypothesis: The more vehicles are, the more the air pollution is.

Problem: Is the air pollution responsible for the respiratory diseases?

Hypothesis: Higher the level of the air pollution, the more percentage of people suffered from the respiratory diseases.

Problem: Is the air pollution responsible for eye diseases?

Hypothesis: Higher the level of the air pollution,  more percentage of people suffer from the eye diseases.

Thus we know that both the research problems and hypothesis explain the tentative relation between the variables. There is a duplication of the same expression that a problem statement is in the interrogative sentence and the hypothesis is in affirmative sentences. For this reason, some researchers use only problem statements and other use only hypothesis. This is possible only when we formulate specific research problem. When we have the general research problem, we use both the research problem and the hypothesis at a time. Because we can formulate research hypothesis from a single research question. Many researchers use the general problems on the problem statements, which are not precise and operationally variable. An example of the general problem is “ Why some people are beggars?” From this general problem, we cannot formulate a workable hypothesis. In this context, we use only problem and not the hypothesis. Particularly in exploratory or hypothesis formulating the studies, problems and hypothesis cannot be used during the research design because they are formulated during the interpretation of the data.

According to Bailey, “ A hypothesis is a proposition that is stated in a testable form and predicts a particular relationship between two variables.” To elaborate this definition, we should explain the following three points.

1) A hypothesis is a proposition: A proposition is a statement about one or two more concepts or variables. The hypothesis is a bivariate proposition, not a univariate proposition. Univariate proposition discusses a single variable. For example, we can state that “Kathmandu is a primate city in Nepal.”

2) The hypothesis predicts a particular relationship between two or more variables: Hypothesis is a speculative statement or an educated guess about a relationship between two variables. You might guess, “ The more intelligent one is, the more unhappy one ”. 

3) The hypothesis is stated in a testable form: By test, we mean either to confirm the stated hypothesis is right or to prove it wrong. In social sciences, the hypothesis is to be empirically tested for their verification. The statement cannot be proved right or wrong. It means the statements that are merely related to opinions, value judgments, or normative standards are not considered as a hypothesis. The hypothesis is testable only when they are based on facts and precise for the accurate measurement of related variables. Let us say, " More the number of the vehicles in the city,  higher will be the air pollution”.

References

Kerlinger, Fred N., 1978. Foundations of Behavioural Research, (2nd Ed). New Delhi: Surjeet Publications

Young, P.V., 1975. Scientific Social Survey and Research. New Delhi.

Scott, Willim P., 1986 Dictonary of sociology.

Reejal, P.R., 1995. Fundamentals of public policy analysis. Kathmandu: Mrs Indira Reejal.