Research problem
Chevrier
For him it’s the gap between what we know and we wanna know. We have to justify why we research something.
Pertinence
Both are required.
Social
Adresses issues that are relevant or important to society.
Scientific
Relevant to academic debates and existing research. It has to add to what we know. We gotta be sure that the existing knowledge cannot be generalised towards a specific situation or that there is a lack of it. There can also existe methodological problems, its unlikely that we will be capable of identifying these(this direction wont be encouraged/taken). Additionally contradictions between works and unexplainable facts according to existing theories may also arise, this can be a justification.
How to find a problem?
Research
Start from established knowledge and progress, identify a gap and test the knowledge by validating your results (confronting the theory to the empirics). This would be the deductive method.
So what we will be doing is:
- Take a theory → confront it to reality → see if the hypothesis is supported or not.
Observation
You may also just observe and get a better understanding, to formulate a theory. Not really what we are going for, this is the inductive method.
Formulation
Normative vs. positive
The first is interested in how things should be, while the second looks at how things are. We will only focus on positive questions.
Positive questions explain
They aim to explain variations and patterns. Saying why something happens. We test a hypothesis as to why something happens. Why and How type questions are best.
- Dependent variable vs independent.
Steps
Selecting a topic goes first, then it must be shaped into a well-defined question.
Strategies
- Look at current issues that dont make sense.
- Look at already published research.
Interest
To make a question interesting it has to be:
- New.
- Have significant implications for theory and pratice.
- Adresses a puzzle.
- Ends in a counterintuitive conclusion.
Good question
A good one must be:
- Open ended.
- Understandable.
- Relevant.
- Positive.
- Contributing to the literature.
- Precise.
- Clear.
- Comprehensible.
- Clarifying of the level of analysys.