This document discusses research problem and design. It defines a research problem as the heart of a research project and must be researchable and lead to discovery. A research problem can be divided into sub-problems for clarity. Descriptive and experimental designs are described. Descriptive design involves observation and description while experimental design tests relationships through manipulation of variables. Both have advantages and disadvantages for research. The document also discusses topics like surveys, case studies, and qualitative vs. quantitative research.

1. 1
Research Methods in Health
Chapter 4. Research Problem and Design
Young Moon Chae, Ph.D.
Graduate School of Public Health
Yonsei University, Korea
ymchae@yuhs.ac

2. Table of Contents
Research problem and topicResearch problem and topicI
Research DesignResearch DesignII
1. Descriptive design
2. Experimental design
1. Research problem
2. Research sub-problem

3. 3
Research problem and topicResearch problem and topicII
Research DesignResearch DesignII
1. Descriptive design
2. Experimental design
1. Research problem
2. Research sub-problem

4. 4
Research Problem
• Problem is the heart of research project
• Researchable problems fit the requirement s of the scientific method
• For a problem to be researchable it must demand an interpretation of the
data leading to a discovery of fact. Simple comparison, of itself, cannot be
the end of a research effort
• Each word of the problem should be expressive and stated be stated in a
complete grammatical sentence
• Degree to which study meets its aims is determined by relevance and
completeness of research questions addressing the research problem
• Divide problem (or purpose) into sub-problems (specific purposes) in order
to have clear and global view of the problem

5. 5
Characteristics of Research Sub-problem
• Each sub-problem should be a completely researchable unit
• The solutions of the sub-problems, taken together, combine to resolve the
main problem of research
• Pseudo sub-problems are not researchable sub-problems. They are
problems that the researcher must resolve by deciding on a course of action
to be followed as a part of the research procedure
- Example: What is the best way to choose a sample? What instruments should be
used to gather the data? How large should a representative sample be?
• Within the sub-problems, interpretation of the data must be apparent
• The sub-problems must be add up to the totality of the problem
• Proliferation of sub-problems is circumspect

6. 6
Components Comprising the Setting of the Problem
• The delimitations of the problem
The statement of the problem indicates what the researcher will include and will
not include in the research endeavor
• The definitions of the terms
Without knowing explicitly what a term means, we cannot evaluate the research
• The assumptions
Assumptions are what the researcher takes for granted
• The hypotheses
Hypotheses are tentative guesses posited for the purpose of assisting the
researcher in directing one’s thinking toward the solution of the problem
• The importance (or significance) of the study
Within the research paper, the researcher frequently sets forth the reason for
undertaking the study based on literature review

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Finding Research Topic
• Timely topic (current research issue)
• Scientifically significant topic (through literature review)
- Originality
- Contribution to the field
- Different from other studies (e.g. sample, methods)
- Important issues
• Interdisciplinary approach to find research topics
- Healthcare specialized fields are closed related
- Since each field has its own research problems and methods, you can find good
topic by combining research problems and/or methods from other field (see next
figure)

8. 8
Epidemiology
Health Statistics
Health Informatics
Health
Promotion
Health
Administration
Environmental
Health
Industrial
Health
Workplace
Health
Promotion
Information system for
Health promotion
Change
management
Environmental health
Information system
Disease surveillance
system
Industrial
epidemiologyEnvironmental
epidemiology
Disease management
Environmental
policy
Community participation
Evaluation of industrial health programs
Interdisciplinary Nature of
Healthcare Sub-fields

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Review Points
• Topic
• Originality
• Research methods
• Formats (tables, figures, references)
• Literature review
• Relevance to the journal

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Research problem and topicResearch problem and topicI
Research DesignResearch DesignIIII
1. Descriptive design
2. Experimental design
1. Research problem
2. Research sub-problem

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What is Research Design?
• A plan for selecting the sources and types of information used
to answer research questions
• A framework for specifying the relationships among the study
variables
• A blueprint that outlines each procedures from the hypothesis
to the analysis

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Key Considerations to Design Your Research Approach
• What question do you want to answer?
• For what purposes is the research being done? i.e., what do you want to be
able to do or decide as a result of the research?
• Who are the audiences for the information from the research, e.g., teachers,
students, other researchers, members of a disciplinary community,
corporate entities, etc.?
• From what sources should the information be collected, e.g., students,
teachers, targeted groups, certain documentation, etc.?
• What kinds of information are needed to make the decisions you need to
make and/or to enlighten your intended audiences?
• Select a research design from the large variety of methods, techniques,
procedures, protocols, and sampling

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Assessing Methods
• Research Question(s) is/are key
• Methods must answer the research question(s)
• Methodology guides application
• All must include “rigor”

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Categorization of Research Design by Design Typology
1. The degree of formulation of problem
a. Exploratory or Formulated b. Descriptive, Diagnostic, Analytical
2. The topical scope
a. Historical study b. Survey, Delphi Study
c. Case study (History, Material), Accounts, Episodes, Story of experience
d. Statistical study
3. The search environment, I.e., the field or lab setting
a. survey or lab experiment
4. The time dimension
a. Cross Sectional (One time)
b. Longitudinal, Trend, Developmental (Follow up or Cohort Studies, Panel Studies)

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(cont.)
5. The mode of data collection
a. Survey b. Observational
6. The manipulation of the variables under study
a. Experimental (Hypothesis Testing ) b. Ex post facto
7. The nature of the relationship among variables
a. Causal/ Prediction
b. Descriptive/ Relational (i) Association (ii) Correlation
8. a. Conceptual ( Fundamental, Basic, Pure)
b. Empirical (Applied, Action)
9. a. Qualitative b. Quantitative

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Categorization of Research Design
by Descriptive or Experimental
1. Descriptive (Qualitative)
• Case Study
• Survey/Sampling
• Focus Groups
• Quantitative Description
• Prediction/Classification
2. Experimental (Quantitative)
• True Experiment
• Quasi-Experiment
Source: Lauer and Asher, Composition Research: Empirical Designs and
MacNealy, Empirical Research in Writing

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1. Descriptive Design
• Simplest method of scientific inquiry
• Describe behavior and mental processes
• Most widely used
- Survey method – ask people’s opinions
- Naturalistic observation – watch, describe
- Clinical method – observe in clinic setting
• All have advantages and disadvantages

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Case Studies
• Focus is on individual or small group
• Able to conduct a comprehensive analysis from a comparison of cases
• Allows for identification of variables or phenomenon to be studied
- Time consuming
- Depth rather than breadth
- Not necessarily representative

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Survey Research
• An efficient means of gathering large amounts of data
• Can be anonymous and inexpensive
- Feedback often incomplete
- Wording of instrument can bias feedback
- Details often left out

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Distinctiveness of survey research
• The purpose of the survey is to produce quantitative descriptions of some
aspects of the studied population.. requires standardized information from
and/or about the subjects being studied
- relationships between variables
- projecting findings descriptively to a predefined population
• The main way of collecting information is by asking people structured and
predefined questions. Their answers constitute the data to be analyzed.
• Information is generally collected about a fraction of the study population--a
sample--but it is collected in such a way as to be able to generalize the
findings to the population-such as service or healthcare organizations, line
or staff work groups

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Purposes of Survey Research
• Exploratory
- Little is known about a population
- Further information is desired about research variables
- Prelude to a costlier, larger research endeavors
• Descriptive
- Focus on who, what, when, how
- Existence of opinions and attitudes
• Explanatory
- Cause and effect, focus on why
- Reasons for existence of facts and opinion is of interest

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Techniques and Key problems with Survey Research
• Survey research combines three techniques
- Collection of answers to standardized questionnaires
- Random sampling from a known population
- Statistical analysis of a quantified representation of the survey answers
• Each focus makes different demands of the data which are to be collected.
Three key problems :
- Measurement
- Control
- Representation

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Focus Groups
• Aid in understanding audience, group, users
• Small group interaction more than individual response
• Helps identify and fill gaps in current knowledge re: perceptions, attitudes,
feelings, etc.
- Does not give statistics
- Marketing tools seen as “suspect”
- Analysis subjective

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Quantitative Descriptive Studies
• Isolates systematically the most important variables (often from case
studies) and to quantify and interrelate them (often via survey or
questionnaire)
• Possible to collect large amounts of data
• Not as disruptive
• Biases not as likely
- Data restricted to information available

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Prediction and Classification Studies
• Prediction forecasts and interval variable
• Classification forecasts a nominal variable
−Important in healthcare, education to predict behaviors
−Need substantial population
−Restricted range of variables can cause misinterpretation
−Variables cannot be added together; must be weighted and looked at in context of
other variables

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Positive Aspects of Descriptive/Qualitative Research
• Naturalistic; allows for subjects to interact with environment
• Can use statistical analysis
• Seeks to further develop theory (not to influence action); Pre-scientific
• Coding schemes often arise from interplay between data and researcher’s
knowledge of theory

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Problems with Descriptive/Qualitative Research
• Impossible to impose control
• Subject pool often limited, not representative
• Seen as more “subjective,” less rigorous
• Beneficial only in terms of initial investigation to form hypothesis

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2. Experimental Design
• Tests relationship of two or more variables
- Allows conclusions about cause-and-effect
- Quantitative measures of behavior compared in different conditions created
by researchers
- Evidence supports or rejects hypothesis
• Elements
- Independent variable – gets manipulated
- Dependent variable – amount of change
- Experimental group – exposed to independent variable or conditions
expected to create change
- Control group – presents normal behavior used for comparison
- Random assignment
- Experimental control

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Formal Experiments
• Placebo control
- Placebo effect: provides no active effect
- Use in identical conditions for control and experimental groups
• Blind experiment
- Researchers blind to group membership of participants to rule out
experimenter bias
• Strongest experiments – double blind
- Researchers and participants kept blind

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Experimental Research: True Experiment
• Random sampling, or selection, of subjects (which are also stratified)
• Introduction of a treatment
• Use of a control group for comparing subjects who don’t receive treatment
with those who do
- Adherence to scientific method (seen as positive, too)
- Must have both internal and external validity
- Treatment and control might seem artificial

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Types of Experimental Design
• The pretest-posttest control group design
- Experimental group will chosen through appropriate randomization procedures
and control group similarly selected
- The experimental group is evaluated, subjected to the experimental variable, and
reevaluated. The control group is isolated from all experimental variable
influences and is merely evaluated at the beginning and at the end of the
experiment.
• The posttest-only control group design
- This design is used when you cannot pretest group (such as growing children or
crops)
- Randomness is critical in the posttest-only design

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(cont.)
• Correlational and Ex Post Facto Designs
- Correlational design
üCorrelational design are usually attempts to establish cause-effect relationships
between two sets of data
üCorrelation is too simple an answer for most of the complex realities of life, and
its simplistic approach disarms the researcher. It is extremely deceptive tool,
and one that the researcher needs to employ with the utmost caution
- Ex post facto studies
üThis is experimentation in reverse. Instead of taking groups that are equivalent
and exposing them to different treatment with a view to promoting differences to
be measured, this design begins with a given effect and seeks the experimental
factor that brought it about
üThe obvious weakness of this design is that we have no control over the
situations that have already occurred and we can never be sure of how many
other circumstances might have been involved
üExample: Medical researches. Physicians discover a pathological situation, then
inaugurate their search “after the fact”. They sleuth into events and conditions
antecedent in order to discover the cause for the illness

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33

34. 34
Source: Leedy PD. Practical research. Third Edition. Macmillan Publishing Co., 1985

35. 35
Experimental Research: Quasi-Experiment
• Similar to Experiment, except that the subjects are not randomized. Intact
groups are often used (for example, students in a classroom).
• To draw more fully on the power of the experimental method, a pretest may
be employed.
• Employ treatment, control, and scientific method
- Act of control and treatment makes situation artificial
- Small subject pools

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Types of Quasi-experimental Design
• The time-series experiment
- It consists of taking a series of evaluations and then introducing a variable or a
new dynamic into the system, after which another series of evaluations is made
- If substantial change results in the second series of evaluations, we may assume
with reasonable experimental logic that the cause of the difference in
observational results was because of the factor introduced into the system
- The weakness of this design is in the probability that a major event that may be
unrecognized may enter the system along with, before, or after the introduction of
the experimental variable
• Control group, time series
- A variant of the time-series design and it is the equivalent time-sampling design
except that the different materials are introduced throughout the course of the
experiment
- The object of its construction is to control history in time designs

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Positive Aspects of Experimental Research
• Tests the validity of generalizations
• Seen as rigorous
• Identifies a cause-and-effect relationship
• Seen as more objective, less subjective
• Can be predictive

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Problems with Experimental Research
• Generalizations need to be qualified according to limitation of research
methods employed
• Controlled settings don’t mirror actual conditions; unnatural
• Difficult to isolate a single variable

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Quantitative and Qualitative Research
QUANTITATIVE
• Measured & expressed in terms of
quantity
• Expression of a property or quantity
in numerical terms
• Quantitative research helps:
− Precise measurement
− Knowing trends or changes overtime
− Comparing trends or individual libraries
/ units
QUALITATIVE
• Involves quality or kind
• Helps in having insight into
problems or cases

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Conceptual and Empirical Research
CONCEPTUAL
• Related to some abstract idea or
theory (for thinkers & philosophers)
• Relies on literature
EMPIRICAL
• Relies on experience or observation
alone, i.e., data based research
• Capable of being verified by
observation or experiment
• Experimenter has control over
variables

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References
Dane, F.C. (1990). Research methods. Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
Leedy PD. (1985) Practical research. Third Edition. Macmillan Publishing
Co.
Polgar, S., Thomas, S.A. (1991). Introduction to research in the health
sciences. Churchill Livingston.