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Why Is Coming Up With A

Research Question So Difficult?

Video Title: Why Is Coming Up With A Research Question So Difficult?

Originally Published: 2017

Publishing Company: SAGE Publications Ltd

City: United Kingdom

ISBN: 9781526400116

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781526400116

This PDF has been generated from SAGE Research Methods.

https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781526400116

DR. ZINA O'LEARY: You'd be surprised how many people really are challenged by coming up with a

research question. It's actually an extremely difficult thing to do. So a lot of people think that research

starts with answering a research question. So when they can't come up with a question, they think,

oh my god, I can't even come up with a question. How am I ever going to do this research? But what

you have to understand is

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: that coming up with a research question is one of the most

fundamental practices of doing research to begin with. So you have to be able to really think about

what a good question is. A good question-- a question that's researchable, a question that can be

done in your time frame, a question that is valuable. So it is a really big challenge to come up with a

question.

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: So research starts with question development. So there's a lot of

things that you can do to help you in the development of a researchable question. Things to think

about are opportunities and issues. So what's the problem situation? Most students who come to me

kind of know the area they want to research.

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: They know the issue. They know the challenge. They know the thing

that they want to explore. It might be obesity. It might be something around health care. It might be

something around demographics. Whatever it might be, you have an idea. Now, there's two things

you can start to look at. One would be to look at the issues around this. What are the problems?

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: What are the things that come up for you that you want to fix? The

other thing you can do is start to look at opportunities. Where do you think research can help make

a situation better? So challenges and opportunities, issues and opportunities. Really start to explore

what it is around this space

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: that interests you, where you think research could help the situation.

So this means you can start thinking about what is already known about a situation. What is known

about the thing you want to study? Even more important, what needs to be known? Now, you're not

going to know what

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: needs to be known until you know what is known. And that means to

really understand where we are within a body of literature that explores a certain problem situation.

There's a couple things you can think about here. We can ask ourselves, do we need to know more

about the problem?

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: So let's say the problem is social-media bullying-- bullying on

Facebook. How much do we know about the problem? How prevalent is the problem? What is the

age group that's affected by the problem? What is the consequences of that problem? Is it a problem

that's only in rural areas or urban areas

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: or developing countries? So what do we need to know about the

problem itself? And maybe there's a lot already known about the problem situation. Maybe there's a

lot of data on the scope of the issue and the problem itself. But that's the place you start. Do we need

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to know more about the problem? And maybe the problem is known. If the problem is known, then

you

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: can start thinking about questions around the solution. Well, how

do we begin to address this problem? What are the types of solutions that we can offer? What have

other people have done? Has there been some good strategies? Do we have good initiatives? Has

someone looked at some sort of education campaign in schools? Has someone worked with families?

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: What are different communities doing? Has anything been instituted

at a policy level around social media? Social media not allowed in particular schools? There's so

many things that you might want to look at in terms of, well, how can we begin to look at this issue?

So that's a good place to come up with a question. All right.

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: So we've got all the questions related to your problem. And then we

have all the questions related to a potential solution. So two ways to start thinking about your issue

and your question development. The third is if a lot of people have looked at your issue, a lot is known

about the problem, a lot of solutions

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: are already been explored, and in fact people have started to look

at initiating these solutions, well then, some of the research questions you might come up with are

about evaluating those particular initiatives. So maybe a school has tried a particular campaign. You

can ask a question is, did it work?

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: How well did it work? Could we do it different? Could it be initiated

it someplace else? How could we change it so that it's more effective? So lots of things you can do

in that space around evaluative research. So lots of different issues here. And one of the things that

you need to do when you're really having difficulty coming up

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: with a question is read. Reading is instrumental to the development

of a research question. And I don't just mean journal articles. We'll get to those in a minute, but

let's read. Let's think about what's in the media. And when I say read, I also mean watch TV, watch

YouTube. What's known about the situation? What is a hot topic?

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: What is interesting to you? So really read broadly. And then as you

begin to get your interest, read more specifically. Then you can begin to turn to academic literature.

You can start to read about what other researchers have done. You have to remember that research

is about adding to a body of knowledge. You're not going to create all the knowledge in the world.

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: You're just going to add to a body of knowledge. And to add to a

body of knowledge, you need to know what's in that body of knowledge. So you really do need to

read. What have researchers been working on? What have they been finding? Where are the gaps

and the holes in the literature? How can you fill in those spaces? What contribution might you be able

to make?

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: Now, as you begin to read, you'll get a sense. And you realize, oh,

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I can become a player in this game. No one's really looked at this question in this context. They've

never looked at it with this demographic. They've never looked at it for this age group. They've never

looked at it in relation to sexual bullying, whatever it might be. As you identify those gaps in the

literature,

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: as you begin to identify some of the-- maybe, the assumptions that

you don't buy into-- there's going to be a whole scope for you to begin to develop a research question.

So some of the things you need to be thinking about as you're going through all the possibilities of

research is, is the question I'm starting to play with researchable?

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: Can I actually gather the data that I'll need to answer that question,

because that's going to be critical. I guess it's an iterative process. You have a topic. You have a

research question that's starting to develop. And then you're going to read. And that's going to define

your ideas. And then you're going to come up with a more developed research

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: question. And then you're actually going to have some ideas for how

you're going to collect that data. And then you're going to think about your methods. And maybe your

methods will work or won't work or will be a challenge. And then you get to redefine the question,

which is going to make you read more. It's almost like this figure eight of going back and forth between

methods and reading and ideas

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: until you really form a question. And one of the best things you can

do is know that this is going to be a challenge, but know that you really can't progress too far without

this question. So talk to people. Get their ideas on what's going to be a good question for you.

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: And it's essential because the research question is going to do so

much work for you. If you get a good research question, it gives you this sense of ease because

intuitively you will feel that you have direction. You will know where you're going. You'll know exactly

what the research process has to do because research is about getting

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: the answer to a question. And you can't do that if you don't have a

question. It's like setting your GPS without knowing where you want to go. It's impossible to do. So it

gives you that direction. It also gives you a fabulous blueprint for how to get somewhere. It's going to

give you the whole direction for the scope of your study-- all the different avenues

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: you might follow. Just as important, it gives you a framework for

assessing whether you're on or off track. So if you're finding all of this stuff that's interesting and you

want to explore, but it doesn't answer this research question that after lots of iterations you're happy

with, you have to think, wait, am I going off track? Maybe I need to leave that for another time.

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: Or maybe you realize, wait, this is really what I want to do. Maybe

I have to refine my question. But everything you do, everything you read, all your methods become

assessable against that research question. And that will keep you from going off track and spending

too much time on a pathway that you don't have to go towards.

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: So why is coming up with a research question so difficult? Because

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it's a research endeavor itself. It's not something before research. It is a part of the research. It's

embedded in the research. And it's done at a stage where you know less than you ever will. So feel

comfortable with how challenging it is.

DR. ZINA O'LEARY [continued]: And know that it's part of the process, and that as you read, as you

become familiar with all the literature in your area or a lot of the literature in your area, it'll come to

you. And you'll feel the sense of confidence. I'm OK. I get it. I know what I want to study.

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Why Is Coming Up With A Research Question So Difficult?