Research questions, in some cases, are direct rewordings of statements of purpose, phrased interrogatively rather than declaratively, as in the following example:
* The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship between the dependency level of renal transplant recipients and their rate of recovery.
* What is the relationship between the dependency level of renal transplant recip- ients and their rate of recovery?
Questions that are simple and direct invite an answer and help to focus atten- tion on the kinds of data needed to provide that answer. Some research reports thus omit a statement of purpose and state only research questions. Other researchers use a set of research questions to clarify or lend greater specificity to a global pur- pose statement.
Research Questions in Quantitative Studies
In Chapter 2, we discussed the framing of clinical “foreground” questions to guide an EBP inquiry. Many of the EBP question templates in Table 2.1 could yield ques- tions to guide a research project as well, but researcherstend to conceptualize their questions in terms of their variables. Take, for example, the first question in Table 2.1, which states, “In (population), what is the effect of (intervention) on (out- come)?” A researcher would be more likely to think of the question in these terms:
“In (population), what is the effect of (independent variable) on (dependent vari- able)?” The advantage of thinking in terms of variables is that researchers must consciously make decisions about how to operationalize their variables and design an analysis strategy with their variables. Thus, we can say that, in quantitative stud- ies, research questions identify the key study variables, the relationships among them, and the population under study. The variables are all measurable concepts, and the questions suggest quantification.
Most research questions concern relationships among variables, and thus many quantitative research questions could be articulated using a general question tem- plate: “In (population), what is the relationship between (independent variable [IV]) and (dependent variable [DV])?” Examples of minor variations include the following:
* Treatment, intervention: In (population), what is the effect of (IV: intervention) on (DV)?
* Prognosis:In (population), does (IV: disease, condition) affect or influence (DV)?
* Etiology/harm: In (population), does (IV: exposure, characteristic) cause or increase risk of (DV)?
Thus, questions are sometimes phrased in terms of the effects of an independent variable on the dependent variable—but this still involves a relationship between the two.
Distinctions exist between the clinical foreground questions for an EBP- focused evidence search as described in Chapter 2 and a research question for an original study. As shown in Table 2.1, sometimes clinicians ask questions about explicit comparisons (e.g., they want to compare intervention A with intervention B) and sometimes they do not (e.g., they want to learn the effects of intervention A, compared with any other intervention that has been studied or with the absence of an intervention). In a research question, there is alwaysa designated comparison,
because the independent variable must be operationally defined; this definition would articulate exactly what is being studied. As we discuss in subsequent chap- ters, the nature of the comparison has implications for the strength of the study and the interpretability of the findings.
Another distinction between EBP and research questions is that research ques- tions sometimes are more complex than clinical foreground questions. As an exam- ple, suppose that we began with an interest in nurses’ use of humor with cancer patients, and the positive effects that humor has on these patients. One research question might be, “What is the effect of nurses’ use of humor (the IV, versus absence of humor) on stress (the DV) in hospitalized cancer patients (the popula- tion)?” But we might also be interested in understanding a causal pathway, in which case we might ask a question that involves a mediating variable, as discussed in Chapter 4. For example, we might ask the following: “Does nurses’ use of humor have a direct effect on the stress of hospitalized patients with cancer, or is the effect mediated by humor’s effect on natural killer cell activity?” In questions involving mediators, researchers may be as interested in the mediator as they are in the inde- pendent variable, because mediators are key explanatory mechanisms.
Not all research questions are about relationships—some are primarily descrip- tive. As examples, here are some descriptive questions that could be answered in a quantitative study on nurses’ use of humor:
* What is the frequency with which nurses use humor as a complementary ther- apy with hospitalized cancer patients?
* What are the characteristics of nurses who use humor as a complementary ther- apy with hospitalized cancer patients?
* Is my Use of Humor Scale an accurate and valid measure of nurses’ use of humor with patients in clinical settings?
Answers to such questions might, if addressed in a methodologically sound study, be useful in developing effective strategies for reducing stress in patients with cancer.
Example of research questions from a quantitative study:
Taylor (2007) studied nurse requisites for spiritual care (i.e., what a client requires of a nurse before being receptive to spiritual care). Her questions included: “What characteristics does a client look for in a nurse before welcoming spiritual care?” and “What demographic or illness-related characteristics of the clients are related to nurse requisites for spiritual care?”
In this example, the first question is descriptive, and the second asks about the relationship between independent variables (client characteristics) and a depend- ent variable (nurse requisites for spiritual care).
Research Questions in Qualitative Studies
Research questions in qualitative statements include the phenomenon of interest and the group or population of interest. Researchers in the various qualitative traditions vary in their conceptualization of what types of questions are important. Grounded theory
researchers are likely to askprocessquestions, phenomenologists tend to askmeaning questions, and ethnographers generally askdescriptivequestions about cultures. The terms associated with the various traditions, discussed previously in connection with purpose statements, are likely to be incorporated into the research questions.
Example of a research question from a phenomenological study:
What is the structure of the lived experience of feeling unsure? (Bunkers, 2007)
Not all qualitative studies are rooted in a specific research tradition. Many researchers use naturalistic methods to describe or explore phenomena without focusing on cultures, meaning, or social processes.
Example of a research question from a descriptive qualitative study:
Oliffe and Thorne (2007) explored patient–physician communication within the context of discussions about prostrate cancer. One of their research questions was “How do prostate cancer patients preserve a masculine self when communicating with male physicians about their prostrate cancer?”
In qualitative studies, research questions sometimes evolve over the course of the study. Researchers begin with a focusthat defines the general boundaries of the inquiry, but the boundaries are not cast in stone—they “can be altered and, in the typical naturalistic inquiry, will be” (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, p. 228). Naturalists are often sufficiently flexible that the question can be modified as new information makes it relevant to do so.
TIP
Researchers most often state their purpose or research questions at the end of the introduction or immediately after the review of the literature. Sometimes, a separate section of a research report—
typically located just before the method section—is devoted to stating the research problem formally and might be labeled “Purpose,” “Statement of Purpose,” “Research Questions,” or, in quantitatve studies, “Hypotheses.”