CHAPTER ONE:

IDENTIFYING AND
STATING THE
PROBLEM
 COVERAGE
• Research topic • Purposes of Hypotheses
• Characteristics of a good research title Categories of Hypotheses
• Research Problem • Guidelines in Formulating Hypotheses
• Objectives or the purpose of the study • Background of the Research
• Research questions • Scope and delimitation
• Types of Quantitative Research of the study
Questions • Significance
• Guidelines in Formulating a of the study
Quantitative Research Problem and • Definition of Terms
Research Questions
• Hypotheses
 RESEARCH TOPIC
An intellectual stimulus calling for an
answer in the form of scientific inquiry. It
may come from personal interest,
training, expertise your strand (HE,
HUMSS, STEM, and ABM).
 RESEARCH PROBLEM
Typically a topic, phenomenon, or a
challenge that is the focus for engaging in
research. It is the basic issue or are of concern,
the situation, which exists, and then how it
ought to be. It should be defined precisely and
the summary questions which will be
answered by the proposed research.
 SOURCES OF RESEARCH
PROBLEMS / TOPICS
• Contemporary issues • replication of previous
• theory deductions studies
• funding agencies • clarification of contradictory
• past researches and literature research results
review • archive data
• casual observation • interdisciplinary perspectives
• related and relevant literature
• personal interest and
experience
 CHARACTERISTICS OF
A GOOD RESEARCH TITLE
1. A title should give readers information about
the contents of the research and a preferable to
the one that is vague or general.

2.Choose a title that is a phrase rather than a

complete sentence.

3. Select a straightforward title

over the kinds.
4. Use no punctuation at the end of a title

5. Do not underline the title of research or enclose

it in a quotation mark, instead, use a word
processing program or a printer that permits
italic. Use them in place of underlining
 EXAMPLE OF RESEARCH TITLES
Compassion fatigue and psychological stress
among social workers in Ormoc City

Assessment of school-based disaster

preparedness of educators in Lipa City

Preparedness of barangay health workers

during typhoon in Mabini, Batangas
 STATEMENT OF THE
PROBLEM
Tells what is done to make the situation that exists more
like what it should be. The researchers should give the
background, which led to this circumstance that exists. It
has two main components:
• The objective
• Research questions
 OBJECTIVES OR THE
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The first part of the problem where the
researcher states the objective. This is the
statement of long-term objective expected to
be achieved by the study. It is prefixed by
introductory phrases such as “The study aims
to…”
 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
ANSWERS THE FOLLOWING
QUESTIONS:
• What are the reasons for this circumstances?
• Is it possible or answerable to be solved or changed?
• What are the specific problems that the study aims to answer?
• Statement of the Problem
• reflected to the research title
• The problem must not be answerable by yes or no
• must be arranged in the flow of the study
• Introduces the reader to the importance of the topic being studied
• Places the topic into a particular context that defines the parameters of what is to be
investigated
• Provides the framework for reporting the results
• Indicates what is probably necessary to conduct the study
• Explain how the findings will present the information.
 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Specific questions which are to be answered

by the stud. The answers to the questions
should lead to the solution of the research
problem .
 TYPES OF QUANTITATIVE
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. Descriptive research questions – ask questions on the
kind, qualifications, and categories of the subjects or
participants
2. Relation questions – are questions about the nature and
manner of connection between or among variables
3. Causal questions – reasons behind the effects of the
independent variable on the dependent
variable is the focus of these types of
research questions
 GUIDELINES IN FORMULATING A QUANTITATIVE
RESEARCH PROBLEM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. Formulate a research problem that is researchable;

meaning, open to empirical investigation.

2. See to it that you state your quantitative research

problem clearly, concisely, and possibly, if under APA
referencing style, not beyond 12 words.
3. Have your research problem focus on a
general understanding of your research topic.

4. Construct a research problem that mirrors

the importance of carrying out the research
for finding answers or solutions to a problem.
 GUIDELINES IN FORMULATING A QUANTITATIVE
RESEARCH PROBLEM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS

5. Let your quantitative research problem state

the variables and their relationships with one
another.

6. Construct an introductory statement to present

your research problem, which is the main
problem of your research.
7. State your research questions or sub-problems,
not in the form of yes-or-no questions, but in
informative questions.

8. Express your research problem and research

questions either in an interrogative or declarative
manner, but some research books say that the
former is more effective than the latter form.
(Babbie 2013; Punch 2014; Walliman 2014)
 HYPOTHESIS
• A hypothesis is a tentative explanation or an answer
to a question about variables, their relationships, and
other facts involved in the research.

• A research always ends up with a result. However, you

are free to hypothesize; meaning, to infer, propose, or
guess about factual things related to the research.
 It is an inferential thinking that makes you
guess something based not only on whatever
experience or factual knowledge you have about
such thing but also on conclusions that were
logically drawn by other research studies. A
hypothesis has to be tested through analytical
investigation to prove how true or false it is.
(Creswell 2014; Russell, 2013)
 PURPOSES OF HYPOTHESES
1. They guide you on which aspect of the
research to focus on.

2. They provide opportunities to prove the

relationship between variables.

3. They give the right direction of the

research.
4. They outline your thoughts on your manner
of summarizing the results and of explaining
the conclusions.

5. They push for an empirical study to prove the

existence of relationship of variables and the
effects of independent variable on the
dependent variable.
 CATEGORIES OF
HYPOTHESES
A null hypothesis symbolized by Ho, which states
the absence of relationship between the
independent and dependent variables. It is
therefore a statement to disprove the fact that the
independent variable (treatment, intervention, or
condition) has an effect on the dependent variable.
 CATEGORIES OF
HYPOTHESES
The opposite of null hypothesis is the
alternative hypothesis. Symbolized by Hi, the
alternative hypothesis states the relationship
between the independent and the dependent
variables and the fact that the first affects the
second one. (Morgan 2014; Thomas 2013)
If a first-year student starts attending more lectures, then their exam scores will improve.

In academic research, hypotheses are more commonly phrased in terms of correlations or

effects, where you directly state the predicted relationship between variables.

The number of lectures attended by first-year students has a positive effect on their exam
scores.

If you are comparing two groups, the hypothesis can state what difference you expect to
find between them.

First-year students who attended most lectures will have better exam scores than those
who attended few lectures.
H0: The number of lectures attended by
first-year students has no effect on their
final exam scores.
H1: The number of lectures attended by
first-year students has a positive effect on
their final exam scores.
 TYPES OF
HYPOTHESES
1. Theory-driven vs. Data-driven hypotheses
A hypothesis that is based on existing theory to
explain the relationship of variables and the effects
of one variable on the other variables is theory-
driven. But if it is based on the findings of previous
research studies, it is a data-driven hypothesis.
2. Directional (one-tailed) vs. Non-directional
(two-tailed) hypotheses
Directional hypotheses state the relationship of
two variables as well as of the relationship of
these variables. Non-directional hypotheses, on
the other hand, state the relationship of
variables but not on the direction of the
relationship.
For instance, let’s imagine that you are investigating the effects of a new employee
training program and that you believe one of the outcomes will be that there will
be less employee absenteeism. Your two hypotheses might be stated something like
this:

The null hypothesis for this study is:

HO: As a result of the XYZ company employee training program, there will either be
no significant difference in employee absenteeism or there will be a
significant increase.

which is tested against the alternative hypothesis:

HA: As a result of the XYZ company employee training program, there will be a
significant decrease in employee absenteeism.
For instance, let’s assume you are studying a new drug treatment for depression.
The drug has gone through some initial animal trials, but has not yet been tested
on humans. You believe (based on theory and the previous research) that the
drug will have an effect, but you are not confident enough to hypothesize a
direction and say the drug will reduce depression (after all, you’ve seen more
than enough promising drug treatments come along that eventually were shown
to have severe side effects that actually worsened symptoms). In this case, you
might state the two hypotheses like this:
The null hypothesis for this study is:

HO: As a result of 300mg./day of the ABC drug, there will be no

significant difference in depression.

which is tested against the alternative hypothesis:

HA: As a result of 300mg./day of the ABC drug, there will be a
significant difference in depression.
3. Descriptive vs. Causal hypotheses
A statement specifying the relationship between
two variables due to the influence of something is a
descriptive hypothesis; due to cause-effect
relationship, it is a causal hypothesis. True
experimental or quasi-experimental research such
as a correlation study uses causal hypotheses; non-
experimental research uses descriptive hypotheses.
 GUIDELINES IN FORMULATING
HYPOTHESES (MC BRIDE 2013; LAPAN 2012):
1. Express your hypotheses in a declarative
sentence.
2. Support your hypotheses with ideas based on
theories, known facts, previous studies, or your
own experience and wisdom.
3. Establish a logical relationship between the
hypotheses and the research problem.
 GUIDELINES IN FORMULATING
HYPOTHESES (MC BRIDE 2013; LAPAN 2012):
4. Have your hypotheses predict the nature of
relationship between or among variables.

5. Ascertain the possibility of having some

means of testing, analyzing, and investigating
your hypotheses.
 BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH
It identifies and describes the history and nature of a well-
defined research problem with reference to the existing
literature.

It indicates the root of the problem being studied,

appropriate context of the problem in relation to theory,
research, and/or practice, its scope, and the extent to
which previous studies have successfully investigated the
problem, noting, in particular, where gaps exist that your
study attempts to address.
 SCOPE AND DELIMITATION
OF THE STUDY
The scope describes the coverage of the study.
It specifies what is covered in terms of concept,
number of objects or the population included in the
study, as well as timeline when the study was
conducted. Delimitation is citing factors or variables
that are not to be included and the boundary in
terms of the frame, number of subjects, participants
or respondents who are excluded.
This section answers the basic questions:
1. What-the topic of investigation and variables included
2. Where- the venue or the setting of the research
3. When-the time frame by which the study was
conducted
4. Why-the general objective of the research
5. Who-the subject of the study, the population and
sampling
6. How-the methodology of the research
 EXAMPLE
In this regard, this study will seek to investigate how
prepared Filipino healthcare professionals are when it comes
to the provision of life-saving measures. The respondents
were comprised of resident doctors, head nurse/supervisors
and staff nurse working in the hospital located in Batangas
Province from January to June 2017. This study included
100% of the total population of the healthcare professionals.
Each of the respondents was given a questionnaire to
answer.
 SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE STUDY
The researcher defines who will benefit out of
the findings of the study. They describes how
the problem will be solved and specifically
pinpoints who will benefit from such
findings or results. One may also State the
specific sectors who will benefit from the
study.
 TIPS IN WRITING THE
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
1. Refer to the statement of the problem-it can guide you
in defining the specific contribution of your study.

2. Write from specific to general-includes information

which would focus attention on the importance and
validity of the problem. It is the general orientation to the
problem area.
 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Terms used either operationally or technically in a
research study

Operational- definition based on how a word/s are

used in the research study

Technical- definition based on how a word/s are

used in a particular field or specialization
 REFERENCE:

https://www.slideshare.net/CarlaKristinaCruz/
chapter-2-identifying-and-stating-the-problem