Hi,
I was wondering whether kindly souls out there might be able to help me with some advice regarding the formulation of a RQ for my qualitative study please?
I'm trying to refine an early stage question which followed this kind of structure;
How do [population] perceive of [concept]?
...which I was thinking might be a little too broad, so I begun to develop it but started using the term 'How do' which I know instantly biases the question, doesn't it?
Therefore I was toying with these two structures, but wondered whether either were viable – whether the use of terms like "how might" and "what role might" put any problematic slant on things:
How might [concept] influence [population's] choice of [thing]?
...or:
What role might [concept] perform in [population's] choice of [thing]?
Any help is very much appreciated!
Thanks,
Dave
Hi,
Firstly, you can find hints and principles from general research handbooks. However, each discipline, school and methodological approach may have its own favorites for the formulation.
Google Scholar can also offer you something relevant, if you try the phrase "research question" (in double quotes) with additional terms (like qualitative) which help you to focus the results.
Because you already have several formulations, it may be helpful to find means to analyze and compare them systematically, for example in terms of how they guide you further in the process.
Good luck,
Thanks for the feedback both.
Just realised I have a problem with one of these in that I'm using the term 'influence' for a qualitative question too!
I believe you are "over thinking" this. From a research question point of view, your original formulation is very typical of the way that people state their goals. Understanding how people perceive things is one of the most common purposes for qualitative research.
From a research interview perspective, you need to ask your questions in ordinary language that people will easily understand. If you find that someone is taking a question in a different direction than you intended, then use "probes" to get them back on track.
Overall, you might look at a book on qualitative interviewing, such as Rubin & Rubin, Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data, to see how they link broader research questions to specific interview questions.
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