Research Problem:
How do the narratives of patients with bipolar disorder concerning manic episodes reflect their self-concept?
Research Objectives:
I find the two more specific research objectives to be clearer than the statement of the larger research problem.
Part of the issue is whether you are looking at the broad relationship between manic episodes incidents and self-concept, or whether you are looking at a one-directional path of influence -- either from manic episodes to self-concept, or from self-concept to narratives of manic incidents. I personally would argue for the broader, reciprocal relationship, because I think it would be hard to separate out the different pathways.
As far as a qualitative research problem is concerned, I would suggest a review of its rationale/characteristics with the aid/guidance of the following publications, namely:
“characteristics of a qualitative research problem are: (a) the concept is “immature”, due to a conspicuous lack of theory and previous research; (b) a notion that the available theory may be inaccurate, inappropriate, incorrect, or biased; (c) a need exists to explore and describe the phenomena and to develop theory; or (d) the nature of the phenomena may not be suited to quantitative measures.” (Morse, 1991, p. 120).
…..the qualitative researcher introduces the “problem” leading to the study……rather than calling it the “problem”, it might be clearer if I call it “the need for the study”…..in other words: “Why is this study needed?”….. (see: Creswell, 2007, p. 102).
In a qualitative study, the research problem focuses on understanding the inner world of a particular group or exploring some process, event, or phenomenon…..(See: stating a qualitative research problem, with an illustration, Johnson and Christensen, 2014, p. 96).
- Creswell, J. W. (2007) Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. 2nd edn. California: Sage Publications, Inc.
- Johnson, R. B. and Christensen, L. (2014) Education Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches. 5th edn. California: SAGE Publications, Inc.
- Morse, J. M. (1991) Approaches to qualitative-quantitative methodological triangulation, Nursing research, 40, 2, pp. 120-123.
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