The literature review of a research work is usually made up of three parts: Theoretical framework, empirical review and conceptual framework. The conceptual framework has usually been in a form of a diagram which I sometimes find difficult to follow. Someone explain to me the key elements that go into the conceptual framework.
research; higher education, philosophy
Conceptual framework is 1 of the key gist of a researcher's work. The conceptual framework needs to be developed by the researcher himself or herself after identifying research problem, research objectives, research questions and performing rigorous literature review on various precedent theoretical frameworks.
Conceptual framework can be high level or low / detailed level (the detailed level sometimes also being called as research model). Conceptual framework can be illustrated in a diagrammatic / pictorial form that depicts the constructs & relationships you want to research. Examples of constructs can include Dependent Variable(s), Independent Variables, Latent Variables, measurement items, first order / second order of constructs etc. Examples of relationships include correlationships, influencing relationships (arrowed lines), mediation, moderation, reflective & formative arrowed lines etc. However, some researchers do not include conceptual framework / research model in their research work in which they straight away pen down the hypotheses that they want to test. If possible It is good to draw up a conceptual framework because a picture tells thousand words especially when you need to present to your readers / examiners / reviewers.
There are differences between conceptual framework & theoretical frameworks. In case you want to know the differences, you can refer to this RG post.
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Are_there_any_demarcation_among_Research_Framework_Conceptual_Framework_Theoretical_Framework_Structural_Model_or_Measurement_Model
Wishing you all the best.
Different kinds of thinking style have entered into research practice. One kind of thinking style is labelled empirical-analytic. In the empirical-analytic style, the language of variables is typically used to specify the research task. You must be familiar with the distinctions among concepts, constructs, and variables, terms used commonly in this kind of thinking style. Following this style, a researcher is expected to specify a broad/general idea about how the concepts they want to study are thought to be related.
If, for example, five different factors are thought to influence an employee's commitment to the employer, then showing this diagrammatically will be your conceptual framework. You may show how the five factors independently affect commitment, or you may show how three of those factors affect the fourth one, which directly determines the level of commitment when the fifth one is present -- naturally you would come up with your conceptual framework based on your knowledge gained from the literature or other sources.
Eventually, your conceptual framework will give you the hypotheses you want to test. Such hypothesis testing is a typical step in the empirical-analytic way to think about doing research. (In case you are curious about other thinking styles, you can look up interpretive-hermeneutic, critical-emancipatory, historical-humanist, technical-pragmatic, and numerous other thinking styles associated with research or various other research-like activities.)
your research is about a phenomenon in which you are interested to investigate. a phenomenon is represented by a collection of variables with its relationship. For example, you want to investigate poverty. poverty can be represented by variable like crime, noise, income, education level, etc. these variables should be measurable and at the end your research you discuss about the status of the phenomenon.
therefore a conceptual framework is the researchers belief or understand which will be proved through empirical data. The relationship between variables is stated as hypothesis. hypothesis is the researcher's claim which will be accepted or rejected based on the empirical data.
for one phenomenon, you have different conceptual framework which reflects the researcher's belief or view.
you construct conceptual framework from theory or literature review.
The following papers may further help:
- Green, H. (2014) The Use of Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks in Qualitative Research, Nurse Researcher, 21, 6, pp. 34-38.
- Jabareen, Y. (2009) Building a Conceptual Framework: Philosophy, Definitions, and Procedure, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 8, 4, pp. 49-62.
- Leshem, S. and Trafford, V. (2007) Overlooking the conceptual framework, Innovations in education and Teaching International, 44, 1, pp. 93-105.
Hai researchers,
If you are new in doing research please do download Mendley software in your PC. Then start downloading the articles which were relevant to you for your research topic. this software will help you to do proper in text citation and to write the references in a proper way. Regarding conceptual framework it will depend on what topic you are going to study. Literature reviews of different researcher will help you to get idea what you need to do. Which philosophy approach and strategy to adopt. So keep reading and do researching.@
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