Bias Developing a Question - Research Paper Example

Research Methods for Health Science: The Importance of Research Question, Literature Review, and Research Hypothesis in scientific research In virtually every subject area, we are knowledge inadequate, and there are problems that wait for solutions. We can address the holes in acquaintance and those uncertain problems by asking significant questions and then seeking answers through systematic research. Research is a systematic procedure of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data in order to upsurge understanding of a phenomenon that concern us. A substantial research should have a question to be addressed. There are different types of research questions that scientific researchers use in researching questionnaire: Descriptive, relational and comparison questions (Newton, Bower, and Williams, 2004). Descriptive research questions intend to help a researcher get details about his/her topic of concern. For example, if a researcher is working a research on factors that influence dentist’s choice of restorative materials, the researcher may pose questions to help understand why a dentist would make such a choice of restorative material instead of any other material. An excellent example of a question in this case would be, what do doctors love about this restorative material? Explain. This ensures that the researcher get the answer to why the dentist would prefer some restorative material and not others and a detailed report of how the choice benefits the patient (Newton, Bower, and Williams, 2004). Questions of relationship define relationships of two variables. These questions engage the cause and effect concept. Questions of relationship tend to treasure whether an alteration in one aspect affects the other aspect (Nelson, Peggy; Goffman, and Lisa, 2006). For example, doing a research on exploration of the relationship between dental anxiety and dental attendance A noble research question in this case would be, has the increase in dental anxiety affected dental attendance pattern and how? This will clarify if the rise in dental anxiety affects the dental anxiety patterns of patients and how. Questions of comparison relate different opinions of individuals of different demographics. An excellent illustration would be when a researcher needs to discover the cause and the effects of a drug on a group of people. In this case, an ethical question will be, if administering this drug to group of individuals for a treatment will that progress their outcome in association to a group of folks who will not receive the treatment? In order to establish cause and the effect it is essential to warrant that the only possible cause is the variable of concern (Thabane, Thomas, Ye, and Paul, 2008). After a researcher identifying his/her research notion and recognizing a general problem that sounds exciting to him/her, the next step is to acquainted with the published information on the topic of concern (Thabane, Thomas, Ye, and Paul, 2008). Conducting a literature review will be of help the researcher to know if the topic has previously been researched, help to find out if revision of the research idea might be needed, and display methodological methods and problems detailed to the research problem that will help in planning a study. Most outstandingly, after conducting a comprehensive literature review, hypotheses and detailed research questions will become clearer to the researcher A literature review takes a different form in quantitative and qualitative research. In qualitative research (some time referred to as exploratory research), slight prior literature may be accessible. Also, too much review makes a researcher "myopic." Literature is particularly prominent during the later stages of exploratory research. In addition to qualitative research, researcher should conduct a literature review to see what has already been done and provide alerting concepts. On the other hand, quantitative research, the research directly "constructs" on previous research. Thus, evaluation of prior research must be done before conducting the research. In quantitative research, the literature review helps the researcher to perceive if research problem has previously been done, show the researcher the instrument used in data collection, show designs used, and show methodological and theoretical issues that have arisen. Books, journals computer data are potent sources when conducting a literature review (Thabane, Thomas, Ye, and Paul, 2008). Theory and Hypothesis are decisive factors a researcher needs to pay attention when determining the quality of previous research. Theory is a well-established principle that explains some aspect of the ordinary word. A theory comes up from repeated observation, testing and integrates laws, predictions facts, and tested hypotheses that are extensively acknowledgeable. On the other hand, a hypothesis is a specific and testable expectation about what a researcher expect to happen in the research (Nelson, Peggy; Goffman, and Lisa 2006). For example, a research on the relationship between the eating habits and anxiety in patient with mental disorders might have a hypothesis that states; this study is designed to assess the hypothesis that patient with better eating habits will suffer less anxiety. Unless the research is exploratory in nature, the hypothesis should always clarify what a researcher expect to happen in the progress of the research. A research question should follow consultation with the scholarly literature. The most significant aspect to have in mind as a researcher is that he/she is writing a research paper and not an essay! This means that the researcher is arguing a thesis with reference to secondary literature. It is essential that researcher conduct relevant research and that he/she integrate in his/her findings into your paper (Newton, Bower, and Williams, 2004). In conclusion, formulation of the research questions highly determines the outcome of the research. Researcher designs questions in a way that his/her respondents will give answers that allow his/her generate answers to the goals of the research. Reference Nelson, Peggy; Goffman, and Lisa. (2006). Bias Developing a Research Question. ProQuest Central. Vol 11, 6; P 15. Newton J. T., Bower E. J., and Williams A. C. (10 May 22 2004). Research in primary dental Care Part 2: Developing a research question. British Dental Journal. Vol196: P 605–608. Thabane L., Thomas T, Ye C., and Paul J. (2008). Posing the research question: not so simple. Canadian Anesthesiologists. Vol 56: P71–79. Read More