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7/27/2019 Types of Research Questions
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Types of Research Questions
Prepared by:
Josephine Patiño- Latip
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Quantitative research questions are based on one of
three basic approaches to examining the variables the
researcher is interested in:
3 basic approaches
• describing
• Comparing
• relating
Example:
The researcher is interested in examining Facebookusage amongst students in IIUM.
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Facebook usage amongst students
in IIUM
• Describing factors relating to the make-up of these
Facebook users, quantifying how many (or what
proportion) of these university students were male or
female, or what their average age was.• Describing factors relating to their behaviour, such
as how frequently they used Facebook each week or
the reasons why they joined Facebook in the first
place (e.g. to connect with friends, to store all theirphotos in one place, etc.).
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Potential descriptive quantitative
research questions would be:
• How often do students use Facebook?
• What are the reasons that encourage students
to join Facebook?
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Compare some of the mentioned
factors
• For example, we could compare how frequently the
students used Facebook each week, looking for
differences between male and female students
Potential comparative quantitative research questions
would be:
1. Do Facebook usage patterns differ based ongender?
2. Do the reasons that encourage students to join
Facebook differ based on gender?
•
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Relating one or more factors (e.g. age) to other factors
(e.g. how frequently students used Facebook each
week) to find out if there were any associations or
relationships between themFor example, we could relate age to how frequently the
students used Facebook each week.
This could help us discover if there was an association or
relationship between these variables (i.e. age andweekly Facebook usage), and if so, tell us something
about this association or relationship (e.g. its strength,
direction, and/or statistical significance
A potential relationship-based quantitative research
question would be:
Does age influence how frequently students use
Facebook?
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Descriptive Questions
Question: How often do IIUM students use Facebook
each week?
Variable: Weekly Facebook usage
Group: IIUM students
Question:
How often do male and female IIUM
students upload photos and comment on
other users’ photos on Facebook each
week?
Variable:
1. Weekly photo uploads on Facebook
2. Weekly comments on other users’ photos
on Facebook
1. Male, IIUM students
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Question:
How often do male and female IIUM students upload
photos and comment on other users’ photos on Facebook
each week?
Variable: 1. Weekly photo uploads on Facebook2. Weekly comments on other users’ photos on Facebook
Group: 1. Male, IIUM students
2. Female, IIUM students
Question: What are the most important factors that influence thecareer choices of IIUM students?
Variable: Factors influencing career choices
Group: IIUM students
Question: What proportion of Malaysian male and female IIUMstudents use the top 5 social networks?
Variable: Use of top 5 social networks (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter,
LinkedIn, and Classmates)
Group: 1. Male, Malaysian IIUM students2. Female, Malaysian IIUM students
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Comparative research questions
• Comparative research questions aim to examine the
differences between two or more groups on one or
more dependent variables (although often just a single
dependent variable).• Such questions typically start by asking “What is the
difference in…” a particular dependent variable (e.g.
daily calorific intake) between two or more groups
(e.g. Malaysian men and Malaysian women).
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Examples of comparative research
questions
Question: What is the difference in the daily calorific intake of Malaysian m
and women?
Dependent variable: Daily calorific intake
Groups: 1. Malaysian men
2. Malaysian women
Question: What is the difference in the weekly photo uploads on Facebook
between Malaysian male and female IIUM students?
Dependent variable: Weekly photo uploads on Facebook
Groups: 1. Male, Malaysian IIUM students
2. Female, Malaysian IIUM students
Question: What are the differences in usage behaviour on Facebook betwee
Malaysian male and female IIUM students?
Dependent variable: Usage behaviour on Facebook (e.g. logins, weekly photo uploads,
status changes, commenting on other users’ photos, app usage, etc
Group: 1. Male, Malaysian IIUM university students2. Female, Malaysian IIUM university students
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Question: What are the differences in perceptionstowards Internet banking security
between adolescents and pensioners?
Dependent
variable:
Perceptions towards Internet banking
security
Groups: 1. Adolescents
2. Pensioners
Question: What are the differences in attitudestowards music piracy when pirated music
is freely distributed or purchased?
Dependent
variable: Attitudes towards music piracy
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Relationship-based research
questions
Start a relationship-based quantitative research
question, “What is the relationship…”, usually followed
by the words, “between or amongst ”, then list the
independent variables (e.g. gender) and dependentvariables (e.g. attitudes towards music piracy),
“amongst or between” the group(s) you are focusing
on
E l f l ti hi b d h
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Examples of relationship-based research
questions are:
Question: What is the relationship between gender and attitudes
towards music piracy amongst adolescents?Dependent variable: Attitudes towards music piracy
Independent variable: Gender
Group: Adolescents
Question: What is the relationship between study time and examscores amongst university students?
Dependent variable: Exam scores
Independent variable: Study time
Group: University students
Question:
What is the relationship amongst career prospects, salary
and benefits, and physical working conditions on job
satisfaction between managers and non-managers?
Dependent variable: Job satisfaction
Independent variable:
1. Career prospects
2. Salary and benefits
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Dependent and Independent
Variable
• A variable is not only something that you measure, butalso something that you can manipulate and control
for.
An independent variable (sometimes called an
experimental or predictor variable) is a variable that is
being manipulated in an experiment in order to
observe the effect this has on a dependent variable
(sometimes called an outcome variable).
The dependent variable is simply that; a variable that is
dependent on an independent variable(s).
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• For example: Imagine that a tutor asks 100 students to complete a
maths test. The tutor wants to know why some
students perform better than others. Whilst the tutor
does not know the answer to this, she thinks that it
might be because of two reasons:
• Some students spend more time revising for their test;and
• Some students are naturally more intelligent than
others.
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The tutor decides to investigate the effect of revision
time and intelligence on the test performance of the
100 students. As such, the dependent and
independent variables for the study are:
• Dependent Variable:
Test Mark (measured from 0 to 100)• Independent Variables:
Revision time (measured in hours)
Intelligence (measured using IQ score)
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The aim of the tutor's investigation is to examine
whether these independent variables (i.e. revision time
and IQ) result in a change in the dependent variable
(i.e. the students' test scores).However, it is also worth noting that whilst this is the
main aim of the experiment, the tutor may also be
interested to know if the independent variables (i.e.
revision time and IQ) are also connected in some way.
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Steps required in structuring
descriptive research questions
1. Choose your starting phrase
You can start descriptive research questions with
any of the following phrases:
How many… How often…
How frequently…
How much…
What percentage… What proportion…
To what extent…
What is…
What are…
ome o t ese starting p rases are g g te n
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ome o t ese starting p rases are g g te nblue text in the examples below:
• How many calories do Malaysian men and women
consume per day?
How often do Malaysian IIUM students use Facebook
each week?What are the most important factors that influence the
career choices of IIUM Malaysian students?
What proportion of IIUM male and female students
use the top 5 social networks?
What percentage of Malaysian men and women
exceed their daily calorific allowance?
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2. Identify and name the dependent variable
All descriptive research questions have a dependent
variable.
You need to identify what this is.
However, how the dependent variable is written out in aresearch question and what you call it are often two
different things.
In the examples below, the name of the dependentvariable is illustrated and highlighted how it would be
written out in the blue text.
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Name of the dependent
variable How the dependent variable is written out
Daily calorific intakeHow many calories do Malaysian men and women
consume per day?
Daily calorific intake What percentage of Malaysian men and womenexceed their daily calorific allowance?
Weekly Facebook usage How often do IIUM students use Facebook each week?
Factors influencing careerchoices
What are the most important factors that influence thecareer choices of IIUM Malaysian students?
Use of the top 5 social networks
What proportion of IIUM male and female university
students use the top 5 social networks?
Id tif th ( ) i t t d i
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3. Identify the group(s) you are interested in
All descriptive research questions have at least one group, but can have
multiple groups. You need to identify this group(s).
In the examples below, we have identified the group(s) in the green text
1.How many calories do Malaysian men and women consume perday?
2. How often do IIUM students use Facebook each week?
3.What are the most important factors that influence the career
choices of IIUM students?
4. What proportion of IIUM male and female students use the top
5 social networks?
5. What percentage of Malaysian men and women exceed their
daily calorific allowance?
4 Decide whether the dependent variable or group(s) should be included
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4. Decide whether the dependent variable or group(s) should be included
first, last or in two parts
Sometimes it makes more sense for the dependent
variable to appear before the group(s) you areinterested in, but sometimes it is the opposite way
around.
The following examples illustrate this, with the group(s)
in green text and the dependent variable in blue text:
Group 1st; dependent variable 2nd:
How often do IIUM students use Facebook each
week?Dependent variable 1st; group 2nd:
What are the most important factors that influence the
career choices of Malaysian IIUM students?
5 I l d d th t id t
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5. Include any words that provide greater
context to your question
• Sometimes the name of the dependent variable
provides all the explanation we need to know what we
are trying to measure.
Take the following examples:
How many calories do Malaysian men and women
consume per day?
How often do IIUM students use Facebook each
week?
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In the first example, the dependent variable is daily
calorific intake (i.e. calories consumed per day).
Clearly, this descriptive research question is asking us
to measure the number of calories American men andwomen consume per day.
In the second example, the dependent variable is
Facebook usage per week .
Again, the name of this dependent variable makes it
easy for us to understand that we are trying to
measure the often (i.e. how frequently; e.g. 16 times
per week) British university students use Facebook.
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• However, sometimes a descriptive research question
is not simply interested in measuring the dependent
variable in its entirety, but a particular component of
the dependent variable. Take the following examplesin red text:
• What percentage of American men and women
exceed their daily calorific allowance?
What are the most important factors that influence the
career choices of Australian university students?
Write out the descriptive research
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Write out the descriptive research
question
Once you have these details –
(1) the starting phrase,
(2) the name of the dependent variable,
(3) the name of the group(s) you are interested in,
and
(4) any potential joining words – you can write out
the descriptive research question in full. :
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Steps in Writing Comparative Research
Questions
Number of dependent
variablesStarting phrase
Two What is the difference in…
Three or more What are the differences in
1. Starting phrases
Comparative research questions typically start with one of two phrases:
Some of these starting phrases are highlighted in blue text in the
examples below:What is the difference in the daily calorific intake of Malaysian men and
women?
What is the difference in the weekly photo uploads on Facebook
between IIUM male and female university students?
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2. Identify and name the dependent variable
All comparative research questions have a dependentvariable. You need to identify what this is.
However, how the dependent variable is written out in a
research question and what you call it are often two
different thing
In the examples below, we have illustrated the name of
the dependent variable and highlighted how it would
be written out in the blue text.
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ame of the dependent variable How the dependent variable is writtenout
Daily calorific intake
What is the difference in the daily
calorific intake of Malaysian men and
women?
Perceptions towards Internet
anking security
What are the differences in perceptions
towards Internet banking security
between adolescents and pensioners?
ttitudes towards music piracy
What are the differences in attitudes
towards music piracy when pirated
music is freely distributed or
purchased?
What is the difference in the weekly
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Structure of relationship-based
research questions
Name of the independent
variableStarting phrase
Two What is the relationship between…
Three or more What are the relationships of…
Steps required to construct a relationship-based researchquestion
What is the relationship between gender and attitudes towards music
piracy amongst adolescents?What is the relationship between study time and exam scores amongst
university students?
What is the relationship of career prospects, salary and benefits, and
physical working conditions on job satisfaction between managers and
non-managers
Identify and name the independent and
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Identify and name the independent anddependent variable
• What is the relationship between gender and
attitudes towards music piracy amongst
adolescents?
What is the relationship between study time and
exam scores amongst university students?
What is the relationship of career prospects,salary and benefits, and physical working on job
satisfaction between managers and non-
managers
IV
DV
Identify the appropriate adjoining
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Identify the appropriate adjoining
text
Number of groups Adjoining text
Oneamongst…
[e.g. group 1]
Two or more
between…
of…
[e.g. group 1 and group 2]
What is the relationship between gender and attitudes towards music
piracy amongst adolescents?
What is the relationship between study time and exam scores amongst university students?
What is the relationship of career prospects, salary and benefits, and
physical working conditions on job satisfaction between managers andnon-mana ers
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Write out the relationship-based
research question
Once you have these details
(1) the starting phrase,
(2) the name of the dependent variable,
(3) the name of the independent variable,
(4) the name of the group(s) you are interested in,
and
(5) any potential adjoining words – you can writeout the relationship-based research question