Blog: Developing Research Questions or Hypotheses
For this Blog, you will focus on developing proposed research questions or hypotheses to use in your study of your phenomenon of interest. You will also articulate what you want to know about the research process, for information and guidance from your colleagues and Instructor. Remember that a Blog is meant to be more informal, with references and citations not required.

Photo Credit: steheap / Adobe Stock

Note: Your response to a colleague is due by Day 5 this week in order to provide time to reflect on and apply comments from colleagues to the research questions/hypotheses you will add to your Major Assignment Part 2, which is due by Day 7 of this week.

To Prepare:
Review the Week 6 Learning Resources. Pay particular attention to the guidance from Dr. Donna Hathaway in the video Research Questions and Hypotheses.
Review the framework or theory that you identified in the Week 5 Discussion. Using this framework or theory, think of potential research questions or hypotheses that you may use to study your phenomenon.
In addition, try other strategies that may help you develop useful research questions or hypotheses. For example:
reexamine the literature related to your phenomenon of interest;
review the questions and comments you noted as you analyzed concepts and conceptual relationships in previous weeks of this course; or
reflect on your firsthand observations of this phenomenon.
Focus on your questions about research and methods, which may include some or all of the following, or others:
how to formulate research;
how to conduct research;
what research terms you want to understand more fully; and/or
how to connect your research topic to a theory.
With these thoughts in mind …
By Day 3 of Week 6
Post a blog in which you present your initial research questions or hypotheses for your study of your phenomenon of interest. Explain the strategies you used to develop the questions/hypotheses, including the theoretical framework for your study (which may be the same framework you explained in the Week 5 Discussion or a different framework if you have thought further). Then, explain your questions for colleagues about research and methods, and provide detail on what you need to know, and why.

MUST USE 3 OF THE LEARNING RESOURCES

Gray, J. R., & Grove, S. K. (2021). Burns & Grove’s the practice of nursing research: Appraisal, synthesis, and generation of evidence (9th ed.). Elsevier.

Chapter 6, “Objectives, Questions, Hypotheses, and Study Variables” (pp. 129–151)
Walker, L. O., & Avant, K. C. (2019). Strategies for theory construction in nursing (6th ed.). Pearson.

Chapter 12, “Theory Analysis” (pp. 208–228)
(Review from Week 5)

McEwen, M., & Wills, E. M. (2019). Theoretical basis for nursing (5th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.

Chapter 5, “Theory Analysis and Evaluation” (pp. 94–113)
(Review from Week 5)

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTS BELOW

Progression and the Implications of the Theoretical Foundation
for Research
Program Transcript
DONNA HATHAWAY: As we’ve been talking about the research process and
how it’s so intricately connected to theory and conceptual framework, it almost
sounds like it’s this nice path. It’s all describe, explain, predict, and control. And
we head down this path. And we’re going on a journey. And were in quest of the
truth and finding answers to problems.
The world is very complex. And we keep hearing over and over about particularly
how complex health care is these days. So it is no wonder, then, that this journey
that we undertake is not a direct line from A to B. And we find ourselves
oftentimes branching out in different ways and having to come back and really
rethink where we’re at, what we’re doing, and if this is really the phenomena
we’re interested in. And, oh, is there something else that may be influencing this
that we haven’t thought about.
I’ve seen it in my work. And I also see it as I work with students every day. We
see the big picture. We see things holistically. And we want to cure and resolve
all the health care problems of the people that we’re dealing with. It’s not that
simple.
So the first thing that happens is as we start rethinking and reframing things is
we’ve got to bring it down to a much more narrower view of the world. We’ve got
to know that we’ve got to understand a small piece before we can understand the
whole aspect of it. And then as we understand pieces, we can then start
understanding the whole picture better.
The other thing that happens is we sometimes even sort of– our journey takes
some interesting twists and turns. I started out being very interested in what
happened to these organ transplant recipients after they had a procedure that
dramatically changed their life. In fact, it changes their life so much that many of
these people celebrate two birthdays. So it is a new life for them. And it’s an
opportunity to really improve their health and well-being in new ways.
So that was my focus, looking at quality of lives, seeing what would happen with
that and so on and so forth. And as we did that, though, I started discovering
other things. Suddenly I found myself doing autonomic function testing and
looking at post-transplant diabetes and predictors of who was going to become
diabetic.
That’s the excitement of research. You don’t know where exactly your journey is
going to take you as you sort of head in that direction.
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Progression and the Implications of the Theoretical Foundation for Research
One of the things that we find becomes really important is the consistency that
continues as we go through this journey in terms of the concepts we use, the
words we use, and so on. As I read people’s writings, as they write papers and
so on, that’s one of the things that often occurs. I think it goes back to the notion
that we try to make our writing interesting.
Well, I’ve used this word so many times. I’m going to go to the thesaurus. And I’m
going to find a synonym and change it up, so it won’t sound so boring.
Writing your research is not the time to do that. OK. If you are studying
depression, you use the word depression. It’s in your framework. You’ve defined
it. You’ve operationalized it. And you use that word over in the same way every
time.
If you decide, oh, I’ve used that word over and over. It’s everywhere. So you say
sadness somewhere along the line. OK. If I’m reading that paper, I’m going to
read along. Everything’s fine. It’s flowing. It’s logical.
And then you start talking about sadness. I’m going, is sadness the same thing
as depression? I wonder if this is something different.
Is it an aspect of depression? Is this a specific type of depression? Is it the same
thing? Is it not? So consistency of terms is really important.
One of the exciting things about research is that it really can have implications
and make a difference in practice and in future research and in people’s lives. I
know individuals, even student projects, that have had impact within their
organizations, in their hospital systems, or in their community health clinics, or
even in schools of nursing. Where they did their student research and they found
some differences that occurred with, perhaps, something they were testing.
Or they discovered a problem that existed. And those problems that they
discovered and reported in their research led to changes in policies and
procedures within those institutions. Maybe, in some cases, it led to incorporation
of some new strategies or new designs in approaches to things. But led to
changes within their organization.
And I think sometimes we also forget to think about the changes that our
research can make in even individual patients’ lives or individual people’s lives.
One of my favorite things to think about that happened with one of our quality of
life studies and the intervention that we had. We had one patient that was having
a very difficult time. And she participated in our study.
And after the study was over, she came by. And she said, you know, your studies
saved my life twice. And I looked at her. And I said, well, now I know you had a
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Progression and the Implications of the Theoretical Foundation for Research
liver transplant. And that, indeed, did save your life. But I don’t know what you
mean saved your life twice.
She says, yes, that transplant saved my life. But after my transplant, I was lost. I
didn’t know what to do.
I was very depressed. My life was just not worth living. And I was contemplating
and planning suicide. But your study gave me a new life again.
So you never know, you never know the difference we can make in individual
people’s lives. So research can make a difference at all different levels.
At the completion of our studies, we really need to make recommendations for
research, recommendations for practice, and recommendations for theory. We’re
always ready to make recommendations for more research. There’s sometimes a
reluctance to make recommendations for practice. If we do, we’ve got to do so
carefully, I think, of course. Because one study does not make or confirm a
theory, necessarily, where we are able to really move forward.
And, of course, theory. We’ve done our research. We’ve tested different aspects
of our theory. Or we have further explicated different aspects of our theory. So
we need to go back and make some recommendations for how our theory maybe
that we used or our conceptual framework needs to be expanded, adapted,
modified in different ways, or reframed.
Of course, after you complete your research, everybody wants to talk about it. As
you do that, again, the things we’ve been talking about all along. You’ve got to be
very clear. You’ve got to be very precise and very consistent and use the same
terms over and over.
Novice researchers and, I think, students in particular, need to keep in mind that
the research project that they are undertaking is not the be-all, end-all to answer
all of the questions that they have about whatever their phenomenon of interest
is. It is just the first step. And it’s just a small piece of it.
So rest assured you don’t have to find all the answers to the questions that you
have with this research project. That’s an overall program of research. At this
stage, the big thing you need to focus on is learning the knowledge, the skills,
and the abilities that’s required to be a research scientist. And, hopefully, you’re
doing it within something that will get you started on that pathway and enable you
to conduct additional research that will more and more help answer your
questions.
Everybody talks about it being a journey. It really is a journey. Just like any
journey you go on, you never know what you’re going to run into. You never
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Progression and the Implications of the Theoretical Foundation for Research
know what pitfalls are going to occur. You never know what detours are going to
happen.
But you need to enjoy the journey. You need to look out the window. You need to
see what’s there. You need to take it all in.
Get to know these people and these nurse scientists that you’re around and what
they’re doing. And take it all in. Soak that all in. I think the more you participate in
this, the more you go, the more it’s what the journey is about.
But you also need to realize that, if you’ve not already, that the more you know,
the more you don’t know. And I often tell people I was never as smart and wise
as I was the day I graduated from my baccalaureate nursing program. And over
the years, I’ve just discovered there’s more and more I don’t know. But that’s the
exciting thing.
There’s so much out there to learn. So much to look at. So much to investigate.
So much to understand. So enjoy that process.
Progression and the Implications of the Theoretical Foundation
for Research
Additional Content Attribution
MUSIC:
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Los Angeles, CA
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Newnan, GA
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Signature Music, Inc
Chesterton, IN
Studio Cutz Music Library
Carrollton, TX
©2014 Laureate Education, Inc.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT 2

Research Questions and Hypotheses
Program Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
DR. DONNA HATHAWAY: Do you use a question or do you use a hypotheses?
Technically, we have theories and we are pretty certain those theories are true.
So, if we’re pretty certain theories are true, then that means we can use a
hypothesis because a hypothesis predicts a relationship.
If we’re not quite sure what that relationship is or how strong, then we should use
a research question. So technically, that’s when you use a question versus a
hypothesis. How certain are you of the relationship? Are you dealing with a
theory? Or are you dealing with a framework?
Now, technically, I say technically because in practice it’s sort of different things.
Particularly in the discipline that you are working in and the journal that you may
wish to publish in. Some journals the expectation is that you use hypothesis
testing. Nursing journals are much more liberal in their use of research questions.
I would say some of the more basic science and probably some of the more
medical journals and those types of things are much more in the tradition of a
hypothesis testing.
Technically, there’s a difference, practically, there’s not. Can you change a
statement into a question? Yes, you can change a statement into a question. So,
if I were interested in looking at an intervention, say a system change
intervention, and whether or not that system change intervention could in fact
produce if you use it produce weight loss, I might say my hypothesis if I believe
that there’s ample evidence for hypothesis testing.
Or if I happen to want to publish in a journal that expects a hypothesis testing to
occur, I would say that my hypothesis would be that the system change
intervention will result in a weight loss for children with obesity. If I’m not so sure
about that, and it’s not been done before, which I’m not sure it has, or if I’m
publishing in a journal that accepts questions, I might state it as a question.
Now, let me give you a couple different types of questions. Oftentimes you see
somebody ask a question, and the question will be will a system change
intervention produce a weight loss in obese children? The answer to that
question is yes or no. And some people say you should not ask yes or no
questions. So that’s up to who you’re writing for and sort of the standard.
So, I generally just in case instead of asking a yes or no, will it produce a change.
Instead I’ll ask to what extent will weight loss be following a system change
intervention? Or how much weight loss can be expected? Do you see the
difference? So it’s not just a yes-no question. It’s asking you to determine to what
©2014 Laureate Education, Inc. 1

Research Questions and Hypotheses
extent something occurs, how much it occurs, how strong the relationship is, and
those types of things.
As we think about trying to come up with our specific research hypotheses or
questions for the studies we’re doing, sometimes it sounds like it’s an easy thing
to do. But when you sit down and go, OK, I’m going to write my research
questions. They don’t always just seem to come out easily. And then they just
don’t seem to feel right.
So where do you go? What do you do? How do you try to make that happen?
Of course, the first place to go is go back to your conceptual framework and look
at the relationships that are depicted in it. Each one of those relationships is
depicted in it provide a potential research question. So you can look at those.
Think about those. Jot those down.
Go back to the literature in your field of study and see what the literature is
saying. You always go to the end and see what kind of future research is
recommended in those articles as well. So go there. Talk to other people doing
work in the field. Oftentimes that means going to your adviser and talking to them
about the work they’re doing and seeing what other questions they have and
what they think is a good researchable question, and going back.
And then you start writing them down. And I can guarantee you with 100%
certainty you are going to change those research questions multiple times. I
could also guarantee you that each time you go back and you revise them they
get a little bit clearer. They get more specific. They’re probably going to get
narrower. And they will get more precise. Make them as clear as you can, maybe
with some sub questions underneath them with a stem. But go back, rewrite
them, talk to people, go back, read their literature again, and just keep refine and
revise.
Sometimes your research questions also evolve along the same line that theory
development evolves and the purposes of theory. Remember, theory describes,
explains, predicts, and controls.
So depending upon where you are in the maturation of your theory, you may find
that your research questions begin with describing a phenomena, exploring
something, determining what the relationships are, if you’re now to the step of
explaining what is the relationship between this and this, in what way is this
related, and so on. Describe, explain, then you find yourself looking at what are
the predictors of something. Because you’ve identified some relationships, but
are those relationships predictive of some kind of outcome? And then eventually
you’ll be looking at some kind of intervention to control.
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Research Questions and Hypotheses
So, my early work I was describing what factors were involved in quality of life or
what was the quality of life following organ transplantation? Was it better than it
was before? How much better was it? You know, that’s a pretty big thing to
undergo. Was it wasn’t really worthwhile? Did it make that much difference in
these people’s lives? Or did it not? Did it make that much difference in
everyone’s lives or just some people’s?
And then as we started seeing some variability in outcomes, then we started
asking, well, what seems to be related to? Why are some people having better
quality of life than others? What are those determinants?
And then as we discovered some of those relationships, and it was well, are
those relationships strong enough that they can really predict the outcomes?
What are the primary predictors of quality of life in these people?
And then once we did that, it’s to what degree can this intervention improve the
outcomes? Does the attention control group have the same outcomes as the
intervention group? Do they not?
So, look at the stage of knowledge, because you’re writing your research
questions as well. You can look to stage of the knowledge. And that will give you
some clues as to whether you’re going to be describing, exploring, examining,
determining something, whether you’re going to be looking at strengths of
relationships. What is the relationship between this and this? What factors
influence the relationship between this and this? Or identifying predictions or
determining if the treatment’s more effective than the control.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Research Questions and Hypotheses
Additional Content Attribution
MUSIC:
Creative Support Services
Los Angeles, CA
Dimension Sound Effects Library
Newnan, GA
Narrator Tracks Music Library
Stevens Point, WI
Signature Music, Inc
Chesterton, IN
©2014 Laureate Education, Inc. 3

Research Questions and Hypotheses
Studio Cutz Music Library
Carrollton, TX
©2014 Laureate Education, Inc. 4

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