Discussion for SRQR item: Problem Formulation

Problem Formulation

“When the problem is described clearly I find it much easier to understand why a study was done, even if its from a different subject area, country, or decade.”Nkinda Akaro - Researcher

Describe the theoretical and/or practical issues or concerns that make the study necessary, including:

• an overview of what is known about the problem

• gaps in current knowledge (the problem statement)

• the scope of the research problem or phenomena addressed in the study (what will and will not be included)

• theoretical and/or empirical work directly relevant to the problem or phenomena studied

• the need for a qualitative approach.¹

Justification and Examples

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• Why readers need this information
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Why readers need this information

This information provides context for the research question or study purpose and situates the study in relation to other work in the field.

Example

Regulatory focus theory may therefore offer insight into the variability in responses to feedback, but how well do these experimental findings translate to real clinical situations in which the reality of responsiveness to feedback seems frustratingly complex? …. In order to better elaborate a theory to account for this variability in learner response to feedback, the present study was undertaken. We aimed, in this study, to determine how readily clinical learning events could be classified as activating a promotion or a prevention focus, and to explore, through a careful analysis of doctors’ descriptions of their feedback experiences, the predictive value of regulatory focus theory in the context of real clinical learning situations.

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Footnotes

1. Justifications for a qualitative approach include to elucidate poorly defined or previously unexplored constructs, to generate theories or to develop causal explanations connecting processes and outcomes, to understand phenomena as they naturally occur and the role of context, to explore problems involving high complexity, to gain insight into participants’ perspectives when such insight is lacking)