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Descriptive questions are usually simple questions that ask about ‘how much’ or ‘how often’ or look for a list of
things/factors.
Example: How often do people aged 30 to 40 visit their parents?
These type of questions are useful for simple studies, but would not be robust enough for a dissertation.
Causal questions try to determine a relationship between two variables or they compare two variables.
Example: How does stress at work relate to quality of life in people working night shifts? (a relationship question)
Example: How do lean participants compare to obese participants in their frequency and intensity of food cravings?
(a comparison question)
Predictive questions try to forecast an outcome. Studies that result from these questions are often controversial as it
is hard to single out one variable and unquestionably link it to an outcome. You need to be confident that you can
indeed ensure a controlled environment, one in which you are able to control for other variables and observe only
the effect of your chosen variable.
Example: Does a stressful work environment lead to higher turnover rates?
Usually start with ‘what’ or ‘how’ (avoid beginning qualitative questions with
‘why’ as this implies cause and effect).
Identify the central phenomenon you plan to explore (tell in your question
what you are going to describe, explore, generate, discover, understand).
Avoid the use of quantitative words such as relate, influence, effect, cause.
With qualitative research, you will usually have one central question and
possibly also some sub-questions to narrow the phenomenon under study
further. The sub-questions will generally be more specific.
Examples of qualitative research questions:
What is it like growing up in a single-parent family in a rural environment?
What are the experiences of people working night shifts in health care?
How would overweight people describe their meal times while dieting?