Distinguishing Between Social Problems and Research
Problems in Doctoral Research
Assignment Instructions:
Throughout this course, you will explore two critical components of your doctoral
journey—the social problem and the research problem. The two are inevitably linked but
also separate components of your research. You started to explore the differences
between the social problem and the research problem earlier in your program, but this
distinction will become increasingly important as you continue toward your dissertation
or capstone project.
Before you identify your research problem, you will need to locate the social problem
within both public and intellectual discourse. This will expand your knowledge and give
you a better understanding of the breadth and complexities of your selected social
problem. As a result of this understanding, you will start to identify a gap in the research,
something that has yet to be addressed to the extent that it could or should be, leading to
your research problem.
In this Assignment, you will examine how the social problem and the research problem
are represented in abstracts from PhD dissertations or DSW capstone projects. This will
help you further refine your distinction between the two and prepare you to explore the
research gap for your selected social problem later in this course.
, To Prepare:
• Review the Differences Between a Social Problem and Research Problem video from
your Learning Resources.
• Review the Epistemology Guide from your Learning Resources.
• Review the epistemology chart in Appendix A of Franco’s (2016) article.
Problems in Doctoral Research
Assignment Instructions:
Throughout this course, you will explore two critical components of your doctoral
journey—the social problem and the research problem. The two are inevitably linked but
also separate components of your research. You started to explore the differences
between the social problem and the research problem earlier in your program, but this
distinction will become increasingly important as you continue toward your dissertation
or capstone project.
Before you identify your research problem, you will need to locate the social problem
within both public and intellectual discourse. This will expand your knowledge and give
you a better understanding of the breadth and complexities of your selected social
problem. As a result of this understanding, you will start to identify a gap in the research,
something that has yet to be addressed to the extent that it could or should be, leading to
your research problem.
In this Assignment, you will examine how the social problem and the research problem
are represented in abstracts from PhD dissertations or DSW capstone projects. This will
help you further refine your distinction between the two and prepare you to explore the
research gap for your selected social problem later in this course.
, To Prepare:
• Review the Differences Between a Social Problem and Research Problem video from
your Learning Resources.
• Review the Epistemology Guide from your Learning Resources.
• Review the epistemology chart in Appendix A of Franco’s (2016) article.
