The Research Question in Social Research: What is its Role?

Abstract

This paper addresses the role of the research question in social research. It outlines what is taken to be the conventional view in many methodological discussions, namely, that research questions guide decisions about research design and research methods. This position is taken to imply that social researchers typically take the view that research methods need to be tailored to the research questions that guide an investigation. The paper questions how far this position pertains to actual research practice. Drawing on interviews with researchers about their practices in relation to mixed‐method research, two discourses were found in the transcripts. A particularistic discourse that reflects the traditional view, whereby mixed‐method research is viewed as only appropriate when research questions warrant it, was uncovered. In addition, a universalistic discourse, which sees mixed‐method research as more generally superior, was also uncovered. The implications of these viewpoints for understanding the role of research questions are then discussed.

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the four referees of this article for their constructive comments and Alan Beardsworth and Jonathan Potter who read an earlier version. I also would like to thank the Economic and Social Research Council for funding the research project ‘Integrating quantitive and qualitative research: prospects and limits’ (Award number H333250003) which made possible the research on which this article is based.

Notes

[1] ‘Mixed‐methods research’ is being used in this paper as a shorthand term for the combination of quantitative and qualitative research. In doing so, it is not being assumed that this is the only form that mixed‐methods research can take, but the increasingly common practice of using the term to denote investigations that combine quantitative and qualitative research is being followed. Further, this was the context within which mixed‐methods research was discussed with the interviewees whose views are reported in this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alan Bryman

Alan Bryman is Professor of Organisational and Social Research, School of Management, University of Leicester, England. His main research interests lie in research methodology, leadership studies, organizational analysis, the process of Disneyization and theme parks. He is author or co‐author of many books, and a co‐editor of The SAGE Encyclopedia of Social Science Research (Sage, 2003) and the Handbook of Data Analysis (Sage, 2004).