The research problem defines a specific issue for investigation. A problem must be clearly described. The research problem should contain details about each of these questions: what is the gap in the literature, what is the problem, whose problem is it, and what happens if the problem isn’t solved?
The problem to be studied should offer the opportunity to fill a gap in the literature, so you should search all related areas and indicate how the results of your study will contribute to the body of knowledge or practice.
You may be surprised to learn that the problem statement is often a very short paragraph or two of about 250 words. In it, you should include citations to the literature substantiating that the social problem or gap in the literature. Once the guiding questions (noted in the graphic above) are answered, you will have sufficiently demonstrated that there is an existing problem worthy of research.
Read Chapter 5 The Introduction in Research Design by John W. Creswell. Read the Doctoral Project Template and focus on the problem statement, purpose statement, and research questions.
For this assignment, you will create a 250-300 word problem statement using citations from at least three articles collected for previous activities in the course. The problem statement should capture the following: What is the gap in the literature? What is the social or research problem as identified in the peer-reviewed literature? Whose problem is it?
What happens if the problem is not addressed?
Submit the paper using points of emphasis above. 1 page. Be sure to use APA formatting with a title and reference page.