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Conceptual Framework: A Step by Step Guide on How to Make One

Conceptual Framework: A Step by Step

Guide on How to Make One
 Regoniel, Patrick  January 5, 2015  Research, Empirical Research, Quantitative Research  76
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What is a conceptual framework? How do you prepare one? This article defines the meaning of
conceptual framework and lists the steps on how to prepare it. A simplified example is added to
strengthen the reader’s understanding.
In preparing your research paper as one of the requirements for your course as an undergraduate
or graduate student, you will need to write the conceptual framework of your study. The
conceptual framework steers the whole research activity. The conceptual framework serves as a
“map” or “rudder” that will guide you towards realizing your study’s objectives or intent.

What then, is a conceptual framework in the context of empirical research? The next section
defines and explains the term.

Table of Contents
 Definition of Conceptual Framework
 4 Steps on How to Make the Conceptual Framework
o Choose your topic
 o Do a literature review
o Isolate the important variables
o Generate the conceptual framework
 Example of a Conceptual Framework
o Research Topic
 Thesis Statement
o Review of Literature
o Variables Isolated from the Literature
 Evolution of a Social Theory as Basis of Conceptual Framework Development
 e-Books on Conceptual Framework Development
DEFINITION OF CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
A conceptual framework represents the researcher’s synthesis of the literature on how to explain
a phenomenon. It maps out the actions required in the course of the study, given his previous
knowledge of other researchers’ point of view and his observations on the subject of research.

In other words, the conceptual framework is the researcher’s understanding of how the
particular variables in his study connect. Thus, it identifies the variables required in the research
investigation. It is the researcher’s “map” in pursuing the investigation.
As McGaghie et al. (2001) put it: The conceptual framework “sets the stage” to present the
particular research question that drives the investigation being reported based on the problem
statement. The problem statement of a thesis gives the context and the issues that caused the
researcher to conduct the study.
The conceptual framework lies within a much broader framework called a theoretical
framework. The latter draws support from time-tested theories that embody many researchers’
findings on why and how a particular phenomenon occurs.

I expounded on this definition, including its purpose, in my recent post titled “What is a

Conceptual Framework? Expounded Definition and Five Purposes.”
4 STEPS ON HOW TO MAKE THE CONCEPTUAL
FRAMEWORK
Before you prepare your conceptual framework, you need to do the following things:

CHOOSE YOUR TOPIC

Decide on what will be your research topic. The topic should be within your field of
specialization.

DO A LITERATURE REVIEW
Review relevant and updated research on the theme that you decide to work on after scrutiny of
the issue at hand. Preferably use peer-reviewed, and well-known scientific journals as these are
reliable sources of information.
ISOLATE THE IMPORTANT VARIABLES
Identify the specific variables described in the literature and figure out how these are related.
Some abstracts contain the variables, and the salient findings thus may serve the purpose. If these
are not available, find the research paper’s summary.

If the variables are not explicit in summary, get back to the methodology or the results and
discussion section and quickly identify the study variables and the significant findings. Read the
TSPU Technique to skim articles efficiently and get to the essential points without much fuss.
GENERATE THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Build your conceptual framework using your mix of the variables from the scientific articles you
have read. Your problem statement serves as a reference for constructing it. In effect, your study
will attempt to answer the question that other researchers have not explained yet. Your research
should address a knowledge gap.
EXAMPLE OF A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
RESEARCH TOPIC
Statement number 5 introduced in an earlier post titled How to Write a Thesis Statement will
serve as the basis of the illustrated conceptual framework in the following examples.
The youth, particularly students who need to devote a lot of time using their mobile phones to
access their course modules, laptops, or desktops, are most affected. Also, they spend time
interacting with their mobile phones as they communicate with their friends on social media
channels like Facebook, Messenger, and the like. When free, many students spend their time
viewing films on Netflix, Youtube, or similar sites. These activities can affect their sleeping
patterns and cause health problems in the long run because light-emitting diode (LED) exposure
reduces the number of hours spent sleeping.
THESIS STATEMENT
Related to the students’ activity, we can write the thesis statement thus:

Thesis statement: Chronic exposure to blue light from LED screens (of computer
monitors, mobile phones, tablets, and television) deplete melatonin levels, thus reducing the
number of sleeping hours among the youth, particularly students who need to work on their
academic requirements.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The literature supports the thesis statement as among those that catches one’s attention is a paper
that warns against the use of LED devices at night. Although we can save a lot of electrical
energy by using the efficient LED where the inventors Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji
Nakamura received a Nobel prize in Physics in 2014, there is growing evidence that it can cause
human health problems particularly cancer.

Haim & Zubidat (2015) of the Israeli Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Chronobiology
synthesized the literature about LEDs. They found out that blue light from the light-emitting
diodes (LED) inhibits melatonin production, particularly during active secretion at night.
Melatonin is a neuro-hormone that regulates sleep and wake cycles. Also, it can slow down
aging and prevent cancer (Srinivasan et al., 2011).
Thus, looking directly at your laptop, mobile phone, or television at night not only can severely
damage your eyes but also prevent the achievement of sound sleeping patterns. As a
countermeasure, sleep experts recommend limiting the use of digital devices until 8 o’clock in
the evening.

Those affected experience insomnia (see 10 Creative Ways on How to Get Rid of Insomnia);
they sleep less than required (usually less than six hours), and this happens when they spend too
much time working on their laptops, monitoring conversations or posts in social media sites
using their mobile phones, or viewing the television at night.
VARIABLES ISOLATED FROM THE LITERATURE
Using the background information backed by evidence in the literature review, we can now
develop the study’s paradigm on the effect of LED exposure to sleep. We will not include all of
the variables mentioned and select or isolate only those factors that we are interested in.

Figure 1 presents a visual representation, the paradigm, of what we want to correlate in this
study. It shows measurable variables that can produce data that we can analyze using a statistical
test such as either the parametric test Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation or
the nonparametric Spearman Rho test.

Fig. 1. The research paradigm illustrating the researcher’s conceptual framework.

Notice that the variables of the study are explicit in the paradigm presented in Figure 1. In the
illustration, the two variables are