SUB-MODULE 3

ESTABLISHING THE THEORETI-

CAL AND EMPIRICAL BASIS OF
THE RESEARCH
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of the session, the learner should be able to:

Identify the uses of the review of related literature in re-

01 search;

Describe the steps involved in conducting a review of re-

02 lated literature

Discuss important guidelines to be remembered in conduct-

03 ing and writing-up the results of the review of related liter-
ature;

Describe how to formulate the conceptual framework for

04 the research he/she wishes to undertake
 1. WHAT IS A REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE?

• It is a survey of scholarly materials

(journal articles, books, thesis and dis-
sertations, conference proceedings,
reports, etc.) relevant to the area of re-
search being proposed
• It provides a concise description and
critical evaluation of work which has
already been done on the research
 1.1 QUESTIONS WHICH ARE AN-
SWERED IN THE LITERATURE RE-
VIEW about the re-
• What is already known
search area being proposed?
• What are the existing theories related
to this research area?
• What are the known characteristics of,
and relationships among the main fac-
tors or variables related to the
proposed research area?
• What research designs or methods
were used and which of these seem
 1.1 QUESTIONS WHICH ARE AN-
SWERED IN THE LITERATURE RE-
VIEW
• What and where are the inconsisten-
cies or other shortcomings in our cur-
rent knowledge and understanding of
the proposed research area?
• What evidence is lacking, inconclusive,
contradictory or too limited?
• What views need to be further studied
or tested?
• Why is there a need to study further
the research problem?
• What contribution can the present
study be expected to make?
 1.2 USES OF THE REVIEW OF RE-
LATED LITERATURE
1. Provides background information
about previous studies conducted
 Who has done previous work in
the
research area considered?
 What important ideas, theories,
questions and hypotheses have
already been
investigated and tested?
 What research methods (design,
variable definition, instrumenta-
tion, etc.) were
utilized?
 1.2 USES OF THE REVIEW OF RE-
LATED LITERATURE
2. Helps the researcher in:
 determining if the proposed re-
search is actually needed
 narrowing down or refining the
topic and research objectives
initially formulated
 generating hypothesis or ques-
tions to be studied further
 1.2 USES OF THE REVIEW OF RE-
LATED LITERATURE
3. Guides the researcher in the de-
velopment of the conceptual
framework for the
research
Identification of relevant vari-
ables
Direction/nature of the rela-
tionship between relevant vari-
 1.2 USES OF THE REVIEW OF RE-
LATED LITERATURE

4.Provides values of important parameters needed

in formulating the design for the proposed re-
search
 anticipated values of, and variances of im-
portant parameters to be estimated which
are needed for sample size determination
 non-response rates
5. Provides comparative data which the re-
searcher can refer to later in the discussion of
results and conclusions of the study
 1.3 STEPS IN CONDUCTING A LITER-
ATURE REVIEW
1. Formulate the research problem and objectives
• The research problem and objectives de-
termines the coverage of the literature re-
view
2. Conduct the literature search
• Search across multiple databases and in-
formation resources using various search
engines (ex., Google Scholar, etc.)
 1.3 STEPS IN CONDUCTING A LITER-
ATURE REVIEW
3. Read the literature side by side with the search process
What you read will guide your subsequent searches and
refine your topic, ending up with a circular process
for steps 1,2,and 3
4. Note down important questions, issues, hypotheses
which were mentioned by the literature reviewed or
which came to your mind as you read them.
These questions, issues, hypothesis can be used later
in your research, when you discuss the implications
of your findings and recommend new research direc-
tions supported or suggested by your findings
 1.3 STEPS IN CONDUCTING A LITER-
ATURE REVIEW
5. Keep a record (what, where, when) of the
literature reviewed
• It is better to record too many references
initially than to spend and waste the time
later to relocate or search for docu-
ments earlier reviewed
Most frustrating and time-consuming ques-
tion to address related to steps 4 and 5:
“Saan ko nga ba nabasa yon?”
 1.3 STEPS IN CONDUCTING A LITER-
ATURE REVIEW
6. Organize, analyze and evaluate the literature re-
viewed
• Take notes as you read each document, recording
the following information:
 purpose/objectives of the study
 summary of content
 Research design/methods used in the study
 Important findings
• Organize results into common themes. This can be
done by using index cards or presenting them in
tabular form
• Integrate/synthesize findings
 1.3 STEPS IN CONDUCTING A LITER-
ATURE REVIEW

7. Prepare a write-up of the literature re-

view
• The write-up can consist of several
sub-sections, with previous studies or-
ganized according to common
themes (ex., magnitude of the prob-
lem; factors related to the problem:
etc.)
 1.3 STEPS IN CONDUCTING A LITER-
ATURE REVIEW

8. Create the list of references.

9. Reference lists (in APA style called “lists of works
cited”) contain a complete list of all the sources (books,
journal articles, websites, etc.) that have been cited di-
rectly in a document. That means that if there are
in-text citations for a source, there is a reference list
entry, and vice versa.
• Bibliographies, on the other hand, contain all sources
that have been used, whether they are directly
cited or not. A bibliography includes sources that
were used to generate ideas or ‘read around’ a topic,
but were not referred to directly in the body of the
 1.4 OUTLINE OF THE WRITE-UP ON THE
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE (RRL)
1. Introduction
• Describes the content (what is chapter
is about?), structure (how is the chapter
organized?) and scope (What are
the boundaries?) of the RRL
2. Body of the literature review
2.1 Presentation
• What has been done before?
 1.4 OUTLINE OF THE WRITE-UP ON THE
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE (RRL)
2.2 Discussion and evaluation
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of
the previous studies?
• What are common areas of agreements and
disagreements?
2.3 Summary and relationship of findings to pro-
posed research
3. Conclusion
• Summary and highlights of most important
points from various sub-sections
• Relate/connect findings to current research
being proposed
 1.4 OUTLINE OF THE WRITE-UP ON THE
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE (RRL)

3.Conclusion
• Summary and highlights of
most important points from
various sub-sections
• Relate/connect findings to
current research being pro-
posed
1.5 IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT
THE
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE:
a. The literature to be reviewed must not only be re-
lated to the topic of the research, but more so,
on the specific objectives actually covered
b. There are no hard-set rules regarding the number
of literature to be included in the RRL, how old or
new are the materials to be covered, or the pro-
portion of local compared to international studies
to be presented. These are all dependent on the
topic of the research and how well it has been
studied locally and abroad.
1.5 IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT
THE
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE:
a. It is important to ensure the accuracy of the information you
presented in your RRL (ex., correct bibliographic citation;
attributing findings to the correct authors etc.) The biblio-
graphic citation should be complete enough to enable a
reader to track down the article if they wish to do so

b. If the research being proposed is pioneering, and no previous

studies have been done in the area, this has to be mentioned
in the review of related literature to provide additional basis/
justification for the conduct of the proposed research.
 2. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEP-
TUAL FRAMEWORK
• The conceptual framework is a written or a visual presenta-
tion which explains graphically, in narrative form, or both,
the main variables being studied in the proposed research
• It serves as:
 An organizing framework for descriptive studies
 A representation of how the different variables are inter-
related to each other in analytic studies
 2. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEP-
TUAL FRAMEWORK
• In the research process, the development
of the conceptual framework is done after
the review of related literature, and
before the formulation of the research ob-
jectives
• There must be consistency between the
conceptual framework presented and the
research objectives to be investigated
 2.1 INPUTS NEEDED IN DEVELOPING
THE
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
 Experiential knowledge of the researcher
o Technical knowledge
o Research background.
o Personal experience.
 2.1 INPUTS NEEDED IN DEVELOPING
THE
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
 Literature review:
o Prior ‘related’ theory – concepts and relationships
that are used to represent the world, what is
happening and why
o Prior ‘related’ research – how people have tackled
‘similar’ problems and what they have learned
o Other theory and research - approaches, lines of
investigation and theory that are not obviously
relevant/previously used.
 2.2 CONVENTIONS/USUAL PRAC-
TICES IN DEVELOPING THE CONCEP-
TUAL FRAMEWORK
• In building the framework:
 Start with the dependent /outcome variable or endpoint for intervention
 Identify potential independent variables deemed to affect the dependent/
outcome variable based on empirical or theoretical evidence
 Identify intervening, confounding , antecedent or mediating variables whose
effects may alter the relationship between the dependent and independent
variable
 2.2 CONVENTIONS/USUAL PRACTICES
IN DEVELOPING
THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
• Variables are presented in boxes while re-
lationships are represented by arrows
• Logical presentation of concepts is from
left-to-right or top-to-bottom
• Concepts are labelled briefly and con-
cisely
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPTUAL FRAME-
WORK
CON-
EXAMPLE 1: EFFECT OF PROGRAM EXPOSURE
FOUNDING
KNOWLEDGE
VARIABLES ON PRACTICE
(Ex. Socio- PROGRAM
EXPOSURE
economic
PRACTICE
status, ATTITUDES
education,
sex, age,
etc)
EXAMPLE 2: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR
A RESEARCH ON NUTRITION EDUCATION FOR
MOTHERS OF PRESCHOOLERS

INPUT ACTIVITIES OUTPUT OUTCOME IMPACT

• No. of IEC
• Number of • Number of • Change in • Change in the
Materials
nutrition
printed on
education mothers mothers’ prevalence of
child feeding
• No. of trained classes on trained on knowledge, malnutrition
child feed- attitudes and among pre-
health work-
ers assigned ing con-
proper practices on schoolers
to conduct ducted for child feed- child feeding
nutrition edu-
cation
mothers ing
classes for
mothers