Assumption Junction, What’s Your Function? Making Sense of Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations
By Jen Johnson, Dissertation Editor
A common area of confusion for students at the proposal
stage (or even at the final Form and Style review) is understanding what,
exactly, should appear in the Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations
sections of chapter 1 (or section 1, for EdD and DBA students). As an editor,
I’ve seen a wide range of student responses to the challenges of these
sections: some that have been spot-on, some that have been perplexing, and many
more that have fallen somewhere in between. So how do we begin to make sense of
assumptions, limitations, and delimitations?
First, let’s start with some rubric definitions. The DBA
rubric defines assumptions as “facts assumed to be true but not actually
verified.” Similarly, the PhD qualitative and quantitative checklists describe
assumptions as “aspects of the study that are believed but cannot be
demonstrated to be true,” with the added injunction to “include only those
assumptions that are critical to the meaningfulness of the study.” In the DBA
rubric, a limitation is a “potential weakness of the study,” and delimitations
are the “bounds of the study.” And the PhD checklists define limitations as
those items “related to design and/or methodological weaknesses” and
delimitations as “boundaries of the study.”
So, okay, these definitions are fairly straightforward, as
definitions go. But if you’re like me, understanding the gist of a definition
is not exactly the same as being able to apply that definition to your own
work. What, for instance, does an actual limitation look like? As an editor,
I’ve found it helpful to think of these concepts in more concrete terms, with
concrete models. In the interest of following the sound writerly advice of
“showing, not telling,” then, I offer the following examples from one
well-written dissertation that I recently reviewed at the final Form and Style:
- Assumption: “Through participation in this study, leaders were empowered to identify, understand, and describe leadership influence practices. Therefore, another assumption was that the participants would be forthcoming and honest in discussing their perceptions and experiences with regard to leadership influencing phenomena.”
In this example, we see a common assumption made in
qualitative studies—that participants will be honest in their responses—and in
this case, the author makes it clear how this assumption is in fact “critical
to the meaningfulness of the study.” The author simply must believe that the
participants are being truthful because he or she has no way to verify their
honesty. In this study, such an assumption is necessary.
- Limitation: “Because the foster and adoptive care system is specific to national, state, and local contextual considerations in which each organization operates, generalizability of the findings to organizations within alternate operating areas, structures, and relationships was not possible.”
Here, the important thing to remember is that limitations should
represent those aspects of a study that the researcher has no control over. And
as this example demonstrates, limitations are often related to the generalizability
of findings.
- Delimitation: “The study framework captured the voices of leadership, not the perceptions of the stakeholders the leaders are seeking to mobilize.”
The stakeholders’ perceptions, in other words, are outside
the scope of this particular study because the researcher chose not to focus on
them. Delimitations should represent those aspects of a study that the
researcher does have control over, and that he or she chooses to exclude
because they are not interesting, directly relevant, or feasible.
And there you have it. Of course, these three subsections of
chapter 1 (or section 1) will look different from one study to the next, but by
mastering the basic concepts presented here, students will be well on their way
to crafting clear and logical Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations
sections in their own work.
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This is really great information! I am having great difficulty located definitions for these terms and determining how I will tackle these sections. Your post was incredibly helpful! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteWe are so glad to hear that you found this post helpful, Belinda! Please feel free to follow up with any additional questions. :)
DeleteThis was very helpful. Thank you.
ReplyDelete