ABSTRACT
One of the main elements of ‘decidophobia’ is wanting to do too much at once. Some beginning researchers are so overwhelmed by all the possibilities and the enormity of the task that they never get on to the research itself. A person immersed in symbolic interactionism might be most interested in how the facility is experienced by the residents themselves, and spend considerable time understanding their perspective about how the institution is run. A useful mechanism is a steering committee or advisory group consisting of representatives from each of the groups of key players. Research topics can be either pure’ or ‘applied’, although the terms are really ideal types at each end of a continuum. Pure research topics involve theoretical development, or exploring more general issues that affect social welfare. Sometimes a topic can be made feasible by changing the focus of the question.
