Introduction To Research

Introduction to Research Deny A. Kwary Airlangga University www.kwary.net

A research can be undertaken for two different purposes: 1. To solve a currently existing problem (applied research) 2. To contribute to the general body of knowledge in a particular area of interest (basic/fundamental research)

Ways to select a topic  

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Personal experience Curiosity based on something in the media The state of knowledge in a field Social premiums Personal values

Major Limitations in Conducting a Research Time  Costs  Access to resources  Approval by authorities  Ethical concerns  Expertise 

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Methodological Assumption (Cresswell 1994: 5)

Quantitative Deductive process

Qualitative Inductive process

Cause and effect

Mutual simultaneous shaping of factors

Static design – categories Emerging design – isolated before study categories identified during research process Generalization leading to prediction, explanation, and understanding

Patterns, theories developed for understanding

Accurate and reliable through validity and reliability

Accurate and reliable through verification

Six assumptions of qualitative designs (Merriam 1988: 19-20) 1. 2. 3.

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6.

Qualitative researchers are concerned primarily with process, rather than outcomes or products. Qualitative researchers are interested in meaning. The qualitative researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and analysis. Data are mediated through this human instrument, rather than through inventories, questionnaires, or machines. Qualitative research involves fieldwork. The researcher physically goes to the people setting, site, or institution to observe or record behavior in its natural setting. Qualitative research is descriptive in that the researcher in interested in process, meaning and understanding gained through words or pictures. The process of qualitative research is inductive in that the researcher builds abstractions, concepts, hypotheses, and theories from details.

Quantitative Methods 

Quantitative Descriptive 

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Descriptive statistics: graphical and numerical techniques for summarizing data.

Quantitative Analytic 

Inferential statistics: procedures for making generalizations about characteristics of a population based on information obtained from a sample taken from that population

Population, Sample, Respondent, Informant, Corpus    

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Population: any set of individuals (or objects) having some common observable characteristics. Sample: the subset of a population which represents the characteristics of the population. A sample consists of respondents or subjects An informant: a person from whom a linguist obtains information about language, dialect, or culture. A corpus is a collection of written or spoken material.

Types of Sampling Probabilit y

Nonprobability

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