CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

The research methodology is crucial in ensuring that the research in conducted in the mo
st appropriate and effective way possible to address the research problem. This chapter attem
pts to discuss the research design, population, sample & sampling procedure, the research inst
rument, pilot study, validity & reliability, ethics of the study, data collection procedure as wel
l as the data analysis procedure.

3.2 Research design

This mini-research attempts to determine the social media usage among the students o
f the Faculty of Cognitive Science and Human Development (FCSHD) of Universiti Malaysia
Sarawak (UNIMAS). Hence, the research design of this study will be in the form of a descript
ive design with a quantitative approach. According to Siedlecki (2020), a descriptive research
design is used to describe individuals, happenings, or circumstances by researching them as t
hey are naturally. This includes certain similarities or variations in characteristics of a populat
ion or even by determining a problem in an organization or group. Since this mini-research fo
cuses only on a single variable, which is the social media usage among FCSHD students of U
NIMAS, thus, descriptive research with a quantitative approach is deemed most suitable.

3.3 Population, sample & sampling procedure

A population is defined as all the occupants of a certain place. For this mini-research,
the population of the study comprises all of the undergraduate FCSHD students enrolled in U
NIMAS. A sample, on the other hand, is described as a group of people or objects taken from
the larger population in order to generalize and represent the characteristics of the whole pop
ulation. For the sample of this mini-research, a total of 41 students in FCSHD of UNIMAS w
ere selected to represent the social media usage of the whole population of the FCSHD studen
ts.

3.4 Instrument

A research instrument is a tool or method that use to collect or gather the data. It is in th
e form of questions or statements designed to obtain research information from respondents.
The research instruments were constructed based on research objectives and questions. The q
uestionnaire method through a survey form is the most appropriate research instrument for co
nducting this study. This method is employed as it is a simple method and capable of providi
ng the required information.

3.5 Questionnaire

The utilization of questionnaires can facilitate respondents to provide the desired feedback. In
the questionnaire, the researchers have submitted three-section consisting of Section A, Secti
on B, and Section C. Section A will contain the demographic of respondents meanwhile Secti
on B will consist of 5 questions that use a multiple choice question (MCQ). In Section C, the
researchers have utilized the 5-point Likert Scale as follows:

Categories Numerical Values

 Strongly Agree 5

Agree 4

Neutral 3

Disagree 2

Strongly Disagree 1

Table 3.1

3.6 Validity & reliability

The validity and reliability of an instrument are important to ensure that the findings ob
tained are reliable and unquestionable (Kerlinger, F.N. & Lee, H.B. 2000). Thus, ensuring the
validity and reliability of the instrument is critical to verifying the reliability and quality of th
e instrument used. The first step to ensure the quality of the instrument is to ensure the validit
y of the instrument used followed by the next step, which is to determine the reliability.

a) Instrument Validity

To determine the validity of the research instrument, this questionnaire was presente
d for review by Associate Professor Dr. Abdul Halim bin Busari, Director of the Tun
Abang Salahuddin Islamic Center, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. His recommendation
and advice have been taken into account in order to improve the construction of items
used to measure a variable.

b) Instrument Reliability

According to Hair et al (2003), the level of acceptance of a research instrument's reli

ability indicates that the respondent has consistently answered the question or stateme
nt. As shown in Table 3.2, he has provided guidelines on Cronbach Alpha values, whi
ch describe the strength of the relationship:

Table 3.2: Rule of Thumb Measures for Cronbach Alpha

Cronbach’s Alpha Internal Consistency

α ≥0.9 Excellent

0.9>α ≥0.8 Good

0.8>α ≥0.7 Acceptable

0.7>α ≥0.6 Questionable

0.6>α ≥0.5 Poor

0.5>α Unacceptable

There is only 1 variable used in this study which is the social media usage among FCS
HD students. The results of the Cronbach Alpha test conducted on 41 respondents are
as shown in Table 3.3 below:
 Table 3.3: Reliability Test Results

Cronbach Alpha N of items

0.600 9

Following the reliability test on the data, the Cronbach alpha value obtained was 0.6 (r
efer to Table 3.3 above). According to Pallant (2001), the Cronbach's Alpha value of
more than 0.6 indicates high reliability and an acceptable index.

3.7 Ethics of the study

During this mini-research, the basic principles of research ethics were followed throug
h. In the description part of the questionnaire, respondents were informed of the objectives of
this mini-research and the data collected from them. They are also informed that the informati
on gathered will be used solely for the purpose of this mini-research and no personal informat
ion was asked of them to protect their privacy. In addition, no participant coercion occurred t
hroughout the data collection procedure as all participants willingly answered the questionnai
res of their own accord.

3.8 Data collection procedure

This mini-research follows a quantitative approach which means that it needs quite a
number of respondents for it to properly represent the whole population (Faber & Fonseca, 20
14). Hence, the questionnaires made were distributed to the respondents, which are the FCSH
D students of UNIMAS, for the purpose of data collection. The questionnaires, which were cr
eated through Google Forms, were distributed online on May 17, 2022, among the FCSHD st
udents to gather as much data as possible. The questionnaires then managed to collect answer
s and data from a total of 41 FCSHD students of UNIMAS.

3.9 Data analysis procedure

The data collected were then inserted and analyzed through IBM SPSS Statistics version
26. Since this mini-research is in the form of descriptive research with a quantitative approac
h, the data collected was also analyzed descriptively. The data collected, were divided into 3
parts, such as the respondents’ demographic data (gender, programme, race, year), their prefe
rences on how they use social media (which social media, how much time spent, when, devic
e used, posting frequentness, number of social media accounts), as well as their social media
usage (socializing, entertainment, information, and learning), were analysed and presented de
scriptively through pie charts, bar graphs and descriptive tables.

4.0 Summary

To summarise, this chapter has described the methodology used in executing this mini-res
earch which is in a descriptive design with a quantitative approach. Apart from that, it also pr
ovided a description of the participants which are the FCSHD students, the instruments used
which is a questionnaire with its validity and reliability, the ethics followed throughout data c
ollection, the data collection procedure itself as well as the data analysis procedure which incl
udes the use of the IBM SPSS Statistics Software.

References
Faber, J., & Fonseca, L. M. (2014). How sample size influences research outcomes. Dental P
ress Journal of Orthodontics, 19(4), 27–29. https://doi.org/10.1590/2176-9451.19.4.027-029.
ebo

Hair, J. F. Jr., Babin, B., Money, A. H., & Samouel, P. (2003). Essential of business researc
h methods. John Wiley & Sons: United States of America.

Kerlinger, F.N. & Lee, H.B. (2000). Foundations of Behavioural Research. 4th Edition. Holt, NY :
Harcourt College Publishers

Pallant, J. (2001), SPSS survival manual - a step by step guide to data analysis using SPSS fo
r windows (version 10), Buckingham Open University Press.