Introduction to Research

by
Indra Budi (indra@cs.ui.ac.id)
What is Research ?
 Research is a careful and systematic process
of inquiry to find answers to problem of
interest.
 Research include: use of facts, use of
theories, data analysis, sampling, doing an
experiment, going to library to read up on a
topic
 To do ‘research’ is to investigate the problem
systematically and thoroughly
 Goal of research is to solve ‘problem’ of
interest.
Why take a research methods class ?
 To get my degree
 So that I can do my thesis
 So that I can read or evaluate other
people’s research report
 So that I can evaluate what I see or
hear
 So that I can do research in my work
 Examples
 You may have heard or read in the press
that about half of teenage and adult net
surfers visit pornographic sites. You may
think this is correct and support calls for
stringent State or parental control over net
access. You may not have realized the
above story was based on a poorly done
undergraduate dissertation in America.
Examples (2)
 Suppose your dad asked you for advice on
whether he should invest in a property. He
showed you a brochure outlining the costs and
returns. If you are professional about it, you
would not give advice without doing your
homework, which is research. You will ask him
questions such as his holding power, exchange
rate risk, market risk, buying price, expected
selling price, holding period, tax matters and
whether property rights are secure. You also
want to predict the future reasonably well.
Examples (3)
 Suppose you decide to expand your IT
business overseas and begin gathering
information on likely markets. You
would want to sieve through them. On
what grounds do you accept statements
contained in brochures, business
reports, governmental reports,
magazines, business journals, books,
web sites, hear-says, internet, and so
on?
Why take a research methods class ? (2)
 Consuming Research Evidence
 “75 % dokter yang diinterview memberikan
resep X untuk penyakit asma”
 Berapa dokter yang diinterview ?
 Pertanyaannya seperti apa ? Apakah Anda
pernah memberikan resep X ?
 Siapa yang menginterview ?
 Producing Research Evidence
Aims of Research
 Describe
 Predict
 Explain
 Interpret
Describe
 Descriptive studies are designed
primarily to describe what is going on or
what exists
 In polling cases, we want to know what
percent of the population would vote
for a party in next election not why
such a distribution occurs
 Describe about an algorithm, a method,
an object, etc.
 Predict
 Causal study
 Correlational research is used to P
predict trend or pattern
 Examined of a time series plot of m

mortgage rates (m) and the

house price index (P)
 To study whether the campaign 0 Time

(cause) changed the proportion

of voters who vote for a party in
election
Explain
 Explain phenomena by establishing
correlations and postulating a causal
mechanism (called a ‘theory’ or its testable
part, a ‘hyphotesis’) to explain the events.
 It may be hypothesized that since lower
mortgage rates cheapen the user cost of
housing, they tend to encourage people to
buy houses. Conversely, higher mortgage
rates tend to depress housing demand
Interpret
 Understanding or interpreting the reasons
and intentions behind individual actions.
 A researcher may want to know how an
individual makes housing choices or the
meaning of a 'home' rather than aggregates
of housing demand
 We may want to know how it feels to be
unemployed rather than aggregates such as
the unemployment rate
Types of Research
 By function
 Basic (Pure) & applied research
 By purpose
 Descriptive, causal, interpretive research
 Quantitative and qualitative research
 Types of Research
 Basic Research aims to advance theoretical knowledge
 Research on new sorting algorithm
 Applied research is concerned with applying scientific
theory to real-life problems
 Research on Internet Application
 Descriptive research provides an accurate profiles of
person, events, things, etc.
 Biography, autobiography
 Causal research seeks explanation of phenomena
 Research on topic about phenomena of corruption in Indonesia
 Types of Research
 Interpretive research seeks to understand
human intentions and meanings of events
 Quantitative research using data that can
express by numbers
 Qualitative research using data that can’t be
express by numbers and emphasize on human
intention
 Modes of Inquiry
 Non-scientific
 Tradition, belief, intuition, etc
 May lead to false conclusions
 Scientific
 Based on research procedure and empirical
testing
 Subjectivists & Objectivists
 Philosophies of science
 Ontology (the nature of reality)  what is
reality ?
 Epistemology (the theory of knowledge)
 how we know reality ?
Subjectivists Objectivists
Reality is socially constructed, depend Reality is independent of the
Ontology on perspective of subject (person) mind
Causal laws, induction &
Epistemology Interpretive understanding deduction
 Research Process
 Formulation of Research Problem
 Determination of research design
 Selection of data collection methods
 Data collection and processing
 Data analysis and conclution
 Research Report
Basic Methodological Approaches
 Experiments
 Survey research
 Field Research
 Using available data (penelitian
sekunder)
Experiments
 Investigating the causes of phenomena
 Setting two different situation according to
the topic of interest
 Experimental variable and control variable
 Dalam social research, biasanya digunakan
oleh psychologist
 Untuk mengetahui apakah penggunaan internet
mempengaruhi kinerja seseorang ?
 Setting dua kondisi:
 Kerja dengan internet
 Kerja tanpa internet
 Survey Research
 Involves the administration of
questionnaires or interview to relatively
groups of people
 Describe frequency of certain
characteristics among groups of
population
 Dalam social research, biasanya
digunakan oleh sociologist
 Polling, jajak pendapat
Field Research
 Langsung berhubungan dengan objek
penelitian untuk mendapatkan
knowledge/pengalaman secara
langsung tanpa perantara.
 Biasanya dilakukan oleh anthropologist
 Bagaimana kehidupan suku Badui
pedalaman dibandingkan dengan Badui
yang tinggal didaerah pinggiran ?
Research Ethics
 Not only using the right techniques but also
of rightly using the techniques
 Prohibit researcher from:
 Using treatment that could harm people
 Asking question that embarrassing or threatening
 Reporting information that against privacy
 The researcher should honest in observing,
analyzing and reporting finding.