Chapter III

METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the research methodology which includes the design,
participants, locale of the study, map of the location of the study, data collection, ethical
consideration, interview technique, sampling technique, instrumentation, data analysis
and interpretation.

Research Design

This study made use of qualitative research methodology and was exploratory in
nature. Thus, any information that may be derived is all based on their understanding.
The phenomenological technique was employed in this study to explore human
experiences and viewpoints among the descriptions supplied by the participants. The
use of a phenomenological approach in this study was necessary to understand the
lived experience of Mobile Legend players' irresistible addiction to online games.
According to Delve & Limpaecher (2022), Phenomenological research is a qualitative
research approach that seeks to understand and describe the universal essence of a
phenomenon. The approach investigates the everyday experiences of human beings
while suspending the researchers’ preconceived assumptions about the phenomenon.
In other words, phenomenological research studies lived experiences to gain deeper
insights into how people understand those experiences.
Participants

The participants of this study will be online gamers enrolled in the Humanities and
Social Sciences classes at General Santos City National High School during the school
year 2022-2023. A sample of 10 student players will be selected to participate in this
study. Therefore, the total number of participants chosen as respondents for the study
will be 10.

Locale of the Study

This study was conducted at General Santos City National High School, located at
Rizal Street, Barangay Calumpang, General Santos City. The school features high-rise
classrooms with a total population of 13,000 students, and it is recognized as one of the
most decorated and competitive schools in the country. It is one of the
highest-numbered public secondary schools in Region 12. This school offers education
for junior high and senior high schools. For junior high school, the school has different
programs, such as SPA, or Special Program in the Arts; SPS, or Special Program in
Sports; and SPJ, or Special Program in Journalism. They also have STEM, or science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics. Also, this school offers morning and
afternoon classes for BEC, or Basic Education Curriculum. For senior high school, the
school offers complete tracks such as academic track, technical vocational livelihood
(TVL), arts and design track, and sports track.
Figure 1. Map of General Santos City National High School
Data Collection

In data gathering, the researchers observed the following:

1. Asked their research advisor for approval;

2. Drafted the interview guide;

3. Asked participants who were more than happy to participate in the study;

4. Planned their schedule and made certain that it did not conflict with the participants'
schedule;

5. Carried out the study through the conduct of the interview; and

6. Examined the data gathered from the researchers.

Interview Technique

To conduct this study, researchers followed the protocol consisting of a written

As responsible researchers, this study followed and exercised ethical standards in the
conduct of the research process.

1. The researchers serve a consent form to ensure that individuals are voluntarily
participating in the research with full knowledge of relevant risks and benefits.

2. Researchers must keep any shared information in the strictest confidence.

3. Researchers must protect research participants anonymity while also ensuring full
disclosure of factors surrounding the study, including potential harms and benefits.

4. Researchers must also ensure that they do not coerce potential participants into
agreeing to participate in studies.

Sampling Technique

The researchers will select respondents for the study using the purposive sampling
method. Purposive sampling is an appropriate research method to study the Mobile
Legends player's experiences with irresistible online addiction because it is practical,
manageable, and economical. Unlike other sampling methods, it does not make use of
mathematical formulas. It can be described as "purposeful selection" or "targeted
sampling". Since the participants were chosen for a particular reason, their personal
background characteristics should be known in advance. According to Patton (2020),
purposeful sampling is a technique widely used in qualitative research for the
identification and selection of information-rich cases for the most effective use of limited
resources.
Instrumentation

This study will utilize an interview guide in order to obtain substantive data from the
participants. The questions in the interview guide are related to the statement of the
problem.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

The data analysis approach in this study will include a qualitative analysis of the
participants' responses to the interview questions. Thematic analysis will be used to
examine the transcribed interview material. The goal of a thematic analysis is to identify
themes, i.e., patterns in the data that are important or interesting, and use these themes
to address the research or say something about an issue. This is much more than
simply summarizing the data; a good thematic analysis interprets and makes sense of it.
A common pitfall is to use the main interview questions as the themes (Clarke & Braun,
2013). Typically, this reflects the fact that the data has been summarized and organized
rather than analyzed.