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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD
A. The Research Design
This research uses qualitative research as the approach. According to Creswell 2003: 18, qualitative research is a type of research in which the inquirer results
knowledge based on constructivist perspectives, advocacyparticipatory perspectives, or both. In addition, VanderStoep and Johnston 2009: 7 also state that qualitative
research results narrative or textual descriptions of the research itself. Since the data is narrative, the result of this research design is usually rich in the description of
sample VanderStoep and Johnson, 2009: 8. The researcher is able to get deeper understanding about the phenomena occurred during the research.
In qualitative research, the forms of data used are words and pictures. That is the reason why qualitative research is suitable for this research since the data of this
research were words, phrase, clauses, and paragraphs. The data found in this research are used to identify the actions and behaviors of Amy Dunne, the main character of
Gone Girl that reflect her personality disorder and reveal the causes of personality disorder she suffers. The researcher used the description of the data to obtain deeper
understanding about personality disorder found in the literary work. Besides qualitative research, the researcher also used content analysis to
conduct this research. According to Neuendorf 2002: 10, content analysis is “a summarizing, quantitative analysis of messages that relies on the scientific method
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including attention to objectivity-intersubjectivity, a priori design, reliability, validity, generalizability, replicability, and hypothesis testing and is not limited as to
the types of variables that may be measured or the context in which the messages are created or presented”. By this definition, the researcher applies content analysis in the
process of analyzing the content of Gone Girl. The researcher finds it suitable to use psychological approach as the
theoretical instrument to analyze the personality disorder of Amy Dunne in Gone Girl. In order to achieve the objectives, the researcher used Diagnostic and Statistic
Manual of Mental Disorders – IV DSM-IV by American Psychiatric Association. This manual was used to identify the behaviors and actions that represent certain
personality disorder, in this case, antisocial personality disorder. Besides, the researcher also used some journals, essays, and also online articles in order to get
broader knowledge about the causes of personality disorder seen in psychological point of view.
B. Data and Source of the Data
The main source of the data for this research is Flynn’s Gone Girl first published in Great Britain, 2012. The novel is the paperback edition, consisting of
three parts that divided to sixty four chapters and 476 pages. The researcher employs the novel and gathers the data which consist of the words, phrases, clauses,
sentences, and paragraphs in the novel that are related to actions and behaviors of Amy Dunne.
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C. Research Instruments
The main instrument of this research is the researcher herself. According to Cresswell 2009: 177, researcher’s role is important in qualitative research because
the data gained is the result of researcher’s interpretation. She examined the data and used her interpretation towards the data based on psychological approach and DSM-
IV to conclude the result of this research.
Besides the researcher herself, table lists are used as the secondary instrument to facilitate the data processing. The researcher labels the data with certain category
so they can be identified easily. The labels on the table lists are divided to quotations, page, category, and meaning.
D. The Technique of Data Collection
In order to collect the data, the researcher did several steps. The first of all, the researcher read Gone Girl several times, comprehensively, so that the researcher got
deep understanding about the content of the novel. After understanding the novel, the researcher interpreted and recorded the words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs
which are related to the topic of the research. The researcher also documented the data collected during the process so that they could be analyzed further. After the data
was collected, the researcher re-checked them in order to avoid mistakes and to check if there was any datum which is unrelated to the topic. The last of all, the researcher
categorized the data.
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All of the data collected by the researcher are meant to answer the objectives of the research. The researcher used APA’s DSM-IV focused on Antisocial
Personality Disorder to answer the first objective of the research i.e. to identify the actions and behaviors of Amy Dunne that reflect her personality disorder. According
to APA’s DSM-IV 2000: 645, a person can be diagnosed as having antisocial personality disorder if he or she shows the characteristics of antisocial personality
disorder, namely failure to conform social norms, deceitfulness, impulsivity, irritability and aggressiveness, reckless disregard for safety of self or others, and lack
of remorse. The researcher also used psychological theory focused on the cause of personality disorder to answer the second objective of the research i.e. to reveal the
causes of personality disorder suffered by Amy, which can be tracked from her daily activities and childhood events. There are five main causes of personality disorder
according to APA, which are genetics, childhood trauma, verbal abuse, high
reactivity, and peers.
In order to ease the process of the research, the researcher uses table list
during the data collection process. The table lists were presented below,
Table 1. The Table List of the Data for The Actions and Behaviors of Amy Dunne that Reflect Her Personality Disorder in Flynn’s Gone Girl
No. Quotation of the Data
Page Category
Meaning
Kategori