Chapter 4: Choosing Who or What to Study

Question 1

What is sampling?

Answer 1

getting info about a group of events, people, actions and so on by using a small group to represent a larger group

Question 2

What is a population?

Answer 2

the group you’re interested in

Question 3

True or false, sampling is not an issue when studying all

Answer 3

True

Question 4

True or false, a census is when you’re studying everyone

Answer 4

True

Question 5

True or false, sampling is not an issue when studying a case of one (new emerging group)

Answer 5

True, because you don’t know a lot about them

Question 6

The manner in which you select the sample will determine the extent to which you can generalize from your results to the population. True or false?

Answer 6

True

Question 7

What are the 2 random types of sampling procedures?

Answer 7

random (probability)
non random (non probability)

Question 8

True or false, a random sampling procedure ensures that each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected

Answer 8

True

Question 9

True or false, a nonrandom sampling procedure is used when it is impossible to give each member of the population an equal chance of being selected

Answer 9

True

Question 10

True or false, people who you happened to meet, who were recruited through some advertisements, or who were suggested by others make up a nonrandom sample

Answer 10

True

Question 11

What is a sampling frame?

Answer 11

a complete list of the population

Question 12

What are some issues you could have with a sampling frame?

Answer 12

out of date
incomplete
how was it compiled?

Question 13

What are the 4 types of random sampling?

Answer 13

Simple: everyone has a chance to be selected
Systematic: fixed interval picking (every 15th person)
Stratified: pick your participants by gender, age, etc in proportion
multistage/cluster: pick samples in stages

Question 14

What is the difference between random sampling and random assignment?

Answer 14

Random sampling: selecting a sample from the population

Random assignment: assigning subjects into different groups for research purposes

Question 15

True or false, for many studies using the experimental design, you do not need to select a random sample in order to do a random assignment

Answer 15

True

Question 16

True or false, nonrandom sampling procedures provide a weaker basis for generalizing

Answer 16

True

Question 17

What are the 5 types of nonrandom sampling?

Answer 17

accidental: using whatever has been left over time, ready made
convenience: ‘person on the street’, psychology uses this
purposive: when you select ppl that have certain characteristics
quota: like stratified, but without a list of the population
snowball: select people that have characteristics then look 4 friends

Question 18

True or false, you can use Snowball sampling for unpopular beliefs such as racism

Answer 18

True

Question 19

True or false, many researchers resort to convenience sampling to pretest questionnaires

Answer 19

True

Question 20

True or false, sampling is the most widely used technique for gathering information

Answer 20

True

Question 21

What is a margin of error?

Answer 21

the difference between the true value of a characteristic of the population and the value estimated from a random sample of the population

Question 22

What is a confidence interval?

Answer 22

a range in which the researchers expect the true value of a characteristic of a population to fall

Question 23

What is a confidence level?

Answer 23

a percentage of confidence you have in your confidence interval

Question 24

Your confidence in your survey can be changed by many things, What could they be changed by?

Answer 24

sample size, procedure in choosing sample size, construction and administration of questionnaire