research methods: population and sample

Question 1

what is meant by population?

Answer 1

.a group of people who are the focus of the researcher’s interest, from which a smaller sample is drawn

Question 2

what is meant by a sampling frame?

Answer 2

.a list of people in the (target) population from which the sample is drawn

Question 3

what is meant by a sample?

Answer 3

.a group of people who take part in the research investigation
.the sample is drawn from a (target) population and is presumed to be representative of that population

Question 4

what is meant by sampling techniques/methods?

Answer 4

.the method used to select people (the sample) from the population i.e. random sampling, stratified sampling, opportunity sample, volunteer sample

Question 5

what is meant by bias in terms of sampling?

Answer 5

.when certain groups are over- or under-represented within the sample selected (most samples)
.limits generalisation to the population

Question 6

what is meant by generalisation?

Answer 6

.the extent to which results from research can be broadly applied to the population
.this is possible if the sample is representative of the (target) population