sampling Flashcards
sampling
Often when Sociologists do research, the whole group they want to study is too large to reach, therefore they choose a smaller portion of the group to study, this is called a sample.
survey/ research population
group/people researcher wants to study
sampling technique
the type of sampling method used to pick the sample
sampling unit
one member of the sample
sampling frame
list of group/ people from which sample will be taken
sample attrition
loss of sampling units
random sampling
where names are drawn compleatley random from a list
systematic sampling
names are selected at regular intervals
stratified random sampling
the survey population split into categories based on characteristics
random selection taken from each catagory
quota sampling
where a researcher must select a certain number of people in particular categories
snowball sampling
the researcher finds one person with the characteristics they want to research
volunteer sample
an open invitation for people to volunteer for the research
multi stage sampling
one sample is picked using one if the sampling techniques than a smaller sample is chosen within that sample.
non-representative sample
a sample is deliberately chosen to focus on a particular characteristic of participants
representative sampling advantages
data obtained from representative sampling can be used to make generalists (positivists)
sample can be relatively small because it accurately reflects the survey population
representative sampling disadvantages
an accurate and up to date sampling frame may not be available or difficult to find
the cost and time involved in creating a sampling frame, contacting these selected may be too much
can still be unrepresentative if those selected from the sample are not willing to participate
non-representative sampling advantages
can be favoured by interpretivists because they are not interested in making generalisations and can allow a deeper understanding of a group/individual
used when there’s no sampling frame available
useful when the researcher knows nothing about the characteristics of the target population
quick/cheap method as no sample frame needs to be obtained
non representative sampling disadvantages
sample may be unrepresented and therefore not able to be used for generalisations
could lead to statistically inadequate samples
