Sampling Flashcards
What is sampling?
Sampling refers to the ways in which participants from your study where gathered to take part in your research.
What is your target population?
The population that is being study in your investigation.
What is a random sample?
Where every member of the target population has an equal chance of being selected.
How can you gather a random sample?
-Random name generator on computer software. Place the names of the target pop on the name generator which will randomly allocate a list of participants to become your sample.
-Manual selection. Place the names of the target pop on pieces of paper, and randomly hand pick a select number to be your sample.
What is the strength of a random sample?
Avoids bias.
What is the weakness of a random sample?
-Not entirely representative of the entire target population.
-Practicality issues can arise when you need to know exact names of the population and can be time consuming.
What is an opportunity sample?
Your sample consists of participants who were readily available at the time the research was taking place.
What is a strength of an opportunity sample?
-Convenient and economical since participants are all available and a large sample can be gathered in a short period of time.
What are the weaknesses of an opportunity sample?
-Can be biased
-Sample is dependent on who is available at the time of the research, those who weren’t available could have impacted the results differently.
-Rarely representative of the entire target population.
What are the strength of a self selected sample?
-Convenient and practical since participants come to you.
-Can be beneficial for when you need to particular types of participants (e.g. only english students, or only people with a degree in maths).
What is a self selected sample?
The researcher has to advertise their study, and those who respond and express their interest in the research become the sample since they have volunteered to be involved themselves.
What is the weakness of a self selected sample?
Since participants come to you, those who were not interested could have significantly changed the results so the research may not be reflective of the entire target population.
What is snowball sampling?
A small number of the known target population is asked to introduce you to other members, who are then asked to introduce you to people who would be interested in being involved in the research. This is done in the hope that this small sample will snowball into a larger sample.
When is snowball sampling more commonly used?
When the subject is harder to locate or in instances where population listings may not be available. E.g. drug users or cult members.
What is the strength of snowball sampling?
It allows us to research study groups that are harder to access and locate in the first place. Therefore valuable information can be gathered which can be highly useful.
