Sampling Flashcards
What is a sample?
The people who you survey or question when conduction social research
What is the whole population?
Everyone within a society
What is a target population?
Specific people you want to research
What is a sampling frame?
List of people from whom the sociologist choose their sample from
When sampling, who do you want to generalise?
The whole population
What population can you get access to?
The study population
How can you get access to a population?
The sampling frame
Who is your study?
The sample
What are the different types of sampling?
Random
Non-random
What is random sampling?
Uses probability to draw you a Representative sample
Who prefers random sampling?
Positivists because it is reliable
What is non-random sampling?
Uses different techniques when there is no sampling frame available
Who prefers non-random sampling?
Interpretivists because it is valid
What are random sampling techniques?
Simple random sampling
Sistimatic random sampling
Stratified random sample
What is simple random sampling?
Selecting a number of people from the sample at random
What is sistimatic random sampling?
Pick every nth name from a list
What is stratified random sampling?
Dividing population according to the number of people with the social characteristics required
Then choosing a random sample from the sub-groups finding proportions
What is a freak sample?
When the sample is not representative
What are non-random sampling techniques?
Quota sampling Snowball sample Purposive sampling Volunteer sampling Opportunity sampling
What is quota sampling?
Have a specific list of people you want to ask eg: 3 males
Ask the first people who fit the specific list
(They fit the quota)
What is snowball sampling?
Used when researching crime
Useful when access to a group is difficult
Find one person they are interested in and asking them to refer you to others
What is purposive sampling?
Used when a specific type of person is required
Sociologist goes and finds people who fit their sample
What is an example of purposive sampling?
Hodkinson researched goths
What is volunteer sampling?
When people self select themselves to be a research participant
No control over what type of people take part
What is opportunity sampling?
Using the people who are nearest to hand eg: family and friends
