Sampling Methods Flashcards
What is opportunity sampling?
Asking members of the population of interest whether they would like to take part in your research.
What is an example of opportunity sampling?
Selecting students that you see walking out of the library to ask whether they would like to be in your study.
What is an advantage of opportunity sampling?
It is quick and easy to do and many participants can be found in this manner.
What is a disadvantage of opportunity sampling?
Researcher bias is increased as you tend to subconsciously choose people of a certain group-based category. This means the population of participants are less likely to be representative.
What is self-selected sampling?
The researcher uses people who volunteer to participate as participants.
What is an example of self-selected sampling?
Participants replying to a newspaper advertisement, willing to be in the study.
What is an advantage of self-selected sampling?
Quick and easy to do as well as being ethical because participants have volunteered.
What is a disadvantage of self-selected sampling?
Smaller sample groups as well as lack of representation due to the fact that the same type of people are most likely to reply to an ad or whoever sees the ad on social media first will volunteer.
What is random sampling?
A subset of individual chosen from a larger group of individuals that were randomly chosen.
What is an example of random sampling?
Drawing names out a hat or using a randomiser (computer generated wheel of names).
What is an advantage of random sampling?
The participants are chosen randomly so it is meant to be an unbiased representation of the total population.
What is a disadvantage of random sampling?
There is a chance that the group is unrepresentative, it may be time consuming and not every person chosen may be willing to become a participant.
What is systematic sampling?
Involves selecting every nth number on a list of a target population.
What is an example of systematic sampling?
Having a list of potential participants and going down the list picking every seventh person.
What is an advantage of systematic sampling?
Easy to do, no need for mathematics in order to find participants and no researcher bias.
What is a disadvantage of systematic sampling?
Potentially time consuming as well as unrepresentative.
What is stratified sampling?
Selecting participants in proportion to their frequency in the target population. Subgroups in the target population are identified and participants are selected at random for the sample of the same proportions
What is an example of stratified sampling?
If the target population was eleven and the subgroups were 18 men and 15 women all above age 25 they would be split 6:5.
What is an advantage of systematic sampling?
It is representative, there is no researcher bias and it is the most representative of all sampling techniques.
What is a disadvantage of stratified sampling?
It is time consuming and difficult to do.
