Sampling Methods

Question 1

What are the 7 types of sampling?

Answer 1

• Opportunity sample
• Simple random sample
• Systematic sample
• Self-selected sample
• Stratified sample
• Cluster sample
• Quota sample.

Question 2

What is the sampling frame?

Answer 2

A list of the population.

Question 3

What is an opportunity sample?

Answer 3

• Taking samples from people who are available at the time and fit the criteria
• Easy in terms of time and money
• Can produce a biased sample due to the researcher choosing people from own social and cultural group
• Participants may decline and it becomes self-selected
• No sampling frame.

Question 4

What is a simple random sample?

Answer 4

• Every member of the population has an equal chance of being chosen
• Involves choosing at random the samples, e.g. drawing tickets out of a box
• Isn’t always possible since you may not have a list of everyone in the population.

Question 5

What is a systematic sample?

Answer 5

• Involves choosing individuals to form a sample
• For example, if the parent population was all year 11 students in a school, you would get an alphabetic list and choose every 10th one.

Question 6

What is a self-selected sample?

Answer 6

• Individuals in the sample have chosen to be in it
• For example if someone responds to an advert to be included in the sample
• People volunteer
• Quick
• Not representative.

Question 7

What is a stratified sample?

Answer 7

• If the parent population can be divided into subgroups, or strata, then stratified sampling ensures all strata are sampled
• If numbers sampled from each strata are proportional to the sizes of the strata, then this is proportional stratified sampling.

Question 8

What is a cluster sample?

Answer 8

• If the population can be and is divided into subgroups representative of the population, a sample can be taken from one of these subgroups
• For example divided into towns or countries.

Question 9

What is a quota sample?

Answer 9

• Similar to a stratified sample, but is specified in terms of the number of data items required within each stratum
• This is often used by interviewers, where the selection of samples is up to them
• Asking them if they meet the criteria.