social methods

Question 1

what is a sample

Answer 1

participants you are using in your study

Question 2

why is a sample important

Answer 2

• the purpose of research is to create results which can be generalised beyond participants
• we need to try and make sure our sample is varied

Question 3

what is a target population

Answer 3

• group of people we wish to investigate
• can be specific
• can be all humans

Question 4

what are the types of sampling

Answer 4

-random
- opportunity
- stratified
- volunteer

Question 5

what is random sampling

Answer 5

identify target population and choose at random
- assign a number and random number generator
- names in a hat and choose on

Question 6

what is volunteer sampling

Answer 6

place an advert and people answer the advert by volunteering to take place

Question 7

what is opportunity sampling

Answer 7

approach people available at the time and ask them to take part

Question 8

what is stratified sampling

Answer 8

• classify population into categories
• sample matches those proportion of those categories
• e.g. population 60/40 sample 60/40

Question 9

strengths and weaknesses of stratified sampling

Answer 9

strengths
- limits the numbers needed to ensure representative sample
- more representative as an effort is made to ensure to identify important characteristics of target population
weaknesses
- can be very time consuming as each relevant category needs to have their proportion calculated
- need to make sure we focus on ‘important groups’

Question 10

strengths and weaknesses of opportunity sampling

Answer 10

strength
- quick and convenient therefore the most economical
weakness
- involves selecting the participants available at the time the research taking place
- biased and unrepresentative of the target population because participants all share characteristics

Question 11

strengths and weaknesses of volunteer sampling

Answer 11

strength
- convenient and ethical as people choose to be involved, so we don’t have to go find them and we have some form of consent
weakness
- biased and unrepresentative of the target population because participants all share characteristics

Question 12

strengths and weaknesses of random sampling

Answer 12

strength
- the choice is not biased on the part of the researcher
- can be done by putting the names of the every member of the target population in a hat or using a randomising programme
- each member of the target population has the same chance of being selected this makes it fair and unbiased
weakness
- those selected may not be able to attend or take part in the study as required

Question 13

when do you use standard deviation

Answer 13

looking for a measure of spread of scores from the mean