Sampling Techinques (research methods)

Question 1

What are the key terms

Answer 1

Target population- the wider group of people that research findings should apply to
Sample- the section of the target population which is chosen to take part
Biased sample- a sample that is not representative of the target population
Representative sample - a cross section that is typical of the target population

Question 2

What are the different types of sampling ?

Answer 2

Opportunity 
Self selected 
Random 
Snowball 
Stratified

Question 3

What is opportunity sampling?

Answer 3

Participants are chosen because they are convenient- those who are there at the time and willing to take part

Question 4

What are the strengths of opportunity sample?

Answer 4

• less time consuming than other techniques because time is not spent planning and selecting. Convenient
• researcher can’t bias the selection. Because they just have to use who is there

Question 5

What are the weaknesses of opportunity sample ?

Answer 5

Unrepresentative because-
- there may be an imbalance of gender/age/ ethnic group

• if people come from the same locality they may be similar in terms of their characteristics( eg all psychology students) or they may have similar attributes

Question 6

What is self- selected sampling ?

Answer 6

Participants volunteer themselves to take part in the study, for example in response to a newspaper advertisement/ email

Question 7

What are strengths of self- selected sampling

Answer 7

• the ppts i your sample are liking volunteers- more ethical
• may be more likely to focus on the task and the It seriously
• may get a wide range of ppts

Question 8

What is random sampling ?

Answer 8

Every member of the target population has an equal chance of being selected e.g selected by a random number generator from the electoral roll
The target population is identified eg all y12 students in KES sixth form
A method is used to select a sample from all members
Eg all names out in a hat and 29 boys names and 20 girls names pulled out

Question 9

What are the strengths of random sampling ?

Answer 9

• It avoids bias as the researcher has no control over who is selected
• The researcher will normally get a representative sample

Question 10

What are weaknesses of random sampling ?

Answer 10

• it is time consuming because all potential participants need to be identified before a sample can be drawn.
• there is a small chance that a ‘freak’ sample may be drawn, which would be unrepresentative eg 20 females 5 males

Question 11

What is snowball sampling ?

Answer 11

Pick one person from the target population to take part and ask them to tell a friend to come and take part and so on

Question 12

What are the strengths of a snowball sampling

Answer 12

Useful when the ppts you need are not easy to find eg a study on students taking illegal substances

Question 13

What are the weaknesses of snowball sampling ?

Answer 13

Can be highly unrepresentative

Question 14

What is stratified sampling ?

Answer 14

Mirroring proportions of the whole situation

Question 15

What are strengths of stratified sampling ?

Answer 15

Should be representative of the target population

Question 16

What are weaknesses of stratified sampling ?

Answer 16

Time consuming because the categories have to be identified and calculated