Research Methods : Sampling Methods

Question 1

What’s the target population?

Answer 1

The group of people the researcher wants to study. It is too big to study everyone so a sample is needed.

Question 2

What’s a sample?

Answer 2

A small group of people who represent the target population and are in the study (are representative of the target population)

Question 3

What’s a sampling frame?

Answer 3

A list to specify the target population and those included in the study

Question 4

What’s random sampling?

Answer 4

Where every member of target population and sampling frame has as equal change of being chosen for the study

Question 5

Random Sampling advantages

Answer 5

• no bias as everyone has an equal chance of being chosen ( likely to be representative)

Question 6

Random Sampling disadvantages

Answer 6

• impractical as it takes time and effect to put together a sampling frame (you wont know everyone in the target population)
• not completely representative

Question 7

What’s opportunity sampling?

Answer 7

Recruiting anyone who happens to be available at the time of your study

Question 8

Opportunity Sampling advantages

Answer 8

• quick, easy and cheap as you are just choosing who you find
• useful for naturalistic experiments as researcher has no control over who’s being studied

Question 9

Opportunity Sampling disadvantages

Answer 9

• unrepresentative as participants are all selected from one place at one time

Question 10

What’s volunteer sampling?

Answer 10

When people actively volunteer themselves to be in a study by responding to a request which has been advertised by the researcher who then selects those suitable for the study

Question 11

Volunteer Sampling advantages

Answer 11

• convenient and economical
• can reach large audience (especially online)

Question 12

Volunteer sampling disadvantages

Answer 12

• sampling bias (particular people are more likely to volunteer so may be harder to generalise to general public - leading to bias as they may all display similar characteristics)

Question 13

What’s systematic sampling?

Answer 13

Selecting names from the sampling frame at regular intervals

Question 14

Systematic sampling advantages

Answer 14

• simple to carry out (if you have a sampling frame
• reduces researcher bias

Question 15

Systematic sampling disadvantages

Answer 15

• lots of redundant participants
• not truly random/ unbiased as not every person has same chance of being chosen - unrepresentative

Question 16

What’s stratified sampling?

Answer 16

Participants are selected from different subgroups (strata) in the target population in proportion to the subgroups frequency in the population

Question 17

Stratified sampling advantages

Answer 17

• most representative as its population valid

Question 18

Stratified sampling disadvantages

Answer 18

• knowledge of population characteristics required
• very time consuming ( lot of preparatory work)