sampling

Question 1

What is a population?

Answer 1

A group of people who are the focus of the researcher’s interest

Question 2

What is a sample?

Answer 2

A group of people who take part in a research

Question 3

What are sampling techniques?

Answer 3

A method used to select people from the population

Question 4

What is a bias?

Answer 4

When certain groups are over or under-represented within a selected sample it limits generalisation which can be made to a target population.

Question 5

What is generalisation?

Answer 5

The extent to which findings/ conclusions can be broadly applied to the population

Question 6

What is a random sample?

Answer 6

This is where all members have an equal chance of being picked. This is done by making a list of all the names of the population, allocating a number to each name and the random numbers get picked out by a computer or from a hat.

Question 7

What are the strengths of a random sample?

Answer 7

There’s no researcher bias as they don’t know who will be picked

Question 8

What are the weaknesses of a random sample?

Answer 8

• time-consuming as getting a full list of names from the target population may be difficult
• may still end up with an unrepresentative sample
• those selected may not want to take part

Question 9

What is a systematic sample?

Answer 9

This is where every nth person is selected. this is done by producing a sample frame, deciding the nth number and picking out selected ppts.

Question 10

What are the strengths of a systematic sample?

Answer 10

• There’s no researcher bias as they don’t know who will be picked
• usually representative so generalisation is possible

Question 11

What are the weaknesses of a systematic sample?

Answer 11

time-consuming

Question 12

What is a stratified sample?

Answer 12

This is where the sample is representative of the people in the sub-groups of a target population. This is done by identifying the sub-groups and then calculating the proportions needed.

Question 13

What are the strengths of a stratified sample?

Answer 13

• There’s no researcher bias as they don’t know who will be picked
• representative so generalisation is possible

Question 14

What is an opportunity sample?

Answer 14

This is where the researcher selects anyone who appears to be willing and available at the time. This is done by asking anyone who is available at the time.

Question 15

What are the strengths of an opportunity sample?

Answer 15

It is easy as it saves money and time.

Question 16

What are the weaknesses of an opportunity sample?

Answer 16

• unrepresentative as it is drawn from a small area so generalisations can’t be made
• researcher bias

Question 17

What is a volunteer sample?

Answer 17

This is where ppts select themselves to take part in the study.

Question 18

What are the strengths of a volunteer sample?

Answer 18

Easy as ppts come to you

Question 19

What are the weaknesses of a volunteer sample?

Answer 19

Volunteer bias as it may attract a certain type of person ( keen and curious etc) which is not representative