*sampling

Question 1

4 types of sampling

Answer 1

• opportunity
• volunteer
• random
• stratified

Question 2

Opportunity

Answer 2

• members of the population that happen to be available at the time of research
• e.g. using the first 20 students who walk into a cafe to fill out a questionnaire
• choose a place where you can easily access people from your target population- e.g. a park, shopping centre, cafe
• ask if they want to take part in a study

Question 3

Strengths and weaknesses of opportunity sampling

Answer 3

• strength- quick and easy to gain a sample due to using whatever is available at the time, so results on… will have temporal validity as they will be published at a point when they are still relevant
• low gen- biased sample of people being in the same place at the same time, sharing similar traits so not representative
• low validity- experimenter bias- may place themselves in a place which would give them a sample based on the results they want to achieve

Question 4

Volunteer

Answer 4

• group of people put themselves forward to take part in research
• in response to advertisements
• would create a poster or flyer explaining a brief aim of they study… who you’re looking for and how to participate- e.g. a contact link
• place flyer in a place where the target population is likely to see it- e.g. on community notice boards, coffee shop etc
• strengths- quick and easy- ppts volunteer themselves so less time consuming, so…. Are released at a time when they are still relevant (temp validity)
• informed consent- high ethics
• weakness- low gen- unrepresentative sample- those who volunteer in…. Will have similar characteristics of liking/being good at etc… and so these shared traits make it unrepresentative of a wider population and people who don’t like….

Question 5

Random sample

Answer 5

• every member of the target population has an equal chance oof being chosen and involves every member being identified
• define who needs to be studied- e.g. all students at a school or employee in a workplace, shoppers between 10 am to 2 pm
• make a full list of everyone- e.g. using an employee register or electoral roll, if shoppers assign everyone who enters a number
• places names in a random generator and select a certain number
• or assign everyone a number from 1-100 and randomly select a number from a random generator
• invite these to participate
• high validity- everyone has an equal chance of being chosen- so sample isn’t biased
• time consuming- which can lower gen- smaller, more limited sample may have to be gathered

Question 6

Stratified sample

Answer 6

• randomly selecting a set number of people from separate categories (strata) of a target population
• target population is equally represented
• divide the population into meaningful characteristics e.g. age, 16-25, 26-45, etc
• estimate/electoral rolls/register etc percentage of people who are in that age bracket
• calculate how many people to sample from each group
• researchers would determine the strata for the…( e.g. student) population across the (educational psychology course) and then select (student) participants to emmet the proportions in each stratum, such as the different ethnicities or ages taking the course
• high gen- the strata used be equally representative of the target population
• high validity- no experimenter bias- everyone from the target population has an equal chance of being chosen
• low temp validity- most time consuming sampling method due to gaining all the names of the target population then categorising what is to be represented then randomly selecting from each strata- so may not be published at a time that benefits society