sampling

Question 1

stratified

Answer 1

trengths:
Representative: Participants are selected in proportion to subgroups (e.g., gender, age), improving generalisability.
Reduced bias: It minimises researcher bias since subgroups are pre-defined.

Weaknesses:
Time-consuming and complex: Requires detailed knowledge of the population and careful subgroup organisation.
Not always practical: Hard to implement with large or hard-to-access populations.

Question 2

random

Answer 2

Strengths:
Avoids selection bias: Each individual has an equal chance of selection.
More likely to be representative (with a large sample).

Weaknesses:
Still risk of unrepresentative samples by chance, especially if sample is small.
Difficult to access full population list to randomly select from.

Question 3

opportunity

Answer 3

Strengths:
Quick, easy, and cost-effective: Use people who are readily available (e.g., people passing in a corridor).
Commonly used in real-life research settings.

Weaknesses:
Highly biased: The sample is unlikely to be representative (e.g., may all be psychology students).
Reduces population validity and generalisability.

Question 4

volunteer

Answer 4

Strengths:
Ethically sound: Participants choose to take part, usually giving informed consent.
Convenient: Easy to collect data, especially with online adverts.

Weaknesses:
Volunteer bias: People who volunteer may be more motivated, helpful, or have more time than the average person.
Reduces representativeness and introduces demand characteristics.