sampling

• what is qualative data?

  more detail (written)
• what is quantative data?

  numerical data
• what is a population?

  a large group of people you are interested in studying
• what is a target population:

  a specific group of people you are interested studying (e.g children with autism under 6 years old)
• whats a sample?

  an even smaller group of the target population
• why do psychologists use a sample group?

  hope that it will be representative of the target population so that their results can be generalised to them
• what is an opportunity sample?

  • selected on the basis of who is available at the time and who is willing to participate
  • the most common type
  • it is cheap and easy to conduct
• what is a random sample?

  • every member of the target population has an equal chance of being included in the sample

  method:

  • a list of all members of the target populations is obtained
  • all of these names could be assigned a number
  • this sample would then be generated through the use of a lottery. method (computer-based randomised or picking numbers from a hat)
• what is a volunteer sample:

  • a sampling technique where participants self-select to become part of a study
  • they volunteer when asked or respond to an advert
• what is systematic sampling?

  • where every nth individual in a population is selected for inclusion in the sample.
  • there is a system to pick participants
• what is a stratified sample?

  • a sampling technique where the researcher divides or ‘stratifies’ the target group into sections
  • each section is representative of a key strata (or characteristic) that should be present in the final sample
  • you need an equation for this sampling
• what does strata mean?

  a sub-group
• what is the equation for stratified sampling?

  (sample size / population size) x stratum size