Sampling

• What is a sample?

  Representative of people who have the same characteristics as the target population, just a smaller group.
• What are sampling methods?

  Strategies used by researchers to select people from the target population to take part in their studies.
• What is opportunity sampling and its strengths and weaknesses?

  People who are available at the time and willing to take part are used. It is quick, easy, requires little planning and money. But researcher bias can occur and it is unrepresentative as it is from one place.
• What is self-selected sampling and its strengths and weaknesses?

  People who volunteer are used. + Reaches a wide variety of participants through social media.

  -Volunteers are similar as they are all interested so they are unrepresentative as they perform similarly.
• What is random sampling and its strengths and weaknesses?

  Everyone has an equal chance of being chosen as everyone in target population is avaliable. + No researcher bias. - Time consuming as everyone is collected.
• What is systematic sampling and its strengths and weaknesses?

  Selecting every nth number on the list. + Quick, easy and unbiased as everyone has equal chance. - Sample may not be representative.
• What is stratified sampling and its strengths and weaknesses?

  Selecting participants in proportion to their frequency in the target population, subgroups are identified and participants are selected at random. + Most representative as all subgroups represented and unbiased as it is random. - Time consuming as all subgroups need collecting.
• What is quota sampling and its strengths and weaknesses?

  The same as stratified but the researcher chooses who is the sample of each subgroup, it is not random. + Most representative. - Time consuming.
• What is snowball sampling and its strengths and weaknesses?

  Current participants recruit other participants who are suitable. + Enables difficult groups of people to be accessed. - Not representative as they may have similar characteristics.
• What is observational sampling and its strengths and weaknesses?

  Continuous observations are made to do with on going behaviour over specific amounts of time to see whether a behaviour occurs. + Enables frequent observations. - Time consuming and possibly unethical.
• How can u overcome a unrepresentative sample?

  Use a wide and varied sample selected by stratified sampling.