Psychology

• What is sampling bias?


  It occurs when samples do not reflect the target population.
• How does sampling bias affect research conclusions?


  It can lead to inaccurate or misleading conclusions.
• What does androcentric mean in research sampling?


  A sample that contains a large proportion of males.
• What does gynocentric mean in research sampling?


  A sample that contains a large proportion of females.
• What is cultural bias in research sampling?


  A sample that is too focused on one culture, isn’t representative of all cultures.
• What is ethnocentric bias? 


  It generalizes findings to other cultures without considering how cultures are different.
• What is population validity?


  The ability to generalize results from a sample to the target population and still hold true.
• What is opportunity sampling?


  It involves selecting anyone who is available at the time of research.
• How would you conduct opportunity sampling for a study on men's eating habits?


  Survey the first 20 males you find around college.
• What are the strengths of opportunity sampling?


  • Quick and easy to carry out
  • Relies on people who are around
  • Time efficient
  • Helps to collect participants with similar characteristics
  • Facilitates application of findings to a target population
• What are the weaknesses of opportunity sampling?


  • May not always be representative
  • Limited variety of participants
  • Difficult to generalize to a wider population
  • Increased chance of researcher bias
• Why might opportunity sampling lead to researcher bias?


  Researchers may only approach people they feel will give them desired responses.
• What is self-selected/ volunteer sampling?


  Participants choose themselves to take part in the study, via…

  • email surveys
  • singing up or applying to take part
  • responding to adverts or posters.
• What are the strengths of volunteer/ self-selected sampling?

  • Relatively easy as participants come to you
  • Participants likely to remain committed and not drop out (prevents chance of small unrepresentative sample)
  • can reach a wide variety of participants through advertising
• What is systematic sampling ?


  A systematic method is chosen for selecting from a target group e.g every fourth person in a list used as a participant. Differs from random sampling as it does not give an equal chance of selection to each individual in target group.
• strengths of systematic sampling:

  • Can provide unbiased sample as researcher has no part in deciding who is selected (less researcher bias, more validity)
  • more chance of gaining representative sample, varied sample from systematic formula
• What is random sampling?


  Every member of the population has a fair and equal chance of taking part