SAMPLE AND POPULATIONS

When psychologists pose a question they must have a specific population in mind. The term population refers to the

entire group of research interest from which a sample is drawn.

Psychologists often study people (or animals) when conducting research. The participants being studied in the research
are called the sample. A sample is usually a subsection, or smaller group, of research participants selected from a larger
group (population) of research interest.
Population = the entire group of research interest (e.g. all year 12 students in Adelaide).

OVERVIEW
It is very difficult, often impossible, to gather data from everyone in the whole population to try to answer such questions. So,
researchers use information gathered from a small sample of participants. If the participants in the investigation are a
representative sample then the findings of the investigation can be generalized to the whole population.
To find a representative sample a psychologist may use random sampling to select the participants, at random, from the whole
population. Non-random sampling may produce a biased sample.
The square root of n is a large enough sample size, (n = size of entire population) so long as the sample has been randomly
selected.
Representation
Generally the rule in a psychological investigation is that the results of an investigation can only be generalised to a population
similar in make-up to the participants that took part.
For example if an experiment is carried out using students from an elite girls boarding school in Washington, USA, in the
1950s. The results of the study can only truly be assumed true for middle class, white, American girls from the 1950s. There
is no evidence that other groups in society would have behaved in the same way.
For this reason many of the historical investigations carried out by famous psychologists and the conclusions and theories
they drew are criticised for being biased towards a white, male and western view of the world (ethnocentrism). The awareness
of this bias is not a new thing and many fields of psychology are now aware of and actively investigate the cultural and subcultural differences found in behaviour. For example studies of altruism often yield opposite results carried out in the USA
compared to Zimbabwe (often cited as the least and most altruistic societies respectively).
Small or Unrepresentative samples

An unrepresentative sample is a sample which doesnt represent the population due to its size or that is biased in terms
of factors such as gender, age, socio-economic status or cultural groups.
Consideration must be given to just how representative the sample used is of the whole population under investigation.
For example with the population of year 12 students the sample would only be representative providing that students were
selected representing both genders, a range of ages (including adult re-entry students) and from a variety of schools both
public and private across Adelaide.
If a sample is not selected randomly then it is difficult to assume it is representative of any population, except the sample itself.
Take for example a sample which is one or two Psychology classes. They may not represent all students at the College
because: they are from a specific age group or they all showed a preference for studying a specific subject.
TYPES OF SAMPLING
But who are you going to try it out on?
Sampling techniques are very important. Several different types of sampling are used according to the type of study and the
subjects you want to target.
Random sampling: Everyone in the entire target population has an equal chance of being selected.
Opportunity sampling: Uses people from target population available at the time.
Systematic sampling: Chooses subjects in a systematic way. For example, every 10th person from a list or register.
Self-selected sample: Participants volunteer. For example, by answering an advert.
Stratified sampling: Divides target population into groups, people in sample from each group in same proportions as
population. So you would have a higher number of people between the ages of 20-30 than 70-80.

Learning Activity 2.15 Q1,Q2