CHAPTER 11 – SAMPLING

1. Population
 Entire group of people, events, things of interest that researcher wishes to investigate
 E.g. – the CEO of a computer firm wants to know the kinds of advertising strategies adopted by
computer firms, then all computer situated there will be the population
2. Element
 Single member of population
 E.g. – if 500 pieces of machinery are to be approved after inspecting, there would be 500
elements in this population
3. Population Frame
 Listing of all elements in the population from which sample is drawn
 E.g. – roster of class students could be the population frame for the study of students in a class
4. Sample
 Subset of population
 E.g. – 200 pieces of machinery out of 500 pieces
5. Subject
 Single member of the sample
6. Sampling
 Process of selecting sufficient no. of elements from the population
 Reasons
o Self evident
o Prohibitive in term of cost, time & other HR
 Probability
o When elements in population have a known chance of being chosen as subjects
o Unrestricted / Simple Random Sampling
 Every element has equal chance of being selected as a subject
 Least bias & offers the most Generalizability
 Expensive & cumbersome
o Restricted / Complex Probability Sampling
 Offer viable & more efficient alternative
 More information can be obtained
 Systematic sampling
a. involves drawing every nth element in the population starting with random
chosen element
b. E.g. – we want to sample 35 households from a total population of 260
houses, then we could sample every 7th house starting from a random no.
c. Problem – bias creeping into the sample
 Stratified Random Sampling
 Proportionate & Disproportionate Stratified Random Sampling
 Cluster Sampling
a. Groups of elements that would have heterogeneity among the members
within each group chosen for sampling
 Area Sampling
a. Research pertains to populations within identifiable geographical areas
such as countries, blocks, cities
b. Less expensive & not dependent on population frame
 Double Sampling
a. Sampling design where initially a sample is used in a study to collect
preliminary data of interest, & later a subsample of this primary sample is
used to examine the matter in more detail
  Nonprobability
o Elements in population do not have any probabilities attached the be chosen as sample
o Convenience Sampling
 Collection of information from members who are conveniently available to
provide it
 Best way of getting basic info quickly & efficiently
o Purposive Sampling
 Judgment Sampling
a. Choice of subjects who are most advantageously placed to provide
information required
b. E.g. – researcher wants to find out what it takes for women managers to
make it to the top, the only people who can give firsthand information are
the women who have risen the position
 Quota Sampling
a. Ensure that certain groups are adequately represented in the study through
the assignment of quota
7. Sampling in Cross Cultural Research
 Has to be sensitive to the issue of selecting matched samples in different countries
 Precision
o How close our estimate is to the true population characteristic
 Confidence
o How certain we are that our estimate will really hold true for the population