41
2
MOSER-QUO~U
[Part
111,
ampling
The final part then attempts to suggest which are the aspects of quota sampling on which theresearch should concentrate.
The Usual Case Against Quota Sampling
The selection of the final sample units by the quota method is usually criticized on the followinggrounds
:
(a)The use of random selection-implying that the probability of inclusion of populationunits in the sample is known-makes it possible to attach standard errors to the sample estimates.Quota sampling does not meet the basic requirement of randomness, and
it
is thus not legitimate,from a theoretical viewpoint, to calculate standard errors for quota sample results.
(6)
Quota samplers invariably attempt, as one of their controls, an economic or social break-down of the sample. Two objections can be made against this type of control. In the first place,it is inevitably based on a hazardous statistical foundation. There are no official or other reallyreliable figures of social or economic classes. In the second place, these controls are inevitablydefined
in
vague terms. The interviewer uses his or her judgment in deciding to which "class"the respondent belongs, so that there is room for bias.
(c)
Bias may be introduced because,
within
the quotas, interviewers may not secure a repre-sentative sample of respondents. For instance, although the required number of working-classpersons is included in the sample, interviewers may have chosen people towards the upper levelsof the working class. Or, again, the top age-group of
65
and over may be filled by persons of
65
and 66, so that the very old people are under-xepresented. Similarly, the sample might under-represent housewives with outside jobs or with very large families. In all such cases a biasedsample would result.These are hypothetical examples of what is the crucial problem of quota sampling.Giventhat all the quotas are correctly and honestly filled-i.e., that every sample unit is in the cell towhich it properly belongs-is the spread within the cells such that an unbiased sample emerges?
In
other words, can human choice do what is expected of random selection?The extreme form of the unrepresentativeness argument is that, even if the quota sample iscorrect on the controls
and
most of the uncontrolled variables as well, it may still be unrepre-sentative with regard to the variable under study.
(d)
Bias inay arise through the peculiarity of the interview situation. In so far as people areinterviewed in the streets or in their offices or factories, biased information may be obtained.
(e)
Objection is sometimes made to quota sampling, not merely because the interviewer hastoo much freedom
in
choosing respondents, but because the method allows altogether too littleoffice control of the fieldstaff. It is more difficult to check on the honesty of interviewers in thecase of quota than in that of random sampling; and the former method probably offers moretemptations to the unscrupulous interviewer. For instance, investigators may place respondentsin the cells where cases are needed or difficult to find, rather than in those to which they reallybelong. This may apply particularly with vague controls, such as "social class".
The Usual Case for Quota Sampling
We now turn to the arguments usually put forward in favour of this method. Some of thepoints here are answers to the above criticisms, rather than positive advantages:
(a)
Two points are often made in reply to the first criticism above. Firstly, it is justifiablyargued that random samples as se!ected and as achieved are two different things. In practice,some of the original sample is not obtained on account
of
refusals and non-contacts. In fact,random sampling is not free from bias, and the standard errors are attached to what may, in fact,be a biased final sample. Secondly, it is argued that sampling errors are
0:
comparatively smallimportance as against the very considerable and intractable non-sampling errors which arisein the collection of the data. Consequently, to criticize quota sampling on the grounds thatsampling errors cannot be calculated is to concentrate on a relatively minor issue. (The mainpoint of that criticism still .stands, namely that in quota sampling, owing to the absence of thecondition of randomness, one does not know the accuracy of any particular sample.)
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