1

ASSIGNMENT 2

Quantitative Techniques in Business Research

“Sampling”.

Submitted to: Dr. Asma Salma

Submitted By: Sundas Jamil

BBA VII

2007-BBA-028
 2

Question 1:

A population consists of the following five values: 12,12,14,15 and 20

a) List all the samples of size 3 and compute the mean of each sample

In the population, we have the following five values (suppose for attendance of students).

A population consists of the following five values:

12, 12, 14, 15 and 20.

We consider this as follows;

Stude
Sr.No nts Classes Attended
1 A 12
2 B 12
3 C 14
4 D 15
5 E 20
sum
N=5 = 73

Population mean = ( Σ X) / N

Population
Mean = 14.6
 3

Using the size 3, we make ten samples explained as follows:

Sample 1 Sample 2
A 12 A 12
B 12 B 12
C 14 D 15
Sum Total = 38 Sum total = 39
Mean = 12.7 Mean = 13
Sample 3 Sample 4
A 12 B 12
B 12 C 14
E 20 D 15
Sum Total = 44 Sum Total = 41
Mean = 14.7 Mean = 13.7
SAMPLE 5 SAMPLE 6
B 12 C 14
C 14 D 15
E 20 E 20
Sum Total = 46 Sum Total = 49
Mean = 15.3 Mean = 16.3
SAMPLE 7 SAMPLE 8
C 14 B 12
D 15 C 20
A 12 D 14
Sum Total = 41 Sum Total = 46
Mean = 13.7 Mean = 15.3
Sample 9 Sample 10
D 15 A 12
E 20 D 15
A 12 E 20
Sum Total = 47 Sum Total = 47
Mean = 15.7 Mean= 15.7
 4

1
4.
Population Mean = 6
1
4.
Mean of Sample Mean = μ 6

Probability Distribution of a Sample Mean

SAMPLE MEANS FREQUENCY PROBABILITY

15.7 2.0 0.2
15.3 2.0 0.2
13.7 2.0 0.2
16.3 1.0 0.1
14.7 1.0 0.1
13 1.0 0.1
12.7 1.0 0.1
1
0.
0 1

Difference between the population and sample means is as follows:

Sample Number X- μ

1 1.93

2 1.60

3 -0.07

4 0.93

5 0.93
 5

6 -0.73

7 0.93

8 -0.73

9 -1.07

10 -1.07

Question 2:

What is sampling error? Could the value of sampling error be zero? If it were zero, what would
this mean?

Sample Error:
 6

When the measurements taken from a sample do not respond in a correct manner or there is a
variance from what exists in the population. The deviation is called the sample error. The
sampling error is also called the standards error and is the additive of different types of errors
when the results are derived from a population. (Wimmer and Dominick, 2005, p.102).

Explanation of Sample Error:

If samples are derived from one single population and if they do not have the same
characteristics or similar to that of the population. They will have different means and this
difference would be the sampling error.

In mathematical terms we can define it as the difference between the population mean and the
sample mean. It does not mean that there are mistakes in the sampling method but it is the
variation because of the selection of different individuals in a sample (Cohen, Manion and
Morrison, 2007).

Zero Sample Error:

As explained above sample error is not because of any measurement mistal=kes but the variance
that occur due to selection of different individuals in a sample. Thus the sampling error can be
zero. It is often seen that as the sample size is increased the value for sampling error also
increases and it can be decreased by decreasing the population size. The population size can be
reduced to a point when the sampling mean becomes equal to the population mean. At this point
the sampling error would be zero.

Question 3:

List the reasons for sampling. Give an example of each

 7

Sampling is employed in researches for a number of uses. Whenever one is studying a

population, it is not possible for one to study the whole population instead the researcher would
choose a sample that would be representative of the population.

Following are some of the reasons that researchers employ sampling.

1. It is economical: Sampling helps in studying a few representatives of the population which is

more economical. Restricting the study to a few samples from a population saves time as well as
money. E.g. a researcher is studying a disease he cannot take all the patients suffering from the
diseases but would take and study only a few patients selected through random sampling.

2. Quality of data increases:

When a study is done through a few samples rather than the whole population the quality oif the
data also increases since the time spent on studying each sample in detail is more and the
researcher would not get confuse while studying one sample at a time then when studying the
whole population as a whole.

e.g a researcher studying a diseases can study the diseases in detail by choosing a few patients as
samples for the study then going to study all patients. There will also be more variance and
higher error, when studying the whole population.
 8

References

Cohen, L., Manion, L and Morrison, K.R.B., (2007), Research methods in education ,
Routledge.

Wimmer, R.D. and Dominick, j.R., (2005), Mass media research: an introduction,
Cengage Learning.