QLR: The Sample

Maria Carmela L. Domocmat, PhDN(cand), RN

Associate Professor
Manila Adventist College
 Overview
• Selecting the Sample
• Types of Samples
• Sample Size
WHAT IS SAMPLING?
• Sampling is the process of systematically
selecting that which will be examined
during the course of a study.
• Sampling is an important consideration
in qualitative studies.
• The sample selected must be one that
will allow the researcher to address the
research question posed.
SELECTING A SAMPLING
STRATEGY
Selecting a Sampling Strategy
• In decisions about whom to interview,
researchers are commonly guided by
the paradigm, or theoretical framework,
they have chosen for a study.
• The challenge for the qualitative
researcher is to select participants who
will be able to provide the most
meaningful information on the topic.
• begin with “minimum samples based on
expected reasonable coverage . . . given the
purpose of the study and stakeholder
interests” (Patton 1990, p. 186).
• Once in the field, you will make a decision as
to whether you need to expand your sample.
• Altering the subgroup composition in your
design is justified in qualitative research if
doing so will enrich your findings.
 RECRUITING PARTICIPANTS
• Study participants are drawn from a
community, any of its institutions
• Ex: clinics, schools, churches,
workplaces, bars), or wherever people
are willing to share knowledge and
experience related to the research
topics.
• visit sites where potential participants
gather
– chat informally with people and select an
initial sample based on the apparent
readiness of individuals to address the
research issues.
• clinic records or membership lists serve
as a sampling frame, particularly when
individuals in the frame share a common
characteristic of interest to the research
• selection criteria
• Population
– Term used to describe a complete set of
person or objects that possess same
characteristics that are of interest of the
researcher
SAMPLING TECHNIQUES
Please keep in mind that a strong research
design and analytical approach will:
• Incorporate more than one of the sampling
strategies
• Include an iterative sampling approach
whereby the research team moves back
and forth (iterating) between sampling and
analyzing data such that preliminary
analytical findings shape subsequent
sampling choices.
 Sample Selection Techniques
1. Typical Cases 12. Confirming and
2. Extreme Sampling disconfirming cases
3. Intensity Sampling 13. Politically important cases
4. Homogeneous Samples 14. Random purposeful
5. Heterogeneous Samples 15. Stratified purposeful
6. Snowball Sampling 16. Criterion
7. Opportunistic Sampling 17. Convenience Sampling
8. Volunteer sampling
9. Triangulation Sampling Note: All are purposive
10. Critical Case sampling technique except
the convenience sampling
11. Theory based
 Typical Cases
• The process of selecting or searching for
cases that are not in anyway atypical,
extreme, deviant or unusual.
• Often in operations research or
evaluation, it is useful to describe a
typical case, program, or participant that
serves as a profile for understanding the
principal features of a group of
programs or a class of individuals.
 Typical Cases
Why use this method?
• Identifying typical cases can help a
researcher identify and understand the
key aspects of a phenomenon as they are
manifest under ordinary circumstances.
• Providing a case summary of a typical
case can be helpful to those not famililar
with a culture or social setting.

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 Extreme Sampling
• or deviant sampling
• extreme cases are selected in order to
highlight and understand conditions or
characteristics of more typical situations.
Why use this method?
• Identifying extreme or deviant cases is a
sampling strategy that occurs within the
context of and in conjunction with other
sampling strategies.
• The process of identifying extreme or deviant cases occurs after
some portion of data collection and analysis has been completed.
• Researchers seek out extreme or deviant cases in order to
develop a richer, more in-depth understanding of a phenomenon
and to lend credibility to one's research account.

•
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Ex:
Browne’s (1987)
When Battered Women Kill
Uses extreme responses to domestic
violence to provide an insight into the
effects of domestic violence and the
process and structure of experiences
involved.
 Negative or Deviant Case
Analysis
• involves searching for and discussing elements
of the data that do not support or appear to
contradict patterns or explanations that are
emerging from data analysis.
• Deviant case analysis is a process for refining
an analysis until it can explain or account for a
majority of cases.
• Analysis of deviant cases may revise, broaden
and confirm the patterns emerging from data
analysis.
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 Intensity Sampling
• focuses on excellent, but not necessarily extreme,
examples of the phenomenon.
• Samples are small and rich in information but not
unusual, such as in the case of people with
particular experience in the topic or clinics that
provide services relevant to the research
problem.
• The process of selecting or searching for rich or
excellent examples of the phenomenon of
interest. These are not, however, extreme or
deviant cases. http://www.qualres.org/HomeSamp-3702.html
Why use this method?
• Intensity sampling can allow the researcher to
select a small number of rich cases that
provide in depth information and knowledge of
a phenomenon of interest.
• As Patton (2001) points out, intensity sampling
requires prior information and exploratory
work to be able to identify intense examples.
• One might use intensity sampling in
conjunction with other sampling methods. For
example, one may collect 50 cases and then
select a subset of intense cases for more in
depth analysis.
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 Homogeneous Samples

• Sample is selected to minimize variation

and to maximize homogeneity in order
to describe the experience or process in
as much as depth and detail as possible
(Rice and Ezzy, 1999)
 Homogeneous Samples
• Homogeneous sampling is used when
the goal of the research is to understand
and describe a particular group in
depth.

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 Homogeneous Samples
• People in homogeneous samples have
basically similar characteristics.
• appropriate if you are studying one or
more groups in depth.
• Focus groups (FGDs) typically use this
approach, stimulating people with a
common identity to discuss their shared
experiences.
 Heterogeneous Samples
• Or Maximum variation
• Useful for studying issues that cut across
individual or program variation.
• Qualitative investigators sampling from a
diverse population may want to highlight
variation in some complex phenomenon
• Often, researchers want to understand
how a phenomenon is seen and
understood among different people, in
different settings and at different times.
• When using a maximum variation
sampling method the researcher selects
a small number of units or cases that
maximize the diversity relevant to the
research question.
•
• The case is specifically selected because
it is not in any way atypical, extreme,
deviant or intensely unusual (Patton, 1990, p.
173).
• Used when the units of analysis are
large
– Ex: selecting a typical village in a study of
villages in developing countries.
 Snowball Sampling
• Or Chain sampling
• involves utilizing well informed
people to identify critical cases or
informants who have a great deal of
information about a phenomenon.
• a technique for locating informants by
asking others to identify individuals or
groups with special understanding of a
phenomenon.
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 Snowball Sampling
• The investigator asks each participant to
suggest others with similar ability to
address the issues, beginning with such
questions as:
– Who knows a lot about . . . ?
– Where can I find good examples of what
you’re talking about?
 Snowball Sampling
• Because informants with special
expertise can likely identify other
knowledgeable people, this technique
can be a valuable one when the
researcher does not know the field.
 Snowball Sampling
• It is also useful when individuals with the
knowledge or experience to provide
rich data are difficult to reach, such as
secluded women, people whose
behavior or lifestyle deviates from social
norms, or anyone fearful of public
exposure.
 Opportunistic or emergent
sampling
• occurs when the researcher makes
sampling decisions during the process of
collecting data. This commonly occurs in
field research. As the observer gains
more knowledge of a setting, he or she
can make sampling decisions that take
advantage of events, as they unfold.

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 Opportunistic Sampling
• Because qualitative strategies can
change in response to findings as they
emerge in the field, you may need to
select additional study participants—
making an “on-the-spot decision to
take advantage of unforeseen
opportunities after fieldwork has
begun” (Patton 1990, p. 179).
 Volunteer Sampling
• Samples are often drawn through
advertising
• Useful when potential participants are
dispersed throughout the community or
difficult to contact directly
• But typically biased.
 Volunteer Sampling
• Ex: people living with HIV –
systematicaly biased to exclude people
who are denying or ignoring their HIV
status.
• Get samples through Internet - biased
to those who do not have internet
 Convenience Sampling
• Sampling by convenience
• Doing what’s fast and convenient
• Most common but least desirable
 Convenience Sampling
• A process of selecting subjects or units
for examination and analysis that
is based on accessibility, ease, speed,
and low cost.
• Units are not purposefully or
strategically selected.

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 Convenience Sampling
• least desirable sampling method, and
researchers should typically avoid using
it.
• More rigorous alternatives include
purposeful and other strategic sampling
methods.
 Critical Case
• The process of selecting a small number
of important cases - cases that are likely
to "yield the most information and have
the greatest impact on the development
of knowledge" (Patton, 2001, p. 236).

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 Critical Case sampling
Why use this method?
• This is a good method to use when funds are
limited. Although sampling for one or more
critical cases may not yield findings that are
broadly generalizably they may allow
researchers to develop logical generalizations
from the rich evidence produced when studying
a few cases in depth.
• To identify critical cases, the research team
needs to able to identify the dimensions that
make a case critical.
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 Theory based
• The process of selecting "incidents,
slices of life, time periods, or people on
the basis of their potential manifestation
or representation of important theoretical
constructs" (Patton, 2001, p. 238).

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 Theory based
Why use this method?
• This method is best used when the
research focuses on theory and concept
development and the research team's
goal is to develop theory and concepts
that are connect to, grounded in or
emergent from real life events and
circumstances.

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Confirming and disconfirming
cases
• Identification of confirming and
disconfirming case occurs after some
portion of data collection and analysis
has already been completed.

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• This is the process of selecting cases that
either:
– serve as additional examples that lend
further support, richness and depth
to patterns emerging from data analysis
(confirming cases)
– serve as examples that do not fit emergent
patterns and allow the research team
to evaluate rival explanations (disconfirming
cases). This can help the research team
understand and define the limitations of
research findings.

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Confirming and disconfirming
cases
Why use this method?
• Identifying confirming and
disconfirming cases is a sampling strategy
that occurs within the context of and in
conjunction with other sampling strategies.
• Researchers seek out confirming and
disconfirming cases in order to develop a
richer, more in depth understanding of a
phenomenon and to lend credibility to one's
research account.
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 Politically important cases
• The process of selecting or searching for
a politically sensitive site or unit of for
analysis.
Why use this method?
• Studying politically salient sites may
draw attention to the research and its
findings, potentially enhancing the
likelihood the research is noticed, used
and has an impact.
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 Purposeful Random
Sampling
• The process of identifying a population
of interest and developing a systematic
way of selecting cases that is not based
on advanced knowledge of how the
outcomes would appear.
• The purpose is to increase credibility not
to foster representativeness.

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 Random purposeful
Why use this method?
• The use of a randomized sampling
strategy, even when identifying a small
sample, can increase credibility.

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Stratified Purposeful Sampling
• Patton (2001) describes these at
samples within samples and suggests
that purposeful samples can be stratified
or nested by selecting particular units or
cases that vary according to a key
dimension

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Stratified Purposeful Sampling
Why use this method?
• can lend credibility to a research study.
• When enough information is known to
identify characteristics that may
influence how the phenomenon is
manifest, then it may make sense to use a
stratified purposeful sampling approach.

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• For example, one may purposefully
sample primary care practices and
stratify this purposeful sample by
practice size (small, medium and large)
and practice setting (urban, suburban
and rural).
• Stratified purposeful sampling is
different from stratified random sampling
in that the sample sizes are likely to be
too small for generalization.
 Criterion sampling
• Criterion sampling involves selecting
cases that meet some predetermined
criterion of importance (Patton, 2001, p. 238).

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• Ex:
• Every patient at a practice receives a
satisfaction survey at the end of his or her visit.
• Satisfaction with how the patient felt his or her
primary reason for visit was handled is assess
via a 5 point likert scale with 1 = 'not at all
satisfied' and 5= 'extremely satisfied.'
• To better understand patients who are not
satistied with the care provided, the practice
calls and conducts a telephone interview with
all patients completing the survey who report a
score of 2 or lower for this measure.
 Criterion sampling
Why use this method?
• useful for identifying and understanding
cases that are information rich.
• can provide an important qualiative
component to quantitative data.
• can be useful for identifying cases from a
standardized questionnaire that might be
useful for follow-up.
 Triangulated Sampling
• Other sampling strategies are combined
to suit the particular needs of a research
project
• Ex: Karp (1996) study about depression
He began with friends and acquaintances
whom he knew suffered from depression –
(convenience sampling). He followed this
with snowball sampling from this group.
SAMPLE SIZE
• How many should be your sample size?
• Sample size is an important
consideration in qualitative research.

• Typically, researchers want to continue

sampling until having achieved
informational redundancy or saturation --
the point at which no new information or
themes are emerging from the data.
 "determining adequate sample size in
qualitative research is ultimately a
matter of judgement and experience" and
researchers need to evaluate the quality of
the information collected in light of the uses
to which it will be put, and the research
method, sampling and analytical
strategy employed (Sandelowski, 1995)
 Iterative Sampling
• Iterative sampling involves a process
whereby researchers move back and forth
between selecting cases for data collection
and engaging in a preliminary analysis of
the cases sampled.
• The idea is that what emerges from data
analysis will shape subsequent sampling
decisions.
 Iterative Sampling
• The process of iterative sampling and
analysis continues until researchers
reach saturation - when no new information
or new themes are emerging from data
analysis.
 Theoretical or A Priori
• Theoretical Sampling
– appropriate when main purpose of data
collection is to generate substantive theory
(Strauss and Corbin 1990).
– “Given what I am learning, what information
do I need next and where—or in what
groups—will I find it?” (Flick 1998, p. 65).
 Selection:
Theoretical or A Priori?
• A priori sampling
– approach most familiar to applied
researchers in public health.
– The researcher define in advance of data
collection the sample’s characteristics and
structure.
• The most important consideration in
qualitative sampling is the data’s
richness, or explanatory value.
• Ex: adolescent health
 Sample Size
• In qualitative studies optimum size is less
clear
• collect information representative of the
range of experiences, perspectives, and
behaviors relevant to the research
question.
 Sample Size in Qualitative
Research
• No explicit, formal criteria
• Sample size determined by informational
needs
• Decisions to stop sampling guided by
data saturation
• Data quality can affect sample size
 Sample Size
• Collect data from as many groups or
individuals as necessary to answer research
questions.
• When little new information is coming from
observations, interviews, or focus group
discussions
• can be reasonably confident that you have
saturated that source of information to the
point of redundancy
(Glaser and Strauss, 1967).
 Sampling in the Three Main
Qualitative Traditions
• Ethnography
▪ Mingling with many members of the
culture
▪ Informal conversations with 25 to 50
informants
▪ Multiple interviews with smaller number of
key informants
 Sampling in the Three Main
Qualitative Traditions (cont’d)
• Phenomenology
▪ Relies on very small samples (often 10
or fewer)
▪ Participants must have experienced
phenomenon of interest
 Sampling in the Three Main
Qualitative Traditions (cont’d)
• Grounded theory
▪ Typically involves samples of 20 to 30
people
▪ Selection of participants who can best
contribute to emerging theory (usually
theoretical sampling)
 Sources
• Gay, et al. (2011)
• Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2004). Nursing
research: Principles and methods.
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
• Spezial & Carpenter. (2003)
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Retrieved from
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3702.html