Sampling Techniques

What is Target Population?

The collection of elements of objects that posses the information sought by the researcher and about
which inference are to be drawn.

Characteristic of Target Population:

 The target population must be defined precisely.
 Imprecise definition of the target population will result in research that will be misleading.
 The target population should be defined in terms of element sampling units.

What is Element?
An element is the object about which or from which the information is desired.

What is Sampling Unit?

A sampling unit is an element or unit containing the elements that is available for selection at some
stage of the sampling process.

Some Examples of Target Population:

 Under five children who suffer from nutritional status.
 All inject Able Drug Users (IDU)
 Sex workers of a brothel
 Fish processing workers of fish hatchery
 Garments workers of Dhaka city
 Bus/Truck drivers
 Rickshaw puller of J.U

Examples of Element:
 Each Rickshaw puller of J.U
 Each under five children of J.U campus.
 Each sex worker of a brothel

Examples of Sampling Unit:

 All rickshaw puller of J.U campus
 All under five children of J.U
 All sex worker of a brothel

What is Sampling Frame?

A sampling frame is a representation of the elements of the target population. It consist of a least or a
set of narrations for identify the target population.
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 Example:
 Name, age, sex of under five children with their father/mother.
 Name, age of Rickshaw pullers.

What is Simple Random Sampling?

If a sample size n is drawn from a population of size N such a way that every possible sample of size n
has the equal chance or probability of being selected in the sample called simple random sampling.

Planning a Survey
 Target population
 The frame
 Sample design
 Method of measurement
 Selection and training
 The protest
 Organization of field work
 Organization of data management
 Data analysis

Method of Sampling
Sampling techniques may be broadly classified as
1) Non Probability sampling
2) Probability sampling

1) Non-Probability Sampling:
Non-probability sampling relies on the personal judgment of researcher. Rather than chance to select
sample elements. The researcher can consciously decide what elements to include in the sample. Non
probability samples may yield good estimates of the population characteristics. But they do not allow
for observation lie evaluation of the precision of the sample results and to test-statistically.

What are the Different Types of Non-probability Sampling?

a) Convenience Sampling
b) Judgment Sampling
c) Quota Sampling
d) Snowball Sampling or(Networking Sampling)

a) Convenience Sampling:
Non-probability samples that are restricted are known as convenience samples. Restricted or field
workers have the freedom to choose whomever they find; thus the name convenience. Undoubtedly, it
is simplest and least reliable form of non probability sampling. The primary virtue is its low cost.

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 While a convenience sample has no control to ensure precision, this method is quite frequently used,
especially in market research and public opinion surveys. They are used because probability sampling
is often a time-consuming and expensive procedure and in fact, may not be feasible in many situations.

b) Judgment Sampling:
Judgment sampling or expert choice is one in which cases are included for investigation through a
planned selection procedure.

In judgment sampling, individuals are selected who are considered to be most representative of the
population as a whole. It is a judgment sampling because choice of the individual units depends on
entirely on the sampler.

c) Quota Sampling:
Quota sampling is a non-probability sampling, equivalent to a stratified sampling, in which the
interviewers are told to contact and interview a certain number of individuals from certain sub-groups
or strata of the population to make up the total sample.

For example, if it is known that one-third of the population lives in urban areas and two-thirds in rural
areas, the sample can be selected purposively from urban and rural areas in the same proportion. Thus a
total of 300 respondents would mean 100 urban residents and 200 rural residents to be included in the
study.

d) Snowball Sampling:
Snowball sampling is a non-probability sampling in which persons initially chosen for the sample are
used as informer to locate other persons having necessary characteristics making them eligible for the
sample through referral network.

Snowball sampling has been particularly used to study drug cultures, heroine addiction, teenage gang
activities etc.

2) Probability Sampling:
In probability sampling units are selected by chance or probability because sample elements are
selected by chance. It is possible to determine the precision of the sample estimates of the characteristic
of interest. Confidence intervals, which contain the true population value with a given level of certainty,
can be calculated. This permits the researcher to make inferences or projections about the target
population from which the sample was drawn.

Probability sampling techniques (methods) very in terms of sampling efficiency. Sampling efficiency is
a concept that reflects a trade off between sampling cost precision. Precision refers to the level of
uncertainty and the characteristic that being measured. Precision is inversely related to sampling errors
but positively related to cost. The greater the precision the greater the cost.

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 The probability samples are
1) Simple random sampling 3) Systematic random sampling
2) Stratified random sampling 4) Cluster-sampling

Sampling Error and Non-sampling Error:

Random sampling error occurs because the particular sample selected/accepted is an imperfect
representation of the population of interest.

What is Sampling Error?

Sampling error is the variation between true mean value for the population and the true mean value of
the sample.

Non-sampling Error:
Non-sampling error can be attributed to sources other than sampling and they may be random or non-
random.

Non-response Error:
Non-response error arises when some of the respondent included in the sample does not respond.

Response Error
Response error arises when respondent give inaccurate answer or their answers are misreported.

Other Sampling Errors:

 Sampling frame error
 Data analysis error
 Respondent selection error
 Questioning error
 Recoding error

Measurement Error:
By measurement error we understand & determining the true value of a variable or category of an
attribute of interest. If we do not do that we face measurement error.

Consider a population with true values . A sample of values is drawn, which

are assumed to defer from the true values in the sample such that

where is the difference between and i.e., . The estimator of the mean per

element would then be rather than . If , then the error of may be written

where the first term on the right is the sampling error and the second the measurement error.

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 The Potential Sources of Measurement Errors, Among Others, are
a) Failure to understand the questions by the respondents;
b) The respondents are unaware of the true answers to the question;
c) The questions are biased.

Write a Short Note on Sampling and Non-sampling Error.

The errors involved in the collection, processing and analysis of a data may be broadly classified under
the following two heads:
i) Sampling Error and
ii) Non-sampling Errors.

i) Sampling Errors:
The error, which arises entirely due to sampling and no other reasons can be attributed to cause such
error, is called sampling error.

In other words, sampling errors arise due to the fact that only a part of the population (i.e., sample) has
been used to estimate population parameters and draw inferences about the population. As such the
sampling errors are absent in a complete enumeration survey.

Sampling errors are due to the following reasons:

 Faulty selection of the sample
 Substitution
 Faulty demarcation of sampling units
 Constant error due to improper choice of the statistics for estimating the population parameters.

ii) Non-Sampling Errors:

Non-sampling errors can occur at every stage of the planning or execution of census or sample survey.
Non-sampling errors arise from the following factors.

 Faulty Planning or Definitions

 Response Errors
o Response errors may be accidental
o Prestige bias
o Self-interest
o Error due to interviewer
o Failure of respondent’s memory
 Non-response Errors
 Errors in coverage
 Compiling errors
 Publication errors.

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Estimation of Population Mean and Total:
The formula used for the totals and means of the samples and population are summarized in the
following table.
Population Sample

Total

Mean

From the table it follows that

and
Throughout the text we use as an estimator of population mean and as an estimator of the
population total . Since is being estimated by , the population total can logically be
estimated as a product of and , i.e.

The factor in by which the sample total is multiplied is sometimes called the expansion or

raising factor. Its inverse is known as sampling fraction and is usually denoted by i.e., .

The variance of the in a finite population of size is usually defined as

where is the population mean.

In fact, it appears more convenient in survey sampling to use a modified definition of the population
variance rather than . The modification is trivial provided the population size is large, for it
consists of replacing by :

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 Clearly, the difference between these two disappears for large population. In practice, the population
variance will not be known, but must be estimated from the sample observations. The counterpart
of obtained from the sample data is denoted by defined as

Properties of the Estimators:

Theorem:
The sample mean for a simple random sample of size is an unbiased estimator of the population
mean . Symbolically,

Proof:
By definition

Taking expectation

Now,

We now need to evaluate .By Property of simple random sampling we know the probability of

selecting a specify unit is .

Hence

Substituting this in

This completes the proof.

Corollary:
is an unbiased estimator of the population total. Since , it follows that

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Theorem:
In simple random sampling of units without replacement from a population of units, the
variance of the sample total and that of the sample mean are respectively

And

Where

Proof:
By definition

The first term of will consist of variance terms, and for each of these terms, the expected value
is the variance of the population elements. Thus,

Now consider the second term in the right-hand member of . When the sampling is without

replacement, the probability of obtaining on the draw is and the probability of obtaining

on the draw, knowing that has drawn is . Hence the probability of obtaining

on the draw and on the draw is .

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Hence the second term simplifies to

Therefore

Thus

Then, because

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 When the sampling is with replacement, we are left with only the first term of , since

and consequently

The variance of above based on samples without replacement differs from those with replacement

by the term . In other words, in sampling without replacement is only times

its value in sampling with replacement.

Provided that is large compared with ,

and is less than for any such that . Therefore, variance of without replacement is
less than the variance of with replacement. That is

In other words, for the same sample size, the simple estimator tends to vary less around the population
characteristics under sampling without than under with replacement. In this sense, then, sampling
without replacement should be preferred over sampling with replacement.

The factor is a correlation factor for the finite size of the population and is called Finite

Population Correlation . The sampling fraction is small when either the sample is small

or the population is large. In either case, the factor approaches and can be ignored. In such
cases, the variance of does not depend on , and there is little or no practical difference between
the two methods.

Theorem:
In simple random sampling of elements without replacement, is an unbiased estimate of .
Expressed symbolically

Proof:
By definition

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 Hence,

This proves the theorem.

Corollary:
In sampling with replacement,

That is,

So,

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Theorem:
The covariance between and in a simple random sample of units from a population of
units without replacement is

where

Also show that

where is the correlation coefficient between sample means and .

Proof:
Let , so that . The corresponding population mean of is .

We know that if the sample is drown without replacement then

Since
and

Now the second term of the right hand member of can be expanded as

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 Thus equation becomes

Equating and

On simplification

Hence the Proof.

Now by definition

Since in simple random sampling, the correlation between the means and is independent of the
sample size and is equal to the correlation between the individual observations.

Theorem:
From a simple random sample of size drown from units, simple random sub-sample units is

duplicated and added to the original sample. Show that the mean based on units is an unbiased
estimate of the population mean.

Proof:
Let represents values of the variable in the units of the population and let

be a random sample of size from than population. A sub-ample of size drawn

from values . Without any loss of generality we can assume that the sub sample

consists of the observations . The combined sample of size can be spitted

into the following two gaps.
 A sample of size , consisting of values each repeated twice and

 A sample of size consisting of the values

The estimate of the population mean based on the sample of size is given by

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 Where,

Since sample mean is an unbiased estimate of the population mean we get,

and
Taking expectation in both sides

Hence is an unbiased estimate of .

Advantages and Disadvantages of Simple Random Sampling:

Advantages:
 Simple random sample is simple to conceptualize
 Simple random sample provides foundation for much of statistical theory
 Simple random sample provides a basis to which other methods can be compared

Disadvantages:
 In simple random sample all enumeration units in the population must be identified and
labeled prior to sampling. This process is potentially so expensive and time consuming that it
becomes unrealistic to implement.
 Sampled individuals may be so widely dispersed that visiting each selected individual may be
extremely expensive and time consuming
 Certain sub-groups in the population may be totally overlooked or may be over-represented in
the sample as a result of chance factor. In either case, the estimated parameters are likely to be
in error.
 When the population measurements vary considerably in size, then simple random sample
produces larger variances than other methods of sampling.

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Simple Random Sampling on Proportion:
Suppose that every unit in the population of size falls into one of the two categories and .
Further let

For sample or population, let us define as follows:

Then for the population

and

And for the sample, let

Then

and

From and ,

Variance of the Estimators:

To make use of the results of the previous chapters on simple random sampling, we first express
and in terms of and respectively.

The variance of the in the finite population is expressible in the form

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 Since every assumes values and , so that

If is replaced by

Recalling that , we have an analogous result for the sample proportion:

when is large,

Theorem:
The variance of the sample proportion is

Proof:

Remark:

If is ignored, the above expression reduces to .

Corollary:
If , the variance of is

Proof:
Since , .

Hence using we get

and

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Requirements to Find out Sample Size:
To calculate the minimum sample size required for accuracy in estimating proportion. We need to know
find to answer the following questions
1. What are reasonable estimate of key proportions to be measured on the study?
2. What degree of accuracy do we want to have in our study?
3. What confidence level do we want to use?
4. What is the size of population that sample is supposed to represent?
5. If we are seeking to measure the difference between the two subgroups, what is the
minimum difference we expect to find statistically significant?

On the based of our answer to these five questions we can calculate the sample size needed to measure
a given proposition with a given degree of accuracy at a given level statistical significance by using a
simple formula provided that population is and above.

If is unknown then consider which maximizes the distribution

If the population is less than , then should be adjusted by finite population correction factor

Sample Size for Estimating Population Proportion:

If is a population proportion and is its corresponding proportion in the sample, then the variance
of is given by

we also know that

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For all practical purpose, is substituted by an advance estimate and we get from equation

If is very large then we get

In practice, we first calculate . If is negligible, is a satisfactory approximation to in

. If not, (i.e. is small compared to ), n is obtained as

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Sample Size for Estimating the Populations Mean:
Let denote the average of the observations from a simple random sample. Then its variance is given
by

we also know that

If is large then we get from equation

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 When is small compared to then

Expressing as a percentage of the population mean , we substitute in equation

And becomes

where is the square of the coefficient of variation of the variable. In particular, when
then for

and for with the same level of confidence

knowing , we can calculate with desired degree of precision.

Size of the Simple Random Sample for Specified Precision:

In planning any sample survey the first problem that a statistician is faced with is to determine the size
of the sample so that the population parameters may be estimated with a specified degree of precision.
The degree of precision is usually determined in terms of

i. the margin of error permissible in the estimate, and

ii. the confidence coefficient with which we want this estimate to lie within the permissible
margin of error.
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Let us consider the parameter , the mean of the population of size . We know that , the mean
of the sample of size is unbiased estimate of . If the permissible error in estimating is
and confidence coefficient is , then the sample size is determined by equation

where is the level of significance.

If is sufficiently large and , the Statistic

is a standard normal variate. If we take then we have,

Now, comparing equation and we get

This formula gives the sample size in for estimating with confidence coefficient
and margin of error , provided is large.

In general, if is small then the statistic if defined in equation follows student’s distribution
with . If is the significant value of distribution for and level of
significance then is given by the equation,

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Sample Size for the Intervention Project:
For the Intervention Project the Sample Size is given by-

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