Inquiries,Investigations

and Immersion
Quarter 3 – Module 7:
Population and Sampling Methods
Lesson 2:
 Common sense and research both involve an attempt to understand various aspects
of our world. However, research but arguably not common sense, involves an explicit,
systematic approach to finding things out, often through a process of testing out our
preconceptions.
This process begins with deciding on your research question as student-researcher.
Again, it is necessary to conduct your literature review and to decide on a research
design which addresses the research question. Decisions made at this point include
considering what kind of data you will be collected, and who will be invited to
participate.
In our first lesson, measurements tell you how often or how many people were
selected for the study. Your research question involves exploring how much or how
often something happens. It is probably appropriate to use quantitative
research.
 If the research question involves exploring how people experience something or what
their views are, exploring a new area where issues are not yet understood or properly
identified (e.g., before developing questionnaire items), assessing whether a new
service is implementable, and looking at ‘real-life’ context, or a sensitive topic where
you need flexibility to avoid causing distress, the study needs to be discussed
through qualitative research. Qualitative research attempts to broaden and/or deepen
our understanding of how things came to be the way they are in our social world. The
activities on this module will help you better understand the non-probability
sampling for your qualitative study.
In a non-probability sample, individuals are selected based on nonrandom
criteria, and not every individual has a chance of being included. This type of
sample is easier and cheaper to access but it has a higher risk of sampling
bias. You cannot use it to make a valid statistical inference about the whole
population.

Nonprobability sampling techniques are often appropriate for exploratory and

qualitative research. In these types of research, the aim is not to test a
hypothesis about a broad population, but to develop an initial understanding
of a small or under-researched population.
 Qualitative student-researchers typically make sampling choices that enable
them to deepen understanding of whatever phenomenon it is that they are
studying. In this lesson, we will examine the strategies that qualitative
researchers typically employ when sampling as well as the various types of
samples that qualitative researchers are most likely to use in their work.
Non-probability sampling refers to sampling techniques for which a person’s
(or event’s or researcher’s focus) likelihood of being selected for membership
in the sample is unknown. Because we do not know the likelihood of selection,
we do not know with non-probability samples whether a sample represents a
larger population or not.
In most cases, it is acceptable because representing the population is not the
goal with non-probability samples. The fact that these samples do not
represent a larger population does not mean that they are drawn arbitrarily
or without any specific purpose in mind..
In the following discussion about the types of non-probability samples, we will
take a closer look at the process of selecting research elements when drawing
a non-probability sample. But let us first consider why a student-researcher
like you might choose to use a non-probability sample.
Non-probability samples are ideal when we are designing a research project.
For example, if we are conducting survey research, we may want to administer
our survey to a few people who seem to resemble the folks we are interested
in studying in order to work out kinks in the survey. We may also use a non_x0002_probability sample at the early stages of a research project, if we are
conducting a pilot study or exploratory research.
This can be a quick way to gather an initial data and help us get ideas of the
lay of the land before conducting more extensive study. From these examples,
we can see that non-probability samples can be useful for setting up, framing,
or beginning research but remember that it is not only the early-stage
research that relies on and benefits from non-probability sampling
techniques.
There are number and variety of instances in which the use of non-probability
samples make sense.

Types of Nonprobability Samples

There are several types of non-probability samples that researchers use.
These include purposive samples, snowball samples, quota samples, and
convenience samples. While the latter two strategies may be used by
quantitative researchers from time to time, types of nonprobability samples
are more typically employed in qualitative research because they are both
non-probability methods.
 To draw a purposive sample, a researcher must begin with specific
perspectives in mind that he or she wishes to examine and then seeks out
research participants who will cover the full range of perspectives.
For example, if you are studying students’ satisfaction with their living
conditions on school, you will want to be sure to include students who stay
in each of the different types or locations of on-school in your study. If you
only include students from 1 of 10 housing conditions, you may miss
important details about the experiences of students who live in the other 9 homes of which you didn’t include in your study.
 While purposive sampling is often used when one’s goal is to include participants who represent a broad range of perspectives, purposive sampling may also be used when a researcher wishes to
include only people who meet very narrow or specific criteria. For example, in herstudy of the Paradox of Research: The
Learning Engagement of Senior High Students in Magsaysay National High School, A Grounded Theory, L. Dela Cruz (2019), used purposive sampling to
the senior high students. The Recherche Grounded Theory: prior learning
experience, values towards interpersonal communication, understanding of research process, social relationships with group mates and peers, and financial matters.
 However, the researcher encountered difficulties in
undertaking group/partner research projects.
Meanwhile, there are qualitative researchers who sometimes rely on snowball sampling techniques to identify study participants. In this case, a researcher might know one or two people she would like to include in her study but then relies on those initial participants to help identify additional study
participants. Thus, the researcher’s sample builds and becomes larger as the study continues where a snowball builds and becomes larger as it rolls through the snow.
Snowball sampling is a strategy which is useful when a researcher wishes to
study some stigmatized group or behavior.
Snowball sampling is sometimes referred to as chain referral sampling. One research participant refers another, and
that person refers another, and that person refers another—thus a chain of potential participants is identified. In addition to using this sampling strategy for potentially stigmatized populations, it
is also a useful strategy to use when the
researcher’s group of interest is likely to be difficult to find, not only becauseof some stigma associated with the group, but also because the group may be
relatively rare.
Quota sampling is another nonprobability sampling strategy. This type of sampling is actually employed by both qualitative and quantitative researchers, but because it is a nonprobability
method, it is included in this lesson. When conducting quota sampling, a
researcher identifies categories that are important to the study and for which there is likely to have variation. Subgroups are created based on each category and the researcher decides how
many people (or documents or whatever element happens to be thefocus of the research) to include from each subgroup and collects data from that number for each subgroup.
Finally, convenience sampling is another non-probability sampling strategythat is employed by both qualitative and
quantitative researches. To draw a convenience sample, a researcher simply collects data from those people or other relevant elements to which he or she has most convenient access.
This method, also sometimes referred to as haphazard sampling, is most useful in exploratory research. It is also often
used by journalists who need quick and
easy access to people from their population of interest. If you haveever seen brief interviews of people on the street on the news,you have probably seen a
haphazard sample being interviewed. While convenience samples offer one major benefit—convenience—we should be more cautious about generalizing from research that relies on convenience samples.