Sampling: How to Select a

Few to Represent the Many

Chapter 4

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How and Why Do Samples Work?
 Sample = a small collection of units taken
from a larger collection.
 Population = a larger collection of units
from which a sample is taken.
 Random sample = a sample drawn in
which a a random process is used to
select units from a population
 These are best to get an accurate
representation of the population
 But are difficult to conduct.
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How and Why Do Samples Work?

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Focusing On At A Specific Group: Four
Types Of Non-Random Samples
 Convenience sampling (Accidental or
Haphazard) = a non-random sample in
which you use an non-systematic selection
method that often produces samples very
unlike the population.
 Quota sample = non-random sample in
which you use any means to fill pre-set
categories that are characteristics of the
population.
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Focusing On At A Specific Group: Four
Types Of Non-Random Samples

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Focusing On At A Specific Group: Four
Types Of Non-Random Samples
 Purposive (Judgmental) sampling = a
non-random sample in which you use
many diverse means to select units that fit
very specific characteristics.
 Snowball (network) sampling = a non-
random sample in which selection is
based on connections in a pre-existing
network.

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Coming to Conclusions about Large
Populations
 Sampling element = a case or unit of
analysis of the population that can be
selected for a sample.
 Universe = the broad group to whom you
wish to generalize your theoretical results.
 Population = a collection of elements
from which you draw a sample.

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Coming to Conclusions about Large
Populations
 Target population = the specific
population that you used.
 Sampling frame = a specific list of
sampling elements in the target
population.
 Population parameter = any
characteristic of the entire population that
you estimate from a sample.

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Coming to Conclusions about Large
Populations
 Sampling ratio = the ratio of the sample
size to the size of the target population.

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Coming to Conclusions about Large
Populations
 Why Use a Random Sample?
 Random samples are most likely to produce a
sample that truly represents the population.
 They are purely mathematical or mechanical.
 Allow calculation of probability of outcomes with

great precision.
 sampling ratio = the ratio of the sample size
to the size of the target population.
 Sampling error = the degree to which a
sample deviates from a population.
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Coming to Conclusions about Large
Populations
 Types of Random Samples
 SimpleRandom Samples = sample
elements selected from the frame based on a
mathematically random selection procedure
 most times, a proper random sample yields results
that are close to the population parameter
 Sampling distribution = A plot of many random

samples, with a sample characteristic across the

bottom and the number of samples indicated along
the side.

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Coming to Conclusions about Large
Populations
 Types of Random Samples
 Systematic Sampling = An approximation to
random sampling in which you select one in a
certain number of sample elements, the
number is from the sampling interval.
 Sampling Interval = the size of the sample frame
over the sample size, used in systematic sampling
to select units.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009

Coming to Conclusions about Large
Populations
 Types of Random Samples
 Stratified
Sampling = a type of random
sampling in which a random sample is draw
from multiple sampling frames, each for a part
of the population.

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Coming to Conclusions about Large
Populations

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009

Coming to Conclusions about Large
Populations
 Types of Random Samples
 Cluster(multi-stage) sampling = a multi-
stage sampling method, in which clusters are
randomly sampled, then a random sample of
elements is taken from sampled clusters.

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Coming to Conclusions about Large
Populations

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009

Coming to Conclusions about Large
Populations

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009

Three Specialized Sampling Techniques
 Random Digit Dialing = Computer based
random sampling of telephone numbers.
 Within Household Samples = Random
sampling from within households.
 Sampling Hidden Populations
 Hidden Population = A group that is very
difficult to locate and may not want to be
found, and therefore, are difficult to sample.

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Inferences from A Sample to A
Population
 How to Reduce Sampling Errors
 the larger the sample size, the smaller the
sampling error.
 the greater the homogeneity (or the less the
diversity), the smaller its sampling error.
 How Large Should My Sample Be?
 the smaller the population, the bigger the
sampling ratio must be for an accurate sample.
 as populations increase to over 250,000,
sample size no longer needs to increase.
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Inferences from A Sample to A
Population
 How to Create a Zone of Confidence
 Confidence interval = a zone, above and
below the estimate from a sample, within
which a population parameter is likely to be.
Confidence Interval with sample size of 100, 99% confidence

48.4 55.6

52% estimate

Confidence Interval with sample size of 100, 99% confidence

50.5 53.5

52% estimate Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009