RSCH6023

Research Methodology

Population and Sampling

Week 7
Population and Sampling

TOPIK

1. Population, Element, Sample, Sampling

unit, and subject
2. The sampling process
3. Sampling techniques
4. Sample Size
5. Error in sample
Population and Sampling
Population, Element, Sample,
Sampling Unit, and Subject
 Population, Element, Sample,
Sampling Unit, and Subject

Population

The population refers to the entire group of people, events, or things of

interest that the researcher wishes to investigate. It is the group of
people, events, or things of interest for which the researcher wants to
make inferences (based on sample statistics).
Element
An element is a single member of the population. If 1000 blue‐collar
workers in a particular organization happen to be the population of
interest to a researcher, each blue‐collar worker therein is an element
Sample
A sample is a subset of the population. It comprises some members
selected from it. In other words, some, but not all, elements of the
population form the sample
 Population, Element, Sample,
Sampling Unit, and Subject

Sampling unit

The sampling unit is the element or set of elements that is available for
selection in some stage of the sampling process. Examples of sampling
units in a multistage sample are city blocks, households, and individuals
within the households
Subject
A subject is a single member of the sample, just as an element is a single
member of the population. If 200 members from the total population of
1000 blue‐collar workers form the sample for the study, then each blue ‐
collar worker in the sample is a subject
Sampling techniques
 Population, Element, Sample,
Sampling Unit, and Subject

SAMPLE DATA AND POPULATION VALUES

 The sampling process

Sampling is the process of selecting a sufficient number of the right

elements from the population, so that a study of the sample and an
understanding of its properties or characteristics make it possible for us to
generalize such properties or characteristics to the population elements.
The major steps in sampling include:
4.
1.Define 3.Determin 5. Execute
2.Determine Determine
the e the the
the sample the
populatio sampling sampling
frame appropriate
n design process
sample size
 Sampling techniques

Probability
sampling
Sampling
techniques
Non-probability
sampling
Sampling techniques
 Sample Size

Both sampling design and the sample size are important to establish the
representativeness of the sample for generalizability. If the appropriate
sampling design is not used, a large sample size will not, in itself, allow
the findings to be generalized to the population. Likewise, unless the
sample size is adequate for the desired level of precision and
confidence, no sampling design, however sophisticated, will be useful to
the researcher in meeting the objectives of the study. Hence, sampling
decisions should consider both the sampling design and the sample
size.
 Sample Size

Generalisations about target populations from data collected using any

probability samples are based on statistical probability. The larger your
sample’s size the lower the likely error in generalising to the target
population. Probability sampling is therefore a compromise between the
accuracy of your findings and the amount of time and money you invest
in collecting, checking and analysing the data. Your choice of sample
size within this compromise is governed by:
1. the confidence you need to have in your data
2. the margin of error that you can tolerate
3. the types of analyses you are going to undertake
4. the size of the target population from which your sample is being
drawn
 Sample Size

While the normal distribution, its implications for sample size need to be
considered here. Statisticians have proved that the larger the absolute size
of a sample, the closer its distribution will be to the normal distribution and
thus the more robust it will be. This relationship, known as the central
limit theorem, occurs even if the population from which the sample is
drawn is not normally distributed. Statisticians have also shown that
a sample size of 30 or more will usually result in a sampling
distribution for the mean that is very close to a normal
distribution.
Sample Size
 Sample Size

Roscoe (1975) proposes the following rules of thumb for determining

sample size:
1. Sample sizes larger than 30 and less than 500 are appropriate for
most research.
2. Where samples are to be broken into subsamples (males/females,
juniors/seniors, etc.), a minimum sample size of 30 for each category
is necessary.
3. In multivariate research (including multiple regression analyses), the
sample size should be several times (preferably ten times or more) as
large as the number of variables in the study.
4. For simple experimental research with tight experimental controls
(matched pairs, etc.), successful research is possible with samples as
small as 10 to 20 in size.
 Error in Sample

Too large a sample size, (say, over 500) could become a problem
inasmuch as we would then be prone to committing Type II errors. That
is, we would accept the findings of our research, when in fact we should
reject them. In other words, with too large a sample size, even weak
relationships (say a correlation of 0.10 between two variables) might
reach significance levels, and we would be inclined to believe that these
significant relationships found in the sample were indeed true of the
population, when in reality they may not be. Thus, neither too large nor
too small sample sizes help research projects
 Source

1. Uma Sekaran and Roger Bougie (2019) Research Methods for Business:
A Skill Building-Approach. 8th Edition. John Wiley & Sons Ltd. ISBN 978-
1-119-56124-8
2. Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill (2016). Research
methods for business students. 7th Edition. Pearson Education Limited.
ISBN 978-1-292-01662-7
Thank You