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What is a sample?

A sample is a subset of a population and it should be a representative


of the population from which it was taken.
Why sample?
Often it is just not feasible to measure an entire population
Measuring the population often is a waste of both time and money.
What are the different ways to gather a random sample?
there are four different ways to gather a random sample: simple
random, systematic, cluster, and stratified.
One example where such a decision was recently made occurred at
Goldey-Beacom College where we teach. Bob was the Chair of the
Academic Honor Code Committee and was involved in a project
whose goal was to gather information regarding the attitude of our
student body on the topic of academic integrity. It would have been
possible to ask every student at our college to respond to the survey,
but it was really unnecessary with the availability of inferential
statistics.
A simple random sample is a sample in which every member of the
population has an equal chance of being chosen.
There are a few options for choosing a simple random sample for the
academic integrity survey example. I could randomly choose students
using a random number table, which is aptly named. (After all, it is
simply a table of numbers that are completely random.) An excerpt of
such a table is shown here:
Suppose we had 1,000 students in the population from which we were
drawing a sample size of 100. (Well discuss sample size in Chapter
14.) I would list these students with assigned numbers from 0 to 999.
Looking at the first three digits in each cell, the random number table
would tell me to select student 572, followed by student 427, and so
forth until I had selected 100 students. Using this technique, my
sample of 100 students would be chosen with complete randomness.
Systematic Sampling
One way to avoid a personal bias when selecting people at random is
to use systematic sampling. This technique results in selecting every
kth member of the population to be in your sample. The value of k
will depend on the size of the sample and the size of the population.
Using our academic integrity survey, with a population of 1,000
students and a sample of 100, k = 10. From a listing of the entire
population, I would choose every tenth student to be included in the
sample. In general, if N = the size of the population and n = the size
of the sample, the value of k would be approximately N/n.
The benefit of systematic sampling is that its easier to conduct than a
simple random sample, often resulting in less time and money. The
downside is the danger of selecting a biased sample if there is a
pattern in the population that is consistent with the value of k. For
instance, lets say Im conducting a survey on campus asking students
how many hours they are studying during the week, and I select every
fourth week to collect my data. Because we are on an 8-week
semester schedule at Goldey-Beacom College, every fourth week
could end up being mid-terms and finals week, which would result in
a higher number of study hours than normal (or at least I would hope
so!).
Cluster Sampling
If we can divide the population into groups, or clusters, then we can
select a simple random sample from these clusters to form the final
sample. Using the academic integrity survey example, the clusters
could be defined as classes. We would randomly choose different
classes to participate in the survey. In each class chosen, every student
would be selected to be part of the sample.
For cluster sampling to be effective, it is assumed that each cluster
selected for the sample is representative of the population at large. In
effect, each cluster is a miniaturized version of the overall population.
If used properly, cluster sampling can be a very cost-effective way of
collecting a random sample from the population.
Stratified Sampling
In stratified sampling, we divide the population into mutually
exclusive groups, or strata, that have something in common, and we
randomly sample from each of these groups. There are many different
ways to establish strata from the population. Using the academic
integrity survey, we could define our strata as undergraduate and
graduate students. If 20 percent of our college population is graduate
students, then I could use stratified sampling to ensure that 20 percent
of my final sample is also composed of graduate students. Other
examples of criteria that we can use to divide the population into
strata are age, income, or occupation. Stratified sampling is helpful
when it is important that the final sample has certain characteristics of
the overall population.
One difference between stratified and cluster sampling is in the choice
of the groups. With stratified sampling, the strata have something in
common, such as having graduate or undergraduate status in our
example. However, in cluster sampling, the strata are sub-sets of the
population and dont necessarily have to have something in common.
What is sampling error?
Sampling error results from the difference between the population
parameter (data which describes something about the population) and
the sample statistic (data which describes the sample). Because
samples dont perfectly represent the population, we get sampling
errors.
In general, the larger the sample size, the smaller the sampling error.
If you increase the sample size until it reaches the size of the
population, then the sampling error will be reduced to zero.
What is sampling bias?
Sampling bias occurs when samples are designed to choose some of
the population only with certain characteristics instead of parts of the
population without those characteristics. For example, lets say I want
to show that the current administration is doing a good job handling
the economy by showing that the average income in the United States
is high. In creating my sample, I choose more people from the states
with high income and less people from the states with low income.
This way, the average for my sample will show a high average
income in the United States. In this case, my sample is biased. It
shows incorrectly that average income in the United States is higher
than it actually is.
To demonstrate sampling bias in another instance, I might want to
show that the unemployment rate in the United States is low. In
designing my sample, I choose more people from the states with low
unemployment rates and less people from the states with high
unemployment rates. This way my sample will show a low
unemployment rate in the United States. Again, this sample is biased
and incorrectly represents the population.
1. You are to gather a systematic sample from a local phone book
with 75,000 names. If every kth name in the phone book is to be
selected, what value of k would you choose to gather a sample size of
500?

2. Consider a population that is defined as every employee in a


particular company. How could you use cluster sampling to gather a
sample to participate in a survey involving employee satisfaction?

3. Consider a population that is defined as every employee in a


particular company. How could you use stratified sampling to gather a
sample to participate in a survey involving employee satisfaction?

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