Research design sampling

Chapter 7 in Babbie & Mouton (2001)

How we select from an infinite number of observations we could possibly make Why do we sample?

Size of the population Cost of obtaining elements Convenience and accessibility of elements

(in his study on suicide, Durkheim had relatives who held high governmental positions, who were able to provide access to French statistical records on suicides)
Research design - sampling 1

How do we decide what to observe?

This decision should be a matter of deliberate choice rather than chance. Representativeness a small sample of individuals from a population must contain essentially the same variations that exist in the population BUT: limited to those characteristics that are relevant to the substantive interests of the study, not ALL aggregate characteristics
Research design - sampling 2

Key concepts

Element
The

unit about which information is collected Typically the elements are people But look at the section on unit of analysis again: any of them could be elements (schools, universities, corporations, etc.)

Research design - sampling

Population

All the potential study elements, as defined Careful specification of the population

Research design - sampling

Study population

Almost impossible to guarantee that every element meeting your definition of the population has a chance to be selected into the sample. Thus the study population will be somewhat smaller than the population

Research design - sampling

Sampling unit

Typically the sampling units are the same as the elements and probably the units of analysis (We are not going to look into more complex sampling units)

Research design - sampling

Sampling frame

The actual list of sampling units (or elements). e.g. if you want to study Students at the University of Cape Town, there is a list of such sampling units (but there are a number of definition issues to be resolved here)

Research design - sampling

Sample

A subset of a population selected to estimate the behaviour or characteristics of the population

O/head p. 169

Importance of sampling properly A sample exists to represent its parent population We must know what the actual parent population is, otherwise we draw false conclusions

e.g. if we sample only women, we cannot safely make claims about men Research design - sampling

Deciding who to choose

Basically two sampling strategies available:

Probability

sampling each member of the population has a certain probability to be selected into the sample Non-probability sampling members selected not according to logic of probability (or mathematical rules), but by other means (e.g. convenience, or access)
Research design - sampling 9

Non-probability sampling

Sometimes it is not possible to get the kind of information about populations required for probability sampling When the sampling frame is not known Complicates and limits statistical analyses Often well-suited for qualitative research, where distribution of characteristics is not important

Research design - sampling 10

Convenience sample

Rely on available respondents Most convenient method Risky; exercise caution

Research design - sampling

11

Purposive sampling

Select the sample on the basis of knowledge of the population: your own knowledge, or use expert judges to identify candidates to select Typically used for very rare populations, such as deviant cases
Research design - sampling 12

Snowball sampling

Typically used in qualitative research When members of a population are difficult to locate, for covert subpopulations, non-cooperative groups Recruit one respondent, who identifies others, who identify others,. Primarily used for exploratory purposes

Research design - sampling 13

Quota sampling

A stratified convenience sampling strategy Begins with a table that describes the characteristics of the target population

e.g. the composition of postgraduate students at UCT in terms of faculty, race, and gender

Then select on a convenience basis, postgraduate students in the same proportions regarding faculty, race, and gender than in the population Of course, the quota frame (the proportions in the table) must be accurate And biases may be introduced when selecting elements to study
Research design - sampling 14

Probability sampling
Bias introduced in non-probability sampling The sample then not representative of the population Probability sampling Typically produce more representative samples Allow us to estimate the accuracy or representativeness of the sample Random sampling is the key each element has an equal chance of being selected Random sampling offers access to probability theory, through which we can estimate how representative our sample is

Research design - sampling 15

Probability sampling theory

Sampling distribution possible samples to be drawn Sampling error

The degree to which the sample characteristics approximate the characteristics of the population The smaller the sample, the greater the sampling error The larger the sample, the smaller the sampling error - but only for probability sampling plans

Research design - sampling

16

Estimating the true mean

Note how the notion of a sampling distribution relies on the Central Tendency Theorem, that you will recognize from the statistics part of the course
Standard

error and standard deviation Inferences Confidence levels

Research design - sampling 17

Populations and sampling frames

In countries like South Africa, less-than-perfect conditions regarding sampling frames Either the information is not available, or if it is, it is subject to error (parts of it are missing) Remember: we use sampling frames as reflecting the population; ideally, the population also is the time frame but almost never the case So problems when there is a disparity between a population and the sampling frame we use

Research design - sampling

18

Example

A good example is using telephone directories as sampling frames Or the difficulties with finding a complete list of all primary health care facilities in the country And think about the risks in using municipal service records as a sampling frame for the residents of Cape Town

Research design - sampling 19

Three kinds of probability sampling strategies

1 Simple random sampling

Establish

a sampling frame (a list, e.g. of all the companys customers, or all UCT students) Assign a single number to each element in the list Use random numbers to select the elements

Research design - sampling

20

2 Systematic sampling

Usually more efficient than SRS Establish a sampling frame Select the first element at random Then select every nth element in the list, until you have the required number of respondents

e.g. with a population of 300, if we want a sample of 10, choose every 30th element Keep an eye out for peculiar arrangements in the sampling frame

Research design - sampling

21

3 Stratified sampling

Sampling error reduced by

1.

using a large sample 2. a homogeneous population

Stratified sampling based on 2.

Research design - sampling

22

Stratified sampling

Modifies random sampling and systematic sampling, to obtain a greater degree of representativeness Organize the population into homogeneous subsets, then sample randomly within each one e.g. for university students, stratify according to seniority and gender Stratification ensures equal proportions of people having the relevant characteristics are selected into your sample Depends on what variables are available to stratify on

Research design - sampling

23