Project MIMs

Grade 12 – Practical Research 2

G12 MIMs LC 15
SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUES

Learning Competency:
• describes sampling procedure and sample

Objective:
• choose an appropriate sampling procedure and describe the sample of a research study

REMEMBER:

SAMPLING IN RESEARCH

In research terms a sample is a group of people, objects, or items that are taken from
a larger population for measurement. The sample should be representative of the population
to ensure that we can generalize the findings from the research sample to the population as
a whole.

ENLIGHTEN:

SAMPLE VS POPULATION

Sample is the group of individuals who actually participate in your study. These are
the individuals who you end up interviewing (e.g., in a qualitative study) or who actually
complete your survey (e.g., in a quantitative study). People who could have been participants
in your study but did not actually participate are not considered part of your sample. For
example, say you e-mailed study invitations to 200 people and 100 of them end up
participating in your study (i.e., complete your survey or your experiment). Your sample is
the 100 individuals who participated in your study. The 100 individuals who received
invitations but did not participate would not be considered part of your sample; rather, they
are part of what is often called the sampling frame. Your sampling frame is the group of
individuals who could possibly be in your study, which in the above example would be the
200 individuals.

On the other hand, your population is the broader group of people to whom you
intend to generalize the results of your study. Your sample will always be a subset of your
population. Your exact population will depend on the scope of your study. For instance, say
your research question asks if there is an association between emotional intelligence and
job satisfaction in nurses. In this case, your population might be nurses in the Philippines.
However, if the scope of your study is more narrow (e.g., if your study deals with a local
problem or a specific specialty/industry), then your population would be more specific, such
as “nurses in the National Capital Region or “licensed practical nurses in the Philippines.”
Importantly, your population should only include people to whom your results will apply. For
example, if you do not have good reason to believe that your results will apply to all nurses
in the Philippines, then your population will need to be more specific. If you are stuck on
defining your population, think about how you would fill in the blank in the following sentence:
“The results of my study will apply to _____.” Your answer will help determine how you define
your population.

PURPOSE OF SAMPLING

To draw conclusions about populations from samples, we must use inferential

statistics, to enable us to determine a population’s characteristics by directly observing only
a portion (or sample) of the population. We obtain a sample of the population for many
reasons as it is usually not practical and almost never economical.

There would also be difficulties measuring whole populations because:

• The large size of many populations

• Inaccessibility of some of the population - Some populations are so difficult to get

access to that only a sample can be used. E.g. prisoners, people with severe mental
illness, disaster survivors etc. The inaccessibility may be associated with cost or time
or just access.

• Destructiveness of the observation - Sometimes the very act of observing the

desired characteristic of the product destroys it for the intended use. Good examples
of this occur in quality control. E.g. to determine the quality of a fuse and whether it is
defective, it must be destroyed. Therefore, if you tested all the fuses, all would be
destroyed.

• Accuracy and sampling - A sample may be more accurate than the total study
population. A badly identified population can provide less reliable information than a
carefully obtained sample.

SAMPLING ERROR

A sample is expected to mirror the population from which it comes, however, there
is no guarantee that any sample will be precisely representative of the population. Chance
may dictate that a disproportionate number of untypical observations will be made.

Sampling error can make a sample unrepresentative of its population. Sampling error
comprises the differences between the sample and the population that are due solely to the
particular participants that have been selected.

The main cause of sampling error is

• Chance: That is the error that occurs just because of bad luck. This may result
in untypical choices. Unusual units in a population do exist and there is always a
possibility that an abnormally large number of them will be chosen. The main
protection against this kind of error is to use a large enough sample.

Sampling bias - Sampling bias is a tendency to favor the selection of participants that have
particular characteristics. Sampling bias is usually the result of a poor sampling plan. The
most notable is the bias of non-response when for some reason some participants have no
chance of appearing in the sample e.g. no internet access for completion of an online
questionnaire.

There can be two causes of this type of bias.

• The wrong study population were selected

• The study population was all inclusive, but the poor design of the study introduced
the bias e.g. only one group within the study population agreed to participate in
the study

Non-sampling error (measurement error) - A non-sampling error is an error that results

solely from the manner in which the observations are made. It can occur whether the total
study population or a sample is being used. It may either be produced by participants in the
study or be an innocent by product of the sampling plans and procedures. The simplest
example of a non-sampling error is inaccurate measurements due to malfunctioning
instruments or poor procedures. These biased observations can be innocent but very
devastating to the findings of the study.
 In studies observing personal characteristics, unintended errors may result from:

• The manner in which the response is elicited

• The social desirability of the persons surveyed
• The purpose of the study
• The personal biases of the interviewer or survey writer

Checks need to be put in place to ensure this type of error is minimal

The interviewer effect - No two interviewers are alike and the same person may provide
different answers to different interviewers. The manner in which a question is formulated can
also result in inaccurate responses. Individuals tend to provide false answers to particular
questions.

The respondent effect – Participants may deliberately give incorrect answers (for many
reasons). This type of error is the most difficult to prevent because it results from outright
deceit. It is important to acknowledge that certain psychological factors induce incorrect
responses and great care must be taken to design a study that minimizes their effect.

Knowing the study purpose - Knowing why a study is being conducted may create
incorrect responses. If you are looking at a particular behavior and the study participant
knows what you are studding this may change that behavior in the study participant. There
are two ways of avoiding this

1. Change your study methodology

2. Ask a sequence of questions rather than just one question.

It should be noted that the personal prejudices of either the designer of the study or
the data collector may tend to induce bias. In designing a questionnaire, questions can be
slanted in such a way that a particular response will be obtained even though it is inaccurate.
To protect against induced bias, share your questionnaire widely, particularly with your
professional peer group and if available seek the advice of an individual trained in statistics
and someone else who can look at the questionnaire objectively. Do not forget to pilot the
questionnaire this not only checks for ambiguities but also could give an indication of bias if
the questions are slanted in a particular direction.

SELECTING THE SAMPLE

The sampling error may be due to either bias or chance. The chance component
(sometimes called random error) exists no matter how carefully the selection procedures are
implemented, and the only way to minimize chance-sampling errors is to select a sufficiently
large sample (sample size is discussed towards the end of this tutorial). Sampling bias on
the other hand may be minimized by the wise choice of a sampling procedure.

TYPES OF SAMPLES

• The convenience sample – the research population is chosen out of convenience from
a population for observation e.g. recruiting patients with a particular illness from support
groups.

• Purposeful sample – A sample collected from information rich cases for in-depth study.
The size and specific cases depend on the study purpose.

Types of Purposeful sampling;

➢ Extreme and deviant case sampling

➢ Intensity sampling
➢ Homogenous sampling
 ➢ Typical case sampling
➢ Stratified purposeful sampling
➢ Snowball or chain sampling
➢ Theory based sampling
➢ Opportunistic sampling
➢ Convenience sampling

• The judgement sample – The research population is obtained according to the

discretion of someone who is familiar with the research populations relevant
characteristics.

• The random sample – A sample chosen at random from the research population using
a recognized method.

Types of Random sampling;

➢ Simple random sampling

➢ Systematic random sampling
➢ Stratified sampling
➢ Cluster sampling

SAMPLE SIZE

Before deciding how large a sample should be, you have to define your study
population (who you are including and excluding in your study). The question of how large a
sample should be is a difficult one. Sample size can be determined by various constraints
(funding available, the time constraints etc.) Sample size depends on

• The type of data analysis to be performed

• The desired precision of the estimates one wishes to achieve
• The kind and number of comparisons that will be made
• The number of variables that have to be examined simultaneously
• How heterogeneous the sampled population is?

Deciding on a sample size for qualitative inquiry can be even more difficult than
quantitative because there are no definite rules to be followed. It will depend on what you
want to know, the purpose of the inquiry, what is at stake, what will be useful, what will have
credibility and what can be done with available time and resources.

You can choose to study one specific phenomenon in depth with a smaller sample
size or a bigger sample size when seeking breadth.

SAMPLE SIZE DETERMINATION

If you take a population sample, you must use a formula to figure out what sample
size you need to take. Sometimes you know something about a population, which can help
you determine a sample size. For example, it is well known that IQ scores follow a normal
distribution pattern. But what about if you know nothing about your population at all? That is
when you can use Slovin’s formula to figure out what sample size you need to take, which
is written as

𝑵
𝒏=
𝟏 + 𝑵𝒆𝟐

where: n is the sample size

N is the population size
e is the margin of error
Example:

Use Slovin’s formula to find out what sample of a population of 1,000 people you need to
take for a survey on their soda preferences.

Step 1: Figure out what you want your confidence level to be. For example, you might want
a confidence level of 95 percent (giving you an alpha level of 0.05), or you might need better
accuracy at the 98 percent confidence level (alpha level of 0.02).

Step 2. Plug your data into the formula. In this example, we’ll use a 95 percent confidence
level with a population size of 1,000.

𝑵
𝒏=
𝟏 + 𝑵𝒆𝟐

1000
𝑛=
1 + (1000)(0.05)2

𝑛 = 285.71428571429

Step 3: Round your answer to a whole number (because you cannot sample a fraction of a
person or thing!)
𝑛 = 285.71428571429

𝒏 = 286

LET’S TRY:

Instructions: Write your comprehensive learning about the following.

1. What are the processes to be considered in writing the population & sampling
and respondents of the study of a research?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
 REINFORCEMENT:

Instructions: Based on your approved research topic and title, write the population &
sampling and respondents of the study of your research as part of the final
requirement in Practical Research 2 by considering the learning that you have
in this module. Use the format below.

Population and Sampling

Respondents of the Study

 Challenge!

Find four (4) different quantitative research and read the population & sampling and
respondents of the study. Critique the population & sampling and respondents of the
study based on the learning you gained using this module. Follow the format below.

1. Research Title:

Remarks on the Population and Sampling

Remarks on the Respondents of the Study

2. Research Title:

Remarks on the Population and Sampling

Remarks on the Respondents of the Study

3. Research Title:

Remarks on the Population and Sampling

Remarks on the Respondents of the Study

4. Research Title:

Remarks on the Population and Sampling

Remarks on the Respondents of the Study

Prepared by:

MR. JESTER G. DE LEON

Master Teacher I, MNHS – SHS