Chapter Five

Data Collection and Sampling

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 Recall…
Statistics is a tool for converting data into information:
Statistics

Data Information

But where then does data come from? How is it gathered?

How do we ensure its accurate? Is the data reliable? Is it
representative of the population from which it was drawn?
This chapter explores some of these issues.

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 Methods of Collecting Data…
There are many methods used to collect or obtain data for
statistical analysis. Three of the most popular methods are:
• Direct Observation
• Experiments, and
• Surveys.

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 Surveys…
A survey solicits information from people; e.g. Gallup polls;
pre-election polls; marketing surveys.

The Response Rate (i.e. the proportion of all people selected

who complete the survey) is a key survey parameter.

Surveys may be administered in a variety of ways, e.g.

•Personal Interview,
•Telephone Interview, and
•Self Administered Questionnaire.

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 Questionnaire Design…
Over the years, a lot of thought has been put into the science
of the design of survey questions. Key design principles:
1. Keep the questionnaire as short as possible.
2. Ask short, simple, and clearly worded questions.
3. Start with demographic questions to help respondents get
started comfortably.
4. Use dichotomous (yes|no) and multiple choice questions.
5. Use open-ended questions cautiously.
6. Avoid using leading-questions.
7. Pretest a questionnaire on a small number of people.
8. Think about the way you intend to use the collected data
when preparing the questionnaire.
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 Sampling…
Recall that statistical inference permits us to draw
conclusions about a population based on a sample.

Sampling (i.e. selecting a sub-set of a whole population) is

often done for reasons of cost (it’s less expensive to sample
1,000 television viewers than 100 million TV viewers) and
practicality (e.g. performing a crash test on every
automobile produced is impractical).

In any case, the sampled population and the target

population should be similar to one another.

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 Sampling Plans…
A sampling plan is just a method or procedure for
specifying how a sample will be taken from a population.

We will focus our attention on these three methods:

•Simple Random Sampling,

•Stratified Random Sampling, and
•Cluster Sampling.

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 Simple Random Sampling…
A simple random sample is a sample selected in such a way
that every possible sample of the same size is equally likely
to be chosen.

Drawing three names from a hat containing all the names of

the students in the class is an example of a simple random
sample: any group of three names is as equally likely as
picking any other group of three names.

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 Simple Random Sampling…
Example 5.1: A government income tax auditor must choose
a sample of 40 of 1,000 returns to audit…

Extra #’s may be used if duplicate random numbers are generated

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 Stratified Random Sampling…
A stratified random sample is obtained by separating the
population into mutually exclusive sets, or strata, and then
drawing simple random samples from each stratum.

Strata 1 : Gender Strata 2 : Age Strata 3 : Occupation

Male < 20 professional
Female 20-30 clerical
31-40 blue collar
41-50 other
51-60
> 60
We can acquire about the total population,
make inferences within a stratum
or make comparisons across strata

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 Stratified Random Sampling…
After the population has been stratified, we can use simple
random sampling to generate the complete sample:

If we only have sufficient resources to sample 400 people total,

we would draw 100 of them from the low income group…

…if we are sampling 1000 people, we’d draw

50 of them from the high income group.

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 Cluster Sampling…
A cluster sample is a simple random sample of groups or
clusters of elements (vs. a simple random sample of
individual objects).

This method is useful when it is difficult or costly to develop

a complete list of the population members or when the
population elements are widely dispersed geographically.

Cluster sampling may increase sampling error due to

similarities among cluster members.

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 Sample Size…
Numerical techniques for determining sample sizes will be
described later, but suffice it to say that the larger the sample
size is, the more accurate we can expect the sample estimates
to be.

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 Sampling and Non-Sampling Errors…
Two major types of error can arise when a sample of
observations is taken from a population:
sampling error and nonsampling error.

Sampling error refers to differences between the sample and

the population that exist only because of the observations
that happened to be selected for the sample.

Nonsampling errors are more serious and are due to

mistakes made in the acquisition of data or due to the sample
observations being selected improperly.

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 Sampling Error…
Sampling error refers to differences between the sample and
the population that exist only because of the observations
that happened to be selected for the sample.

Another way to look at this is: the differences in results for

different samples (of the same size) is due to sampling error:

E.g. Two samples of size 10 of 1,000 households. If we

happened to get the highest income level data points in our
first sample and all the lowest income levels in the second,
this delta is due to sampling error.

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 Sampling Error…
Sampling error refers to differences between the sample and
the population that exist only because of the observations
that happened to be selected for the sample.

Increasing the sample size will reduce this type of error.

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 Nonsampling Error…
Nonsampling errors are more serious and are due to
mistakes made in the acquisition of data or due to the sample
observations being selected improperly. Three types of
nonsampling errors:

Errors in data acquisition,

Nonresponse errors, and
Selection bias.

Note: increasing the sample size will not reduce this type of
error.
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 Errors in data acquisition…
…arises from the recording of incorrect responses, due to:

— incorrect measurements being taken because of faulty equipment,

— mistakes made during transcription from primary sources,
— inaccurate recording of data due to misinterpretation of terms, or
— inaccurate responses to questions concerning sensitive issues.

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 Nonresponse Error…
…refers to error (or bias) introduced when responses are not
obtained from some members of the sample, i.e. the sample
observations that are collected may not be representative of
the target population.

As mentioned earlier, the Response Rate (i.e. the proportion

of all people selected who complete the survey) is a key
survey parameter and helps in the understanding in the
validity of the survey and sources of nonresponse error.

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 Selection Bias…
…occurs when the sampling plan is such that some members
of the target population cannot possibly be selected for
inclusion in the sample.

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