Designing Samples

Section 5.1
Trick or Treatment?
Big or Small?
Two Collection Methods
Bad Sample, Bad!
Bias:

• In everyday language, we say an opinion is

biased if it unreasonably favors one point of
view over others. A biased opinion is not
balanced, not objective.

• In statistics, a sampling method is biased if it

systematically favors certain outcomes.
 By Chance or by Design?
• Choosing your sample by chance is the only
method guaranteed to be unbiased.
• You’ve seen how common sampling methods are
biased:
– Those who care enough to respond voluntarily may not be typical
of others
– The members of your class, although convenient to survey, don’t
represent some groups well at all
– Even your own personal judgment doesn’t work well.
• Over the long run, chance beats all of these
methods.
A Simple Random Sample
(SRS)
In Theory…
• The simplest way would be to put all the
individuals from a population into a
gigantic hat, mix them thoroughly, and
draw the individuals out one at a time
until you have enough for your sample.
SRS in Practice…
• We can use computer software or a
calculator to choose an SRS from a list of
the individuals in a population.

• We can also select our sample using a

table of random digits.
Can I Have Your Number?
Choosing an SRS

• Label, Table, Stop, ID:

SRS or Not?
From a class of 30 students…

1. Select the first 6 on the roster.

2. Pick a digit at random and select those students whose phone

number ends with that digit.

3. If the classroom has 6 rows of desks with 5 desks in each row,

choose a row at random and select all students in that row.

4. If the class consists of 15 males and 15 females, assign the

males numbers 1-15 and the females #16-30. Then use a
random digit table to select six numbers from 1-30. The
students who were assigned those numbers are in your sample.
4. If the class consists of 15 males and 15 females,
assign the males numbers 1-15 and the females #16-
30. Then use a random digit table to select three
numbers from 1-15 and 3 numbers from 16-30. The
students who were assigned those numbers are in your
sample.

5. Randomly choose a letter of the alphabet and select

those students fro the sample whose last name begins
with that letter. If no last name begins with that letter,
randomly choose another letter of the alphabet.
Other Sampling Methods
• Stratified Random Sample:

• Cluster Sample:
Stratified Random Samples
• If we are interested in finding out how happy
students are with the parking at FSHS, you may
want to split the school into grade levels (10,11,
and 12) and then take an SRS from within each
grade.
• Classifying students by their grade level is called
stratification.
• If you can divide your population into subgroups
that do not overlap and that cover the entire
sampling frame, those subgroups are called strata.
A Nightmare on SRS Street…
• To see how well US third graders do on an arithmetic
test, you might choose an SRS of children enrolled in
third grade and give each child a standardized test. In
theory this is reasonable, but it is just not practical. For
one thing, how would you go about making a complete
list of all the third graders in the US? For another,
imagine the work required to track down each selected
child and make them take the test.
Cluster Sampling Saves the Day
• Instead of an SRS of all third graders, it would be
much better to take an SRS of all the elementary
schools in the US and then give the test to all the
third graders in those schools. It’s a lot easier to get
a list of all the elementary schools in the US.
Moreover, once you’ve chosen your sample of
schools, it’s relatively easy to give the test to all the
third graders in those schools. This is an example
of cluster sampling, in which each elementary
school is a cluster of third grade students.
 Systematic Sampling
– Make and number a list of all the units in your
population.

– Choose a random starting point between 1 and k then

sample every kth unit thereafter.
Multi-Stage Samples

• You can do multi-layered sampling if you

want.

• For example, stratify first and then cluster

within each strata.

• Or cluster then SRS within each cluster.

 Cautions About Sample Surveys
• Undercoverage: occurs when some groups in the
population are left out of the process of choosing the
sample

• Nonresponse: occurs when an individual chosen for the

sample can’t be contacted or does not cooperate
• Response Bias: occurs when an individual lies, mis-
remembers, or when their responses are influenced by
the interviewer
• Question Wording: is important so as to not bias the
results of a survey
Inference About the Population
• Always remember that sample results are only
estimates of the truth about the population.

• If we select two random samples from the same

population, we will draw different individuals, so the
results will differ somewhat.

• We can improve our results by knowing that larger

random samples give you more accurate results than
smaller samples.

• By taking a very large sample, you can be confident

that the sample result is very close to the truth about
the population.