Research Methods 6

Sampling

How does the sociologist decide who takes part in the research?

Sociologists who decide to use a questionnaire survey to test a hypothesis need to think
about the following aspects of their research.

(a) The research population - this is the group being studied. The sociologist
needs to decide what group they are studying. For example, if the sociologist is
interested in the relationship between ethnicity and take-up of NHS services,
decisions have to be made about which ethnic minority groups are going to
be focused on and whether the White population is also to be studied,
perhaps as a point of comparison.

(b) The sample - it is usually too expensive and time-consuming to ask everybody in
your research population to take part in your research. Most researchers select a
sample that is representative (i.e. a typical cross-section) of the population
they are interested in. With a representative sample, it is possible to generalise to
the wider research population – what is true of the sample should be true of
the research population as a whole. For example, let’s say we are going to
research the views of 100 members of ethnic minority groups in Leeds –we need to
ensure that the 100 people selected reflect the ethnic minority make-up of Leeds,
so 40 of our sample might be from Pakistani-Muslim backgrounds, 20 might be
Indian-Hindus, 20 might be African-Caribbean, 10 might be Sikh-Indian and 10
might be African.

(c) The sampling frame – this is a list of names and/or addresses of people
who might potentially take part in the research.

There are a number of different types of sampling frames that can be used:

 The electoral register (i.e. a list of people aged over 18 years old
who are registered to vote)

 The Postcode Address File

 The telephone directory

 School attendance registers

 GP’s patient records

All sampling frames are unsatisfactory in some respect:

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  Not everyone is included

 They are often out of date

 Some groups may be over-represented whilst other groups may not be included.

Identify some problems associated with the sampling frames listed above:

Sampling techniques
There are two main sampling techniques that can be used to ensure that the sample is
representative of the wider research population.

 Random sampling

 Non-random sampling

(1) Random sampling

A simple random sample involves selecting names randomly from a sampling

frame. Using this technique, every member of the research population has an
equal chance of being included in the sample, i.e. those chosen are likely to be a
cross-section of the population.

Different types of random sampling technique

A simple random sample does not guarantee a representative sample – you may, for
example, end up selecting too many young people, too many males etc. Consequently,
sociologists have developed three variations on the random sample in order to produce
representative samples:

(a) Systematic sampling – this involves randomly choosing a number between

one and ten, say ‘seven’, and then picking out every tenth number from
that number, i.e. 7, 17, 27, 37 etc on the list until the sample is complete.
This again does not always guarantee a representative sample. However the larger
the sample, the more likely it is to be reasonably representative and the less likely
it is to be biased.

(b) Stratified sampling – this is the most common form of random sampling used
in sociological research. It involves dividing the research population into a

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 number of sampling frames. For example, if you were sampling students at
Notre Dame, and you discovered that 60% of students were female and 40%
were male, you would want your sample to reflect those proportions. Your
sampling frame, i.e. college registers would need to be turned into two
sampling frames, i.e. a list of female students and a list of male students.
If you intend to have an overall sample of 100 students, you might then randomly
select 60 female and 40 male students from your two lists. You could, if necessary,
also construct sampling frames based on age, ethnicity, qualifications, courses etc.

(c) Cluster sampling – this is often used when no specific list of people is
available. Instead a map is used. The researcher may randomly select a couple of
districts, and then randomly select streets within those areas. The researcher then
targets a further sample of people or households within the streets. This technique
is attractive to some researchers because areas are often characterised by either
social class or ethnic clusters and so offer fairly easy access to particular
social groups, e.g. working-class and ethnic minority communities.

(2) Non-random sampling methods

These types of methods deliberately target specific groups rather than randomly
selecting a sample from the general population. There are three main types that
sociologists might use:

 Quota sampling is often used by market research companies to target

people in the street to talk about consumer products. The researcher is told
by his or her company how many participants are needed in each category and
goes looking for them. For example, if a researcher needs to interview 50 men
aged 40-55 who have mortgages and live in North Yorkshire, he or she can go to
where such people are likely to be found and ask people whether they are willing to
be interviewed until the quota is filled. This sort of sampling technique is often used
by television news companies and newspapers to find out what people’s voting
preferences are before an election.

 Purposive sampling (sometimes also called ‘opportunity sampling’) involves

researchers choosing individuals or cases that fit the nature of the research. For
example, if I am interested in researching how Africans in Leeds use the NHS, there
is no point in wasting time standing in Leeds city centre hoping that some African
people might come along. Moreover, there is unlikely to be a sampling frame
of African people available. A better alternative would be to head down to
community centres or churches that cater for African people and purposely ask all
those present to take part in my research.

 Snowball sampling is mainly used when it is difficult to gain access to a

particular group of people who you wish to study because there is no sampling
frame available or because they engage in deviant or illegal activities which

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 are normally carried out in isolation or in secret. This sampling technique
involves finding and interviewing a person who fits your research needs and then
asking them to suggest someone else who might be willing to be interviewed. The
sample can grow as large as the researcher wants. Plant (1975) used this type of
sampling technique in his study of cannabis use. However, this technique may
not produce a representative sample. Why?

All sampling is a compromise between representativeness and practicality, and

researchers often have to make do with samples that are not fully representative. The
most important requirement of any research when it comes to sampling is to be aware of
any potential bias caused by the sampling technique used, and to report fully on this in
the analysis of the research findings.

Case study

Green and Platt’s (2004) study of people with HIV is a good example of a non-
random sampling technique in action. They used a purposive sample in that they set
out to recruit respondents in settings where they knew they could be sure of
finding HIV+ people – outpatient clinics, prisons, drug rehabilitation centres
and GP practices. These organisations arranged for Green and Platt to meet with people
interested in taking part in interviews with them.

Green and Platt initially carried out 61 semi-structured interviews which asked the
respondents about how they had been treated by family, friends, health professionals and
society in general. The respondents were encouraged to elaborate upon their answers in
depth. A year later, Green and Platt carried out follow-up semi-structured interviews with
40 of their original sample. The missing 21 respondents had either died or refused
to cooperate further. The structured interviews asked a series of factual questions
(e.g. had any GPs refused treatment?) and then the respondents were encouraged to talk
openly about their experiences in depth. The data obtained was therefore both
quantitative and qualitative.