This document discusses four main types of sampling:
1. Simple random sampling, where each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected independently.
2. Systematic sampling, which selects every Kth member from a list at regular intervals.
3. Stratified sampling, which divides the population into subgroups and then randomly selects proportional samples from each subgroup.
4. Cluster sampling, where intact groups rather than individuals are randomly selected, such as city blocks or schools. Cluster sampling is used when a full population list is unavailable.
This document discusses four main types of sampling:
1. Simple random sampling, where each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected independently.
2. Systematic sampling, which selects every Kth member from a list at regular intervals.
3. Stratified sampling, which divides the population into subgroups and then randomly selects proportional samples from each subgroup.
4. Cluster sampling, where intact groups rather than individuals are randomly selected, such as city blocks or schools. Cluster sampling is used when a full population list is unavailable.
This document discusses four main types of sampling:
1. Simple random sampling, where each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected independently.
2. Systematic sampling, which selects every Kth member from a list at regular intervals.
3. Stratified sampling, which divides the population into subgroups and then randomly selects proportional samples from each subgroup.
4. Cluster sampling, where intact groups rather than individuals are randomly selected, such as city blocks or schools. Cluster sampling is used when a full population list is unavailable.
Types of Sampling There are several ways of doing this. We will look at four major types here: simple random, systematic, stratified, and cluster sampling. The basic characteristic of random sampling is that all members of the population have an equal and independent chance of being included in the sample. 1- Simple Random Sampling The most common method of sampling is known as simple random sampling: "Pick a number out of a hat!" Gay provides a good example of this type of sampling. A superintendent of schools wants to select a sample of teachers so that their attitudes toward unions can be determined. Here is how he did it: 1. The population is 5,000 teachers in the system. 2. The desired sample size is 10%, or 500 teachers. 3. The superintendent has a directory which lists all 5,000 teachers alphabetically. He assigns numbers from 0000 to 4999 to the teachers. 4. A table of random numbers is entered at an arbitrarily selected number such as the one underlined below: 59058 11859 53634 48708 71710 5. Since his population has only 5000 members, he is interested only in the last 4 digits of the number, 3634. 6. The teacher assigned #3634 is selected for the sample. 7. The next number in the column is 48708. The last four digits are 8708. No teacher is assigned #8708 since there are only 5000. Skip this number. 8. Applying these steps to the remaining numbers shown in the column, teachers 1710, 3942, and 3278 would be added to the sample. 9. This procedure continues down this column and succeeding columns until 500 teachers have been selected. 2- Systematic Sampling A systematic sample is one in which every Kth subject on a list is selected for inclusion in the sample. The “K” refers to the sampling interval, and may be every 3rd (K=3) or 10th (K=10) subject. The value of K is determined by dividing the population size by the sample size. Let’s say that you have a list of 10,000 persons. You decide to use a sample of size 1000. K = 10000/1000 = 10. If you choose every 10th name, you will get a sample of size 1000. The superintendent in our example would employ systematic sampling as follows: 1. The population is 5,000 teachers. 2. The sample size is 10%, or 500 teachers. 3. The superintendent has a directory which lists all 5,000 teachers in alphabetical order. 4. The sampling interval (K) is determined by dividing the population (5000) by the desired sample size (500). K = 5000/500 = 10. 5. A random number between 0 and 9 is selected as a starting point. Suppose the number selected is “3”. 6. Beginning with the 3rd name, every 10th name is selected throughout the population of 5000 names. Thus, teacher 3, 13, 23, 33 ... 993 would be chosen for the sample. 3- Stratified Sampling Stratified sampling permits the researcher to identify sub-groups within a population and create a sample which mirrors these sub- groups by randomly choosing subjects from each stratum. Such a sample is more representative of the population across these sub- groups than a simple random sample would be. Subgroups in the sample can either be of equal size or proportional to the population in size. Equal size sample subgroups are formed by randomly selecting the same number of subjects from each population subgroup. Proportional subgroups are formed by selecting subjects so that the subgroup percentages in the population are reflected in the sample. The following example is a proportionally stratified sample. The superintendent would follow these steps to create a stratified sample of his 5,000 teachers. 1. The population is 5,000 teachers. 2. The desired sample size is 10%, or 500 teachers. 3. The variable of interest is teaching level. There are three subgroups: elementary, junior high, and senior high. 4. Classify the 5,000 teachers into the subgroups. In this case, 65% or 3,250 are elementary teachers, 20% or 1,000 are junior high teachers, and 15% or 750 are senior high teachers. 5. The superintendent wants 500 teachers in the sample. So 65% of the sample (325 teachers) should be elementary, 20% (100) should be junior high teachers, and 15% (75) should be senior high teachers. This is a proportionally stratified sample. (A non-proportionally stratified sample would randomly select 167 subjects from each of the three groups.) 6. The superintendent now has a sample of 500 (325+100+75) teachers, which is representative of the 5,000 and which reflects proportionally each teaching level. 4- Cluster sampling Cluster sampling involves randomly selecting groups, not individuals. It is often impossible to obtain a list of individuals which make up a target population. Suppose a researcher is interested in surveying the residents of Fort Worth. Through cluster sampling, he would randomly select a number of city blocks and then survey every person in the selected blocks. Or, another researcher wants to study social skills of Southern Baptist church staff members. No list exists which contains the names of all church staff members. But he could randomly select churches in the Convention, and use all the staff members of the selected churches. Any intact group with similar characteristics is a cluster. Other examples of clusters include classrooms, schools, hospitals, and counseling centers. Let’s apply this approach to the superintendent’s study. 1. The population is 5,000 teachers. 2. The sample size is 10%, or 500 teachers. 3. The logical cluster is the school. 4. The superintendent has a list of 100 schools in the district. 5. Although the clusters vary in size, there are an average of 50 teachers per school. 6. The required number of clusters is obtained by dividing the sample size (500) by the average size of cluster (50). Thus, the number of clusters needed is 500/50 = 10 schools. 7. The superintendent randomly selects 10 schools out of the 100. 8. Every teacher in the selected schools is included in the sample.