SAMPLING

AND
SAMPLING DISTRIBUTION
 SAMPLING
• For research work and for taking wise decisions in different
fields of human activity and business, two ways are used to
collect information namely:
Survey or Census method
Sampling method
In the Sampling method, instead of every unit of population
only a part of the population is studied and the conclusions are
drawn on that basis for the entire population. But the idea of
sampling is pretty old.
Ex: A housewife examines few grains of boiling rice to see whether
the pot of rice is ready or not. A doctor examines few drops of blood
and draws conclusion about blood constitution in the whole body. A
businessman places orders of materials by examining only a small
sample of the same. An interviewer may ask a few questions to find
the candidate suitable for a job.
 PURPOSE OF SAMPLING
• Basic objective of the study is to draw inference about
the population.

• Sampling is only a tool which helps to know the

characteristics of the universe or population by
examining only a small part of it.

• Values obtained from the study of sample, such as

average and variance are known as ‘Statistic’.

• Values of the population are called ‘Parameters’.

 SAMPLING
• Population – A group that includes all the cases
(individuals, objects or groups) in which the researcher is
interested.
• Finite Population : All students in a College
• Infinite Population : Total water in the sea or all the sand
particle in sea shore.
• Populations are often described by the distributions of
their values, and it is common practice to refer to a
population in terms of its distribution.
 PRINCIPLES OF SAMPLING

• 1. Principle of ‘Statistical Regularity’ and

• A sample taken at random from a population is
likely to have almost the same characteristics as
that of the population.

• 2. Principle of ‘Inertia of Large Numbers’.

• Other things being equal, larger the size of the
sample, more accurate the results are likely to be.
 METHODS OF SAMPLING
The various methods of Sampling under two separate
headings:
A. RANDOM B. NON-RANDOM
SAMPLING METHODS SAMPLING METHODS
i. Simple Random Sampling i. Judgement Sampling
ii. Stratified Sampling ii. Quota Sampling
iii.Systematic Sampling iii.Convenience Sampling
iv.Multi-stage Sampling iv.Snow Ball Sampling
 SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLING
• Each and every item of the population is given equal
chance of being included in the sample

• Selection is free from personal bias

• This method resembles lottery method where a in a

system names are placed in a box, the box is shuffled,
and the names of the winners are then drawn out in an
unbiased manner.
 STRATIFIED SAMPLING
It is a two-way process.
i. It requires division of the parent population into
mutually exclusively and exhaustive subsets
ii. A simple random sample of elements is chosen
independently from each group or subset
Strata are created by a divider called the stratification
variable. This variable divides the population into strata
based on homogeneity, heterogeneity, relatedness or cost.
Sometimes, more than one variable is used for
stratification purpose.
 SYSTEMATIC SAMPLING
• This is also another widely used type of sampling
technique.
• Here, if the researcher intends to choose 10 elements
from a population of 100, he/she will first number the
elements from one to 100.
• For this, a sample of size 10 is created, (the number is
10/100 = 1/10) and then one element in 10 will be
selected.
 MULTI-STAGE SAMPLING
• As the name suggests, sampling procedure is carried out in
several stages. Ex: Suppose, we want a sample of 5000
households from the state of UP,
• At first stage may be divided into a number of districts and
a few districts selected at random.
• At the second stage, each district may be sub-divided into
number of villages and a sample of villages may be taken at
random.
• At the third stage, a number of households may be
selected from each of the villages.
• In this way, the sample size becomes smaller and smaller at each
stage.
 JUDGEMENT SAMPLING
• The sample elements are chosen based on the judgement
that prevails in the researcher’s mind about the
prospective individual and so called as ‘Purposive
Sampling’.

• It may be possible that the researcher has ideas and

insights about the respondent’s requisite experience and
knowledge to offer some perspective on the research
question.
 QUOTA SAMPLING
• Quota sampling is viewed as two-staged restricted
judgemental sampling technique.
• The first stage consists of developing control
categories or quotas, of population elements. Control
characteristics involve age, sex, and race identified on
the basis of judgement. For example, the researcher
may use control categories in that, he/she intends to
study 40% of men and 60% of women in a population.
• In the second stage, sample elements are selected
based on convenience or judgement.
 CONVENIENCE SAMPLING
• Convenience sampling is the least expensive and least time consuming of
all sampling techniques.
• Convenience samples are sometimes called Accidental Samples because
the elements included in the sample enter by “accident”. The selection of
the respondents is left to the discretion of the interviewer.
• The popular examples of convenience sampling include:
(a) Respondents who gather in a church (b) Students in a class room
(c) Mall intercepts interviews without qualifying the respondents for
the study (d) Tear-out questionnaire included in magazines and (e)
People on the street.
In the above examples, the people may not be qualified respondents,
however, form part of the sample by virtue of assembling in the place
where the researcher is conveniently placed.
 SNOW BALL SAMPLING
• In this technique, an initial group of respondents is
selected, usually at random.
• After being interviewed, these respondents are asked to
identify others who belong to the target population of
interest.
 SIZE OF SAMPLE
• Different opinions have been expressed by experts
suggesting the size of the sample to be 5% , while other
suggest 10%.
• So following two considerations may be kept in mind in
determining the appropriate size of the sample i.e.
The size of the sample should increase as the
variation in the individual items increases.
The greater the degree of accuracy desired, the
larger should be the sample size.
 MERITS & LIMITATIONS OF
SAMPLING METHODS
MERITS LIMITATIONS
 Less time  Results may be inaccurate & misleading if
 Less cost survey is not carefully planned &executed.
 More reliable  In the absence of qualified & experienced
results persons, the survey cannot be relied upon.
 More detailed  At times, sampling may be complicated &
information may require more time, labour & money.
 In some cases, each and every unit of
domain study may require a complete
enumeration of survey.
 SAMPLE
• Sample – A relatively small subset from a population.

• If a population is infinite it is impossible to observe all its

values, and even if it is finite it may be impractical or
uneconomical to observe it in its entirety. Thus it is
necessary to use a sample.
• Sample: A part of population collected for investigation
which needed to be representative of population and to be
large enough to contain all information about population.
 SAMPLING DISTRIBUTION
There are three distinct types of distribution of data
which are –
• 1. Population Distribution, characterizes the
distribution of elements of a population
• 2. Sample Distribution, characterizes the distribution
of elements of a sample drawn from a population
• 3. Sampling Distribution, describes the expected
behavior of a large number of simple random
samples drawn from the same population.
 SAMPLING DISTRIBUTION
Sampling distributions constitute the theoretical basis of
statistical inference and are of considerable importance in
business decision-making.
Sampling distributions are important in statistics because
they provide a major simplification on the route to
statistical inference.

• A sampling distribution is a theoretical probability

distribution of a statistic obtained through a large
number of samples drawn from a specific population.
( McTavish : 435)
 SAMPLING DISTRIBUTION
• A sampling distribution is a graph of a statistics (i.e.
mean, mean absolute value of the deviation from the
mean, range, standard deviation of the sample, unbiased
estimate of variance, variance of the sample) for sample
data.

• Sampling distribution is a theoretical distribution of an

infinite number of sample means of equal size taken
from a population . ( Walsh : 95)
 CENTRAL LIMIT THEOREM (CLT)
• First introduced by De Moivre in the eighteenth
century and happens to be the most important
theorem in statistics
• According to this theorem, if large number of simple
random samples are selected from any population
and determined the mean of each sample, the
distribution of these samples means will tend to be
described by the normal probability distribution with
the mean μ and variance.
Central Limit Theorem…….
• Sampling distribution of sample means approaches to a
normal distribution, irrespective of the distribution of
population from where it is taken.

• The Central Limit Theorem (CLT) is a statistical theory

states that given a sufficiently large sample size from a
population with a finite level of variance, the mean of
all samples from the same population will be
approximately equal to the mean of the population.
• The central limit theorem tells us exactly what the shape
of the distribution of means will be when we draw repeated
samples from a given population. Specifically, as the
sample sizes get larger, the distribution of means calculated
from repeated sampling will approach normality.
• The central limit theorem says that this sampling
distribution is approximately normal - commonly known as
a Bell Curve. This approximation improves as we increase
the size of the simple random samples that are used to
produce the sampling distribution.
• This population is not normally distributed, but the Central
Limit Theorem will apply if n > 30.
Central limit theorem is applicable for a sufficiently large
sample sizes (n≥30). The formula for central limit theorem
can be stated as follows:

Where,
and μ = Population mean
σ = Population standard deviation
μ x¯ = Sample mean
σ x¯ = Sample standard deviation
n = Sample size
Solved Examples: Question 1:The record of weights of male
population follows normal distribution. Its mean and standard
deviation are 70 kg and 15 kg respectively. If a researcher
considers the records of 50 males, then what would be the mean
and standard deviation of the chosen sample?
Solution:
Mean of the population μ = 70 kg
Standard deviation of the population = 15 kg
sample size n = 50
Mean of the sample is given by: μx¯ = 70 kg
Standard deviation of the sample is given by: σx¯ = σ/√n
σx¯ = 15/√ 50 σx¯ = 2.121 = 2.1 kg (approx)
Example: A population in which the population mean is
75 with a standard deviation of 8 (Assuming sample size
to be n =10).

The mean of the sample means is 75 and the standard

deviation of the sample means is 2.5, with the standard
deviation of the sample means computed as follows:

Central limit theorem is a concept of probability.

Example : In a survey of a company, mean salary of employees is 29321
dollars with SD of 2120 dollars. Consider the sample of 100 employees
and find the probability if their mean salary will be less than 29000 dollars.

Solution: Total number of employees (n) = 100, Mean (μ) = 29321

standard deviation (σ) = 2120
Substitute all the values in z-formula i.e. z = (x¯−μ)/(σ/√n)
Z = (29,000−29,321)/(2,120/√100)= -321/212= -1.51
Using z-table, we found -1.51 has an area of 93.45%.
Since we have to find result for "less than", so minus 93.45 from 100 to
get required result.
=> 100 - 93.45 = 0.07
Hence the probability of employees having mean salary less than 29000
dollars is 0.07%.
 Problem 1:
The average GPA scored by a class is 4.91 and standard deviation
is 0.72 For a sample of 20 students, find the z-score that the
average is above 5.
Solution:
Average, μ = 4.91 Standard deviation, σ = 0.72
Sample size, n = 20

Z-score = (x¯−μ)/(σ/√n) = 5−4.91/0.72√20 = 0.09/0.161 = 0.559

Hence, the Z-score is 0.559.

 Problem 2:
The mean salary of all employees in a company is 3578,
and standard deviation is 1980. Find the z-score for the
mean of a sample of 18 employees to be less than 3000.
Solution:
Average, μ = 3578
Standard deviation, σ = 1980
Sample size, n = 18
Z-score = (x¯−μ)/(σ/√n)
= 3000−3578/198018 = 1.2385
Hence, the Z-score is 1.2385.
Problem 3: The average score of a subject is 2.89 for the whole
class, with a standard deviation of 0.63. If a sample of 255 students
is being taken, then find the probability of getting the average of
this sample to be more than 3.
Solution:
Average, μ = 2.89 Std. Dev, σ = 0.63 Sample size, n = 25
Z-score = (x¯−μ)/(σ/√n) = 3−2.89/0.63/√25= 0.126
Hence, the Z-score is 0.126
Looking the z-score in normal curve table, the probability is found
to be 0.8078.
Hence, probability = 11 - 0.8078 = 0.1922.
THANK YOU
 RANDOM SAMPLING
• Simple Random Sample – A sample designed in such
a way as to ensure that (1) every member of the
population has an equal chance of being chosen and
(2) every combination of N members has an equal
chance of being chosen.

• This can be done using a computer, calculator, or a

table of random numbers
Population inferences can be made...
...by selecting a representative sample from
the population
 RANDOM SAMPLING
• Systematic random sampling – A method of sampling
in which every Kth member (K is a ration obtained by
dividing the population size by the desired sample size)
in the total population is chosen for inclusion in the
sample after the first member of the sample is selected
at random from among the first K members of the
population.
SYSTEMATIC RANDOM SAMPLING
 STRATIFIED RANDOM SAMPLING
• Proportionate stratified sample – The size of the
sample selected from each subgroup is proportional to
the size of that subgroup in the entire population. (Self
weighting)

• Disproportionate stratified sample – The size of the

sample selected from each subgroup is disproportional to
the size of that subgroup in the population. (needs
weights)
 STRATIFIED RANDOM SAMPLING

• Stratified random sample – A method of sampling

obtained by (1) dividing the population into subgroups
based on one or more variables central to our analysis
and (2) then drawing a simple random sample from
each of the subgroups
DISPROPORTIONATE STRATIFIED SAMPLE
 AIMS OF SAMPLING
• Reduces cost of research (e.g. political polls)

• Generalize about a larger population (e.g., benefits of

sampling city r/t neighborhood)

• In some cases (e.g. industrial production) analysis may

be destructive, so sampling is needed
 PROBABILITY
• Probability: what is the chance that a given event will
occur?

• Probability is expressed in numbers between 0 and 1.

Probability = 0 means the event never happens;
probability = 1 means it always happens.

• The total probability of all possible event always sums to

1.
Probability distributions: Permutations

What is the probability distribution of number of girls in families with

two children?
2 GG
1 BG
1 GB
0 BB
0.6
Probability Distribution of
Number of Girls
0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 1 2
How about family of three?
Num. Girls child #1 child #2 child #3
0 B B B
1 B B G
1 B G B
1 G B B
2 B G G
2 G B G
2 G G B
3 G G G
Probability distribution of number of girls
0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 1 2 3
How about a family of 10?
0.3

0.25

0.2

0.15

0.1

0.05

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
As family size increases, the binomial distribution
looks more and more normal.

0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 -0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Number of Successes Number of Successes

Normal distribution

Same shape, if you adjusted the scales

A C
SAMPLING DISTRIBUTION OF THE MEAN
• An example
• A die is thrown infinitely many times. Let X
represent the number of spots showing on any throw.
• The probability distribution of X is
E(X) = 1(1/6) + 2(1/6) +
x 1 2 3 4 5 6 3(1/6)+
p(x) 1/6 1/6 1/6 1/6 1/6 1/6 ………………….= 3.5
V(X) = (1-3.5)2(1/6) +
(2-3.5)2(1/6) +
……………. …= 2.92