Research Methods

Sample and sampling

Dr. Endrit Shabani
What will we cover today?

• What is a research sample and why is it

important
• Different sampling techniques that can
be used
• The difference between Qualitative and
Quantitative sampling
 • Bordens & Abbott, pp.164 – 168 and pp. 277 -
287
• Bell & Waters, p. 166
Required reading • Punch, p.160, p.243
• Bryman pp. 162 – 191
Why election polls fail
to predict?
Predicted results (polls)
Election results
What is a research sample?
• A small number of people/cases selected from the entire population
• It can be chosen randomly, or not
Why sampling matters?

• Generalisation
• You cannot study everyone and everything
• It limits your conclusions
• It boosts/limits your confidence on research findings
What can we sample?
• People and actors
• Places and settings
• documents
• Events
• moments
• Processes
Three important aspects
1. Representativeness
2. Sampling technique
3. Sample size
Quantitative sampling
Who should we ask?
we want to understand:
• how many people in this university believe that Covid-19 vaccines have an
invisible 5G-tracking-micro-chip?
1. Representativeness
• A representative sample should have the characteristics of the entire
population
• It has to be random: every member of the population should have the
same chance of being selected
Example: microchipped-
vaccine believers

• The entire population

• the university has 300 freshers, 300
sophomores and 300 seniors
• it has 450 boys and 450 girls
• the sample is 10% of the entire
population

• The sample
• how should the sample look like?
• Would it be a good strategy if we posted a poster asking people to go online and fill a
questionnaire about Covid-19 vaccines?
• Why?
Biased sample

• A biased sample does not accurately represent the population

• Example: 600 boys and 300 girls

• Sources of biases in sampling are:

• The sampling method (non-random)
• Sampling frame (the list of the population)
• Response rate (high refusal rates)
Response rate

• Response rate should not include non-reliable respondents

• It should not be too high

It can be calculated by the following formula:

Number of usable questionnaires

RR = ---------------------------------------------------- x 100
Total sample
2. Sampling techniques

• Simple random sampling

• Randomly selecting a number of people from the population
• Stratified sampling
• You divide the population into equal sized strata
• You select randomly within each stratum
• Proportionate sampling
• Strata are organised based on the proportion of people in the population
• You can use proportionate sampling after the sample has been obtained
2. Sampling techniques

• Systematic sampling
• Selecting every kth person after a random start
• Example: pick a random number in the students register and follow a step
• Cluster sampling (multi-stage)
• Randomly picking a naturally occurring group (cluster) of participants and survey
all of them
• Example: we randomly select 2 classes (clusters) and interview all students in
these classes
3. Sample size
• Does the sample size matter?
• Often yes: Increasing the sample size decreases (the likelihood of) sampling
error
What is the right sample size?

In deciding your sample size you need to consider:

• How much sampling error you can tolerate?
• What resources do you have?

• Sampling error: the deviation between the sample and the population
Calculating the sample size
• one formula recommended by Moser and Kalton (1972) is this:

*P – the estimate of the proportion of the population

*SEp – the acceptable margin of error
Example: microchipped-vaccine believers

• if we expect 50% of students to believe in conspiracy theories (P) and we can tolerate 2%
error, the sample size should be 625 students
Small population size
• When the population is small, you can use ‘finite population
correction’, by using the formula proposed by Brewer (1986)

*n- corrected sample size

*N= the size of the population
*n’- the sample size calculated with the previous formula
Example: microchipped-vaccine believers

if this university has 1000 students the sample should be 385 students
Response rate

• RR is the percentage of respondents that

• agree to participate in research
• and whose answers can be used
Qualitative sampling
Who should we ask?

we want to understand:
• why Albanian emigrants in the US vote for Donald Trump?
Key features of qualitative sampling:

• Small
• Deliberative/purposive
• Not pre-specified but conceptually-driven
General advice on choosing a qualitative
sample:

• Sampling to be done in line with the research design (coherence)

• Set boundaries: define aspects of your case

• Bear in mind to include three categories:

• The typical/representative
• The negative/disconfirming – helps you limit your conclusions
• The exceptional – helps you confirm the main patterns observed
Sampling strategies

• Maximum variation – increasing confidence in your findings

• Asking questions “Who might disagree with your position?”

• Snowball or chain
• theory building sampling strategies
• interviewing ‘well-informed’ participants
Sampling strategies

• Critical case – politically important cases

• Stratified purposeful
• dividing the population into subgroups and then choosing randomly within that
group
• identifying important variables and then choosing a random quota from each strata
of the population
example
Within-case sampling

• nested
• after you choose a case, you still need to decide which: activities, processes, events,
times, locations, and role partners to sample?
• theoretically driven
• informants and events are not chosen based on the concern for representativeness
• iterative
• as the study progresses you sample in waves
example
Multiple-case sampling
• increases validity of the findings
• if a findings is replicated in similar settings but does not in different settings,
then we can be more confident about our findings
• cases are chosen based on conceptual grounds
• the number of cases is not determined on statistical grounds
Example: Why ‘losers’ countries choose to compete internationally?
Check-list for qualitative sampling (Miles & Huberman, 1994, p.34)

•  Is sampling relevant to your conceptual frame and research questions?

• Can the phenomena you are interested in appear, in principle?
• Does your plan enhance generalisability of your findings, either through conceptual power
or representativeness?
• Can believable descriptions and explanations be produced by this sample?
• Is the sampling plan feasible, in terms of time, money and access to people?
• Is the sampling plan ethical, in terms of such issues as informed consent, potential benefits
and risks, and the relationship with informants?
What do you think went wrong
with national polls for 2016
presidential election in the US?
Questions and
answers
Seminar
Questions:

• What is a biased sample and how can a biased

sample affect your results?
• What is a random sample and why is it important
to do random sampling?
• What are the various sampling techniques that
represent modifications of simple random
sampling?
• When random sampling is not necessary?
Assignment

Prepare a sampling strategy for your research

Explain how it is relevant to other aspects of your research (e.g.

research question)

How would your sample and sampling strategy change if your study
were qualitative/quantitative?
Check-list for qualitative sampling
(Miles & Huberman, 1994, p.34)

•  Is sampling relevant to your conceptual frame and research questions?

• Can the phenomena you are interested in appear, in principle?
• Does your plan enhance generalisability of your findings, either through
conceptual power or representativeness?
• Can believable descriptions and explanations be produced by this
sample?
• Is the sampling plan feasible, in terms of time, money and access to
people?
• Is the sampling plan ethical, in terms of such issues as informed consent,
potential benefits and risks, and the relationship with informants?